The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Northwestern the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year — Sustained Excellence Award the University announced Wednesday. This is the fourth consecutive year that the University has received the award. 

The award is the program’s highest honor, and recognizes businesses and organizations that have used energy achievements to protect the environment. NU has partnered with clean energy integrator Ameresco to improve lighting and air controls on campus, and its Green Labs Certification Program allowed labs to be run sustainably without sacrificing research quality. 

The University also saved about 22,000 disposable to-go containers after implementing reusable to-go containers in its dining halls.

“Our campus community continues to work together year after year to find innovative ways to reduce our environmental impact,” said Craig Johnson, NU’s executive vice president. “We are honored to receive the Sustained Excellence Award again.”

NU was the first school to receive the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year award consecutively in 2018 and 2019. Sustainability initiatives around campus are led by sustainNU, which is currently finalizing the next Strategic Sustainability Plan for the University. 

The University also has programming set up for Earth Month. 

“As we accelerate historic efforts to address climate change, public-private partnerships will be essential to realizing the scale of our ambition,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in the release. “I applaud this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for working with EPA to deliver a clean energy future that saves American consumers and businesses money and creates jobs.”

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Twitter: @joannah_11

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