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Switching on Awareness

Students get instant feedback on energy use in residence hall pilot program

Dartmouth students living in the McLaughlin Cluster residence halls enjoy a living space designed for efficient and sustainable energy use. Thanks to Green Lite Dartmouth, residents can now see how their own behavior affects the buildings’ energy use.

The initiative, launched April 24, aims to educate students through real-time feedback on how much energy is consumed by common devices such as hairdryers, microwaves, and laptop computers. Green Lite Dartmouth will also serve as a resource for students looking to reduce their energy use.

The program, still in its pilot phase, “will make energy conservation tangible,” says Neel Joshi ’11, a member of the Current Reductions team that is leading the project. “The changes we are suggesting are very reasonable, things like turning off lights and taking shorter showers.”

The most visible aspect of the initiative is real-time, animated displays in the common spaces of the Rauner, Bildner, Goldstein, and Thomas residence halls. Broadcast on low-energy monitors, the displays show animations designed by Sonia Lei ’08 that change according to the amount of energy being used in the building. The displays can also be used to view graphic representations of overall dorm performance in energy savings. Green Lite’s website also provides a record of the residence halls’ energy use over time, enabling students to see whether they have made progress in reducing overall energy use.

Green Lite Dartmouth is the brainchild of Lorie Loeb, co-director of the digital arts minor and research assistant professor of computer science. Inspired by the vision of the late Donella Meadows, a professor in Dartmouth’s environmental studies program, Loeb worked with undergraduates to develop the technological, educational, and design components of the initiative. The team hopes to learn how students will modify energy usage when they can see the effects of their behavior and whether that knowledge will encourage them to adopt energy-saving strategies. Loeb says, “It is easy to change—sometimes all we need is information and feedback to understand the results of each action we take.”

If the program proves successful, the Green Lite team hopes to expand to more residence halls and even non-residential spaces on campus. Funding has come from the Offices of the Provost and the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with support from the Departments of Computer Science and Sociology, the Office of Residential Life, and Facilities Operations and Management. Mary Finegan ’86 has donated funds to expand the program to other residence halls and Greek houses. Team member Anise Vance ’11, working with Associate Professor of Sociology Denise Anthony, will conduct a survey to assess how the project has affected social norms around energy conservation.

By GENEVIEVE HAAS

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