St. Lawrence University is being invited to join a $1 billion collegiate “green” fund, but they haven’t committed to it yet.

That is despite being cited by the organizers as one of the institutions committed to amassing $65 million to the energy efficiency financing initiative.

An SLU spokeswoman said the university is considering it, but hasn’t signed on yet.

Institutions are challenged to invest a total of $1 billion in self-managed green revolving funds to finance energy efficiency upgrades.

The Save Energy, Grow Money Billion Dollar Green Challenge has been inspired by existing green revolving funds, which, according to Greening The Bottom Line, a report published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, have a median annual return on investment of 32 percent.

These investments are reportedly helping create green jobs in campus communities, while lowering operating costs on college and university campuses.

“We’re transforming energy efficiency upgrades from perceived expenses to high-return investment opportunities,” said Mark Orlowski, executive director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, which is coordinating “The Challenge.”

The Billion Dollar Green Challenge launches publicly on Oct. 11 at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education conference in Pittsburgh. The conference, with more than 2,500 participants, is on higher education sustainability.

In advance of the launch, 33 institutions are cited as having already joined The Challenge’s Founding Circle by committing to invest a cumulative total of more than $65 million in “green” revolving funds.

St. Lawrence is listed among those 33 although they have not committed to join the group.

The Billion Dollar Green Challenge says it offers technical assistance, best practices sharing, access to a web-based tool for managing the revolving funds, peer institutions’ project-specific data, and invitations to webinars and conferences.