Purchased Electricity

Many campuses find upon completion of their campus-wide greenhouse gas inventories that a huge chunk of their emissions result from the utility-generated electricity they purchase to power their campuses. To lower emissions in this sector, there are essentially two options:

1) working with one's own utility to obtain electricity generated through renewable technologies (e.g. wind, solar, small hydroelectric, geothermal or biomass)

2) purchasing "carbon offsets"

This section of the toolkit offers information and insight into both options, to help you incorporate renewable energy technologies into your campus climate action plan and meet your emissions reduction target.