For colleges and universities, it pays to go green. The Kresge Foundation, which provides facilities-capital grants, has announced it will only consider proposals for certified green building projects in the higher education sector, beginning next year.
The foundation said it will require applicants for its challenge grants to propose projects that meet the Silver-level or higher certification standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design (LEED) program or an equivalent rating agency.
Kresge said it is giving one-year advance notice to colleges and universities to allow them sufficient preparation time to meet the new standards and will provide assistance for financially strapped institutions.
The foundation said it based its decision to fund only green projects on "broader national trends in the environment and education that are emerging from the Obama Administration."
"The Kresge Foundation is very concerned about the long-term impact of global climate change and deeply committed to environmental conservation, which is one of our nine core values," said education program director William F.L. Moses.
Moses said the new challenge-grant requirements for higher education represent a natural next step in addressing environmental issues more broadly. It may feel like tough love, but Moses said investing in high-performance buildings is better for the schools in the long-run – greener facilities will enable schools to become more energy-efficient and reduce their energy costs.
With a three-year, $1.2 million Kresge grant, the group Second Nature will help Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges and universities and the U.S. Department of Education’s Title III and V institutions develop green building projects for their campuses.
Since March 2004, the foundation has made 199 awards of green planning grants to public and private institutions. 
