Introduction

This manual will help you bring the National Campus Energy Challenge (NCEC) to your campus. It is really easy to participate: Simply talk to your school's physical plant/facilities office, etc., and ask them to provide you with the needed data (see Reporting your school's energy data). Then, get a team of excited students together and work on as much publicity, student involvement, and campus energy efficiency as you can (See Involvement and Publicity). Finally, communicate with the other competing campuses in your region to share ideas and figure out what else you can do. It’s that simple.

However, you can take this even further:

1. Inform your faculty, staff, and administration about the NCEC and collaborate with them to save energy and money. This is not only critical to succeeding in the national competition, but also opens up the opportunity to permanently implement sustainable energy practices/policy at your institution!
2. Use the framework and publicity of the NCEC at your school to promote just and sustainable communities by working with people in your local area to save energy. Engage local leaders in implementing and supporting sustainable energy policies beyond campus.
3. With the help of your regional NCEC coordinator, establish a statewide or regional student network. Use this network to effectively collaborate, communicate, and share ideas and resources. Together, advance state level policy changes and regional sustainable development.

An excellent way to start working toward these goals is to use the National Campus Energy Challenge to follow up an educational Focus the Nation event in your area. (http://www.focusthenation.org)

Structure of the competition

The National Campus Energy Challenge is a national competition in February 2008 to see which school can save the most energy, both heating and electricity. This is a student created, organized, and implemented endeavor, and success will depend on networking, communication, and excitement. Students at each campus will work together to gather data, engage the administration and faculty, publicize, organize awareness events, and implement energy-saving strategies. Each campus will have the support of a regional organizer. Students serving as regional and national organizers establish communication across the country, compile the data, create national publicity, and connect with related events and groups (Powershift, Focus the Nation, Campus Climate Challenge).

The competition will be national, but regional groups should organize their own award categories. In addition to regional categories, peer-schools (boarding schools, high schools, small colleges, large state universities) can form separate award categories. There will be three types of awards - heating reduction, electricity reduction, and overall/combined reduction. Each regional or peer-school group can decide to award all three, or just an overall winner. Data for all competitions will be collected and calculated at the national level and regional or peer-school groups can use these results for their own awards.

The winners will be determined based on the highest percent reduction from a baseline of the previous three Februarys (See the Appendix for more info). This allows schools of different sizes and locations to compete equally by measuring a percent of their own energy rather than comparing raw numbers. This baseline needs to be reported and compiled BEFORE the competition starts (deadline: February 5, 2008). Data for the competition itself is due by March 18, 2008. Each campus will receive an online survey requesting the necessary data before and after the competition.

Reporting your school's energy data

In order to participate in the NCEC, you must get your Facilities Management or Physical Plant staff to provide you with the following data set:

Required data for baseline (Feb. '05-'07) and competition (Feb. '08):

• Total kilowatt hours (kWh) (electricity) the whole campus consumed during each February.
• Number of billing days for electricity in each February (not always Feb 1-Feb 28)
• Total BTU the whole campus consumed during each February. The amount of fuel oil, natural gas, or other fuel should be converted (see Appendix).
• Number of billing days for heating fuel in each February.
• Number of Heating Degree Days (HDDs) reported in each February (use heating bills or if HDDs are not recorded ask Facilities for help looking up HDDs on local atmospheric records).
• The number of full-time equivalents (students) enrolled during each February.

You are invited to provide additional information not required in competition monitoring:

• Weekly reporting during Feb. 2008 of kWh and BTU as a percentage of the baseline and as a percent reduction of 1/4th of the baseline.
• Converting heating and electricity consumption into carbon emissions (requires knowledge of your electrical utility's carbon intensity).
• Major campus changes affecting energy use, including expansion/ renovation of campus, installation of alternative heating, heating with electricity, or producing unmeasured electricity on-campus. These variables cannot be factored into the competition but can provide insights into how to do this better in the future.

When you sign up for NCEC with your regional coordinator, your name will be entered into a database. We will email you a survey asking you for your data starting in December. If possible, please submit your data by the end of Fall Semester. The final deadline for submission for the 2005-2007 data is February 5! To submit the data, contact your regional coordinator. He/she will also be able to answer any questions you may have. For more information on NCEC data, see the Appendix.

Involvement and publicity

On campus

The key to making the NCEC a success at your school will be to get as many students as possible excited about the competition. This is only a list of suggestions – be creative!

