2008 Woodie Awards
UNH kicks off annual Waste Watch Challenge
Alex Cornetta
Issue date: 10/3/08 Section: News
The fourth-annual Waste Watch Challenge has begun. The yearly competition will award $300 to the residence hall that lowers their energy consumption the most over the two-month test.
Starting this past Wednesday, the challenge will run until the first day in December.
"Aside from having a longer time period in which students can conserve, every year we get more and more students interested," said UNH Office of Sustainability Associate Director Sara Cleaves. "The energy savings in terms of Kilowatt hours and dollars and also Carbon emission prevented keep growing. I anticipate this is going to be the biggest one yet. The students are very excited."
The stats for each residence hall will be measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs) due to the differing size and age of each building, as well as the variety of energy types that each building is powered on.
Water measurements are also taken, the goal being for each building to have a negative score at the conclusion of the challenge in December. The residence hall that conserves the most resources will be awarded $300 towards their hall council budget, with second and third place winning $200 and $100, respectively.
The challenge began in the fall of 2006 and was started in part by former graduate student and New Hampshire native Chris Skoglund.
"Chris brought the idea to [the Energy Task Force] because he had heard about a number of other campuses that were doing some sort of competition related to sustainability and he wanted to try it out here," said Cleaves.
"I was really excited when I saw recently that the amount of time had been extended to two months," said Skoglund. "I think given the amount of savings that we see during that one month period it's really great that there doing it for that long, because they'll not only save more energy but they'll also be more time for students that are taking part in the challenge to make the behaviors that they're engaging in a part of their lives."
Starting this past Wednesday, the challenge will run until the first day in December.
"Aside from having a longer time period in which students can conserve, every year we get more and more students interested," said UNH Office of Sustainability Associate Director Sara Cleaves. "The energy savings in terms of Kilowatt hours and dollars and also Carbon emission prevented keep growing. I anticipate this is going to be the biggest one yet. The students are very excited."
The stats for each residence hall will be measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs) due to the differing size and age of each building, as well as the variety of energy types that each building is powered on.
Water measurements are also taken, the goal being for each building to have a negative score at the conclusion of the challenge in December. The residence hall that conserves the most resources will be awarded $300 towards their hall council budget, with second and third place winning $200 and $100, respectively.
The challenge began in the fall of 2006 and was started in part by former graduate student and New Hampshire native Chris Skoglund.
"Chris brought the idea to [the Energy Task Force] because he had heard about a number of other campuses that were doing some sort of competition related to sustainability and he wanted to try it out here," said Cleaves.
"I was really excited when I saw recently that the amount of time had been extended to two months," said Skoglund. "I think given the amount of savings that we see during that one month period it's really great that there doing it for that long, because they'll not only save more energy but they'll also be more time for students that are taking part in the challenge to make the behaviors that they're engaging in a part of their lives."
Be the first to comment on this story