Climate Counts has been making headlines ever since it began rating big-name companies on their climate commitments and performance.

The nonprofit now has its eye on expansion with a new partnership with the University of New Hampshire that may serve as a model for other academic alliances.

The move follows steady growth of the Climate Counts rating system since its launch four years ago when it rated 56 big firms on how they are measuring, reducing and reporting their carbon footprints, while also publicly advocating for climate change legislation.

The scorecards -- now covering 150 companies in 17 sectors -- are meant to help consumers reward climate leaders with their wallets and avoid the laggards. Stonyfield Farms CEO Gary Hirshberg founded Climate Counts in 2007 and remains board chair (Disclosure: GreenBiz.com Executive Editor Joel Makower sits on the nonprofit's board of directors).

"We tout to the companies we rate that continuous improvement is a good thing from one year to the next," said Mike Bellamente, Climate Counts' project director who will work at UNH. "We feel the same way for ourselves."

The partnership with UNH, which began June 29, will give Climate Counts and its two full-time employees access to a deep bench of resources at UNH to further refine its scoring framework. This may include a range of student research initiatives, such as data mapping, analysis of its operations or developing marketing strategies.

For UNH, it will give students and faculty a practical way to apply their education and research by providing a window through which they can see how companies are measuring and reporting their carbon inventories. They will also get a chance to observe the extent to which consumer pressure plays a role in corporate climate action.

"This will hopefully be a model for something we can move to other campuses," Bellamente said. "This is really a test case."

Climate Counts is also considering the development of a Water Scorecard and Campus Scorecard, Bellamente said, but nothing is officially in the works yet. Ultimately, Climate Counts hopes the partnership will help it maintain its momentum and keep consumers and businesses engaged with the rating system.

"Over the next 12 to 18 months, the goal will be to stay in front of consumers and businesses," Bellamente said, "and make them realize the value of the rating process we do."