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News Release

Last modified: Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Read, Eigenmann win spring 2013 IU Energy Challenge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2013

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The 2013 IU Spring Energy Challenge has ended with Read Residence Center winning the electricity conservation category and Eigenmann Residence Center winning the water conservation category.

The Spring 2013 Energy Challenge was a three-week event at Indiana University Bloomington that spanned from Feb. 18 to March 11. The competition included 10 residential living centers on campus and was part of Campus Conservation Nationals 2013, a nationwide energy saving competition for colleges and universities.

The competition encouraged reduction of electricity and water consumption and was designed to foster behavioral changes in students and building staff. Unlike past challenges that included academic buildings and Greek houses, this event included only residence halls to focus efforts to change consumption behavior and pilot a new dashboard designed by IU's physical plant.

In total, 81,565 kwh of electricity were saved or the equivalent of taking 113 houses off the grid. Water savings were 698,728 gallons, equal to 14 tanker trucks full. These savings helped avert 152,626 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

"It is amazing what thousands of small changes add up to in three weeks," said Bill Brown, director of sustainability for IU Bloomington. "Read saved more than 13 percent of their typical electricity use and Eigenmann saved over 25 percent of their baseline water use."

Trophies will be presented to the winning building at 10 a.m. April 12 in Dunn Meadow. Winners will receive unique traveling trophies that consist of recycled parts of valves, meters and other used components.

The standings in the each of the competitions were as follows:

• Electricity: 1. Read; 2. Willkie; 3. Ashton; 4. Teter; 5. McNutt; 6. Foster; 7. Union; 8. Collins; 9. Eigenmann; 10. Briscoe.
• Water: 1. Eigenmann; 2. Teter; 3. Union; 4. Ashton; 5. Briscoe; 6. McNutt; 7. Foster; 8. Collins; 9. Read; 10. Willkie.

To learn more about sustainability-related programming and events, visit the IU Office of Sustainability website. For more information about the 2013 Fall Energy Challenge and tips for conserving electricity and water, visit the IU Energy Challenge website.

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