February is Campus Energy Challenge Month

February is Saint Mary’s Campus Energy Challenge Month. This is a month-long energy conservation competition organized by students around the country. Our Energy Challenge is modeled after Campus Energy Wars, a statewide competition in February among 16 Minnesota colleges and universities. 2007 was Saint Mary’s first year participating in this process. Through our partnership in Sustain Winona as well as our Student Senate’s commitment that our university should be, “an ethical leader in the movement for environmental sustainability” we are joining a national trend to make energy efficiency a part of our daily lives. By mobilizing students, faculty, staff and community members we can realize the full potential of this climate movement.
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For the challenge, instead of comparing different schools to each other, each school is compared to its own past. This will give us a measure of the achieved climate awareness and energy action our own campus. Last year here at Saint Mary’s we reduced our electrical consumption by 7 percent in just one month. Last year we focused mainly on the impact that daily student life had on our energy consumption but this year Saint Mary’s faculty and staff are invited to join the competition.