• Film showings: An Inconvenient Truth, the 11th Hour, or others.
• Fun sustainability and energy facts posted around campus (on recycled paper).
• Information posted in central location of campus on how much energy is used by the school/individual dorms.
• Create themed weeks such as “Public Computer Week,” “Shower with a Buddy Week,” “Do It in the Dark Week.”, etc.
• Posters, banners, stickers, and other materials.
• Create a team of “Campus Energy Warriors/Heroes”: students who roam campus cutting down energy by shutting of unused electronics and lights or go door to door in residence halls speaking candidly to students about ways to cut down their energy usage in their living space, etc.
• “Turn down the heat, turn up the love” - public cuddle sessions!
• Raffles (such as giving away compact fluorescent bulbs or power strips)
• Organic cotton T-shirts (could also be used as a fundraiser...)
• Camp outs
• Acoustic candlelight concerts
• Speakers, symposia, etc.
• Press coverage in school newspapers and alumni magazines
• Utilize campus radio
• DOZENS more by you and other students …

Community
(also see "Using NCEC to expand sustainability into communities")

• City newspaper articles, updates on the events, interviews with campus leaders
• Sustainability fair: gathering in city park, organic baked goods, music, information booths on sustainability, and more.
• Critical mass: A mob of students who meet at a given location and time and then bike or skate around campus and town to create awareness.
• Posters in coffee shops and community bulletins
• Contact local television stations, radio stations, and major periodicals.
• Contact green businesses, energy providers, and local co-ops to display posters or donate items for raffle.
• Radio interviews, etc. with reps from different participating colleges
• Organized letter writings and call-ins to state representatives

Ways to reduce individual energy consumption

• Turn off unnecessary lights (Put up signs next to light switches on campus!)
• Hang dry clothes
• Turn off powerstrips
• Replace your old lightbulbs with CFLs
• Use computer labs instead of personal PCs
• Turn down the brightness on your screen
• Turn your computer off instead of putting it in standby
• Walk stairs instead of taking elevator
• Bike or use public transportation instead of driving your car
• Fewer showers
• Adjust thermostat
• Put plastic on your windows to winterize your dorm room more effectively
• Turn down the heat
• Dress more warmly, wear more layers
• Sign a campus pledge to abide by certain energy reduction strategies
• Check out http://www.nwf.org/energy/
• Generate your own ideas and share them with others...

Get faculty, staff, and administration involved

Get the faculty from your school involved in NCEC by encouraging them to talk to their classes about it. Get the cooperation of the administrative and custodial staff to inform the student body about energy usage on campus. If possible, get academic departments and/or the school to sponsor awareness events and/or speakers. The National Campus Energy Challenge is a whole-campus initiative. You can do a lot with just students, but the real potential for the NCEC will be realized by engaging all members of your campus community and by collaborating with other colleges.

 

• Ask professors to tell their class about NCEC and the associated youth climate movement - most of them will love the fact that young people are finally starting to be more proactive...
• Encourage science departments to ensure that ventilation systems are only used when necessary.
• Working with technological services on saving energy in tech support systems.
• Work with facilities management to turn down heating as much as possible.
• Work with facilities/ upper administration to finance cost-effective electrical efficiency or weatherization projects. See http://www.aashe.org/resources/pdf/CERF.pdf.
• Propose class projects or work-study positions to research and implement energy-saving practices.
• Work with departments to save energy in offices and classrooms.
• Identify supporters across campus whom you can inform about ways to save energy in their own departments.
• Find ways to use natural light and heat in campus buildings.

 

NCEC implementation for high schools

Running the National Campus Energy Challenge at your high school will be different from the way it is run at colleges and universities: students do not live on campus, schools are smaller, many operations decisions are made at the school board level, etc. However, there are tons of ideas to help reduce energy consumption and use the NCEC to make lasting change at your school.

Lasting Change

• Work with school administration to make sure the heating is at an appropriate level. Many schools over heat their buildings in the winter, so ask to have the temperature turned down a couple of degrees during February
• Ask the school or school board to get school buses to stop or reduce idling in front of the school. Not only does it use lots of energy, but no one wants to breath all the exhaust fumes.
• Get the school district to adopt a policy that when they replace appliances (computers, refrigerators, overhead projectors, etc.) that they buy efficient replacements. This does not have to be an immediate change, and will save them money in the long run.
• Get the lights on the fields turn off earlier, or ask for half of the lights to be turned off.

