For the second consecutive year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) named Colby an individual conference champion for purchasing more green power than any other school in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). Because Colby purchases all of its electricity from renewable resources (low-impact hydro, biomass, and wind) and also purchases Green-E-certified wind power Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), the EPA lists Colby as using 103-percent green electricity—the highest percentage among the 43 participating colleges and universities nationwide. In addition to purchased power, the College generates about 10 percent of its electricity with a cogeneration turbine at the on-campus steam plant used to heat campus buildings.
EPA estimates that Colby’s purchase of green power is equivalent to the electricity used by more than 1,600 average American homes in a year, and that the resulting reduction in CO2 emissions is the equivalent of taking nearly 2,100 passenger cars off the road for a year.
