Well crap.
http://e360.yale.edu/content/digest.msp ... ent+360%29

Clearly we need to educate people... differently. And possibly get some numbers on turning out the lights?

That was a very interesting article! I liked the mentioning of mpg and I've heard that argument a lot. going from 10 mpg to 30 mpg has a much larger impact than going from 30 mpg to 50 mpg, but it's hard to tell until you flip it to gallons/mile.

It seems that part of it is in education, but the other part is in behavior, citing the "people will want to continue their living the way they do, but do less of it," part of the article. It's easier to turn off the lights than to get a new bulb.

I feel the best way to hit both of these might be to attack the children. If we make sustainability and personal sustainability a large part of the education, we'd have a very strong culture of sustainability by the time a generation of students graduate high school.

Very interesting indeed! How can we better educate at Pitt? I'm pretty fed up with spending so much time and energy on recycling. FTP is probably going to be hosting a personal sustainability event with one of the sororities on campus, so that should be a good opportunity to educate an audience we don't normally reach. These articles mostly discuss actions that don't really affect the student population largely (e.g. - buying new cars/appliances/home improvements), but I'm sure there are things for us to focus on beyond turning off the lights. Any ideas?

I think (hope) that recycling is visible enough on campus that we don't need to spend time on it.

I think perhaps you should still teach reduction (maybe in the form of shorter showers?) and possibly some of the improvements - off-campus students including some greeks might get a lot of value out of why to switch lightbulbs. Maybe a really good focus would be how to pick greener products - talking about the diversity of eco-labels, how to think about the various 'green' features, etc. I think the last is a really good thing to educate people on, particularly when you get into chemical things - everyone buys laundry detergent and shampoo and toothpaste, and there are some really nasty chemicals in some of those!

The worst thing about it is it's very easy to save energy!

1. Replace and recycle your old refrigerator and purchase energy-efficient models. Units only 10 years old can use twice as much electricity as a new ENERGY STAR® labeled model.
2. Insulate ceilings to R-38 levels if your attic has less than R-19.
3. Caulk windows, doors and anywhere air leaks in or out. Do not caulk around water heater and furnace exhaust pipes.
4. Weatherstrip around windows and doors.
5. Wrap heating and cooling ducts with duct wrap, use mastic sealant.
6. Install energy-saver showerheads.
7. When buying new appliaces, be sure to purchase energy-efficient ENERGY STAR® labeled models.
8. Set the furnace thermostat at 68 degrees or lower, and the air-conditioner thermostat at 78 degrees or higher, health permitting. 3 percent to 5 percent more energy is used for each degree the furnace is set above 68 degrees and for each degree the air conditioner is set below 78 degrees.
9. If your old air conditioner is on its way out replace it with ENERGY STAR® labeled energy-efficient model.
10. Use compact flourescent lamps. You can lower your lighting bill by converting to energy-efficient low-wattage compact flourescent lighting and fixtures.

Save on energy costs

So Snail, those are all great (that's actually a fantastic list and I'm sure I'll refer to it in the future), but almost none of them are applicable to college students, which is generally our main focus. It's a problem because they don't see the electric bills, and a lot of the changes they'd have to make would be behavioral (though working with facilities to get those thermostat settings might be interesting.).

i am sure you are well aware of the wasteful resource input into meat products, so i was thinking that having some sort of education program on vegetarianism would be beneficial. i don't know what has been done in the past, but it's a topic that is worth promoting again here on pitt's campus. i get the feeling that the general, uneducated population think vegetarians are crazy animal lovers that have a unconventional ethical stance against the slaughtering of animals for human consumption. however, what people are generally ignorant of is the environmental impact of their food choices. one possible idea would be to promote and rescreen food, inc.

Last year FTP did a whole string of events called Veg Week where they did a lot of community education, and worked with the dining halls to have lots of veggie options during that time. I think they also screened Food Inc. several times, both during Veg Week and during their Green Screen Film Series. I'm betting there are people that would be interested in doing Veg Week again - it was in the spring next year, so it might already be in the pipeline and just waiting till next semester.

On the topic of Veg Week...I spent a lot of time organizing and facilitating events for Veg Week last year and would looove to see this continued! If anyone is interested, I still have a ton of materials and resources available, and would be more than happy to share them.

I think the first round was mildly successful, ((the Food, Inc. showing being the best attended), but it would be cool to see someone take some different, creative approaches to get more students interested/involved in 'environmental vegetarianism'...

What about energy cost, too low for many buyers to change practices?
Energy Star seems little more than gov't subsidized marketing. Japan has a much better program to leap-frog efficient tech.
How about developing more "micro" ways that individuals can self-create the power they require so they think directly about consuming it (think treadmill project on the ESW site).
For example, I wanted to find an infant swing that I can manually wind up (like a wristwatch) and the stored potential energy would power the thing, apparently doesn't exist. I'd settle for something I can crank and charge a battery connected to an outlet I can plug the thing into.
An ESW member commented on the poor quality of compost from food in the campus eateries "garbage in-garbage out," until there is systematic demand for enviro-socially-friendly food (likely at higher prices), veg-week is good but seems like shouting into a hurricane.
</rant complete>

I think college students--even those who don't pay for electricity--would be interested in learning how to conserve. I know I first became passionate about energy conservation as a teenager, when I had never even seen an electricity bill in my life. But it is tricky as a renter to make some changes. Sure, i can change to more efficient bulbs, but I have to use whatever clothes washer, (ancient and wasteful) toilet, and refrigerator my landlord provides. Maybe a list of things that renters can do to conserve would be useful. I'll get right on that...