The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognized Southwestern University as an individual conference champion in the 2018–2019 College and University Green Power Challenge. Southwestern University currently uses more green power than any other school in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Since April 2006, the EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power use within the program. The Individual Conference Champion Award recognizes the school that uses the largest amount of green power in a qualifying conference.

Southwestern University beat its conference rivals by using more than 18 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 100% of the school’s annual electricity use. SU is procuring a utility green power product from the City of Georgetown. This commitment to green power demonstrates a sustainable choice that helps to reduce the negative health impacts of air emissions, including those related to ozone, fine particles, acid rain, and regional haze.

According to the EPA, Southwestern’s green power use of more than 18 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 2,000 average American homes annually.

In the 2018–2019 challenge, the 35 collegiate conferences and 109 schools competing collectively used nearly 3.6 billion kWh of green power. The EPA’s Green Power Challenge is open to any collegiate athletic conference in the U.S. To qualify, a collegiate athletic conference must include at least two schools that qualify as Green Power Partners, and the conference must collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power. The EPA will restart the 14th season of the College and University Green Power Challenge in fall 2019 and conclude it in spring 2020.

The EPA’s Green Power Partnership

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that helps increase green power use among U.S. organizations to advance the American market for green power and the development of those sources as a way to reduce air pollution and other environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The partnership currently has more than 1,500 partners voluntarily using more than 61 billion kWh of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations, such as Fortune 500® companies; small-and medium-sized businesses; local, state, and federal governments; and colleges and universities.