Cal State Long Beach housing residents will conserve water and energy usage in hopes of earning a foosball table and trophy when they face off against Cal State Fullerton students during the second annual month-long competition “Energy Savers do it in the Dark,” starting Saturday.
Last year, the competition saved CSULB housing a total of $4,000, according to CSULB Green Campus Program Project Coordinator Kaylee Deatherly.
Before the competition began, a baseline was established for each of the buildings to keep the competition fair. Then, the savings were calculated as a percentage to determine who saved the most, and the winning building was selected.
This year, the overall winner will be selected by comparing CSULB residents’ savings with CSUF’s on-campus residents’ savings. The campus saving the most water and energy will win the grand prize — a foosball table and trophy, according to the Green Campus Program’s website.
There will also be weekly competitions between the CSULB housing buildings. Prizes for the winning building include ice cream and pizza.
Deatherly said the concept for this year’s competition, sponsored by the Alliance to Save Energy Green Campus Program, started as a joke between CSULB and CSUF Green Campus interns.
The interns then thought the project would make for a friendly rivalry and boost morale for students, as well as be a good collaboration between the two campuses.
The change was also inspired by a student survey given by the Green Campus Program. The results revealed some misconceptions and ways to improve the program.
“A lot of the feedback from students was that the RLC had an unfair advantage because it was a newer builder, even though it didn’t,” Green Campus intern and team manager Allie Bussjaegar said. “But seeing as that’s how students interpreted it, we wanted to change it for this year and not have the students competing against each other.”
Former RLC resident Felicia Kaui Castillo agreed that competition between the dorms got a bit heated.
“I don’t think that it was so much the rewards as it was about the competition,” Castillo said. “The dorms get pretty competitive. They were always trying to one-up each other and saying, ‘Okay, now who’s winning?'”
Although she said “Do it in the Dark” was a good idea to teach students about conservation and how to be less wasteful, Castillo had her reservations. She said she made some attempts to save water and energy during last year’s competition, but didn’t see a point of participating for the sake of putting more money in the university’s pocket.
“They’re charging us more than a $1,000 a month to stay in that little space,” she said. “I think that they can afford the utilities.”
The goal of the competition is not only about saving money, but to teach students about conservation and sustainability in a fun way, Deatherly said.
Alexa Augustin, a junior vocal performance major living at Residence Commons, participated in last year’s event — not to win pizza or ice cream, but to become more environmentally-friendly by developing better habits.
“I started to unplug a lot of my appliances,” Augustin said. “I notice now that every time that I don’t use a straightener or I don’t use the blow dryer, but I still keep it plugged in, that it will totally use up a lot of energy. So the small things like that can take away so much energy.”
She made efforts to save water consumption too by turning off the sink while brushing her teeth and taking shorter showers.
She said the habits stuck long after the competition ended. According to Augustin, she has maintained the changes and they are now part of her daily routine.
“I actually did [continue the changes] and was really surprised about it,” Augustin said.
The Green Campus Program’s overall goal is to have students change their lifestyle habits and increase energy and water savings from last year by double the amount, Bussjaegar said.
The Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus program at CSULB is a nonprofit organization and is sponsored by Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and Sempra Energy.
“Last year went really well,” Deatherly said. “We hope it stays to be an annual thing.”
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