EPA Recognizes Santa Clara University as a Leading Green Power Purchaser

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized Santa Clara University
as one of the top universities to reduce its carbon footprint. SCU ranked No. 16
on the EPA`s Top 20 College & University List of green power purchasers.

"This recognition reflects our commitment to address climate change by
supporting renewable energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions," said Lindsey
Cromwell, Santa Clara University`s sustainability coordinator.

The university committed to doubling its green power purchase to nearly 23
million kilowatt-hours (kWh), which represents 74 percent of the school`s
electricity use. That`s enough to power 2,529 average American homes and
equivalent to taking nearly 3,000 cars off the road for one year.

The purchase will be supplied from Green-e Energy certified renewable energy
certificates sourced from wind farms around the country.

SCU adopted its Sustainability Policy in 2004, which devotes the university to
sustainability through stewardship, education, and outreach.

"Santa Clara University has numerous opportunities to engage students in
critical thinking about sustainability and climate neutrality - from the cup of
fairly traded coffee they drink in the morning to their composition and rhetoric
class discussion at noon, to the time they compost their food waste after
dinner," said Cromwell.

Other campus-wide initiatives include:

* Installing solar panels;
* Upgrading old windows, HVAC systems, lighting;
* Replacing old urinals and toilets with ones that are waterless or ones that
use reclaimed water;
* Encouraging the use of reusable water bottles by providing water filling
stations in populated campus locations;
* Creating a paperless writing center, where students can project text from
their laptop onto an interactive whiteboard via Bluetooth technology.

To learn more about SCU`s sustainability efforts, go to
www.scu.edu/sustainability.

About Santa Clara University

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40
miles south of San Francisco in California`s Silicon Valley, offers its 8,758
students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and
engineering, plus masters and law degrees, and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished
nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. masters
universities, California`s oldest operating higher-education institution
demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more
information, see www.scu.edu.

About EPA`s Green Power Partnership

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations
to buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with
purchased electricity use. The Partnership currently has more than 1,100 Partner
organizations voluntarily purchasing billions of kilowatt-hours of green power
annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as
Fortune 500 companies, small and medium sized businesses, local, state, and
federal governments, and colleges and universities. For additional information,
visit www.epa.gov/greenpower.

Santa Clara University
Connie Kim Coutain, 408-554-5126
408-829-4836 (cell)
ccoutain@scu.edu

Copyright Business Wire 2009