Oberlin College Dorm Energy

Oberlin College Dorm Energy Project - Office of Environmental Sustainability
Oberlin College in Ohio was featured in this month’s issue of Vegetarian Times. Oberlin’s Office of Environmental Sustainability is working on a system to monitor water and energy use in Oberlin’s residence halls. It’s brilliant. The site, “Dorm Energy“, shows electricity usage for 18 Oberlin residence halls.

In 2007, Oberlin held a competition to see which residence halls could reduce their electrical consumption:

For a two week period from April 6 through 20 students in 18 monitored dorms competed to see which dorm can reduce its electricity use by the largest percentage relative to baseline consumption. The goal of the competition is to educate, motivate and empower students to develop attitudes, strategies and behaviors that lead to electricity conservation. Talcott is the winning dorm! Talcott residents’ efforts to reduce electricity consumption by 25% have earned them an ice cream party. Congratulations!

2 thoughts on “Oberlin College Dorm Energy”

  1. Hi,
    Were you involved in the Oberlin Dorm Energy competition? If so, I would love to talk to you. I am a student at MIT writing about how technology can help people behave more sustainably.

    thanks!
    melissa

  2. Hi Melissa – I actually found out about the Oberlin College Dorm Energy Competition via an article in Vegetarian Times. You could always follow-up with the folks at Oberlin to see if any of the students that participated would be willing to connect with you…

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