We are pleased to announce the outstanding reduction in energy use over the past week. We encourage you to continue saving energy beyond the competition: as our results show, every little action makes a huge difference!
In first place, Shull reduced 24% of their energy use!
2nd: Hagemann saved 22%
3rd: Lawther saved 21%
4th: Rider saved 20%
5th: Noehren saved 15.5%
6th: Dancer saved 13%
7th: Campbell saved 12%
Bartlett and Bender did not improve.
Thirty percent of energy is wasted.
Here's how we can change that:
Unplug electrical devices like cell phone chargers, television sets, and DVD players when not in use. 15% of the energy that a TV uses over time is used while the TV is off but still plugged in.
If you use public transportation you can save money on gas along with energy.
Set your computer to "sleep" mode if you're going to be away from it for more than fifteen minutes.
Because raising livestock takes more energy than growing plants, try to cut down on how much meat you eat.
Be kind to your clothes and the environment and wash your clothes in cold water (in the residence halls, you can do this by selecting the "bright colors" setting). You can also save energy (and a few bucks, too) by skipping the dryer and choosing to air dry your laundry.
Energy is more expensive and harder to produce during peak hours. You can reduce costs and your carbon footprint if you do tasks that require high amounts of energy in the early morning or late evening, when the overall demand is less.
Set your refrigerator to a slightly lower setting if you don't need things to be frozen. Refrigerators use more electricity than any other dorm room appliance.
If you are going to leave your room for more than 23 seconds, turn off your fluorescent light. Any amount of time less than 23 seconds will use up more energy in starting up than you were trying to save by shutting it off.
We are a group of 9 Presidential Scholars, known as the Planeteers, at the University of Northern Iowa. As sophomores in the scholarship program, we are focusing on our Service Learning Project. The 18 Scholars split into two teams and each team picks a different timely issue in the community to concentrate on. Then, the rest of the school year is used to refine the issue, create a plan, and put on an event that will help solve the problem in the community.
Our group realizes that there are many problems in the community that are in need of being addressed. However, we found one certain issue we feel particularly passionate about: the environment and in particular, reducing our energy consumption.
Our mission is to promote sustainability and to inspire students to engage in environmentally-friendly habits through simple behavior modifications during a week-long energy-saving competition.
Team members:
Ryan Bailey
Jessica Baumeister
Joanna Eggert
Richard Fortney
Austin Foster
Hannah Kerling
Emily Miller-Todd
Michaela Nelson
Rachel Zidon
One day, our group members discovered that we each consume large quantities of energy as we go about our daily activities. Over a third of that energy is wasted! Our group wants to be active in the environmental sustainability movement. We would like to show people how simple alterations in their daily living will collectively make an impact on the future and overall well-being of our planet.
Our project is a campus-wide energy conservation competition between the 9 residence halls on campus. We hope it will motivate students to be more aware of the energy they are using and often wasting. We will begin a few weeks prior to the competition to inform students about simple and easy ways to conserve energy. There will also be other activities, such as movie night. During the week of the competition, we will monitor usage in each individual residence hall throughout the week and award the residence hall that reduces the most energy used with over $1,600 dollars in prizes. We are hoping that through the heat of competition, students will strive to out save other students in energy consumption.
We will be cooperating with NISG, the Department of Residence, Cedar Falls Utilities, and many local businesses.
We hope our project will make an impact on UNI and the Cedar Valley. If successful, our project will create lasting interest in environmental issues, help students and community members to become more green, and decrease UNI's energy consumption, which will save money. Most of all, our group hopes that our contest brings about an idea of responsibility to students at UNI. Through our small event, we hope that large changes can be made in the everyday habits of college students that will follow them for the rest of their lives. By simply changing the small behaviors and habits to be more environmentally friendly, we can have a large impact on the environment as a whole.
