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Table of Contents
Welcome to the 12% Energy Challenge…………………………………………………………........…3
Challenge Coordinator Tips ………………………………………………………………………………..4
Checklist…..…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
Action Descriptions
Action 1: Turn off office lights when leaving the room ………………………………………. 6
Action 2: Put computer to sleep when not in use …………………………………………….. 7
Action 3: Turn off lights when leaving an unoccupied room ……………………………….. 8
Action 4: Take the stairs instead of the elevator if you’re able …………………………….. 9
Action 5: Over weekends, turn off printers, copiers, microwaves and computers if IT
staff allows …………………………………………………………………………………………... 10
Action 6: Complete the Energy Saving Schedule at: http://bit.ly/AdPYwb …………… 11
Additional Steps ……………………………………………………………………………………. 12
Appendix
What is Sustainability? How does it impact you?................................................................13
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Welcome to the 12% Energy Challenge
The 12% Energy Challenge is a Penn State Green Teams initiative that can significantly
decrease energy use and increase energy savings. This challenge was inspired by the
energy savings achieved by the Methodology Department, which as an office, followed
Level 1 and 2 of the Green Paws Program. Over the course of a year, the small changes they
made reduced their energy use by 12%!
This guide will lead you through a series of actions that will help reduce your office’s energy
consumption by 12%. It is based on the energy reduction tips from the Green Paws Program.
Achieving the target savings is easy! All you need to do is complete the checklist actions
over the course of two weeks. Why are these actions important? They reduce the waste of
energy and you can find out how at the end of this document.
Steps to complete the Challenge:
1. Sign the pledge form. (Found below or provided by your Green Team leader).
2. Talk to others in your building or unit and encourage them to join the Challenge
3. Post the pledge form your door or cubicle wall.
4. Each day, check off the actions listed for that day. You will start with one action on
the first day and by the 12th day, be checking off all six actions. Return the form to
your Green Team leader by Monday, April 8th. Creative entries explaining your
Green Team’s adventure through the challenge will be due Friday, April 12th.
5. If you have questions about each step or simply want to know more, look at the
Action Descriptions at the end of this manual or visit
sustainability.psu.edu/live/greenpaws
6. You may also contact the challenge manager at Lydia@psu.edu or 863-4893
Three Prize Categories for Green Teams
1. 1st Prize: A catered Lunch - The Green Team with 100% of their team completing the
challenge and engaging the most number of people OUTSIDE your team in the
challenge. There is a second catered lunch prize for Commonwealth Campuses
meeting this criteria.
2. 2nd Prize: A pizza lunch – The Green Team with 100% completion of the challenge
plus the winning creative entry telling the story of their 12% adventure! You can see
some of last year’s top entries at
http://www.green.psu.edu/youCanDo/greenTeams/GT_12Percent_Challenge_Res
ults.asp - check under the submissions tab. See below for more information on
creative entries suggestions.
3. 3rd Prize: Green Team Mugs – A random drawing of the Green Team with 100% of
their team completing the challenge.
--- No team can win more than one prize ------ Awards will be announced on April 19th ---
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Role of Challenge Coordinators:
Congratulations on your role as your Green Team’s Challenge Coordinator! There are some
easy steps to help your Team get ready for the Challenge and get others involved as well.
Next Steps and Timeline:
March 14th to 25th:
Talk to your Green Team and others in your unit about the Energy Challenge. You can
use the 12% Challenge Powerpoint and/or the flyer to get the word out.
Ask your Green Team members to talk to their friends and colleagues about joining
the Challenge. Remember, the more people you all motivate to join, the bigger the
prize! This Challenge is a great way to measure sustainability actions for the SRDP!
Print out the Pledge forms and hand them out. You can print them in black and white
or color. We know that making the Challenge visible by posting the forms will motivate
others to join the campaign and advertise your positive efforts.
March 25th to April 5th:
During the Challenge, you will receive emails from Lydia Vandenbergh with
motivational messages and fun ideas to pass on to your Team members and
participants.
On Friday, April 5th, ask all your Challenge participants to turn in their Pledge forms. On
this day, you will receive an email with a link to the reporting form into which you will
report the number of Green Team members who participated and completed all
steps of the Challenge and the number of people outside your team who did the
same. Please complete this form by Monday, April 8th and send the Pledge Forms by
scan or interoffice mail to Lydia Vandenbergh, Land and Water Research Building,
University Park.
