 Media Credit: Kate Cooper By enlisting the competitive attitude of the student body, Ecopledge hopes to improve campus sustainability.
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It's a typical Wednesday night. A sophomore boy, having just printed tomorrow's lecture slides at the library, swings by the dining hall and grabs two bottles of water, a slice of pizza to go, and a side of fries. After cursing at the fact that he accidentally printed out the wrong set of slides, he walks into his room in Walsh Hall to find all the lights on, the television blaring, and a laptop charging on the couch. But no one is home.
In a fit of frustration with himself, he tosses the unneeded slides in the trash can, by-passes the light switch for the common room, and heads into his bedroom where he proceeds to eat his dinner. He throws away the bottles and to-go containers in the trash can under his desk. Total damage: 40 pieces of paper, several ounces of plastic, and who knows how many kilowatt- hours of electricity - all of which could have been avoided.
Changing lifestyles like this is exactly the target of two new initiatives being undertaken by Boston College's Ecopledge organization, a student group dedicated to promoting energy and environmental conservation and awareness. With two contests taking place this semester, Ecopledge hopes to instill in students a sense of commitment to living cleaner and greener at BC and in life afterward.
The Better-Off Contest is a University-wide competition aimed at reducing energy usage overall. The contest, which was limited to Newton Campus last year, now pits Upper, Lower, and Newton against each other in an effort to see who can conserve the most.
During the six-week long preliminary round, residence halls within each area will have their energy outputs monitored by Facilities Management. New devices installed by Facilities will make keeping track of energy output easier. The residence halls from each area that have the greatest percent decrease in energy usage from last year will then compete against each other in a two-week final round. The residents in the winning residence hall will then receive prizes compliments of Ecopledge, Residential Life, and Facilities, explained Phil Pietrangelo, Ecopledge member and A&S '09.
"We hope that the prizes will offer students an incentive to conserve energy and participate," said Pietrangelo, "but of course conserving energy should be an incentive itself."
2008 Woodie Awards
