Campus Conservation Nationals

• The first of an annually recurring energy and water reduction

competition among residence halls.

• The competition will run for three weeks, with winner in

multiple categories.

• National competition with local, state, regional, and self-

defined sub-competitions

INTRODUCTION

• Build communities within campuses around resource conservation.

• Provide a context in which students teach themselves conservation

behaviors that they can employ in the home and workplace in the future.

• Utilize innovative solutions to educate students around energy and water

conservation and sustainability .

• Achieve measurable resource savings (kWh, gallons, GHGs)

• Enable students to develop leadership and community organizing skills.

Project Goals

• On campuses activities in buildings account for most of the energy,

water and GHG emissions for colleges and universities (~90%)

• Upgrading infrastructure has been a focus, but changing the

behavior of building occupants is equally important.

• Research (Cialdini 1993) has shown that resource reduction

competitions in provide an important means of engaging,

educating, motivating and empowering students to conserve

resources and foster behavior change.

Why Competitions

• Participating campuses must commit by March 1, 2010.

• All campuses will use the same baseline, which will be a 3-week period immediately

before the competition takes place.

• Electricity and water reductions will be based on percentage reduction from a

baseline.

• Any given campus or residence hall will be able to compete in either electricity

competition, water competition or both.

• The resources will be measured in the following way:

– Electricity (kwh) will be monitored using whatever metering exists

– Water (gallons/hr) will be assessed in a fashion that is similar to electricity.

– Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions associated with electricity and water use

competitions will be measured but not used for the competition.

Competition Guidelines

• In order to join, participants must commit to the following:

o Letter of Commitment

o Organize and promote competitions on their local campuses

o Participate in conference calls to discuss best practices.

o Submit data through a web form to CCN administrator.

o Provide information about energy efficiency on campus

Signing Up

http://buildingdashboard.com/clients/hamilton/

Building Dashboard Example

www.CompeteToReduce.org