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BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University, which this fall began purchasing all of its electricity from renewable sources, has been selected for a national 2005 Green Power Leadership Award. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Center for Resource Solutions, recognizing leading national green power purchasers and suppliers, honored Western with the award Oct. 24 in Austin, Texas, during the National Green Power Marketing Conference. “We applaud Western Washington University for its environmental leadership,” said Kurt Johnson, director of EPA's Green Power Partnership. “Western is providing an outstanding example for others to follow.” The Green Power Leadership Awards for green power purchasers is a component of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership, a voluntary program providing technical assistance and public recognition to organizations that switch to green power for a portion of their electricity needs. In the EPA’s most recent update of its Top 25 list of Green Power Partners, highlighting the largest U.S. green power purchasers, WWU was ranked 22nd, overall in the nation by order of purchase size and as the second largest purchaser of renewable power in higher education. (See accompanying news release.) “This national award is a tribute to the leadership shown by our students and the unwavering support of Western’s administration toward responsible actions. This vision of energy sustainability continues a long tradition at Western of environmental stewardship,” said Western President Karen W. Morse. That tradition takes on an even more comprehensive emphasis at Western through the work of a Sustainability Committee, whose members were appointed by Morse last spring, which will develop institutional policy and coordinate academic and administrative efforts toward sustainable practices at WWU. Eileen Coughlin, WWU vice president for Student Affairs and Academic Support Services, and Western students Molly Ayre-Svingen and Erica Althans-Schmidt represented Western at the Green Power Leadership Awards ceremony, held in conjunction with the Tenth National Green Power Marketing Conference. “I am very proud of my fellow students in understanding the importance of leaving a light footprint on our planet. I would also like to emphasize how much I have enjoyed working with administrators, who have made Western the kind of university that takes its students seriously and empowers us to apply what we have learned in the classroom,” said Ayre-Svingen. Two years ago, a small group of Western students in an Associated Students club set a goal of having Western obtain all of its electrical energy from a 100-percent renewable source. To meet that goal they proposed a student initiative to implement a fee that would offset the cost of purchasing renewable energy. As a result of their efforts and significant research into renewable energy, Western recently moved to the forefront ofthe renewable energy field, becoming the first university in the country to implement a student fee for the purchase of green energy. The student initiative passed in a spring 2004 election with 84.7 percent approval. The WWU board of trustees on June 10 approved the student fee, which went into effect fall quarter and which allows the university to purchase all of its electricity from renewable energy sources. The fee provides enough revenue to purchase from Puget Sound Energy approximately 35 million kilowatt hours of electricity in the 2005-06 school year – or the comparable annual electric usage ofabout 2,900homes. In 2006, this purchaseis anticipated to make upapproximately 30 percent of the total green powerbought bythe current 14,700 pluscustomersparticipating inPSE’s Green Power Program, which includes wind, solarand biomassresources in its mix. Green power is electricity generated from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas and low-impact hydro and biomass resources. These renewable energy sources are cleaner than traditional sources of electricity that generate carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas linked to global warming, and other air pollutants. Green power purchases support the development of new renewable energy capacity and projects by increasing the overall demand for power from renewable resources. |
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