Individual Energy Use (for more ideas check out Ways to reduce individual energy consumption)

• Work with teachers and janitors to make sure they turn off the lights, computers (in class rooms, labs and the library) and overhead projectors when they are no longer needed.
• Encourage students and teachers to carpool to work. You can track how many car trips were saved over the course of the month.
• Encourage students to bring lunches to school or buy lunch there, rather than drive off-campus for lunch.

Creative Ideas

• Host a fundraiser during February. You can set it up as a class competition to see how much money each class can raise by the end of the month. You can also ask the PTA, school board or local service organizations to match however much you raise. You can use the funds for a number of things including purchasing a solar panel display, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, motion sensors for lights, etc. These can also be used for science class labs after they are installed.
• Hold "Blackout Days" where for the entire day, lunch, or a couple of periods, the lights are turned off throughout the school and classes use natural sunlight instead. Make sure that rooms without windows still have power. You can ask that they turn off half of the lights instead.
• Create a visual display to track the individual actions students and faculty have taken to reduce energy use. This could be in the form of a tree and for each action people take to reduce energy use they get to put a leaf on the tree. Better yet, you can also make this a grade or department (for faculty) competition and see which group has the most leaves by the end of the week.

Funding

Funding is by no means necessary to make NCEC a success at your school, but it can help. For example, you may want to make banners, professional posters, etc. or encourage people to get involved by offering significant prizes for optional dorm-level competitions.

The first place to turn is your student government, as well as academic department chairs (Biology, Geology, Physics, Environmental Studies/Sciences, Economics, Political Science, Communications, etc.). Having one or more student organizations at your school endorse the NCEC may prove helpful in getting funding from your school. You may also want to organize fundraisers on campus such as selling compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

You may be able to work with your administration to create a work-study position to help run NCEC. Since the challenge saves energy and therefore money, some administrations or campus departments will see the financial advantage of supporting such a competition by hiring a student to work on it. If significant energy savings are achieved, this position could be extended into a permanent campus efficiency work-study position.

In addition, there are several outside sources for funding. When applying for grants, etc. you may use information on NCEC from our website, but make sure to focus on what you are planning to do specifically at your school. You can also consider using some of these grants for larger permanent efforts at your school, research, etc.

• National Wildlife Federation Chill Out! Campus Solutions to global warming competition (Deadline: November 30th): http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/chillout/index.cfm
• The P3 Award is a national student sustainability competition administered by the EPA. Proposals should aim to “research, develop, and design solutions to real world challenges involving sustainability.” Emphasis is on research. If an innovative approach to an energy conservation problem is developed, P3 could be a way to piggyback off NCEC momentum and convince administrators to try something new. (http://es.epa.gov/ncer/p3/)
• A good list of potential sources exists at http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/phecc/funding.cfm#other
• The State Energy Efficiency Index webpage of the Alliance to Save Energy (http://www.ase.org/content/article/detail/2356) lists energy conservation initiatives und funds for every state.
• DOE EERE (http://www1.eere.energy.gov/financing/)
• Grants.gov (http://www07.grants.gov/)

Using NCEC to establish sustainable energy policy on your campus

Collaborate with students, faculty, staff, and administration to design and establish sustainable energy policies for your campus. The awareness and knowledge that you generate on campus through NCEC will help you get that process going. You can extend your school's sustainability efforts beyond February 2008! There are a few helpful sources that you can present to your administration:

1. Encourage your school's president to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/) Possible strategies for your school to become more sustainable, together with links to more resources, can be found at http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/solutions.php. Another in-depth discussion, including illustrative examples of existing, successful actions from campuses around the country, can be found at http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/pdf/climate_leadership.pdf
2. Energy Action’s “New Energy for Campuses” report: http://www.energyaction.net/documents/new_energy.pdf
3. Ask your administration to participate in the National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology program: http://www.nwf.org/campusEcology/fellowships/index.cfm

Above all, discuss ways that comprehensive climate policies can benefit the institution. This can include the benefits of the institution taking a leadership role in terms of campus image, monetary benefits from saving energy, and innovative academic and civic engagement opportunities by empowering students, faculty and staff to work together on innovative campus sustainability initiatives. For more information, see the Policy Resources: http://www.ssc.org/resources

Using NCEC to expand sustainability into communities

You can do outreach to other colleges and high schools not yet involved in NCEC to either get involved or simply replicate energy saving initiatives. Local churches, businesses, community service organizations, municipal governments, neighborhood associations, labor unions, youth organizations, and primary educational institutions are all great places to find people interested in saving energy, carbon, and money. By establishing communication between NCEC campuses and communities, we can promote sustainability initiatives across the nation.

