UW-Madison contributes to Big Ten EPA challenge win

The University of Wisconsin–Madison was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the six Big Ten schools that won the 2016-2017 Collective Conference Championship for using renewable energy.

The challenge included 36 collegiate conferences and 98 schools.

The six participating schools of the Big 10 used more renewable electricity — more than 437 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) — than any other participating conference. In this period, UW–Madison used more than 70 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable electricity, representing 15 percent of annual campus electricity usage.

The university buys renewable energy credits (RECs) and other renewable power products from Madison Gas & Electric, We Energies, WPPI Energy, and the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation.

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use renewable energy as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The partnership has more than 1,400 partner organizations voluntarily using more than 40 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity annually.