To provide concrete examples of how you can “Change Your State” to save energy, North Carolina State University has launched five new web-based interactive energy rooms. By navigating within a room, users will learn energy-conservation tips and greenhouse gas emissions data for more than 35 electronic appliances and devices commonly found at the university. Additionally, the rooms tally the short- and long-term costs of operation of those devices. Each room is accessible through the Change Your State web site.
The rooms support the Change Your State behavior change campaign. Change Your State aims for a 5 percent reduction in energy consumption for the campus during the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
If Change Your State’s 5 percent reduction goal is achieved, the university would realize a savings of roughly $1 million and a reduction of 7,174 metric tons of greenhouse gases. That’s the equivalent of 11 associate professor positions and removing 1,407 passenger vehicles from the road, respectively.
“With an average of 41,000 people on campus on any given day and an annual average electric bill around $20 million, we can definitely make a big impact if we all do one thing to reduce our energy usage,” said David Dean, outreach and communications coordinator for the University Sustainability Office.
According to a 2010 report released by the National Resource Defense Council and the Garrison Institute’s Climate Mind Behavior Project, personal actions could reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases by 2020 at little to no cost.
Take a tour of the rooms by visiting http://go.ncsu.edu/changeyourstate.