Tell Your Story and Compete for a Prize!
If your Green Team wants to tell about their 12% Energy Challenge experience, you can win
a prize for the most creative illustration. This can be in the form of a poster, a story, a poem,
a video, a song, etc. Be creative! The Green Team with 100% of their team completing the
challenge plus the winning creative entry telling their 12% adventure story will win a Pizza
Lunch for the Green Team. View some of last year’s entries. (look under the submissions tab)
Ideas to make it Fun and get others involved!
Post a Pledge Form in common areas with a sticky note asking if they are going to join
the fun and a contact name for more information. Bathroom stalls is good place.
Have a green captain hand out green mints to those caught “green handed.”
Use some of the information below to highlight advantages of the actions, such as
taking the stairs get people in shape plus saves energy.
Email Lydia with other creative fun ideas and she will share it with other Teams during
the challenge.
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Pledge
Participants use the Pledge Sheet by checking off actions
as they complete them
Turn in this sheet to your Green Team Leader on Friday, April 5th!
More sheets can be downloaded at:
http://www.green.psu.edu/youCanDo/greenTeams/GT_12percent_challenge.asp
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Action Descriptions
Action 1: Turn off your office lights when leaving the room
Turning off lights that are not being used is a simple and effective way to save energy. It
requires no special equipment, it’s free and it is quite easy to do. As soon as you flip the
switch, the energy savings begin.
Taking personal steps to reduce your individual energy consumption supports sustainable
energy initiatives undertaken by Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant. As the image below
shows, University Park has reduced its annual electricity consumption by 7.5% (30 million
KWh) based on 2005 rates, while adding over 1.5 million square feet of building space. This
electricity savings is equal to the annual usage of eleven Intramural Buildings! These
measures have also reduced our coal consumption by 8,000 tons annually. To continue this
trend, Penn State needs you. Your actions matter!
Figure 4. Energy efficiency measures have reduced electricity consumption by 7.5% at
2005 rates at UP, even while adding more than 1,500,000 ft2 of building space.
You can safely practice this tip for every type of light, even CFLs. According to the
Department of Energy*, “turning off fluorescent lights for more than 5 seconds will save more
energy than will be consumed in turning them back on again” and Energy Star bulbs are
rated to withstand frequent switching. Of course, incandescent bulbs should always be shutoff when a room is unoccupied.
*http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/when-turn-your-lights
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Action 2: Put computer into deep sleep when not in use
Powering computers requires a substantial amount of energy. Yet most computers are only
used a fraction of the time that they are on. Adjusting your computer’s power settings to
save energy means the computer and monitor will switch into sleep mode when standing
idle. This will cut your computer’s electricity use by up to 80 percent. That’s $25 to $75 of
savings per computer per year.
Please ask your IT administrator to help you set up your computer power management
settings. Here are some helpful guidelines to get you started.
For PCs (Automatic)
For Windows desktop and laptop
1. Click Start menu > open Control Panel > open Power Options
2. Customize settings in the Power Scheme tab
Suggestions
1. Turn off monitor: 10 minutes
2. Turn off hard disks: Never (standby does this automatically)
3. System standby: 15 minutes
4. System hibernate: 25 minutes
For PCs (Manual)
For Windows desktop and laptop
1. Click Start Menu > Shut Down/Standby/Hibernate
From the drop down menu, chose either standby or hibernate. This will immediately
put the computer to sleep.
For Macs (Automatic)
1. On the Dock menu > open System Preferences
2. Click on Energy Saver
3. Customize the settings for your computer
Suggestions
1. Put display to sleep: 10 minutes
2. Put computer to sleep: 15 minutes
For Macs (Manual)
1. Click Apple menu > open Sleep
From the Apple drop down menu, select Sleep. This will immediately put the computer to
sleep.
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Action 3: Turn off lights when leaving an unoccupied room
Many work spaces are unnecessarily lit while not occupied, some for long periods of time. In
fact, there is a group on the University Park campus that shuts out lights on Friday evenings so
the bulbs do not burn throughout the weekend. Known as Friday Night Lights Out, this group
is responsible for turning off more than 28,000 lights last semester alone, a savings of more
than $4,000.
Turning off the lights in an unoccupied room is quite similar to Action 1 (turning off your office
lights), but expands the behavior beyond your personal space. This includes break rooms,
kitchens, and even bathrooms. Explain to your coworkers why you are doing this and help
remind them in a friendly way until it becomes an office habit.
