Dickinson College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

The Dickinson Energy Challenge, held from March 17 through April 7, 2014, challenged the Dickinson College campus to reduce energy consumption in support of our Climate Action Plan. A major focus of the challenge was our Residence Hall Energy Competition, which pitted 15 residence halls against each other to see which hall could reduce their electricity consumption the most when compared to baseline data collected in the weeks prior to the Challenge. Energy data for each building was collected each week and distributed in a variety of ways to students. Most buildings are connected to Lucid building metering and thus provided real-time energy usage data. A three week average reduction was calculated at the end of the challenge and first, second, and third place winners were awarded. Several campus-wide awareness events were held, such as dinner in the dark, Earth Hour Celebration, and a sunset hike. In addition, Eco-Reps organized multiple events in the residence halls during the Challenge. Faculty and staff of the college were invited to all campus Energy Challenge events and encouraged to monitor data in classes and share the promotional video with departments, staff, and students. All-college e-mails were sent, college news stories were written, and college social media was used to raise awareness of the campaign.

The 15 participating residence halls reduced their collective electricity consumption by 39,747 kWh over the period of the challenge, saving $3,975 and eliminating 46,083 lbs. of GHG emissions. Electricity reductions by residence hall ranged from 31% to 42% for halls that are electrically heated and 0.1% to 17% for residence halls that are heated with gas. Approximately 60% of the student body participated in Energy Challenge events and the residence hall competition, and more than 200 commitments were made to take actions to reduce energy consumption. Dickinson was one of the top ten campuses participating in the national Campus Conservation Nationals in terms of electricity reduction.

Dickinson is working to reduce its energy consumption and to transition away from fossil energy sources to renewable sources that are less harmful to the environment, the climate, and human health. We are committed to reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), which come overwhelmingly from our energy consumption. Our target is to reduce GHG emissions 25% from our 2008 level by 2020, and offset the other 75% to become climate neutral. Our 2014 college-wide Energy Challenge brought this commitment to the attention of Dickinson students, faculty, staff, and alumni.