‘Cut the current’ provides important reminders about on-campus sustainability
This is the opinion of Ryan Imm.
The St. Ben’s and St. John’s Sustainability Office is hosting its annual Cut the Current event Oct. 17-30 to teach students ways they can cut back on energy and water consumption.
With the intention of our schools to become more energy efficient, there is a prize awarded to the residence hall that reduces their energy use the most.
Outside of the residence halls, the Sacred Heart Chapel welcomed students to a candle-lit mass last Sunday. You may also see (or not see) the reduction of energy usage in Gorecki Dining Center, where lights will be turned off 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Oct. 25-29.
These steps may seem small in the grand scheme of things, and some of you might wonder “how much energy are we really saving?” According to data science firm E Source, turning things off does make a difference because “…every 1,000 megawatt-hours saved by shutting off equipment and appliances takes $120,000 off your institution’s utility bill annually (assuming electricity costs of $0.12/kWh).”
Although this presents an initially positive message for conserving energy, without larger investment in more eco-friendly machinery, the simple act of turning lights off begins to resemble chasing our own tails, which can discourage student participation.
With the energy efficiency activism already seen at colleges and universities worldwide, investing in alternatives is an essential next step. These include installing occupancy sensors for the hallways lights in residence halls or implementing low-flow sprayers in the dining hall washrooms to limit the amount of wasted water.
The Sustainability Office recorded that within the past two weeks of tracking the energy savings around our campuses, the SJU residence halls have saved a total of 85,000 kWh and the CSB residence halls have saved a total of 75,000 kWh. To put this into perspective, with a total of 160,000 kWh saved, based off the scale presented above, we have theoretically saved our schools $19,200.
Even though it might seem like a small gesture, turning off your room, bathroom and hallway lights and unplugging idle electronics such as microwaves, fans and lamps can start to accumulate to thousands of dollars worth of savings that our schools can put toward other necessities.
What does this mean for our campuses? Well, the money that would have been spent on electricity could go toward events for students, specialty items in the dining halls or even fixing the damage caused in certain sophomore residence halls.
Overall, it is evident that even if only a few of us work toward reducing our collective campus energy output, we will see results that can reap benefits for us all, yet if we all worked toward being more mindful of when and where we leave the lights on, the repercussions could show generous positive change for us all.