Energy efficiency offers institutions many benefits, such as lowering utility bills, reducing carbon emissions to meet climate goals, and gaining positive media attention. However, these upgrades also have the potential for improved health benefits. Read more here.
The Sustainable Endowments Institute and presenters from colleges and universities with green revolving funds hosted several sessions at the AASHE 2013 Conference in Nashville on October 6-9. Panels focused on various topics including student engagement, designing and implementing a revolving fund, and investment opportunities. Read more here.
At 1pm EDT on Wednesday, October 2nd, SEI and AASHE hosted “Advanced Strategies and Analytics for Campus Green Revolving Funds,” a webinar offering technical guidance for GRF management related to measurement and verification of project savings, fund analytics, and accounting systems. The webinar featured insights from a recent publication by AASHE and SEI titled Green Revolving Funds: A Guide to Implementation & Management. View an archive of the presentation.
Green Revolving Funds: A Guide to Implementation & Management expands on the Introductory Guide released in January to provide practical guidance for designing, implementing, and managing a green revolving fund (GRF) at a college, university, or other nonprofit institution. Beyond establishing best practices and laying out a roadmap for implementing a GRF, it features technical guidance on measuring project performance and tracking the fund, as well as more case studies and solutions to common challenges. Read more here.
Originally hosted on Tuesday, April 23rd, “Implementation Strategies for Green Revolving Funds” covered valuable insights on implementing GRFs from administrators and research and consulting organizations. The webinar offered an overview of a new publication by SEI and AASHE — Green Revolving Funds: An Introductory Guide to Implementation and Management — and a road map and tips on starting and managing such funds, with examples from Agnes Scott College and the University of New Hampshire. AASHE and SEI have made a recording of this webinar and the PPT slides available to the public, available here.
On April 17, the Sustainable Endowments Institute will host the second Financing the Future of Energy Efficiency Summit. This year, the conference will be held at the University of San Diego and Rip Rapson, the president of the Kresge Foundation, will deliver the keynote address. The summit is co-hosted by Elizabeth Kiss, the President of Agnes Scott College, and Mitch Thomashow, the Director of Second Nature’s Presidential Fellows Program. Its theme is transforming energy efficiency upgrades from expenses to high-return investments, focusing on how colleges and universities play pivotal roles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more here.
Water efficiency projects are a natural fit for a green revolving fund (GRF) as they provide tangible environmental benefits and can have quick paybacks. Even smaller-scale projects such as installing low-flow showerheads, toilets, and faucet aerators in bathrooms or setting up water bins to collect rainwater for campus gardens can have big impacts. Schools like the University of Southern Maine, Harvard University, and Bethany College (Kansas) have already devoted some of their GRF funding to projects that conserve water.
Learn more here.
Green Revolving Funds: An Introductory Guide to Implementation and Management provides practical guidance for designing, implementing, and managing a green revolving fund at a college, university, or other nonprofit institution. Responding to calls for assistance with creating GRFs from many institutions, the guide establishes best practices from interviews with presidents, facility managers, sustainability directors, and chief financial officers. The guide includes sections on designing the various components of a GRF, a 10-step road map for designing and implementing the fund, and solutions for common obstacles. Read more here.
Greening the Bottom Line 2012 reports on the growing field of green revolving funds (GRFs) and their environmental and financial impact on college and university campuses. Though many of these GRFs are young- there have been 36 new funds created since 2010- their portfolios have already begun to post impressive returns, with a median reported return on investment of 28 percent. Collectively, these funds have committed over $111 million to energy and resource-use reduction projects. Read more here.
Many institutions with green revolving funds (GRFs) use Excel spreadsheets to track savings, while others don’t have the ability to track data after project installation. The Sustainable Endowments Institute has created the Green Revolving Investment Tracking System (GRITS) Beta, an online web tool that allows you to track all improvements achieved by your GRF: savings […]
