Missouri State University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

Campus Conservation Nationals is a national energy saving competition among colleges and universities. In April 2014, Missouri State participated for the first time along with 156 other schools. The goal is to reduce as much electricity and/or water as possible during the three weeks of the competition. Missouri State reported electricity for 22 campus buildings and organized outreach materials and events across campus during the competition April 4-25, 2014. Organizers trained Building Captains in each building to help encourage energy saving practices. The campaign produced excellent results and engaged students, faculty, and staff across campus.

During the three weeks of Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) in 2014, electricity consumption across 22 campus buildings was reduced by an average of 9.1%. The winning MSU building reduced electricity by 31.4%. Overall, the campus community saved over 138,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, equivalent to $9,900 or 98 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Other immeasurable results included increased awareness and education about energy consumption among students, faculty, and staff.

RecycleMania is a competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities on campus. Over an 8-week period each spring, schools report the amount of recycling and trash collected each week and are ranked by per capita recycling rate. Missouri State has participated in RecycleMania for several years. In 2014, RecycleMania took place Feb. 2 – Mar. 29 with the following goals: (1) Motivate students and staff to increase recycling efforts and reduce waste generation, (2) Generate attention and support for campus recycling programs, (3) Encourage colleges to measure and benchmark recycling activity in their effort to improve their programs over time, and (4) Have a fair and friendly competition. Residence Life Green Games is a multi-faceted campaign at Missouri State to promote sustainability to students living on-campus. Green Games include an electricity and water conservation competition between residence halls, as well as several events and activities to engage and motivate students to change behavior.

RecycleMania publishes all data on the competition website. During the 8 week competition in spring 2014, Missouri State saved the equivalent of 325 tons CO2, equivalent to 64 cars off the road, or the energy consumption of 28 households. During Residence Life Green Games, residence halls average 8-9% reduction in electricity and water usage, saving thousands of dollars. Students accumulate points for participation in Green Games events and activities, quantifying outreach efforts.

In 2012-2013, the campus organization Students for a Sustainable Future led an independent Beyond Coal campaign asking the university to transition to 100% clean, renewable electricity. Members gathered over 1,500 signatures from students, faculty, staff, and community members in support of the campaign. Members wore recognizable yellow Beyond Coal t-shirts around campus and petitioned at club events like the annual renewable energy-powered concert. Campus and local media outlets ran stories about the campaign, educating thousands about the devastating effects of coal. Measurable results of the campaign include a change to the agenda structure of the Board of Governors meetings, an official charge and permanency to the Sustainability Advisory Committee, an energy audit of the university, and subcommittees to write and carry out sustainability goals. In October 2014, the University hosted Energy Awareness Month – a campus-wide effort to raise awareness about energy consumption and challenge students, faculty and staff to reduce their energy usage. The month kicked off with a Building Energy Competition that ran through October 19th. The two buildings with the largest reduction in energy usage were awarded with an Energy Conservation Champion banner to be displayed until the next energy competition in the spring. Throughout the competition, everyone on campus was encouraged to participate in Hour without Power. Every day from 5-6 pm, we challenged students, faculty and staff to consume zero energy by turning off lights and powering down devices. Residence Life, Housing and Dining Services sponsored Dining in the Dark. For this event, each dining center turned out all of the lights during lunchtime for one week. This effort made a huge impact by saving energy and reducing the University’s carbon footprint. Dining in the Dark is also a fun way to raise awareness and get students thinking about their own energy usage. In order to encourage students to do their part in conserving energy on campus, over $500 in prizes were offered as part of the Do One Thing Instagram Competition. During the entire month of October, students could upload a photo or video of the One Thing they would commit to do to reduce their energy usage. This competition ended up being just as popular with faculty and staff with entire departments making commitments via Instagram. In an effort to engage the campus directly, we celebrated Campus Sustainability Day in the student union by providing education on campus energy conservation, giving away free stuff and helping students enter the Instagram Competition. While weather was a factor in comparison of our August baseline to the competition in October, we saw an overall campus energy savings of 27% or $38,057.

Official Campus Conservation Nationals website: http://competetoreduce.org/ccn.html Coverage of final competition results: http://news.missouristate.edu/2014/05/20/university-cuts-energy-use-by-9-1-percent-during-competition/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+missouristate%2Fnewsreleases+%28Missouri+State+University+News+%C2%BB+News+Releases%29 Official RecycleMania competition website: http://recyclemaniacs.org/ RecycleMania Results for Missouri State University: http://recyclemaniacs.org/scoreboard/participating-schools/list?node_id=19872 Missouri State University Green Games website: http://reslife.missouristate.edu/fac/greengames.htm