Fort Valley State University received a certificate of achievement from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority and Governor Nathan Deal for fulfilling the Georgia Energy Challenge by realizing at least a 15 percent reduction in energy use.

FVSU launched the Blue and Gold Goes Green campaign in 2013. The program looked for ways to conserve energy, reduce the university's carbon footprint and cut its energy bill with a new environmental campaign. The goal of the program is to increase environmentally sustainable actions and behaviors among students, faculty and staff through energy conservation, and to cut the university's energy costs by 15 percent.

"Energy costs for the 2013-2014 school term was $2.9 million," said Dr. Dwayne Crew, FVSU's associate vice president of business and finance. "Due to the energy conservation efforts, the university was able to reduce its energy cost for the 2014-2015 school term to $2.5 million."
The plan to reduce energy costs was first suggested in July 2013. For a month, FVSU employees were allowed to review the proposed changes and provide input. Afterwards, a draft of the plan was presented during the Faculty/Staff Institute in the Fall 2013.

The university focused on reducing its costs by installing energy-saving devices on campus. In October 2013, Richard Miller, FVSU's assistant director of maintenance and electrician, and Kris Car, a maintenance supervisor, began installing automatic light sensors across campus.

"We put in $32 switches that will turn off lights, when it does not sense the presence of a person in a room," Crew said.

Additionally, low-cost energy efficient LED lights were installed in the Health and Education Complex, classrooms, dorms, and outside light poles.

Joseph Thomas Facilities and Maintenance Supervisor said Fort Valley State University will continue looking for ways to reduce energy costs.