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Pinnacles wins energy conservation contest

During April, CSU Monterey Bay residents showed that small changes can make a big difference when it comes to conserving energy.

From April 2 to 22, students in the 11 residence halls participated in the Campus Conservation Nationals, CSUMB’s first effort to change people’s energy use in a measurable way.

Pinnacles Suites was the runaway winner, conserving 1,500 kilowatt hours. Overall, the residence halls saved 2,500 kilowatt hours of power – about $300 worth of electricity.

Residents of Pinnacles also saved the most energy per person – more than seven kilowatt hours – during the contest.

The savings resulted from simple measures such as turning off lights and electronics when not in use; using natural daylight when possible; and taking the stairs rather than using the elevators.

For its efforts, Pinnacles was awarded sculptures created by art students Laura Oneto and Tamara Rodriguez. The plan is to display the sculptures in some fashion and for them to travel to the residence hall that wins the competition each year.

The competition, organized by the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Wildlife Federation, Lucid Design Group and the Alliance to Save Energy, involved more than 150 schools in the United States and Canada. Campuses were encouraged to provide students with feedback on how their actions reduced the overall energy footprint of their residence halls.

Thanks to the work of Mike Lerch, campus energy manager, and Kevin Miller, web programming specialist, students were able to access that information at csumb.edu/energy.

Dr. Daniel M. Fernandez, chair of the Division of Science and Environmental Policy and co-chair of the Campus Sustainability Committee, noted that this is the first time CSUMB has looked at how student behavior can affect energy use at this scale.

Dr. Fernandez envisions that such energy-saving activities will become more commonplace over time and that this competition will become at least an annual event.

“If a single hall could save $150 to $200 worth of electricity in two weeks, imagine what all 11 of our residence halls could save over the 30 weeks of the school year,” Dr. Fernandez said. “In addition to reducing the campus’ carbon footprint, savings could be in the tens of thousands of dollars, just as a result of behavioral change!

“In this time of fiscal challenge, this is welcome news,” Dr. Fernandez said.

The contest was just one way the university has been working to become a more sustainable campus since President Dianne Harrison signed the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment in 2007.

Learn more about sustainability on campus here. Photo: Tamara Rodriguez and her sculpture that will be presented to the winning residence hall. Also pictured, Dr. Dan Fernandez, co-chair of the campus Sustainability Committee.