North Central College

Cardinal Sustainability Fund

The Cardinal Sustainability Fund was established in February 2014 as North Central College’s green revolving fund. The purpose of this fund is to provide the financial means for implementing sustainability projects on campus, which may have a high initial cost but provide an acceptable economic payback to the College. The Cardinal Sustainability Fund is a portion of North Central’s unrestricted endowment, which has been committed to sustainability projects that meet a set of criteria. For example, all projects must have a payback of less than 15 years, and students and faculty must be involved with the projects. The North Central College Sustainability Committee must review and approve a proposed project before it goes to the Building and Grounds Committee. If accepted, the proposal goes to the Finance Committee for final approval before the project can begin. Tracking and evaluation of projects are conducted by the Business Office and the Sustainability Coordinator.

Some of the first projects North Central College financed through the Cardinal Sustainability Fund included more efficient lighting in Ward Residence Hall and LED lighting in Gregory Arena and the pool at Merner Field House, the Residence Hall/Recreation Center arena, and the second floor of the Harold and Eva White Activities Center. During fall 2016, the College will implement the largest project to date from the revolving fund: a 538.56 kW solar array with a 250 kW energy storage system in the Residence Hall/Recreation Center.

The higher education participants in The Challenge are managed by Second Nature. To learn more about how Second Nature plans to expand use of GRFs in higher education, visit their page!