Ohio State Energy Partners Announce Venture Capitalist-style Student Sustainability Competition

Smart Campus Challenge Graphic

COLUMBUS, OH, Oct. 3, 2018 — As part of its annual academic investment program, the Ohio State Energy Partners (OSEP) will fund the Smart CampusE Challenge, a venture capitalist-style student sustainability competition in February 2019, ENGIE Chairman Jean-Pierre Clamadieu and Chief Financial Officer Judith Hartmann recently announced.

Student teams who advance through an initial proposal process will have the opportunity to pitch campus sustainability projects to a committee of Ohio State faculty, staff, alumni and ENGIE program managers for the chance to get their dream project funded.

“Each of us plays an essential role in the innovation of tomorrow,” said Jean-Pierre Clamadieu. “By working together, we can accelerate innovation and the implementation of projects with widespread impact. We look forward to engaging with students on their ideas to imagine new possibilities and drive solutions to make Ohio State’s campus a model for others to follow.”

The student sustainability competition aims to connect student talents to sustainability innovation by funding projects that enhance its campus’ resource efficiency and environmental performance.

More information is available on the OSEP website, www.ohiostateenergypartners.com

Proposals for the competition are due Dec. 7, 2018. All proposals must be submitted to the OSEP website, go.osu.edu/smartcampuschallenge.

Ohio State Energy Partners is a joint venture of ENGIE and Axium Infrastructure, which was selected in 2017 by Ohio State to operate, maintain and optimize the university’s utility system at the more than 400-building campus in Columbus, Ohio, under a 50-year contract.

About ENGIE and Axium

ENGIE manages a range of energy businesses in the United States and Canada, including clean electricity generation, cogeneration, and energy storage; retail energy sales, and comprehensive services to help customers run their facilities more efficiently and optimize energy and other resource use and expense. Nearly 100 percent of the company’s power generation portfolio is low carbon or carbon free. Globally, the company is present in 70 countries and employs 150,000 people. For more information, please visit www.engie-na.com, @ENGIENorthAm, and www.engie.com.

Axium is a long-term, buy-and-hold infrastructure investment firm with over $1.8 billion in assets under management, as well as approximately $1 billion in managed co-investments. Axium currently holds a diversified portfolio of power and energy, transportation, and social infrastructure assets, including substantial investments in renewable energy to date, with interests in over 2.5 GW of wind, solar and hydroelectric power generation across North America.