Another conservation contest on college campuses is nothing new. How they’re showing off the results makes this one notable. About 40 colleges in the U.S. and Canada are competing for “biggest loser” status by cutting energy and water use in the Campus Conservation Nationals. The competitors are using an online app called Building Dashboard, which makes energy and water use visible in real time on the web.
TreeHugger’s Jeff Kart tells the story:
A screenshot of the Building Dashboard for a residence hall at University of Missouri.
The Campus Conservation Nationals began Nov. 1 and run until the 19th. Organizers, from the Green Building Council and Lucid Design Group, which makes Building Dashboard, are aiming to motivate students to conserve resources, especially in living areas like residence halls.
Residence halls are top producers of greenhouse gas emissions on college campuses, and they use a lot of electricity and water. The Building Dashboard software lets schools compare their performance with others, share winning strategies and track standings among other schools and buildings.
Colleges in the contest will be judged on how much electricity and water use they cut during the three-week period, compared to a baseline set in October. Winners, or “biggest losers” in various categories will receive a prize package from the GBC and clothing vendor Study Like a Champion. The schools also will get a licensed version of Building Dashboard, to keep showing off their energy and water use (and hopefully encourage more students to keep it light).
The 2010 contest is the first real-time competition of its kind, according to Lucid and other sponsors, the Alliance to Save Energy and National Wildlife Federation.
Think about it: This kind of real-time data gives students another incentive to cut energy and water use, and shame the heck out of rival, bloated universities with comparative graphs, glowing orbs and other info. Imagine if you had one of these on your home or business, and had to compete with your neighbors.
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Cities competing with cities, on a per capita bases???
States with states???
Intriguing idea Leif.
To a certain extent this seems to be what Jared Duval talks about describing his millennial generation in Next Generation Democracy, What the Open-Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change.
It is a very positive outlook on the potential for viral positive change.
Students learn to interact with those
who would impose a boycott of facing
climate differebces.
Sorry that should be climate responcibility.
We should obviously all applaud such positive campaigns, but an important qualifier is how many of the changes will be permanent and how many students will take that lesson home. I have known far too many people who are happy to contribute to a communal campaign, but not on an individual basis. Many of my fellow students rode the shuttle buses on campus when I was in college, for example, but drove the same gas guzzlers that they had always loved when they graduated or went home for the holidays. I hope someone will follow this campaign and let us know how many of the changes were meaningful and how many were just empty gestures.