Energy Saving Incentives

A thoughtful Record opinion entitled Invisible Incentives asks if there is a better way to encourage students to reduce dorm energy use. It is a response to an earlier piece by Rob Streicker called 'We Need To Do It All Day'.(sorry, unable to find link). Invisible Incentives argues, quite correctly I think, against Streicker's suggestion of putting student energy costs on the term bill. While this would provide an economic incentive, it would be so small in comparison to the total cost of tuition, already rarely born by students, that it would hardly have any purely economic incentive.

Is there a better way to encourage broader cooperation in energy saving across more than the estimated 30%-50% of the students who do partake? Here's one interesting idea that I found in a facebook group at Connecticut College called "I'm Saving Energy for a Kick-ass Floralia!"

The group description runs:

Concert from Conservation is a student led campaign to reduce energy use on campus.

Here’s how it works:

As a campus, if we can use below what we’ve spent the last five years, we get 25% of our savings will go towards better events at Conn. Saving the earth and making money has never been this easy.

TOP TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO:

1) Turn off everything when you leave your room.
2) Don’t open your windows to cool down when the heater is on right below.
3) Put computers in sleep mode after 15 minutes, and turn them off at night.
4) Unplug chargers, or put them on a power strip and turn it off when not in use.
5) Use CFL’s instead of incandescent bulbs for extra lighting in your room.
6) Do big loads of laundry.
7) Make sure that lights are not left on in empty spaces.
8) Encourage your teachers to reduce their energy consumption.
9) Take shorter showers, and use cold water while brushing your teeth.
10) Buy Energy Star Rated electronics.
Every little bit helps.