Students Compete to Save Energy

By Connect Mason Reporter Edwin Mora

Students living in George Mason University’s Amherst and Brunswick residence halls are competing in a challenge to reduce individual electricity consumption in which the inhabitants of the winning hall will be awarded and publicly recognized.

The Mason Energy Challenge started on March 17 and will conclude on April 18. Winners will be publicly announced on the main stage of the Earth Day celebrations on April 22.

“We want people to stop waste [of electricity] that they don’t think about,” said David McAbee, an individualized studies major who is also one of the challenge’s organizers. “No one is telling the students to stop using things, but instead to be wise about the way they use them. It does not take radical action.”

The other organizers include Shannon Serum, a curriculum and instruction major, and Bridget Lovas, an integrative studies major.

The Mason Energy Challenge is a student initiative that originated last semester from Mason’s Fostering Sustainability in the 21st Century course, taught by Andrew Wingfield and Susie Crate from New Century College. In this course, students are required to choose among a list of projects including one on energy competition which Serum, Lovas and McAbee carried out this semester.

Mason’s Office of Sustainability suggested that the organizers coordinate the first residence hall energy challenge between students, an idea that was influenced by the 2007 sustainability assessment compiled by the Green Campus Task Force.

The Brunswick and Amherst residence halls were chosen because they are similar in structure, such as design and size, and have a similar number of student inhabitants. The challenge’s organizers hope that by next year this contest will involve the entire Fairfax Campus.

“We thought we keep it small [this year], to keep it manageable,” said McAbee. He points out that this year will serve as a learning experience for the subsequent years.

Another reason why Brunswick and Amherst were chosen is that Mason’s office of energy has the ability to monitor and report on the buildings’ electricity consumption on a day to day basis.

“We worked hard on creating incentives for the students to participate and compete against one another in conserving energy,” said McAbee.

The prizes for the winners include public recognition during Earth Day, where a plaque will be displayed on the winning building. This plaque will move on to the next winning residence hall, keeping a list, as the challenge proliferates in the following years

All winning participants will get a gift bag with what McAbee called “eco goodies” such as re-usable coffee mugs and water bottles. They will also receive thumb drives donated by Siemens, and a multi-course dinner catered by Mason’s dining services’ company, Sodexho. Other prizes include a t-shirt for all students participating, regardless if their building wins or not.

“The floors that have sororities on them have become very excited about the challenge,” said McAbee. “I was surprised to find out that the prizes such as the dinner, was not much of an incentive, it seemed, as public recognition.”

Prior to the start of the challenge, the project organizers surveyed the students residing in Brunswick and Amherst on what kind of electronics they use and their usage pattern. Then using a watt meter, they measured how much electricity the devices were pulling.

This information was used to provide students with suggestions on how to change their use of electronics.

Students residing in the participating buildings are provided with energy saving tips. These included advice such as turning off the lights and television, unplugging hair dryers and those devices that use the most energy.

“Not only do we focus on telling them about what devices use the most energy, but also the devices that are used constantly,” said McAbee.

The electricity-saving suggestions, along with the Amherst and Brunswick’s progress in relations to the challenge, are presented by McAbee at residence hall floor meetings. The meetings have tallied up to 10-12 so far.

“Both halls have clearly shown that they’re reducing energy consumption,” said McAbee. Their energy use is being compared to how much energy each building consumed during the same time last year.

According McAbee, during the first two days of the challenge, the energy use in the buildings did not go down as compared to the previous year. This changed soon after.

“The last report I pulled had Amherst hall with 20 straight days of energy savings and Brunswick with 18,” says McAbee. “Students were excited to hear that what they are doing is working.”

Through the Mason Energy Challenge the Office of Sustainability will measure its effectiveness at altering student behavior in the residence halls, in areas such as recycling and energy consumption, by providing incentives such as this year’s competition prizes, according to McAbee.

The first of its kind Mason Energy Challenge is sponsored by the Office of Sustainability, Office of Housing & Residence Life and Siemens, an energy technology provider.