University of Louisville
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Campus Conservation Nationals / Bluegrass Unplugged Each spring UofL competes nationally and locally against Kentucky schools in the "Bluegrass Unplugged" competition to reduce electricity use on campus! This began with UofL's participation in Campus Conservation Nationals 2012, the first nationwide electricity reduction competition on university campuses, with over 150 campuses and 250,000 students across North America participating. Each spring, for a three week period, UofL competes to achieve the greatest possible energy reductions in its twelve residence halls, four with Building Dashboard real-time monitoring systems. Prizes are awarded to Conservation Heroes throughout the competition and to the winning residence hall at the end.

Ecolympics 2015: UofL residents battled it out to reduce energy use during the 2015 Campus Conservation Nationals February 9th to March 1st. Threlkeld Hall finished first with an overall 2.3% reduction in electricity use, followed by UTA with a 1.1% reduction. As grand champions, the residents of Threlkeld received a special in-house dinner catered by Mark's Feed Store on April 16th. During the meal, residents brainstormed possible projects to be part of their Green Renovation award. Thanks to the resident's energy-conscious actions, over the summer of 2015, the Threlkeld lobby got a brand new water bottle filling station and bikeshare system. CCN 2014: From February 10 to March 2, 2014, UofL students competed to achieve the greatest possible energy reductions in their residence halls. Results are below: Threlkeld Hall (8.7% reduction) Cardinal Towne (6.5% reduction) Kurz Hall (5.8% reduction) Louisville Hall (5.3% reduction) Billy Minardi Hall (4.9% reduction) Unitas Hall (3.0% reduction) The Complex (West, Center & Wellness) (2.4% reduction) University Tower Apartments (UTA) (0.8% reduction) Community Park (0.4% reduction) Miller Hall (0.7% INCREASE) Bettie Johnson Hall (43.1% INCREASE)

UofL competes annually in the national RecycleMania competition to encourage recycling and waste reduction. RecycleMania is a friendly annual competition among college and university recycling programs in North America. During this 8 week period, UofL employees and students work across the entire university to reduce waste, increase recycling and raise awareness of conservation issues across campus! UofL's efforts were spotlighted in the 3/29/12 RecycleMania Week 8 Bulletin: "The University of Louisville promoted RecycleMania in as many ways as they could; posting signs in residence halls, yard signs on campus, painting a window in the main dining facility and putting the competition on the campus news page. University of Louisville also took the opportunity to promote the competition during their basketball games, which are broadcasted nationally. A "Big Head" was purchased for students to hold up to promote recycling and the competition. The Green Committee served as Garbage Guards for a week during lunch in their main dining facility diverting students from the trash cans towards the recycling bins."

In the Grand Champion category, UofL was #1 in the state and 15th out of 232 nationally, with an overall Recycling Rate of 63.5% during the 8-week competition from February 1st to March 28th, 2015. UofL also landed the top rank in Kentucky for the Gorilla Prize, having recycled at total of 245,859 lbs, or 7.2 lbs/person (Per Capita Classic). The Cards also did a whole lot composting, keeping 2.7 lbs/person of food waste out of the landfills (ranking us 2nd in Kentucky behind Berea College). All together, this translates to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 258 Metric Tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (or the same as taking 51 cars off the road, or the energy consumption of 22 households).