he Slippery Rock University Energy Conservation Committee has instituted a campaign that will allow students and faculty alike to easily embrace the environmental "green" movement, as well as help cut energy costs to ease a tighter budget.
Students and faculty can now take a pledge, called "Small Steps. Big Payoff." to responsibly reduce energy consumption used throughout the campus.
The pledge, which can be completed online at the university's Web site, asks students to select three of 10 energy saving options compiled by the Energy Conservation Committee.
The options include basic energy saving techniques such as turning lights off when possible, unplugging appliances not in use, printing less, shorter showers, using the stairs instead of elevators, running outside instead of inside on treadmills, not using automatic entrance buttons except when necessary, encouraging friends and family to conserve energy, and even allows for students to create their own energy saving pledge.
The campaign is designed for students to take an individualistic approach to energy conservation, something Dr. David Culp, a member on the President's Commission on Sustainability, says is just as important, if not a better option than a large scale approach to conservation.
"Energy conservation is really determined by individual people being aware that their own behavior is the key component," Culp, who is also the Chairperson of the School of Business at the University, said.
The President's Commission on Sustainability coordinates most sustainability initiatives on campus, including the Energy Conservation Committee.
Culp stressed that simple measures throughout the University will make an impact on conservation.
"I leave here at night and the lights are on in the hallways or classrooms even though there is no one else around," Culp said, citing an example on wasted energy.
Convincing students to partake in the energy conservation techniques listed in the pledge shouldn't be too hard if any indication from the research Dr. Katrina Quinn, a communications professor at Slippery Rock University, and the Energy Conservation Committee did on energy conservation among students and faculty prior to the design of the pledge.
"We discovered a lot of students already participated in energy saving activities," Quinn said. "And they recognized philosophical reasons to save energy more so than just to save money on their electric bill."
With knowledge about the support the student body had for the green movement, the committee formulated a campaign that would promote favorable behaviors about energy conservation by students.
"The idea is for students to take the project on now where facility left off," Quinn said.
The wasted of energy the program hopes participants will limit will not only lead to a greener campus, but the Energy Conservation Committee also hopes to see an impact on the University budget.
"Look on any large corporation's web site and the second or third spot on the header is usually sustainability," Culp said. "It's an important part of business and the University is a business."
The Sustainability Commission hopes to see a three percent reduction in energy consumption throughout the next year, which would cut energy costs by about $100,000 per year. These plans would also reduce green house emissions by 1,335 tons of carbon dioxide over that span.
"The Sustainability Commission essentially was set up by President Smith to deal with sustainability issues on campus," Culp said. "It was designed to make facilities green and environmentally friendly and for energy conservation purposes for the budget."
One black eye on the face of the university's green movement was a Clean Air Act violation in 2007, resulting in fines and negative press.
But Culp stresses that there is no connection between those violations and the campus' green movement, particularly the energy conservation pledge.
"It's very much not a knee-jerk reaction to any clean air violations," Culp said in response to whether the green pledge was related to the school's past environmental violations. "They are two separate issues in reality."
Culp referenced the university's past dedication to environmental protection to assure that the violations weren't the cause of any green movement.
"Slippery Rock University has a long history of going green initiatives," Culp said. "Robert Macoskey had a vision of environmental initiatives and President Smith has continued with those visions.
The Macoskey Center was created in 1990 to promote sustainability on campus and within the local community. This past year, renovations to the Harmony House, a fixture of the center, earned a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
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