Lebanon Valley College Designated Conference Champion in EPA's College & University Green Power Challenge

ANNVILLE, PA (04/27/2015)(readMedia)-- Lebanon Valley College announced today that it was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a 2014–2015 Individual Conference Champion of the College & University Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any school in the Middle Atlantic Conference.

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

Lebanon Valley College beat its conference rivals by using more than 10 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 100 percent of the school's annual electricity usage. LVC is buying a utility green power product from Constellation NewEnergy. This demonstrates a proactive choice to switch away from traditional sources of electricity generation and support cleaner renewable energy alternatives.

According to the U.S. EPA, Lebanon Valley College's green power use of more than 10 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of nearly 1,000 average American homes annually.

Thirty-nine collegiate conferences and 90 schools competed in the 2014–2015 challenge, collectively using nearly 2.4 billion kWh of green power. EPA will extend the College & University Green Power Challenge for a 10th year, to conclude in spring of 2016. EPA's Green Power Challenge is open to all U.S. colleges, universities, and conferences. In order to qualify, a conference must include at least one school that qualifies as a Green Power Partner, and the conference must collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power. For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/initiatives/cu_challenge.htm.

Green power is zero-emissions electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, eligible biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and helps users reduce their carbon footprints.

About Lebanon Valley College

Lebanon Valley College is a private, coeducational college founded in 1866 and dedicated to the liberal arts. The College offers 36 undergraduate majors plus self-designed majors and a range of minors, concentrations, and pre-professional options, as well as graduate degree programs in athletic training, business administration, music education, physical therapy, and science education.

The College has 1,573 full-time undergraduate students and 106 full-time faculty. Students can choose from more than 90 clubs and organizations, and 12 study abroad programs. LVC awards generous academic scholarships to those whose high school records demonstrate a commitment to challenge and achievement.

About EPA's Green Power Partnership

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The Partnership currently has nearly 1,300 Partner organizations voluntarily using billions of kilowatt-hours 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. For additional information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower.

For more information about EPA's College and University Green Power Challenge, visit the Challenge website at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/initiatives/cu_challenge.htm.