ANDREW NOSTVICK OP/ED EDITOR
Wartburg saw decreases in electricity and water usage while natural gas usage increased during the Sustainability Challenge against Luther during the month of Februrary.
The Sustainability Challenge involved seeing who can use the least amount of energy. The three factors measured were electricity, natural gas and water. The schools compared measurements to those of the previous year.
In the electricity portion of the challenge, Wartburg saw a 3.62 percent reduction in the bill from the previous year.
Campus Sustainability Officer Tammy Faux said she heard from RAs that students were turning their lights off more than they ever saw.
“I hope that people can make that a habit, to always turn off their lights, to always unplug their chargers, to always turn off their computers when they’re not using them,” she said.
In the natural gas portion of the challenge, Wartburg’s usage increased by 1.1 percent. However, Faux said it was a smaller percentage increase compared to last February due to a much warmer February this year.
As for the water portion of the challenge, Wartburg saw a decrease in water usage by almost 12 percent.
Faux was excited when she saw people everywhere talking about the challenge.
“Not just talking about the energy challenge, but everywhere I went, people were talking about sustainability,” Faux said. “I think the fact that it was against Luther helped people to be more excited about it, but I also think people got into the ‘let’s save energy’ thing.”
Faux said she thinks students did a good job, but would like to see more of these changes.
“Students need to give ideas. Students, often times in communication with other people, have new ideas,” she said. “They need to be sharing those ideas, and being the innovators and pushing the college to try new things.”
Faux would like to see students pay attention to their surroundings. For example, she suggested turning off the lights when a student is the last person in the classroom.
“Students can take more action and actually advocate for change, rather than just say ‘somebody else is going to do it’. I’d like to see students say ‘I’m going to be the one to do it’,” Faux said.
Luther’s results are not available yet.