As part of West Virginia University’s effort to recycle, conserve energy and become moregreen,the WVU Environmental Conservation Awareness Now program, or WE CAN , recently held a student conservation competition.
The Ecolympics pitted 12 of WVU s residence halls against each other in a competition to save energy and collect recyclable materials during October.
Summit Hall and Bennett/Lyon Tower tied for first place. A runoff is under way (Nov. 12-16) to determine a winner.
The tie-breaker will be based on how much each hall recycles during the week. The winner will be announced by Monday (Nov. 19).
During the Ecolympics, residence halls earned points in four categories: amount of recycled materials collected each week, scavenger hunt, trivia quiz and energy conservation figures. Recycled materials were collected each week, and students were encouraged to turn off lights, computers and other electronics to help conserve energy.
Although Summit and Bennett/Lyon tied for first place with 16 points each, they earned points in different categories.
Summit only placed in the recycling part of the competition once; they got third place one week (one point),said Barbara Angeletti, WE CAN coordinator.They came from behind and won the scavenger hunt (five points) and monthly energy conservation (10 points) parts of the competition.
Meanwhile, Bennett/Lyon Towers placed first in recycling efforts for three weeks (three points each week), second place one week (two points) and had the most participants in the trivia quiz (five points).
Students can participate in the tie-breaker by dropping off recyclable materials such as aluminum, paper and plastic in their hallsmain lobbies throughout the week.
WE CAN coordinator Lisa Saurborn was pleased with the results and studentsefforts.
Summit Hall decreased its energy consumption by 26 percent, she said.
And recycling increased every week just as we had hoped,Angeletti added.
The combined total recycled materials among all of WVU s residence halls was 2,769 pounds the first week, 3,493 the second, 3,871 the third and 8,432 the fourth. That added up to more than 51,000 plastic bottles and 15,000 aluminum cans.
One of the reasons we sponsored this contest was to help students build lifelong habits,Angeletti said.We are hoping that after a month of doing this that these habits will stick with them. Were very pleased with the results of the very first WE CAN Ecolympics. The students have embraced it and have responded in a really big way.
For more information on the Universitys WE CAN program, visit http://wecan.wvu.edu .