US: Billion dollar green challenge for campuses

The Sustainable Endowments Institute, along with 15 partner organisations, last week launched the Billion Dollar Green Challenge to encourage higher education and non-profit institutions to invest a total of $1 billion in green revolving funds to finance energy efficiency improvements, writes Joshua Bolkan for Campus Technology.

Green revolving funds are internal loans made to specific projects that later repay the money through utilities savings. As the loans are repaid, the money is then reinvested in other efficiency projects.

A founding circle of 32 institutions has already joined the challenge, launched publicly on Tuesday at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in Pittsburgh, PA, by committing more than US$65 million in self-managed funds.
Full report on the Campus Technology site