CFLs, Increased Recycling Help Reduce College’s Energy Use

Investigation continues into how to create a more efficient campus

SUZANNE RAMSEY
College relations staff writer

Forty-seven watts doesn’t sound like much until you multiply it times 360, the number of incandescent light bulbs that have been swapped for energy-efficient compact florescent lights at Sweet Briar College since May 2007.

With an energy output of just 13 watts, the CFLs — if used an average of six hours per day — result in an energy savings of 37,055 kilowatt hours per year. Now that sounds like something!

Installing CFLs is just one way Sweet Briar College is leading the way as a charter signatory of American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, an initiative begun in 2007 and aimed at combating global climate change.

When she signed the Commitment last spring, Sweet Briar President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld said, “It was the right thing to do — both educationally and in service to our future.”

Since that time, the College’s physical plant, led by Steve Bailey, has been working to find ways to reduce Sweet Briar’s carbon footprint.

According to Wikipedia, a carbon footprint is a “ ‘measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.’ It is meant to be useful for individuals and organizations to conceptualize their personal (or organizational) impact in contributing to global warming”

Presently, Bailey says Sweet Briar is in the investigative stage, working with a local engineering firm and trying to “understand what the problems are and the potential solutions are,” and doing small things to increase energy efficiency, such as replacing energy-hungry bulbs with CFLs.

Increasing on-campus recycling efforts is also part of the solution. In 2007, nearly 100,000 pounds of glass, mixed paper, cardboard and plastic were diverted from the landfill — twice what was recycled in 2006. “The numbers are fairly significant,” Bailey said.