Dickinson College
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

The 2017 Dickinson Energy Challenge was hosted March 27 - April 16, 2017. The theme of the challenge was Charging Towards Action, and the goal was to reduce energy consumption across Dickinson's campus while educating students, faculty and staff on how to make positive behavior changes that work towards collective action. At Dickinson, we are constantly striving to reduce our emissions by changing behavior to reduce electricity consumption and in the current political climate, we wanted to educate for change. As part of the campus-wide Energy Challenge, a student-focused residence hall competition was hosted between 15 buildings to see who could reduce their consumption by the greatest percentage from baseline data. Additionally, we challenged the campus to reduce consumption as a whole as we work for towards carbon neutrality. Energy data for each building was collected each week and distributed in a variety of ways to students. 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 the Desserts in The Dark Kickoff, Carbon-free Bonfire Finale, and a series of outdoor recreation options that encouraged participants to unplug and get outside. In addition, faculty, staff and student Eco-Reps organized multiple events in the residence halls during the 2017 Challenge. This was our sixth annual competition, and awareness was at an all time high. Faculty and staff of the college were invited to all campus Energy Challenge events and encouraged to monitor data in classes using our Lucid Energy Dashboard 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. Our commitment continues as we take on the 2018 Energy Challenge from March 26-April 16, 2018. The theme is Go All Out, with corresponding weekly themes will again engage students, faculty, staff, and alumni in energy conservation. The campus can now follow along with real-time energy monitoring in 23 Dickinson buildings on the Lucid-based Dickinson Energy Dashboard.

The Energy Challenge is contributing to Dickinson's carbon commitment to become carbon neutral by 2020. The 2015 Energy Challenge, our best year ever, yielded a total reduction of 69,670 kilowatt hours, which evaded 84,719 pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere, saving the college $6,270 on electricity costs. The 2017 Energy Challenge, Charging Towards Action, yielded reductions of 29,672 kilowatt hours, resulting in 34,790 pounds of carbon conserved and $2,993 saved. In Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN), Dickinson has consistently been among the Top 10 energy-conserving colleges in the country. Now in its fifth year, CCN challenged 345,000 students from 125 colleges and universities to achieve the greatest possible reductions in their residence halls’ energy use over a three-week period. Dickinson ranked at the top!

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 annual college-wide Energy Challenge brings this commitment to the attention of Dickinson students, faculty, staff, and alumni.