Ole Miss Green Campus Network
Nov - 2011 Newsletter Issue: 1
The Alliance to Save Energy Green Campus Network is a classroomto-workplace program that involves students, faculty, administrators and campus support staff in cutting energy use on college campuses, incorporating energy efficiency into curricula, encouraging students to pursue careers in sustainability after graduation, and generally increasing awareness of energy efficiency.
MEET THE INTERNS! Taylor Cook Team Manager Liberal Studies
Taylor is active in many sustainability initiatives on campus including student groups Campus for Clean Energy & Students for a Green Campus, state networks Mississippi Alumni and Students for Sustainability & Gaining Grounds Sustainability Institute of Mississippi, national groups Southern Alliance for Clean Energy & the Sierra Student Coalition. She is a junior from Memphis, TN.
Emily Corban Treasurer Public Policy Leadership
Jennie Fan Public Relations
Emily Corban is a native of Tupelo, MS and has been an Ole Miss fan her entire life. She is a member of Delta Gamma Fraternity and serves as their environmental coordinator. She hopes to use her degree and experience during her GCN internship in the public works sector as an environmental or city planner. She is a junior.
Jennie Fan is a junior from Houston, TX. Outside of the office of sustainability, she is an Organic Chemistry Recitation Leader and spends her time tutoring and volunteering at Nine Lives Cat Rescue. This internship is her first experience working in sustainability, and she hopes to make an impact in lowering energy usage. After graduation, she hopes to attend medical school in Texas and further her knowledge in the scientific field.
Biochemistry
Trenton Winford Secretary Public Policy Leadership
Trenton Winford is a sophomore from Madison, MS, and a graduate of Jackson Academy. Trenton is an active member of Beta Upsilon Chi Fraternity, where he currently serves as the Academic Chair. In the summer of 2011, Trenton worked as a Student Assistant in a Micro-Immunology laboratory at University of Mississippi Medical Center as well as interned for Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
For more information please visit www.olemiss.edu/green
What YOU can do! 5 Tips to Savings through Efficiency bulbs for CFL bulbs which use 75% less energy and last about 6 times longer. While the original cost is more expensive for a CFL than an incandescent, the in" curred cost is recovered quickly. strips which feature multiple out" lets that are dependent on the power of one outlet. Thus, if a computer is turned off, outlets that have printer, or fax, will also be shut off. Each Smart Strip also has independent outlets, so a lamp or clock can still draw pow" er when the primary outlet is not in use.
poor insulation. The most com" mon air leaks are found in attics and around windows. Proper in" sulation means that your HVAC system has to condition less air, meaning less run time and more money in your wallet.
ural light during the day. Open the blinds and let in the sun. It allows for electricity to be cut off during the daytime leading to en" ergy savings. It might not seem like much, but one bulb being off for the six hours of optimal light" ing every day will really add up.
For more information, please visit http://www.energysavers.gov/yo ur_home/.
for washing clothes. Cold water cycles use about 75% less energy than warm water cycles and can save about $70 a year. It also requires less work by the wash" ing machine enabling it to last longer.
" Trenton Winford "
lation to ensure that conditioned air is not being wasted due to
Is Off Really Off? Going about our busy daily routines, we seem to quickly forget the seemingly trivial aspects of energy savings. It is very easy for most of us, as energy conscious individuals, to turn off lights or raise the AC temperature before leaving the house because it is usually common social behavior. These seem like very obvious solutions to help restore balance during the energy crisis while also noticing measurable savings in our energy bills every month; however, when it comes to making behavioral changes that seem out of reach, it may be more challenging than remembering to
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flip a light switch. On occasion, it’s the trivial changes we might not be compelled to make that are the ones that can shape energy savings to its fullest. Many of us have not been properly educated about the changes we can make to utilize energy efficiently. One of the biggest problems we have in wasteful energy that goes unnoticed is known as leaking electricity. Whenever electronics are in standby or hibernation mode, they are still drawing electricity from the outlet. This is known by many names: vampire power, phantom power, standby
power, phantom load, or leaking electricity. Regardless of what you want to call it, this wasted electricity contributes significantly to the energy crisis. It is projected that more than 10% of energy is wasted per American household.
