Carnegie Mellon University
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) is the first nationwide electricity and water reduction competition on college and university campuses. The goal of the event is to motivate thousands of students to reduce consumption and mitigate the impacts of climate change. The national challenge has a collective goal to reduce electricity consumption by one gigawatt-hour! Carnegie Mellon signed up for their three-week competition from February 6 to February 27, to reduce energy use in campus residence halls. Nine buildings were included in the contest, which housed 1165 students; Boss House, Donner House, Hamerschlag House, Henderson House, McGill House, Mudge House, Scobell House, Stever House and Welch House. Each house had electricity use measured to see who can save the most. The winning house received a pizza party. A daily data snapshot could be viewed on the CCN contest dashboard and also live data could be viewed on the Carnegie Mellon dashboard. Energy saving tips were distributed: -Turn off electronic equipment and lights when not in use -Turn off your computer before going to bed -Use energy saving functions on your computer -Use smart power strips -Make an effort to purchase energy star products -Unplug items not being used (cell phone chargers, appliances, etc). Even though these items are not being used, they still draw electricity when plugged in -Install energy efficient lights and fans to re-circulate heated or cooled air -Run your washing machine when fully loaded, use cold water -Clear the lint filter after every load -Set the temperature of your fridge for only as cold as needed

Hamerschlag House reduced electricity by 6% during the contest and was the 1st place winner of the pizza party. Carnegie Mellon students saved 3,249 Kilowatt-hours (kWh), averted 3,951 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) and saved $292 dollars. Hamerschlag House 6.0% reduction Scobell 3.4% Stever 2.9% Boss 2.5% Mudge 2.2% McGill .3% Donner 0% Henderson –2.3% Welch -2.5%

Carnegie Mellon University annually hosts other various outreach campaigns such as RecycleMania and Waste Audits to benchmark the university's recycle efforts and educate the students about waste minimization. A research project called StepGreen is also worth noting. More information can be found at: http://www.stepgreen.org/