This morning, at the US Green Building Council’s Greenbuild International Conference, hosted by Greenbuild 365, Bill Clinton made a significant announcement:

Signatories to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment — of which there are 427 at last count — will join the purchasing pool for energy efficient products and services that was established by the Clinton Global Initiative (originally involving the C40 cities, but expanded this week to all 720+ cities that have joined the mayors climate commitment).

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Man, that’s getting to be an extremely large purchasing pool.

In addition, the 420+ colleges and universities will be allowed to participate in the CGI’s Energy Efficient Building Retrofit Program, meaning they’ll get to work with the same energy services companies that are working with the C40, on the same terms.

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America’s colleges and universities are home to some of the nation’s most aggressive, energetic climate activism. (At the same conference, 11 colleges announced building retrofit pilot programs.) This agreement with CGI will allow them to green their facilities as fast as students are demanding.

Exciting times, these.