busy lives. When you think about it, the more educated you are about energy savings, the more you can teach about energy savings. Wouldn’t it be a sight to see if every household could diminish their use of phantom load in efforts to save billions of dollars in annual energy? This effort Currently, the could be a defining factor in demand for energy in the helping to resolve quite United States is growing exponentially while the supply possibly the biggest energy is in severe shortage. We need crisis currently recorded in history. to make an active effort to make seemingly insignificant changes, like unplugging electronics or turning off power strips, regardless of how - Jennie Fan inconvenient it may be for our
For more information please visit www.olemiss.edu/green
If Google Went Green, Or Black? Blackle is a Google custom search engine designed with energy efficiency in mind. Blackle uses a black background instead of the traditional white background to save energy. According to Mark Ontkush in his blog Black Google Could Save 750 Megawatts a Year, a black background can save an average of 15 watts on a Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor. The author further estimates that if Google were to switch to a black background, that 750 megawatts in energy savings would be worth about $75 thousand from 2009 estimates. Not only that, but a rough calculation for saving 750 megawatts of energy production would keep about 5000 tons of coal from being burned each year. That being said, there are some inconvenient limitations to Blackle. One cannot do an image search on Blackle, and doing a search on Blackle does not make the webpage you follow to show up on a black screen with white text. Also, Blackle has a lower effectiveness for different monitors. Recent LCD screens have a constant backlight which means that black, white, or color the screen is using the same amount of energy. For older (CRT) and newer (LED, OLED and plasma) screens, Blackle can lead to a large
amount of energy savings. Yet, the energy saving concept is the most important part. The main idea for Blackle is to raise awareness for energy saving in people’s daily lives every time the Blackle page is loaded. As part of this commitment, Blackle has dedicated a portion of their website, to which the Alliance to Save Energy contributes, to a running list of energy saving tips from computers to cars to household appliances. What are ways that we, as consumers, can help Blackle in their mission to increase energy awareness? The first and easiest thing is simply to set our homepages to Blackle.com. For me, this was an easy one. Google's search was my homepage, and Blackle allows me to do the same searches (minus image and videos) while using less energy. On their website, you can find directions for changing the homepage of all the different Internet browsers. If you have a twitter, you can also follow @Blackle for quick updates on energy saving tips which you can put in practice to save money on your energy bill.
- Taylor Cook -
Greeks Go Green On Game Day This year, the University of Mississippi hosted the Greeks Go Green on Gameday competition on Saturday, 22 October 2011, as part of the Green Grove Initiative. The competition, established through the Office of Sustainability, is an effort to raise awareness about recycling on game days, educate fans about how to recycle, and recognize groups for their efforts.
organization that helped on game day. The participating organizations submitted pictures of their green tailgating practices. Beta Upsilon Chi, or Brothers Under Christ Fraternity, won the Greeks Go Green competition with nearly 90% participation and the implementation of many green tailgating practices. However, since BYX does not have a house on campus, they will be mentioned on the Jumbotron during a remaining home game, while the runner up, Alpha Omicron Pi, will receive the free energy audit.
In the 2010 Football season, the University of Mississippi produced 318 tons of game day waste. These numbers, as large as they are, show an improvement from the 360 tons The free energy audit, serviced by the Green Campus of waste produced the year before. Measures such as Green Interns will serve as the first opportunity for the Green Campus Grove Initiative, which both established and promotes game Interns to complete an energy audit of a facility on campus. It day recycling, have contributed to these improvements. This competition serves as an opportunity for Greek organizations Campus team in promoting energy efficiency on campus. to become more involved in game day recycling. Greek organizations comprise a large percentage of the student body on campus, making their involvement an excellent opportunity to improve waste practices on campus. -Emily Corban The competition categories consist of raising awareness by using signs, reusable cups, stickers, and posters as well as participation of organization members in the Green Grove Volunteer Event. Greek organizations were judged on volunteer participation in and on green practices during tailgating. The volunteer participation was based on the percentage of the
For more information please visit www.olemiss.edu/green
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