Mount Holyoke College
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

1) The Kill-a-Watt Energy Conservation Competition is one of the nation's longest running programs for reducing residence hall energy consumption. The residence hall that has decreased its energy use the most compared to the same month the previous year is the winning hall. A prize, such as gourmet locally-baked cookies, is awarded to the winning hall each month. The Kill-a-Watt competition is a collaborative effort between Eco Reps, GLC Reps, Environmental Stewardship and Facilities Management. 2) The Mount Holyoke ECO-Reps launched a 'Shrink Your Water Footprint' campaign to conserve water by encouraging students to limit their time in the shower to five minutes. Residence halls can sign up to hold a shower water conservation event. This includes installing five-minute shower timers that stick to the shower walls. 3) At the beginning of the 2010-2011 academic year, every student received a reusable to-go mugs from Dining Services. The reusable mugs were given to reduce the number of one-time use to go cups and were part of a larger waste reduction education effort. After the fall of 2010, all new students receive a reusable to-go mugs. Furthermore, the one-time use to-go cups were removed from the dining halls at dinner.

1) Since the inception of the Kill-a-Watt campaign energy use in residential halls has remained fairly constant despite the significant increasein use of personal electronics and computers, and upgraded mechanical systems and lighting. While energy use elsewhere on campus has risen an average of 3 percent a year, the lack of a similar increase in residence halls is attributed, at least in part, to student conservation spurred by this program. 2) Surveys were conducted before and after the placement of the timers in the showers. At least 45% of those surveyed had a positive experience related to the timers and some indicated a reduction in usage based on the timers. 3) During the first year of this campaign (Fall 2010-Spring 2011), the number of paper to-go cups used decreased by 25%.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/news/channels/32/stories/5681219, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/envstewardship/waterfootprint.html, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/dining/containers.html