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Excerpt from the newsletter of the Executive Office of the President. Photo by Chris Richards, University of Arizona, 2021.
When we began our strategic planning process for the University of Arizona’s future in 2017, we knew that sustainability would be critically important. Environmental challenges are among the grandest we face, and they are of strong interest to our students, who are very invested in creating a sustainable future.
With this interest from our students, and because of the scale of our operations and capacity to apply new knowledge as it is developed, higher education institutions are uniquely well-positioned to lead on clean energy and other climate-related solutions. The University of Arizona is already a leader in environmental and sustainability research, and by becoming a more sustainable campus, we can demonstrate the feasibility of a more sustainable built environment for our entire society. One incredible way we are achieving this goal is our partnership with Tucson Electric Power (TEP).
As you may recall, the University and TEP signed a large-scale renewable energy agreement in August 2019 which was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission in December 2019. Through this partnership, the University of Arizona will be the largest research university in the country to have a plan in place to offset the entirety of its scope two emissions, those greenhouse gases that result from the generation of electricity, heat or steam purchased from a utility provider. This partnership with TEP will bring the University to net zero for scope two emissions, and it mitigates 30% of our total greenhouse gas emissions.
Almost two years after we signed this agreement, we are ready to launch this new initiative. When both sites are fully online, the University will receive half of its annual grid-based energy from the Oso Grande Wind Project in Southeast New Mexico and the other half from the Wilmot Energy Center south of Tucson.
I recently had the chance to talk with TEP’s new President and CEO, Susan Gray, who also happens to be a Wildcat, and Trevor Ledbetter, also an alumnus, and Director of the Office of Sustainability. In this video (also below), you can see our conversation about this exciting project, the largest utility-university renewable energy partnership in North America. You will hear Susan eloquently describe how TEP shares our commitment to make lasting positive change, and you will learn more about how this project is an outstanding example of the university leveraging its resources and expertise in collaboration across sectors to help partners meet their strategic goals. I am so excited for what this partnership will accomplish.