EPA unveils updated lists of education institutions using green power

The University of Pennsylvania is the top Green Power user in higher education, and the Chicago public school system is the top user among K-12 systems, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.

The EPA released its latest Green Power Partnership rankings earlier this month—the top 20 K-12 school systems, and the top 20 colleges and universities. Six universities report annual green power use of more than 100 million kilowatt hours.

“The combined green power use of these organizations amounts to more than 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity use of more than 182,000 average American homes annually,” the EPA says of the top higher-education institutions.

The top colleges and universities:

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 200,194,600 kilowatt hours
University of Oklahoma, Norman, 153,878,040 kilowatt hours
Ohio State University, Columbus, 141,000,000 kilowatt hours
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, 116,015,000 kilowatt hours
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., 113,751,000 kilowatt hours
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, 110,000,000 kilowatt hours
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 96,019,800 kilowatt hours
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 93,374,904 kilowatt hours
Drexel University, Philadelphia, 84,268,000 kilowatt hours
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 80,020,000 kilowatt hours
University at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y., 77,365,000 kilowatt hours
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 69,772,834 kilowatt hours
Apollo Group/University of Phoenix kilowatt hours
City University of New York, 64,000,000 kilowatt hours
American University, Washington, D.C., 55,033,500 kilowatt hours
Texas A&M University, College Station, 45,900,000 kilowatt hours
Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., 43,000,000 kilowatt hours
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Wash., 40,000,000 kilowatt hours
Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn., 40,000,000 kilowatt hours
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., 32,871,000 kilowatt hours

At the K-12 level, the Chicago school system is far and away the leader in green power use among those participating in the partnership. The district’s annualized total of 107 million kilowatt hours is more than five times that of the next-largest user.

The top K-12 school systems:

Chicago district, 107,709,620 kilowatt hours
Austin (Texas) district, 20,080,000 kilowatt hours
Round Rock (Texas) district, 15,567,000 kilowatt hours
Taft School, Watertown, Conn., 4,503,000 kilowatt hours
Sidwell Friends School, Washington, D.C., 4,237,446 kilowatt hours
Arlington County (Va.) district, 3,072,000 kilowatt hours
The Chapin School, New York City, 2,888,000 kilowatt hours
The Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Conn. 2,400,000 kilowatt hours
The Bullis School, Potomac, Md., 2,313,404 kilowatt hours
The Dalton School, New York City, 2,100,000 100 kilowatt hours
Euphemia L Haynes Public Charter School (Georgia Ave.), Washington, D.C. 2,058,767 kilowatt hours
Lake Travis (Texas) district, 1,956, 000 kilowatt hours
Lycee Francais of New York, New York City, 1,918,273 kilowatt hours
Spence School, New York Cityi, 1,890,000 kilowatt hours
Euphemia L Haynes Public Charter School (Kansas Ave.), Washington, D.C., 1,863,726 kilowatt hours
Norwood School, Bethesda, Md., 1,794,400 kilowatt hours
Harmony Public Schools (charter group), Houston, 1,736,341 kilowatt hours
Spirit Lake (Iowa) district, 1,569,585 kilowatt hours
Maret School, Washington, D.C., 1,500,000 kilowatt hours
The Brearley School, New York City 1,392,660 kilowatt hours