Win prizes and help Elon raise the level of awareness about conservation on campus by participating in the Campaign for Environmental Awareness, which began Oct. 12. Details...
At this time of the year, when you hear the word campaign, you’re likely thinking about the race for President, Congress, or maybe even Alamance County commissioner. But on the campus of Elon University, there’s another campaign kicking off this month: the Campaign for Environmental Awareness among students, faculty and staff.
To put this in context, one of Elon’s institutional goals during 2004-05 is to “Educate the University community about and expand commitment to environmental issues.” To help achieve this goal, a year-long program has been developed to publicize and actively engage the campus community in the areas of energy consumption/conservation, environmental recycling and general environmental awareness.
The campaign began Tuesday, Oct. 12 with the first of six monthly contests to generate interest in and curiosity about Elon’s use and stewardship of energy and environmental resources. Each month, questions will be posed to the campus community about a particular facet of Elon and the environment. The first question was posted at noon Tuesday and a special e-mail address, energy@elon.edu, has been established to send in your answers. This email address can be used from noon Tuesday – noon Friday, Oct. 15. Those who respond with the correct answer will be eligible for monthly prizes. Prizes will include iPod players, Xbox games, free books for a semester (student prize), $200 Phoenix cash and a $200 Barnes & Noble gift card (faculty/staff), and a mountain bike. At the end of the year, the monthly winners will be entered into a drawing for grand prizes of two Gateway Tablet PC’s. This contest is open for students, faculty and staff members.
Additionally, Elon’s consumption of energy throughout the year will be monitored, as well as the amount of materials that are recycled. The long term goal is to reduce our energy use and increase our recycling. As data becomes available each month, our monthly progress will be tracked on http://www.elon.edu/physicalplant/env-aware/. Comparisons between one year and the next are made possible by “normalizing” the energy data per square foot of facility and per heating or cooling degree-day. In this way, variations in the number of buildings consuming energy are taken into consideration. Similarly, a significantly colder or milder winter will not have a dramatic effect on the comparisons.
Everyone should be interested in “beating the baseline” because valuable awards will be given away in May IF we meet our goals. Awards at the end of the year will include four $5,000 fellowships for students and a $2,000 cash gift for faculty/staff. Students awarded these fellowships will be assigned duties to promote awareness of environmental activities.
As part of the 2004-05 Campaign for Environmental Awareness, the university will form a campus Environmental Council with representation from students, faculty, and staff. Get into the campaign! There are valuable prizes to be won and you’ll help shape the environmental culture of Elon University for years to come.