Kresge Foundation Offers Grant to Help Minority Colleges Green Up

The United Negro College Fund has received a $1.8-million grant from the Kresge Foundation that will help establish training programs to promote green building at minority-serving institutions. The program was set up with the help of Second Nature, a leading sustainability organization in higher education.

The grant will establish institutes and workshops to train college staff members in green-building practices. The fund plans three workshops, in Atlanta, Minneapolis, and San Antonio, starting this February. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund will also participate.

The $2-billion Kresge Foundation is known for giving money to construction programs. In a news conference this morning, William F.L. Moses, director of programs, said that because of Kresge’s increasing interest in sustainability, it had established minimum green-building standards for its grants. He and others at the foundation, he said, were concerned that minority-serving institutions would miss out on financing opportunities because their green-building programs were not well established.

Tony Cortese, president of Second Nature, which promotes the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, said his group was interested in getting more minority-serving institutions to sign up for that pact. Buildings are a major source of emissions on college campuses; if minority institutions do not have a good track record of building green, that might limit their success in striving for climate neutrality, the goal of the climate commitment.