Earlier today, we posted about Iowa’s pollution problem, and how the state’s pollution is coming from some odd places–including the state’s smaller colleges. Perhaps, then, the Iowa schools should be taking a cue from New England, where the University of New Hampshire is working to be one of the greenest campuses in the nation. UNH wants to reduce emissions 50 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2080, and is certainly well on its way. In fact, already, a whopping 85 percent of the school’s electricity and heat comes from capturing a nearby landfill’s methane gas. The Boston Globe’s Green Blog has the scoop:

Called Ecoline, the project gets its methane from a landfill at Waste Management’s Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise in Rochester. Methane is a natural by-product of decaying waste and is collected via 300 extraction wells and miles of collection pipes. After the gas is purified and compressed, it travels through a 12.7 mile pipeline to UNH’s power plant where it is replacing commercial natural gas.

The whole setup cost the school $49 million, but the hope is to recoup a lot of that investment by selling excess power back to the grid. Even if the entire investment is covered for a long time, I’m sure the school and its members can derive a lot of satisfaction that so much of their energy use is covered by a renewable source–not even that, but a source that captures what would otherwise become greenhouse gases. That’s pretty awesome.

photo credit: bdjsb7’s flickr photostream/Creative Commons