Fall Energy Challenge sprints through October

The fourth annual IU Energy Challenge is underway.

The contest pits academic buildings, greek houses and residence halls against one another to see which building in each category uses the least water and electricity. The challenge began Oct. 6 and ends Nov. 3.

So far, Willkie Quad leads in the residence hall competition, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs leads in the academic buildings and Kappa Delta leads in the greek competition. This year, the Office of Sustainability chose to have the competition in the fall rather than the spring semester.

McKenzie Beverage, coordinator of the challenge, said this would help the Office of Sustainability determine whether or not students are maintaining the conservation habits they learn at the beginning of the year.

Additionally, the usage of water and electricity can be compared in both the fall and spring semesters of the academic year.

“We wanted to be able to measure whether or not the conservation habits that we’re trying to instill in students and faculty are sticking with them,” she said. “Because the spring challenge ended so close to the end of the semester, there was really no way for us to gauge whether those habits were being maintained.”

To monitor each building, an IU Physical Plant utility employee reads participating buildings’ electricity and water meters several times a week.

The information is then entered into the Energy Challenge website and calculated to see the greatest percent decrease in per capita electricity and water consumption of each participating building.

Willkie Quad officials are encouraging conservation habits through environmentally focused programming, said sophomore Carolyn Chang, a floor president and environmental adviser.

“We’ve been dimming our lobby lights for the duration of the challenge, and each of our floor presidents have been advertising the challenge on their respective floors,” Chang said.

Steve Akers, associate director of environmental operations and the Residential Programs and Services representative for the Campus Sustainability Advisory Board, said the campus energy challenge is the nation’s largest energy conservation effort.

“Right now, the challenge encompasses — between residence halls, the greek system and academic buildings — about six million square feet of campus,” he said.

Akers said IU has saved more than one million gallons of water during the past challenges, and the goal this year is to reduce overall consumption by 20 percent.

“Even when the challenge period ends, people should continue to use energy and water in a wiser way and not be quite so wasteful,” Akers said.