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Revelle Takes Prize in Battle to Save Energy
Ioana Patringenaru | March 12, 2007
For the past month, many students at Revelle, Sixth and Muir colleges unplugged appliances that weren’t in use and turned off the light when they left the room. Some quit using their hairdryers. Some took the stairs instead of the elevators.
The three colleges competed in an energy conservation contest from Feb. 5 to March 5. Results are now in and Revelle students will take the contest’s prize: an ice cream party and a pass to offset some of the college’s carbon emissions. TerraPass sells carbon offset credits, then invests the money into renewable energy projects, including wind farms.
In all, the three colleges cut energy consumption by 14.45 percent when compared to the previous month. That’s 90,542.66 pounds of CO2 that didn’t get into the atmosphere – the equivalent of yearly CO2 emissions for 7.83 cars, said Sarah Termondt, a third-year student who coordinated the contest.
“This is the most that we’ve ever saved in an energy competition,” she said. “We’re really excited about it.”
The goal is to get students, staff and faculty into the habit of saving energy, while raising awareness, organizers said. The Green Campus program at UCSD, a student-led outreach group, sponsored the competition. The program serves 12 California State University and UC campuses and is sponsored by the Alliance to Save Energy, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.
Termondt praised Green Campus intern Jessica Wall, a Muir student assigned to promote the contest at Revelle. Wall put up posters all over the elevator lobby at Argo Hall encouraging students to take the stairs. She also e-mailed resident advisors a poster to promote the contest. She conducted an informal poll to find out how many students knew about the contest. About half did.
Wall, in turn, praised staff members in Revelle’s Residence Life office. By the way, she has been taking cold showers after she runs. She also quit using her hair dryer. “It doesn’t look the same,” she admitted. “But I feel better knowing I didn’t hair-dry it.”
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TerraPass sells carbon offset credits. |
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Revelle cut back consumption by 19.74 percent, the equivalent of yearly CO2 emissions for 3.81 cars. By contrast, Muir cut consumption by 15.42 percent – that’s yearly CO2 emissions for 3.7 cars. Bryan Ward, a third-year student who promoted the contest at Muir, was gracious in defeat. Overall, students cut back on consumption by more than 10 percent, the contest’s original goal, he pointed out. “Plus, Muir didn’t get third,” Ward added.
Revelle students have an advantage over Muir students because they can study at CLICS during the day, so they don’t use the lights and heaters in their dorms, Ward said. Meanwhile, many Muir students stay in their room or their dorm’s lounge to study. Wall wasn’t buying it. She lives at Muir and she’s just as likely to go study at CLICS, she said.
At Sixth Colege, which came in third, students live in apartments, with full-size fridges and less efficient electric stoves, Termondt said. Still, the college cut back on energy consumption for the first time during the competition, albeit by 2.93 percent – the equivalent of yearly CO2 emissions for 0.32 car. “They actually did a good job,” Termondt said.
Sixth’s apartments have more appliances than Revelle and Muir’s dorms, said Marciano Perez, the college’s resident dean. Female students asked that the lights be kept on in laundry rooms at night for safety, he added. In the future, Sixth College will work with the Green Campus program to better market the contest, Perez said. “We know we’re headed in the right direction, but we have a long way to go,” he said. |
