Cornell was one of 12 colleges and universities to receive the Climate Leadership Award for Institutional Excellence in Climate Leadership, the first annual award from Second Nature, an organization that advocates sustainability in higher education.

Kyu-Jung Whang, vice president for facilities services, accepted the award Oct. 12 at the fourth annual American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment Summit in Denver.

The award cites sustainability-related efforts across campus including the new Combined Heat and Power Plant and plans to eliminate on-site coal combustion by July 2011; the formation of the President's Sustainable Campus Committee; the allocation of more than $6 million toward campus energy conservation projects for 2010-11; and active research through the Cornell Center for a Sustainable Future.

Second Nature is a Massachusetts nonprofit organization founded in 1993 "to accelerate movement toward a sustainable future by serving and supporting senior college and university leaders in making healthy, just and sustainable living the foundation of all learning and practice in higher education."