EcoReps

Hey All,

So a couple of things from the EcoReps meetings:

-  The composting bins in places other than Mckins and Brooks is being worked upon. The challenge is the transportation of the compost from various places to the machine. Also, the compost machine can only take in a certain amount of ‘dry’ compost in a day. It needs a good amount of liquid and wet matter to function properly. There is only one operator, Rick Porter working on the composting right now. There are certain other places where the blue compost bins are going to be put, and the minute the final locations have been decided on, we will update.

-   There is a window to start a volunteer shift for people to take compost from their dorms to some of the locations. Or simply the dining halls. Also, we need to figure out if there is a possibility of recycling the tissues from the bathrooms, or adding them to the compost. Any one interested??

-   The Energy Competition is happening from 16^th November- 23^rd November! We plan to have a one hour campus wide power down on 16^th, probably sometime in the evening, and graph out the energy usage of the campus in that hour as compared to normal days. There are lots of ideas being made into plans for there few days, such as ways to increase participation, putting up a graph of the various positions the dorms are in at Mckins, and possibly other ways to win individual prizes. Kelly and the energy czar are also working on this.  We are looking at putting up heavy PR for this event and making it a success!

-   Ecoreps is working with people from the Lights out! Initiative at ASG, to map out the electricity usage on campus over the next couple of weeks. We are going to looks at all the academic buildings and residential halls at around  11 onwards, for around 3-4 times a week, and document –

• Which lights in the academic buildings are left on when the areas are not being used ( Hall lights need to be left on for security reasons) but all lights can be documented for convenience sake.
• Which bathroom and laundry room lights are left on, both academic buildings and residence halls, when not in use.
• The date and time will be documented.

This document will hopefully help to identify which areas on campus are using up the most electricity when not needed. Areas for possible motion sensor installation will also be looked at. Also, Pr and education for conserving electricity will be worked with this.

Do let us know if anyone is interested in volunteering to note down their observations over the next couple of weeks. Its not that hard- just a notation of where you saw lights being left on without the area being used, the date and time you saw that. It could be your dorm bathroom light being left on late at night or for example,  the men’s bathroom at CC ground floor always seems to have its lights on!

You can e-mail your observations to – kapadik@allegheny.edu

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