Cornell Green Revolving Fund

Invest in students, Cornell and the environment!

The concept of a Green Revolving Fund (GRF) is simple: money from initial seed funding is distributed to finance energy efficiency projects and the savings from those projects revolve back to the fund to finance future projects. At Cornell, we have taken this idea one step further by creating a 3-credit undergraduate course in the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management dedicated to overseeing the Green Revolving Fund. Students identify potential projects on campus, perform a full financial analysis, and, if appropriate, use the Green Revolving Fund’s capital to perform the upgrade. Overall, the GRF has two main objectives: reduce Cornell’s carbon footprint and accelerate student learning in an experiential environment. 

Although Cornell has retrofitted a number of buildings, there are still a lot of opportunities for upgrades on campus. Students are currently investigating projects in Sage, Goldwin Smith, and Tjaden halls. Potential projects include window replacements, HVAC upgrades, adding occupancy sensors, water efficiency upgrades, and lighting replacements. Projects of this type can have a return on investment of more that 20%!

In this semester’s inaugural class, 17 students from diverse majors (Engineering, Applied Economics and Management, Industrial and Labor Relations, Statistics, etc.) have been divided into groups and are creating proposals. Student are interacting with facility managers, staff at the Energy and Sustainability Office, and outside contractors to accurately estimate project costs and energy savings. Many of these students are seeking to go into sustainable fields full-time and this course is providing them with an amazing “hands-on” learning opportunity.

Your contribution will be used for initial seed money for the Green Revolving Fund. It will enable more projects to be implemented across campus, reduce energy consumption, and inspire the next leaders in sustainability.