One school working on energy efficiency, sustainability

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - One school is doing its best to save money and energy.

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s facilities department and sustainability committee teamed up to create an energetic initiative, focused on conserving.

School administrators created an initiative to help reduce energy usage on campus, and In turn, save a little cash.

They created a building dashboard to help them track how they spend their electricity.  The dashboard is, to put it simply, a central control hub of energy usage and data.  This setup will also allow officials to remotely control energy usage.

Because Rose is a technology campus, administrators expect usage to be higher than most. But that's why they're working to save energy.

“Students were able to turn off the lights a little bit more; be conscious about how they’re using their TV’s; use power strips instead of leaving their laptops plugged in all the time. Things like that seem little, but really add up on a large scale,” said Kyle Rhodes, student affairs.

Students can check their usage on a large screen in the Student Union or their personal computer.

They've already had one competition for students to see if they can reduce energy usage on a daily basis. 

“I think we averaged about a 10 percent reduction in every hall,” said Rhodes.

Rhodes said the students have been very responsive.

“I think a lot of students were really receptive to it.  They know once they’re out in the workforce that sustainability is going to be a big part of their field, whether they’re saving the company money or making a difference in their lives and their utility bills once they graduate…I think overall, it’s a really good feel on campus about it,” said Rhodes.

Rhodes said they're keeping this initiative around.

“We’ll keep this for as long as it’s useful. So, hopefully, for years and years to come,” said Rhodes.       

Rose-Hulman will be competing nationally this spring. In last year's national competition, they saved over a gigawatt of energy.