For
Immediate Release—Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007
Contact:
Mary
E. McCrank
Media
Relations Officer
(585)
245-5516
Geneseo Environmental
Organization Tackles Energy Waste at SUNY Geneseo
Student challenge to begin Thursday, March 1
Geneseo, N.Y.—The
Geneseo Environmental Organization at the State University of New York at
Geneseo is coordinating an energy saving contest between the college's 14
residence halls. The contest is aimed at limiting the amount of electricity
used by students who live on campus.
The residence hall with the
least energy consumption per student will win the contest, which will run from
March 1 through April 30.
"We want to encourage people
to think more about the impact they have daily on the environment, whether that
is turning off the lights or shutting down their computer at night," says Steve
Tulowiecki, a senior English major from Orchard Park, N.Y., and student
president of the Geneseo Environmental Organization. "Since students aren't
directly paying the bill for their energy use, they aren't aware of the waste
it produces, both financially and in terms of the environmental impact."
"We have received a lot of
positive feedback and support from students and the administration so far,"
says Tulowiecki. "We hope that students in the residence halls will take this
challenge to live in a more environmentally friendly way."
The college's environmental
task force, which is charged with evaluating the environmental and financial
impact of the college's activities, approved the students' proposal to hold the
energy saving contest. The facilities services department also agreed to work
with the Geneseo Environmental Organization and will provide historical data
and current energy readings in order to accurately determine a winner of the
contest.
"The Geneseo Environmental
Organization's proposal of an energy saving contest supports the task force's
efforts in raising student awareness of energy conservation for both environmental
and financial reasons," says Kirk Spangler, assistant director of facilities
services for the college and chair of the environmental task force.
The Geneseo Environmental
Organization also is working this semester to change the printing defaults on
campus computers to print documents double sided in order to eliminate waste.
"Many Geneseo students feel
that printer defaults should be set to print double sided in order to save
paper," says Tulowiecki. "We hope to reach this goal by the end of the
semester, since new printing software purchases would go into effect beginning
in the fall of 2007.
"We have already surveyed
half the professors on campus in order to learn their views on the
subject. We also plan on working
with the environmental task force to spread awareness of this issue," says
Tulowiecki.
Last semester, the Geneseo
Environmental Organization helped sponsor a screening of "An Inconvenient
Truth," Al Gore's Academy Award-winning documentary about global warming. The
group also wrote an article about what students can do to conserve paper and
print more efficiently in Computing and Information Technology's "CIT NewsBytes."
The Geneseo Environmental
Organization is working with the Inter-Residence Council and the National
Residence Hall Honorary in its efforts to limit electricity use among students
on campus. Portions of the financial savings will be given to an environmental
cause organization on campus.
For more information,
contact Steve Tulowiecki at envirorg@geneseo.edu or (716)
868-0977.
###
Written by Joe Mignano,
public relations intern in the Office of Communications and Publications.