Some specific ideas for ways community members can get involved:

1. Talk to your mayor – Mayors Climate Protection Agreement: http://usmayors.org/climateprotection/
2. Sierra Club Cool Cities Program: http://coolcities.us/
3. Check out New Energy For Cities: http://www.apolloalliance.org/docUploads/new_energy_cities.pdf
4. Check out innovative community energy saving examples like the MN Energy Challenge: http://www.mnenergychallenge.org
5. Invite local businesses to support your campus effort with donations, and work with them to promote cost-effective strategies for saving energy in their business.
6. Invite the general public to campus events.
7. Organize events (like sutstainability fairs, etc.) in the community.
8. Get the student volunteer groups at your school to make community sustainability part of their agenda.

Using NCEC to develop a state-wide/regional student network

Work with your regional coordinator(s) and other local colleges to establish a regional network. Together, you can take on broader initiatives in the long term. These initiatives can include pushing state policy like renewable energy standards or carbon regulation policy. It could also mean creating a formal venue to share ideas for campus work and community development initiatives through online and/or through regular gatherings. More than just sharing ideas that can be replicated, a state coalition can provide the necessary integration to implement broad-based climate solutions in many places at once or coordinate policy campaigns across the state. Some state coalitions have already formed tight-knit teams and created vision statements that guide their work – followed up by extensive regional initiatives. Some examples include the Cascade Climate Network, the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition, California Student Sustainability Coalition, Massachusetts Youth Climate Action, and the Transcampus Energy Campus Movement (TEAM) Minnesota. You don’t have to worry about making this all happen, but if you get the opportunity to unite an awesome team of young people from across your region, jump on it!

Communication support systems can be provided by Google Groups and a number of other networking sites including the Energy Action Coalition’s Campus Climate Challenge (http://www.climatechallenge.org/). The Energy Action Coalition (EAC) also supports extensive student organizing initiatives: the various organizations that make up EAC can provide support for regional student organizing around climate solutions. Common ways for students to organize include regional planning retreats, regional conferences organized by staff, coordinated lobbying call-in sessions or in person lobbying, giving testimony at important public hearings, and updating each other on solutions. You can be part of this!

Using NCEC to advance state/national energy policy

Some campuses, particularly private institutions, may be able to work with their campus administrations to promote state and regional policy if it is clearly bipartisan and does not seem overtly political. This may include renewable energy standards, policies to remove subsidies from fossil fuels, or support for new research and development.

In collaboration with your regional/state student network, the National Campus Energy Challenge, and the Campus Climate Challenge (http://www.climatechallenge.org/), you can help make a real difference in our nation's energy policy. You can contact non-profit organizations in your region that are tracking policy initiatives and offer your support. Students have a key role in terms of mobilizing youth support, engaging communities, and encouraging non-profit advocates to push for transformative policies. The regional networks we build can empower ambitious climate solutions at the national level.

You can write to your representative or city council member and support policies and programs that will promote effective climate solutions. We can bring clean, reliable and affordable energy technologies to the marketplace and make a difference in our everyday lives by enhancing our energy choices - and our quality of life. Organize letters and callins to regional and national to legislators when important energy bills are being considered. Get larger institutions like your college, local businesses, and non-profits involved.

We can use this year's momentum to bring some change to this country. Perhaps, forty years from now, we will be able to look back and say that we did our best in this critical time to save the planet for future generations to come.

Appendix: Measurement and Monitoring

The National Campus Energy Challenge will be based on the percent reduction achieved in kWh and BTU from previous years rather than trying to compare between dissimilar campuses. The competition identifies the 'most improved' campuses to avoid comparing campuses of different types, climate zones, and scales.

Each campus establishes a baseline of the past three years’ data for February ('05, '06, and '07) and reports this data through an online survey by Tuesday, February 5 at midnight Eastern Time. After the February competition, each campus must report the same data set for 2008 by Tuesday, March 18th at midnight Eastern Time.