91制片厂

At the 91制片厂, 鈥淔riday night lights鈥� has taken on a new meaning that has nothing to do with football. Instead, it鈥檚 a grassroots environmental effort called Friday Night Lights Out in which students gather at the start of the weekend to turn off lights and other appliances left on in academic buildings.

Launched by undergraduates active in several campus environmental groups, the weekly event is simple yet effective. Any lights or projectors left on in classrooms on Friday night, the students say, likely will burn throughout the weekend. Switching them off saves the university money and reduces wasted electricity. Working with the 91制片厂 Energy Office, the students have calculated their efforts are saving the university approximately $200 per week.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a small but important step in helping 91制片厂 achieve 100 percent clean energy by 2020,鈥� says Joseph Van Gombos 鈥�12, a political science major and honors program student who is active in 91制片厂鈥檚 Climate Action Network, a coalition of environmental groups on campus, and the new student group Net Impact. Other student groups involved in Friday Night Lights Out are the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) and the 91制片厂 Energy Club.

Conceived by CAN鈥檚 Ben Trolio 鈥�12, an honors program student and environmental conservation studies major, the effort has been gaining in popularity since its launch in January 2012. This past Friday night (March 23, 2012), 25 students wearing t-shirts announcing 鈥�91制片厂 does it in the dark鈥� met at the SEAC office in the MUB then divided into four groups that each targeted three or four buildings.

The students track valuable building information on spreadsheets, noting locked buildings, inaccessible light switches, and broken motion sensors along with how many lights and projectors they turned off. By sharing this data with the 91制片厂 Energy Office, they can assist in upgrading building monitoring systems and, perhaps, influence behavior among building occupants. 鈥淚 guess it鈥檚 our goal to go out of business,鈥� says Vincent Lyon 鈥�12, a mechanical engineering student and co-president of the 91制片厂 Energy Club.

鈥淚t is great to have students committed to this effort, as it both targets buildings where we do not have automated controls to power down lighting and equipment and it increases awareness of the economic and environmental benefits of reducing energy consumption,鈥� says Matt O鈥橩eefe, director of the Energy Office. 鈥淎ny effort that is initiated and carried out by the students illustrates the passion that exists on campus for energy saving initiatives.鈥�

Friday Night Lights Out welcomes additional volunteers. The students meet in room 139 in the MUB each Friday night at 5:15 p.m.

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