Indiana University Bloomington
IN-4: Innovation 4

Energy Challenge

Energy Challenge is an annual competition, conceived of and ran by student sustainability interns, to see which campus unit can most reduce its energy and water consumption based on a 3-year baseline for their own buildings. The 2010 competition included all 11 residence halls on the Bloomington campus, 26 Greek houses and 8 academic buildings competing in three separate divisions. Community based social marketing techniques are used to improve peer-to-peer learning. The Residence Hall Association is the student group most active in the residence hall competition, Greeks Go Green assist with influencing normative behavior in the Greek houses and Green Teams trade best practices in the academic buildings. In four weeks, these 14,000 participants saved over 2.5 million gallons of water and over 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity, or the equivalent of over 1000 households. The high profile of this competition, which has become a campus tradition leading up to Earth Day, has led to accelerated implementation of metering on campus and drawn attention to the need for and the paths to energy and water conservation.

The Fall Energy challenge involved 11 residence halls, 27 Greek houses and 19 academic buildings encompassing over 6 million square feet and 18,000 occupants.

In total, the four Energy Challenge competitions since 2008 have conserved 2,753,850 kWh of electricity and 6,061,365 gallons of water. This is enough electricity to power 2,753 average American homes for 12 weeks and enough water to fill more than 10 Olympic sized swimming pools! Approximately 4,392,252 pounds of CO2 emissions have been avoided and $199,469 in utility savings have been achieved because of the Energy Challenge.