Check out our report on colleges and universities moving to 100% renewables
Environment Michigan Research and Policy Center and the Frontier Group's new report documents adoption of renewable energy by colleges and universities across the country.
Today we released our report America’s Top Colleges for 100% Renewable Energy 2020 that catalogs college and university efforts across the country to switch away from dirty fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. It also documents shifts in their automotive fleets to electric vehicles.
This is important for several reasons. First, it shows colleges can make the transition while paying attention to the bottom line. We now know in many places renewables are the most cost effective energy option. Second, we see that some leaders are even going beyond meeting all their energy needs and generating extra (Fig 1). Clearly there’s lots of opportunities on campuses to generate clean energy.
Some Michigan colleges and universities are making strides. For example, Michigan State built a substantial amount of solar over some of the large parking lots on campus. However, much
more needs to be done and we know much more can be done.
At a time when wildfires are burning out of control in California and Colorado, and a global warming super-charged hurricane just hit the Louisiana and Texas coast we know there is no time to waste when it comes to getting to 100% renewable energy. We need to protect our livable climate.