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Conservation Contest Lets Campuses Vie To Be Biggest Losers

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 11/05/10

A three-week competition will put a focus on reducing energy and water usage as well as greenhouse gas emissions in 38 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The Campus Conservation Nationals 2010 started Nov. 1 and ends Nov. 19.

The goal of the contest, according to the organizers, is to motivate students to conserve resources, primarily in their residences. Competitors will use Building Dashboard, an online application from Lucid Design Group, to monitor energy usage in the building entered into the race. The ranking will be done by comparing each school's reduction against a single baseline established in October through meter readings across campuses. Participating universities and colleges will manually enter meter readings for each building. Readings will be done a minimum of three times during the competition.

Winning campuses and residence halls will be awarded a prize package provided by the Green Building Council and clothing vendor Study Like a Champion (SLAC). Lucid will also provide a license for its software to the overall winner.

Aside from the Green Building Council and Lucid, other sponsors are Alliance to Save Energy, a national nonprofit that sets up programs for reducing energy usage in homes and businesses; the National Wildlife Federation, a nonprofit conservation organization; and the Ohio Board of Regents, which advises universities in that state.