Results of the Spring 2012 POWERless Energy Competition

Read this note from Smith Jackson, Vice President and Dean of Student Life, for the results of the competition and its importance.

To: Elon campus community
From: Smith Jackson, Vice President and Dean of Student Life
Re: Spring 2012 POWERless results

This is the seventh POWERless competition to be held on Elon’s campus. During the three-week competition, the overall number of kilowatt hours not used compared to the baseline consumption was 44,252 kWh. The amount of energy conserved would power 35 North Carolina homes for a month based on average consumption.

The goal of this competition is to improve energy habits and raise awareness of energy conservation, which was accomplished as evidenced by the kilowatt hour reduction achieved. The cumulative energy reduction across all residential areas was 10.6 percent.

Environmentally, the kilowatt hours not used during the competition based on current emission factors equate to:

• 17 tons of coal being burned
• 25 tons of carbon dioxide emissions (primary contributor to climate change)
• 55 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions and 211 pounds of sulfur dioxide emissions (contributors to acid rain)

It was a close competition all the way up to the last day, and all participants share in the excellent overall electricity reduction during the three weeks.

In the area competition the greatest energy reduction was achieved by:

Division II: East Area Academic Pavilions – 34%
Division I: Oaks Area – 11.3%
These area names will be added to the custom-made oak POWERless trophy, which resides in the Moseley Center.

The buildings with the top energy reduction in each Division were:

Division II: International Pavilion (Academic Village – Cannon) – 36.9%
Division I: Oaks A – 18.1%

The residents in these buildings will receive a sustainable POWERless t-shirt with the building names on the back. The t-shirts from T.S. Designs in Burlington were printed in Alamance County and made from 65% recycled soda bottles and 35% recycled cotton. These shirts truly represent the spirit of the POWERless contest.

Residents in the top two buildings in each division were entered into a prize drawing for two bikes and two Phoenix cash prizes. Cameron Bentley and Lauren Sandberg each won a new bike and Lindsey Schmidt and Peter Tausek received $50 in Phoenix cash.

Recipients will be recognized and presented with their award at College Coffee on March 27. Please come out to congratulate them.

In addition, all students who made a commitment on the Building Dashboard during the competition were entered into a prize drawing for 10 sustainability prize bags including an Elon reusable water bottle, a gift card to a local merchant and the campus shop and a compact fluorescent light bulb.

The recipients of those prizes are: Jonathan Winston, Kasey Sullivan, Laurier Raymond, Lear Haninovich, Matt McKenzie, Matthew Brekus, Mikey Riley, Sam Blake, Sarah Paterson and Solemia Gainza. These students will be contacted by the Office of Sustainability with information to claim their prize.

Full competition results can be viewed on the Building Dashboard under the POWERless 2012 tab. (http://www.buildingdashboard.net/elon/).