Mills College
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

Mills College has partnered with the local utility to reduce energy consumption on peak days, when there is a heavy load on the grid. This led to a program called Power Down Days, which is closely connected to the Mills College goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15% by 2015, from 2008 levels. Mills participates in both exernally motivated Power Down Days with the local utility and internal Power Down Days to measure impact. At times Mills community members are informed of a Power Down Day the day before and at times several weeks before. During a Power Down Day, everyone must unplug or power down any unused electronics during the hours of 2:00 to 6:00 pm. Student Power Down Specialists comb the campus reminding the community to power down and making suggestions for ways to do so. This has expanded to the Green Department Certification process, where trained student Power Down Specialists conduct audits of department workspaces and make recommendations for energy savings.

In evaluating the last non-Power Down Day (PDD) Monday in comparison to the PDD Monday, we reduced our electricity usage by an average of 2.22%. In a non-PDD Tuesday vs PDD Tuesday comparison, we reduced by 1.05%. We are aiming for a 5% reduction by the end of the 2012-2013 fiscal year. In terms of the big picture, we have conducted Power Down Day Campaigns in various forms since Fall 2009, resulting in a decrease of 287,596 kWh when comparing FY2010 and FY 2012. We have seen both reductions on specific Power Down Days and reductions on a year to year basis.