The animation is part of a new initiative called Green Lite Dartmouth that seeks to minimize energy consumption by providing real-time feedback to students on the second floors of Goldstein and Thomas Halls and the third floors of Rauner and Bildner Halls. Students can access online graphs and charts showing the real-time energy consumption of their halls as well as conservation tips and links to environmental web sites.
"You can look at this graph and see how much Thomas second floor is consuming right now," Neel Joshi '11, a member of the Green Light organization, said. "If you're on Bildner third floor and turn off your light, you'll see that change on the graph. It's pretty unbelievable."
Participation in the program is optional, according to Joshi, and it will not drastically change student life.
"Everything is really easy to do," he said. "We're not advocating ridiculous things like studying in the dark or freezing in your room, just simple things to save energy."
The program is the only one of its kind that is entirely student run, according to Lorie Loeb, co-director of the digital arts minor and founder of Green Lite. Students created the animations, set up the graphs and offer advice. The College provides funding and support for the students, and an alumna donated $50,000 to expand the project to Greek houses and residence halls.
The success of the program is dependent on the real-time feedback, Loeb said.
"If you get information about what you're doing, you're more likely to change it," she said. "At Dartmouth, nobody has any idea what the effect is of what they're doing; it's not like students get electricity bills at the end of the month."
Other colleges with similar programs have reduced electricity consumption between 33 and 50 percent, according to Loeb. Dartmouth's progress, however, may not be as substantial due to the presence of energy efficient buildings on campus.
"It's a combination of information and motivation and tools to be able to really, really easily reduce energy use," Loeb said.
The statistical feedback is only one component of the group's mission, she said. Loeb also established the Energy Reductions Tune-Up Team, a group of students who will evaluate their peers' energy usage upon request, offering both energy-saving advice and environmentally friendly products.
"One of the first things we would do when coming to a room would be to look at your lights," Joshi, a member of the Tune-Up Team, said. "We replace those with compact fluorescent lights, and it can save around 100 pounds of CO2 a year."
The project is multidisciplinary, according to Loeb. Students in the introduction to engineering class are "coming up with slick ways to turn the power on and off," she said, and the sociology department is conducting research to "understand what goes on in terms of norms about energy efficiency."
Although these activities may be simple, Loeb said, they are still one of the most important aspects of lessening one's impact on the environment.
"You can have the most energy efficient building in the world, but it won't be effective unless students change their habits," she said.
