What follows is a rough transcript drafted live at AASHE2011. A video of the keynote session during which this announcement was made will be available in the near future.

Presenter: Mark Orlowski - Sustainable Endowments Institute

Good morning everyone. Thank you AASHE.

What I'm about to show you is the product of 2 years of work. With our 14 partner organizations, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Billion Dollar Green Challenge. It challenges institution to invest a total of $1 billion in self-managed green revolving funds on energy efficiency upgrades.

The green revolving loan fund turns what are generally considered costs (energy bills) into highly profitable investments. They are called revolving funds because the projects are lent money and then the projects repay the loans through cost savings.

I'm pleased to announce that 32 institutions have already signed on. Please join me in welcoming the representatives from those institutions. (applause) These institutions have already commit to investing $65 million in energy efficiency revolving loan funds at their institutions. The institutions range widely in size and type.

We are creating a project library and best practices and other resources to support the initiative.

Now I'd like to invite our advisory council on stage. (applause) This group has been having monthly meetings since early 2010.

A special thanks to AASHE which has been tremendously supportive. And our foundation sponsors, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Kresge Foundation.

There will be a special lunch session about the challenge on Tuesday, Oct 11th. Come learn more.

This is a big challenge. We hope you'll join us.