Residents of Cal State Long Beach dormitories beat those at Cal State Fullerton during the month-long second annual Energy Saver’s Do it in the Dark competition in which students battled to conserve the most water and energy.
“We believe the competition has been a great success,” Green Campus team manager Allie Bussjaeger said.
The winning campus was determined by comparing CSULB residents’ savings with CSUF’s residents’ savings.
CSULB took home the grand prize of a trophy and foosball table, which will most likely be placed in the University Student Union for all students to enjoy.
CSULB residents in Parkside Commons, Residence Commons and the Residential Learning Center also competed for weekly prizes, including weekly pizza and ice cream parties.
According to Bussjaeger, the three CSULB dorms saved more energy compared to the competition held last year.
“We have also had more student participation this year, and more resident assistants participated as well,” Bussjaeger said.
RLC resident assistant Kylee Rogers encouraged her Pacific Hall residents to participate in the competition. She said residents looked at the competition as a fun game to see how many ways they could cut back on their energy use.
“One of my residents said, ‘We haven’t used our lights in five days except our computers,'” Rogers said.
However, the RLC ran into issues when residents turned off safety lights in the halls to save more energy. Housing held a meeting to communicate to residents that these were safety lights and were not to be turned off.
According to CSULB Green Campus, CSULB saved more energy than CSUF during the first three weeks of the competition, however water consumption still needs to be taken into account before a winner can be determined.
RLC resident Lashanae McMillan said she is confident CSULB will come out on top.
“I think that if we can win on the energy, we can win on the water,” McMillan said. “If we can beat out Fullerton, we can beat any school at any other thing.”
McMillan also said the competition was a great way to be greener and pass on the lifestyle to future generations.
According to residents, the competition could have long-term affects on Housing and Residential life because costs, because utilities such as electricity, are taken into account when determining the residential rates.
Before the competition began, a baseline was established for each dorm to keep the competition fair. Then, the savings were calculated as a percentage to determine which building saved the most, and the winner was selected.
All residents were invited to participate in the competition. More than 650 residents registered as official participants. However, some residents didn’t register but still participated.
For the final numbers on water, energy and money saved, go to http://csulbgreencampus.com/.
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