Sustainability: Events
Energy Conservation Contest
Fitchburg State College challenged every person on campus to become more green. Inspired by the President’s Climate Commitment, students, faculty, and staff threw down the gauntlet.
The Contest: Reduce electricity use in each building.
Timeframe: February 2008 usage compared to February 2007 usage.
The Results: Overall electricity consumption was down 1% from the previous years.
The Good: Residence halls saved a significant percentage and amount of electricity. The dorm at 22 Cedar reduced electricity consumption over 35% for the month. Russell reduced usage by 9%, saving the most electricity of any building on campus, a whopping 8800 KwH.
No special equipment was installed in the dorms. Students cut usage by being aware: turning off lights and unplugging devices using phantom power like televisions and battery chargers when not in use.
The Bad: Increased energy consumption in most academic buildings offset almost all the savings from the residential halls. If the academic buildings had performed as efficiently as the residence halls, the college could have saved $8,000 in electricity costs, or the energy equivalent of 48 barrels of oil, for February alone.
The Future: As the use of technology increases, electric usage will rise. It takes energy to recharge all those batteries and run all those computers. Education will be a major factor in conserving energy. One reason the dorms did so well was the regular meetings where saving energy was discussed.
The college plans on sponsoring more contests in the future.
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