IU students competing to have green dorm rooms

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Students who live in Indiana University residence halls can certify their dorm rooms as "green" through a new program.

To be certified, a student must meet at least 20 of 40 criteria found on the program website www.indiana.edu/~greenrm/ . Criteria range from simple actions such as opening curtains to let in natural light instead of using electric lights and turning off water while brushing teeth, to activities such as taking sustainability-based courses or belonging to a sustainability-related extracurricular group.

Criteria are organized into eight categories: energy, water, transportation, recycling, computing, laundry, involvement and other.

Students have certified 40 rooms in about three weeks of competition. Bridget Flynn of the IU Office of Sustainability says IU wants to have at least 100 students certify their rooms by the end of fall semester.