Dickinson’s 2016 Energy Challenge, which is now in its second week, is encouraging all students, faculty and staff to help reduce the college’s energy consumption through a series of competitions and initiatives designed to raise awareness about energy consumption on campus.

The challenge, now in its fourth year, began on March 28 and will run for three weeks, ending on April 18. The theme of this year’s energy challenge is “Green Devils Take Charge,” and will put Dickinson’s 15 residential halls against each other in a competition to see who can save the most energy.

The residence halls are split into two categories, electric buildings and gas buildings, and prizes will be awarded to the winners from each category. In addition to the 15 residential buildings, the Center for Sustainability Education (CSE) will also monitor the energy consumption of eight additional academic buildings.

“Although the energy reduction competition between the 15 residence halls is the most visible part of the campaign, it also strives to raise awareness about energy consumption behaviors for everyone regardless of where they live or what their status is at the College (student, faculty, staff, administration),” says Brady Hummel ’17, data analyst for CSE.

In addition to the main competition, CSE and the Energy Challenge coordinators have been raising awareness on campus as to ways that students, faculty and staff can reduce their energy consumption through campaigns such as Friday Night Lights Off, and events such as Desserts in the Dark.

“Essentially the main goal [of the Energy Challenge] is to get people to be cognizant of their everyday actions,” says Jackie Geisler ’17, communications and outreach intern for CSE. “[For example], you don’t have to do homework in your room—you could go to the library and use public space [to reduce light usage.]”

Small houses, apartments and most special interest houses, however, do not compete in the energy challenge and are not monitored by CSE. Jackie Goodwin ’17, Energy Challenge coordinator for CSE, says she has been working on engaging residents of these locations so that all students can participate in energy reduction and drive down emissions on campus.

The Energy Challenge is an integral part of the college’s plan for climate neutrality, which states that Dickinson will attain zero net emissions by 2020 through both reducing emissions on campus and using carbon offsets to help reduce others’ emissions.

In its first week, the Energy Challenge has been able to save 4,113 pounds of carbon dioxide and 3,508-kilowatt hours of electricity, according to Dickinson’s Lucid Dashboard. In 2015, the energy challenge was able to save a total of 84,719 pounds of CO2 and 69,670 kWh of electricity over four weeks.

Ken Shultes, associate vice president for Sustainability and Facilities, estimates that if the reductions in energy consumption during the energy challenge were sustained throughout the year, Dickinson would see around 5 percent of their energy usage reduced.

“The Energy Challenge has a strong immediate impact on electricity [usage] at the college, but could be better sustained after the end of the Challenge,” says Goodwin. “I am working through some ideas for campaigns that can reiterate the goal of the Challenge even after it ends, so we will see those coming out in the next few months.”