Sewanee: The University of the South

Sewanee Green Revolving Fund

Establishing a green revolving fund (GRF) to finance energy efficiency projects that generate cost-savings is a natural progression in Sewanee’s quest for carbon neutrality. Supplementing a long list of energy efficient designs for new buildings and renovations, the GRF makes it possible to finance the individual energy conservation opportunities that exist in all buildings. Sewanee’s GRF was initially seeded at $150,000, which includes a $50,000 grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Foundation.

Project ideas submitted from the campus community will be more fully evaluated, engineered and described as GRF Project Proposals, a joint effort by the applicant and the Office of Sustainability.

The GRF will be managed by a GRF Board, a sub-committee of the Sustainability Steering Committee. The Director of Sustainability Integration will serve as the GRF Project Director. The GRF Board will rank projects and recommend funding to the Sustainability Steering Committee who will then make the final awards. The monies will go to Physical Plant Services for project implementation.

The GRF is one important component of the commitment made in Sewanee’s Sustainability Master Plan to make the changes necessary for the campus to reach carbon neutrality. The energy & water conservation goals are supported by this fund along with operational optimizations, deferred maintenance equipment upgrades and capital retrofits. Energy conservation itself is one of the three key cornerstones of the plan, along with renewable energy and carbon offsets.

Read more about Sewanee’s Green Revolving Fund on their sustainability webpage.

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!