The Johns Hopkins University will spend almost $74 million in the next 15 years as part of an effort to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by half and make the school more energy efficient.
Hopkins will build clean-energy, natural gas cogeneration plants at its campuses in Homewood and East Baltimore, install solar panels and retrofit its buildings with more efficient heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems in an effort to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 141,000 tons a year by 2025, the university said Thursday.
The effort will not only be good for the environment, but also will be healthy for Hopkins’ bottom line, eventually saving the school more than $10 million annually.
“Facing this challenge head-on is our shared responsibility, especially as residents of the developed world,” Ronald J. Daniels, Hopkins’ president said in a release announcing the university’s initiative. “But universities have a special role in our society and a special responsibility. We are institutions that discover, that educate and that, often, set an example, When it comes to global climate change, Johns Hopkins will be a leader in all three.”