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Millersville University (MU) announced that the Lombardo Welcome Center recently joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Green Power Partnership (GPP). Designed to generate all of its own energy, the Lombardo Welcome Center has made twice as much energy as it has used since opening in March of this year. MU’s new front door, the Lombardo Welcome Center stands as a clear testament of Millersville’s commitment to sustainability and to its goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040. By using green power and setting this goal, Millersville is helping advance the voluntary market for green power and development of those sources. This partnership encourages the voluntary use of green power to support the development of renewable energy. To enroll, a facility must obtain 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy.
“The Lombardo Welcome Center is a valued campus resource that demonstrates Millersville University’s commitment to a sustainable future through form and function. We are proud to be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the building’s industry-leading design,” said Chris Steuer, Millersville University’s sustainability manager. “Using green power helps reduce our carbon footprint, while sharing this viable, affordable, accessible choice with our community.”
The U.S. EPA established the GPP in 2001 to protect human health and the environment by increasing organizations’ voluntary green power use to advance the American market for green power and the development of those renewable electricity sources. The GPP helps to achieve Clean Air Act requirements by reducing the pollution and the corresponding negative health and environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use.
Since the inception of the Green Power Partnership, the voluntary market has grown by nearly 5,000 percent. The program provides a framework that includes credible usage benchmarks, market information, technical assistance and public recognition to companies and other organizations that use green power. In return for technical assistance and recognition, Partners commit to use green power for all, or a portion, of their annual electricity consumption. As of January 2018, the Partnership has more than 1,600 Partner organizations voluntarily using billions of kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually.
By moving the needle in the voluntary green power market, MU and other Green Power Partners are helping to reduce the negative health impacts of air emissions including those related to ozone, fine particles, acid rain and regional haze. Together, Green Power Partners are collectively using more green power annually than the electricity consumed by Montana and Utah combined.
The Lombardo Welcome Center is expected to generate about 226,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet more than 100 percent of the Welcome Center’s electricity use. This green power comes from an on-site rooftop solar array as well as a ground array and solar glass on the south-facing exterior wall. Surplus energy is used to power other campus buildings. The new building saves the University about $25,000 annually while preventing about 100 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, the equivalent of planting about seven trees each and every day of the year.
By using renewable, zero-emissions electricity, Lombardo is reducing its carbon footprint, supporting the deployment of cleaner energy alternatives, and demonstrating that green power is a key component of best practice environmental management.
Track the Lombardo Welcome Center’s real-time energy production and use online at:
https://buildingos.com/s/millersville/storyboard573/?chapterId=2796
About EPA’s Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that helps increase green power use among U.S. organizations to advance the American market for green power and development of those sources as a way to reduce air pollution and other environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The Partnership currently has almost 1,600 Partners voluntarily using more than 55 billion 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 www.epa.gov/greenpower.
