University of Notre Dame
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

Each year the Office of Sustainability organizes a Dorm Energy Competition between the 29 dorms on campus. During 2013-2014, the competition spanned the full academic year, with dorms earning points each month based on the amount of energy they had consumed. Each dorm was also given the opportunity to tack on additional points to other dorms by participating in Game Day Recycling and hosting Green Themed Events. At the end of the year, the dorm with the lowest cumulative score was named the Energy Champion and given a $1000 reward.

Notre Dame's 38 Sustainability Commissioners and the Hall Presidents work to get their fellow dorm members to conserve energy and to be more aware of the energy issues in general. To measure the impact of change, the Office of Sustainability compared the dorm electricity consumption to the previous year’s usage and made adjustments for changes in weather, etc. This past competition resulted in a 13% reduction in energy usage, equivalent to $9,250 or 259,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. This energy savings was the greatest of any previous Dorm Energy Competition, illustrating that more campus residents are participating in the event. Students are able to track their dorm's progress and energy usage on a real-time energy dashboard, maintained by the Office of Sustainability. The dashboard lists monthly energy usage and allows for comparison among the dorms on the month to month basis. It also tracks overall energy savings over time. The dashboard is located at http://buildingdashboard.net/notredame/#/notredame.