Oberlin College Receives National Wildlife Federation Award for Innovation in Reducing Global Warming

April 19 , 2007 -- The National Wildlife Federation has named Oberlin College a winner in its Campus Ecology Chill Out contest. The competition recognizes colleges and universities around the country that are implementing innovative programs to reduce the impacts of global warming—the #1 environmental threat facing the nation. Oberlin was one of eight schools chosen for the award from more than 100 entries nationwide. In recognition of the College’s efforts, the National Wildlife Federation will feature Oberlin in its Chill Out webcast, broadcast live from George Washington University on April 18 and archived here.

The webcast will include a taped address from Al Gore. The College will also receive a grant from the National Wildlife Federation to continue innovating global warming solutions.

Oberlin received the award for its Campus Resource Monitoring System (www.oberlin.edu/dormenergy), a student and faculty-designed automated system that gathers, processes, and displays on a web site data on energy and water use in dormitories. 

“The data on environmental performance of buildings can be used to engage, educate, motivate, and empower students to conserve resources,” says Associate Professor of Environmental Studies John Petersen. “The work of Oberlin students has been critical to every aspect of designing this system.”

Oberlin students occupy a unique role as the subjects, audience, and designers of the CRMS. Michael Murray ’04, president and co-founder of Lucid Design Group (www.luciddesigngroup.com), is one of the initial student architects of the CRMS, along with Vladislav Shunturov ’05 and Gavin Platt ’06.  Lucid Design has developed hardware and software that monitor and process the environmental performance of a building and display the results in real-time on web sites and public kiosks.

“Colleges and universities are key places for demonstrating how to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the major culprit of global warming,” says Julian Keniry, director of campus and community leadership for the National Wildlife Federation. “Oberlin has demonstrated its leadership in promoting renewable energy options both on campus and throughout the surrounding community.”

During a two-week period in 2005, students in dormitories competed to see who could reduce their resource use by the largest percentage. On average, dorms reduced electricity use by 32 percent during the competition. The two dorms provided with real-time feedback from the CRMS won the competition with a 56 percent reduction in electricity. During the two-week competition, students conserved 68,000 kilowatt hours for a savings of $5,100 and reduced emissions by 150,000 pounds of CO2; 1,400 lbs of SO2; and 500 lbs of NOx. A conservative estimate is that CRMS will save Oberlin $66,000 annually in electricity costs, according to Petersen.

The success of the project in the spring of 2005 earned the student team a $75,000 award in the EPA’s “People Prosperity and the Planet” design competition, funds used to expand the CRMS into the majority of dormitories. Eighteen dormitories and 10 student houses are now monitored, providing over 80 percent of Oberlin students with real-time feedback.

The other winning schools in the NWF Chill Out contest are California State University, Chico; Mount Wachusett Community College; Monmouth University, West Long Branch; Richard Stockton College; Oregon Institute of Technology; University of California at Santa Barbara; and the Lawrenceville School.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program has been an integral part of the campus greening movement since 1989. The nation’s 4,100 colleges and universities educate more than 15 million students in any given year, making these schools important laboratories for creativity and innovation – keys to tackling a monumental crisis like global warming.

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Media Contact:

Scott Wargo
Director of Media Relations
Oberlin College
440-775-5197

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