Aggies residing on campus have joined in Texas A&M’s ongoing energy conservation program, which has produced multi-million-dollar savings — or cost avoidance — and got a boost when the university’s 29 residence halls began competing to determine which could produce the largest utilities reductions.
“It’s highly gratifying to see our students so enthusiastically join in the campus-wide effort to conserve energy and help the university reduce its electrical and related costs,” noted Ron Sasse, director of residence life.
Homer Bruner, energy manager, agreed, saying, “The Residence Hall Energy Challenge was a cooperative effort between hall residents, Residence Life and the Office of Energy Management. It was a joy seeing Aggies getting involved in campus energy conservation and change their individual lifestyles by going green.”
With one of the nation’s largest on-campus dormitory operations, housing about 11,000 students, Texas A&M officials were delighted when students this semester enthusiastically took up the challenge — the Residence Hall Energy Challenge.
To make the energy-reduction competition as fair and balanced as possible, the university’s variety of residence halls, were divided into six categories: ramp-style halls, balcony-style halls, corridor-style halls, halls in the Commons, modular Northside and modular Southside halls.
This year Clements Hall (A.J. Stramaski, hall director) achieved a reduction of 20.15 percent; Leggett Hall (Otis McGresham, hall director) had a reduction of 15.25 percent; McInnis Hall (David Stanley, hall director) had a reduction of 10.3 percent; Wells Hall (Nick Ybarra, hall director) had a reduction of 9.89 percent; Aston/Mosher Halls (Adriana Alicia-Rodriguez and Stephanie Jones, hall directors) had a combined reduction of 4.83 percent; and Hart Hall (Andrew Reichert, hall director) had no reduction but did have a 3.9 lower increase.
The halls in each group with the greatest reduction in energy usage compared to a consumption baseline from last year will be awarded $400 in Department of Residence Life-funded items for their halls. Clements Hall will receive a traveling trophy, engraved with the hall name.
One of the goals of the challenge, sponsored by the Department of Residence Life and Utilities & Energy Services, is to raise awareness of and promote greater campus involvement in conservation while still having fun, organizers say.
The student organizers note another goal is to encourage their fellow students to “go green” and change their individual lifestyles and attitudes about the need for conservation and the importance of sustainability. They also encourage residence hall students to participate in campus energy conservation as the “right thing to do” to help save money and reduce fossil fuel emissions from power generation plants.