Colorado State University Students to Track Energy Consumption in Residence Halls as Part of “Green Warrior Campaign”

Colorado State University students soon will be able to track real-time energy consumption in the residence halls with meters provided through a $44,000 Rocky Mountain Institute grant to the Facilities department.

The project will help kick off a “Green Warrior Campaign” that aims to engage students in creating a climate of sustainability at CSU. The campaign, through March 27, is a collaborative effort between multiple CSU organizations including the Live Green Team, the Live Green Community, The Coalition for Campus Sustainability and the Student Sustainability Center in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, known as SOGES.

The campaign will help students in the residence halls learn to lessen their daily energy output, which will include a competition between the halls to conserve the most energy. Funding will also support a sustainability fair on Earth Day April 22 to engage the CSU community in environmentally friendly organizations. The event will feature live music, a large paper shredder for use by students, faculty and staff as well as more than 150 booths sponsored by local green organizations.

During the Green Warrior campaign, students will have the opportunity to register online and pledge to participate in environmentally friendly tasks. The website provides an area to track sustainability efforts such as conserving water, saving electricity and recycling on campus. To participate, go to http://green.colostate.edu/greenwarrior/trackpoints.aspx.

CSU is one of the foremost universities in incorporating sustainable living on campus. Through everything from a building a biomass boiler and two-megawatt solar plant on the Foothills Campus to allowing students to purchase green power in the residence halls, the university strives to lessen energy consumption and provide students with green living alternatives.

To learn more about becoming a Green Warrior, visit http://www.green.colostate.edu/greenwarrior/.

In 2008, the prestigious Rocky Mountain Institute selected Colorado State University for a national study on best practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on college and university campuses. Colorado State was the only university selected in the Rocky Mountain West and one of a dozen institutions selected nationally for the study, which is co-sponsored by the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, or AASHE.

The Rocky Mountain Institute was established in 1982 by resource analysts L. Hunter Lovins and Amory B. Lovins. The mission of the non-profit organization is to show businesses, communities, individuals and governments how to create more wealth and employment, protect and enhance natural and human capital, increase profit and competitive advantage and enjoy many other benefits – largely by doing what they do more efficiently. The institute has grown to 80 full-time staff and an annual budget of $12 million.

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