As an important part of economical society, colleges and universities have been shouldering the important task of education, science research and social service. In this paper, a detailed investigation in the form of questionnaire was carried out for the energy consumption of colleges and universities in Guangdong Province, including electricity, water, gas and cooling energy consumption from 2006 to 2010. The energy meter reading modes, energy conversation investment amount and energy-efficiency retrofit work were also reported and analyzed. Furthermore, as can be concluded from the survey, there exists great difference in per unit energy consumption between different types of universities classified by schools' discipline, nature and level, which would be taken into account when the energy consumption evaluation indexes system is established. Although energy-saving measures at Guangdong's colleges and universities bear fruit, Guangdong's colleges and universities still have great potential of energy conservation and emission reduction by Conservation-oriented campus construction, and the government should increase funding and improve economic policy to encourage and support energy saving for colleges and universities. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.