Hoping to conserve more energy than ever, Ohio University’s Office of Sustainability has revitalized its annual residence challenge.
The new program, called OU Energy Challenge, began last Wednesday and will last all school year, aiming to promote OU’s new goal as a sustainable campus.
The main idea of the Energy Challenge is to highlight the simple ways in which OU students can live sustainably, said Director of Sustainability Annie Laurie Cadmus.
“Living sustainably isn’t really that hard,” said Liz Emley, leader of the Energy Challenge and a junior studying Restaurant, Hotel, and Tourism.
Emley suggests simple, thoughtless conservations, such as switching off lights when students leave their dorms or drying clothes on drying racks, instead of using a dryer.
“I think that it’s important for students to know that you don’t have to be a stereotypical earth-crazy person just to care about the environment,” Emley said.
Last year, Energy Challenge was called the Residence Challenge, and it focused on living sustainably in a dorm, Cadmus said.
“We have a lot of goals that are beyond just our residence,” Cadmus said. “We really want this to be a part of everyone’s everyday life year-round.”
The challenge is aimed at OU’s recent promotion of the Sustainability Plan, she said.
The Sustainability Plan has nine benchmarks, which OU uses as goals to decrease energy consumption and waste campus-wide.
Cadmus and the Office of Sustainability hope to focus Energy Challenge on benchmark eight: “Improve sustainability literacy of students, faculty and staff,” according to the sustainability plan.
“When the university adopted that Sustainability Plan, the goals and mission of the Office of Sustainability really had to change,” Cadmus said.
The Office of Sustainability has and will continue to fill their website, Twitter feed, Facebook page and energy dashboard with simple tips on how to live sustainably, she said, adding that students who do pledge will be entered into a raffle for gift cards to Avalanche Pizza, Bagel Street Deli and other local businesses.” “This conversation relates to everyone, and it’s just a matter of learning how we communicate that to each individual so they feel really connected to it,” Cadmus said.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
