The question of how to finance sustainability projects on campus can often be one of the biggest obstacles to getting a campus sustainability movement off the ground.  Often, “going green” is perceived as more expensive than not and the increasingly tight budgets on many college campuses means a lack of capital funding available to initiate projects related to sustainability.  Several colleges, however, have found creative ways to initiate and fund sustainability projects on their campuses and in turn have found that going green can often not only be fiscally feasible, but can also be a way of generating funding for additional projects. 

Perhaps the most successful example of a school that managed to finance sustainability on its campus is Harvard with its Green Campus Loan Fund (GCLF).  In January 2002, the Harvard Green Campus Initiative (HGCI) initiated the GCLF with a $3 million allocation from the Harvard bank.  The HGCI was charged with administering the fund for projects that relate to sustainability.  Though Harvard has tremendous financial resources that most other colleges do not, the basic model associated with the GCLF is replicable.  The GCLF provides interest-free capital for investments related to sustainability that have a pay-back period of five years.  Within only a few years of implementing the program, the investments that received funding had generated enough return on investment (ROI) (cost savings realized from the projects goes back into the GCLF) to grab the attention of then President Lawrence Summers.  In December 2004, he doubled the fund’s size to $6 million and again doubled its size in April 2006 so that it stands now at an impressive $12 million. 

In Spring 2006, two students at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, established that school’s Clean Energy Revolving Fund (CERF).  The original funding for CERF ($27,000) came from the Macalester College Student Government and the college’s Environmental Studies department.  Over the next several years, the students continued to solicit funding for the program and by the end of 2008 had received some $100,000 in commitments.  CERF targets projects that generate financial returns needed to service the loans distributed but from time to time, the program will provide a loan for a program that does not generate cash flow if the requestor can make a case that the project will considerably advance sustainability on campus without jeopardizing the viability of the program as a whole. 

While some still believe that “going green” is not an economically feasible decision for colleges and universities, the success of some programs seem to suggest that sustainability initiatives on campus can have tremendous financial returns for a college or university.  For example, according to National Association of College and University Business Officer’s (NACUBO) publication, Financing Sustainability on Campus, Harvard’s GCLF has funded “more than 160 projects projected to save the university $3.8 million per year with an average project ROI of 26%.”  Colleges and universities are finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the growing trend toward sustainability initiatives as students are beginning to make demands of their schools to “go green.”  Whereas once college administrators cringed at such discussions, the success of Harvard’s GCLF and Macalester College’s CERF should put their minds at ease that there are economically feasible ways to fund sustainability on college campuses.

In 2009 the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) published a resource entitled, Financing Sustainability on Campus.  Ben Barlow, a consultant for Second Nature, and Andrea Putman, Director of Corporate Partnerships at Second Nature, team up to author this resource and do a very good job at exploring a variety of funding options that can be helpful in pushing forward with sustainability initiatives.  At just over 100 pages, this publication is a worthwhile resource for anyone tasked with implementing sustainability initiatives on a college or university campus. 

Barlow and Putman advise readers on how to identify and evaluate opportunities for sustainability initiatives.  The authors point out that there may be opportunities for sustainability hidden on campuses that would require no funding at all.  For example, proper maintenance of HVAC units and other such systems may save the institution money while at the same time creating a more environmentally friendly campus.  For initiatives that will require funding, however, Financing Sustainability on Campus provides a wealth of information.

The authors explore “revolving loan funds” and highlight the examples found in Harvard’s $12 million Green Campus Loan Fund (GCLF) and Macalester College’s Clean Energy Revolving Fund (CERF), both of which have been very successful in helping fund sustainability initiatives at both schools.  A variety of government grants are available for colleges and universities interested in pursuing sustainability initiatives on campus and the authors provide an entire chapter detailing several of them and how to go about applying for them.  Bonds, leases, and even energy performance contracts provide additional funding streams and Barlow and Putman spend a chapter on each.  The authors also explore the various tax credits that are increasingly available and may help offset the cost of financing sustainability initiatives on college campuses.  Power purchase agreements (PPAs), energy hedges, and renewable energy credits (RECs) are also each given a full chapter in the work.  Finally, the authors explore the opportunities found in purchasing carbon offsets.

Financing Sustainability on Campus is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in how to fund sustainability initiatives on college campuses.  The authors are incredibly knowledgeable about the topic and provide a wealth of information and additional resources throughout the publication.  From case studies and examinations of best practices to an appendix packed with information sources and a directory of providers, Barlow and Putman have put together a highly valuable resource in this work.  I highly recommend this resource to any college or university business officer, president, sustainability director, or other staff member tasked with implementing sustainability initiatives on campus.