Club's motion-sensor light project prompts installation in dorm lounges

The nine students in the Environmental Business Club are trying to help make the campus more environmentally friendly and the University is listening.\nOn Dec. 14, they presented a plan to Residential Programs and Services directors about ways to cut back on light use in residence hall lounges. Most lounge lights stay on all night without anyone using the lounge. The club's proposed motion sensors feed off heat and movement and employ a timer that automatically shuts off the lights when the room is not being occupied.\nThe club's effort to make the campus more environmentally friendly has paid off. By late spring, motion sensors will be installed in Teter and possibly Wright Quad, saving the University as much as $35,000 over the next 10 years, according to the Environmental Business Club.\nIU alumnus Jonah Paul said he wanted the club to initiate environmentally friendly projects when he founded the club three years ago.\n"I think our motion sensor project symbolizes what the EBC is all about -- the end result is both environmentally friendly and saves electricity," Paul said. "Looking at environmental issues from a cost-benefit angle is what the club is about."\nStephen Akers, associate director of environmental operations for RPS, said he enjoyed the presentation from the student-led group.\n"They gave a great presentation," Akers said. "They are a good group to go to. They have innovative ways, and it's a good academic process to go through a student group -- to get ideas from them that we may not have thought of."\nJonathan W. Greenberg, president of the EBC, said the club is different from any other in the Kelley School of Business.\n"(The club) grapples with an issue that is important to me. We don't have the same motives as other clubs, we're not about having the most members -- we're all about action, going out and doing things in the community," Greenberg said. "You know when you exercise and you unleash that kind of energy? That's how I feel about this club. Because we're small, it has given me a lot of experience. My voice has been able to be heard."\nAnd heard it has been. Akers has promised to continue partnering with the EBC.\n"They have shown us through their data and research, and I think it's a great proposal," Akers said. "It will be a few thousand (dollars) to invest, but the payoff we'll see in a year. I've committed to Jonathan to partner with them in the future."\nAccording to the Sustainable Endowments Institute, IU received a D-plus on its College Sustainability Report Card 2007. Of 100 schools reviewed, only 20 received D's.\nDeepak Raj Gunasekaran, a senior and executive member of the EBC said he believes it is important to make IU and the students more concerned with the environment and its importance for the future.\n"I would really like IU to be more environmentally conscious and preach the importance of the issue to its students," Gunasekaran said. "I think the first step to teaching students is to set an example; this is why our projects are targeted to drive IU to implement sustainable procedures and environmentally friendly products in its buildings, rather than just educating students with speakers, fliers, etc."\nGreenberg said the group is working on projects to improve efficiency in the lighting of the Business/SPEA Library, along with water usage in faucets at the Business School, among other projects. \nBusiness professor Steven Kreft, faculty advisor to the EBC, said he is so interested in environmental economic issues that he has incorporated them into a required business class G202 for majors, "Business and Economic Strategy in the Public Arena." He said members of the EBC are similarly motivated by personal interests of environmental concerns.\n"They are getting a lot of results done, which sets them apart," Kreft said. "I think they are very persuasive and have very good arguments. They have done all the right numbers and these students are motivated to leave something behind at IU and at Kelley that said, 'We made our mark on campus.' I've been really impressed in their ability to follow through with these projects."\nThe EBC is holding a call-out meeting at 1 p.m. on Feb. 16 in room 306 of the Business School. For more information about the EBC, visit their Web site at www.kelley.iu.edu/ebc/.