From Guest Blogger and Office Intern Keri Hlavin

Compete to Reduce

What is a better way to bring students together or at least get them fired up than through a little friendly competition? That is why The Office of Sustainability will be hosting another campus-wide competition in the Spring of 2014 that of course will promote changes that will benefit our campus today, tomorrow and long after we have all graduated. Although this sounds far away, February will be here before we know it! If you want some inside info on the upcoming competition, then keep reading.

What is it?

Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) is the largest electricity and water reduction competition program for colleges and universities in the world. In its fourth year, CCN gives a common voice and motivation to hundreds of thousands of students across North America, all working together to reduce consumption and mitigate the impacts of climate change. CCN is an opportunity to organize students and staff, host educational events and challenge students and staff to participate in fun events that can have an immediate and lasting impact on your school’s carbon emissions and campus culture. CCN is jointly organized by the U.S. Green Building Council, Lucid, National Wildlife Federation, and Alliance to Save Energy.

How it Works:

Our office Res Life Intern will be conducting several orientations in the Spring with individual Res Halls and Houses, however there are FOUR upcoming webinars that she will be hosting this month. Please email hlavinkl@g.cofc.edu if you are interested in attending. Each session will be held at The Office of Sustainability on King Street and will last for one hour.

Program Goals:

• Engage, educate, motivate and empower students to conserve resources in residence halls and other campus buildings
• Foster a culture of conservation within campus communities, and propel campus sustainability initiatives.
• Enable students to teach each other conservation behaviors that they can employ on campus and in their future homes and workplaces.
• Enable students to develop leadership, community organizing, and career development skills
• Achieve measurable reductions in electricity and water use, preventing thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted.
• Highlight the ability of behavior change tools such as competitions, commitments and social norms to conserve energy and water

Please contact Keri via email hlavinkl@g.cofc.edu if you have any additional questions! Our goal is to kick off the Spring semester with a competition that will bring us all together around some pretty important issues! More importantly we hope this competition and others will also help to encourage lasting behavior changes like conserving energy and water usage, long after you leave the College of Charleston campus.