WASHINGTON, D.C. – To tap into federal money to make campus infrastructures more energy efficient, college and university leaders must be strategic, collaborative and pay close attention to details when submitting proposals.
At the same time, grants should not be seen as the only source of revenue for green projects, and campus leaders should search for creative ways to finance the projects, such as using the savings from retrofitted buildings to establish “green revolving funds” to upgrade other buildings.
Those were just a few of the tips that Obama administration officials and environmental and finance experts provided at the UNCF Building Green Learning Institute held late last week at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill.
The institute — the fourth of its kind and the first one to be national in scope — drew several hundred participants from an array of minority-serving institutions and various green organizations throughout the country.
Discussions ranged from the importance of recycling and having students lead recycling initiatives, to updates on green construction projects, such as such a planned Center for Alternative, Renewable Energy, Technology and Training at Clark Atlanta University, to the importance of working with specific disadvantaged student populations to smoothen the path to various educational and work experiences in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and the green economy.
A federal official also announced a forthcoming solicitation for a research and demonstration project that deals with drinking water treatment.
The institute comes at a time when cost-savings through reduction of energy consumption and other efficiencies are seen as a crucial way to offset the impact of budget reductions and other fiscal constraints that face U.S. higher education institutions today.
