As of October 15th, students living in residential halls began Plymouth State University’s annual competition to limit the consumption of energy. What you do in the dark is your personal business, but PSU’s Office of Environmental Sustainability (OES) wants you to work together to save energy during the “Do it in the Dark” campus-wide competition that students at PSU launched in 2007. In the competition, residential halls compete to see which group of residents can save the most electricity. This prize-orientated competition takes place until November 30th. What does the winning hall get if they win? Half priced laundry in February!
“We can all do simple things to live more sustainably and lower our energy costs, and competitions like this give us a way to reach a diverse audience of students using incentives they value,” said Brian Eisenhauer, director of the PSU Office of Environmental Sustainability, “These types of efforts help us educate students, staff, and faculty about these important sustainability issues, and also play an important role in controlling our operating costs so we can keep tuition as low as possible for students.”
OES judges what hall saves the most energy based on percentage reductions from each hall’s five-year average use from October through November. “Do it in the dark is a great campaign for raising awareness about energy and consumption-related issues. We can all do more to reduce waste, and there are some real financial advantages to doing so,” said Co-Director of OES, Steve Whitman.
A goal for “Do it in the Dark” is not only to persuade students by reducing laundry costs. OES also hopes that more and more students become aware of how easy it can be to save energy – and continue those practices to save energy and money throughout their lives. It can be as easy as unplugging unused chargers and appliances. This year OES is hoping for bigger reductions on campus than ever before and is excited to help the largest incoming class in PSU history lead the way to a more sustainable campus.
For more information concerning “Do it in the Dark” and other efforts towards sustainability, contact Brian Eisenhauer.