You can add a process known as de-lamping to push your energy savings even further. Delamping means removing lamps from a fixture to save energy. This should only be done in an
area that has more than sufficient lighting. The break room in the Land and Water Research
Building (pictured below) successfully de-lamped more than one-third of its fixtures:
a. Removing bulbs from six of the 16 fixtures in the break room below saved $63 a
year, over 35 percent of the lighting bill.
b. Turning the lights off in the room (after removing six bulbs) for just four hours a
day saves an additional $42 a year, reducing overall costs to just $63 for lighting
the room!
Employees in the Land and Water Research Building saved energy in their break room
through de-lamping and by shutting off lights when the room was not being used.
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Action 4: Take the stairs instead of the elevator if you are able
If taking the stairs is a viable option for you, then do it! It is a relatively easy way to reduce
your energy use and improve your health. Just like flipping off the lights, taking the stairs is
free and it requires no fossil fuel energy.
If you are able to walk up and down three flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator each
day, it would save about 450 Watt-hours a month. This is equivalent to powering a 37”
plasma TV for three hours.
Beyond energy, there are other reasons to take the stairs. Here are a few:
Free Workout
Stair climbing is something you can do
throughout the day, thereby chipping away at
the recommended 30 minutes of daily physical
activity. For each minute you climb, you burn
between 8 and 11 kcal of energy, which is more
than most moderate physical activities.
Overall Health Improvement
Climbing the stairs is good for your heart, can
increase bone density, and can increase the
amount of “good” cholesterol in the blood.
A Leaner you and Longer Life
Stair climbing is a great way to get to that target
weight. Taking just two flights of stairs a day can
lead to six pounds of weight loss over the course
of a year. Climbing the stairs also strengthens
and tones your muscles, increases
cardiovascular health and helps add quality
years to your life.
Save Time
Believe it or not, sometimes it’s faster to take the stairs. At certain times of day
elevators take a while to arrive at your floor, such as early in the morning, during class
transitions, and at the end of the day. When that’s the case, make better use of your
time: Take the stairs!
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Action 5: Over weekends, turn off printers, copiers, microwaves and computers (if IT staff
allows)
Perhaps you already knew this, but your electronic devices use electricity when plugged in,
even when they are turned off! This is known as Phantom Load or Vampire Energy.
1. In the U.S., $10 billion is spent annually on phantom load
2. Unplugging devices when not in use saves 10 – 15% of energy use, like getting over a
month of free electricity every year
By turning off your power-strips and unplugging devices (as well as turning off your mobile
phones and tablets when not in use), you can help slay the phantom! When you get home,
you can have a scavenger hunt with your family, looking for ways to cut your home
phantom load. Check out this resource to help:
http://www.takecontrolandsave.coop/documents/PhantomLoad.pdf
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Action 6: Complete the Energy Saving Schedule at: http://bit.ly/AdPYwb
In order to reduce electricity and heating costs, the University attempts to maintain the
occupied temperature in all facilities at 70 degrees in the winter and 75 degrees in the
summer. By informing OPP of the hours during the day in which your unit’s space is in use,
you can help to customize your space’s occupancy schedule and further reduce energy
consumption.
An occupied mode refers to your normal working day. During these times the temperature
range is set to fall between 70 and 75 degrees. In an unoccupied mode, OPP schedules
your space’s temperature range to fall between 62 and 80 degrees, depending on the
season.
By resetting temperatures we can reduce cooling and heating cost in an unoccupied
space and reduce the amount of time equipment runs. One degree in temperature change
can result in a 5% cost savings as well as the associated reduction in electricity, coal, gas,
and oil usage on campus.
In 2009 Penn State adopted AD64, a wide-ranging
energy policy aimed at lowering the University’s energy
consumption through employee and student action.
This 12% Energy Challenge is part of a series of programs
that support smart energy use and make changing
habits as easy as possible.
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Additional Steps
Use natural light instead of a desk lamp
Using natural light saves energy and also provides intangible benefits.
1. When natural lighting is substituted for artificial light sources, people are more
comfortable and energetic.
2. Satisfaction and higher productivity are correlated with natural light.
Replace incandescent with compact fluorescent bulbs in desk lamps
1. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFL) use 75 percent less energy than incandescent
light bulbs. That means CFLs require less wattage to produce an equivalent amount of
light.
2. Even though CFL’s have a higher initial cost of purchase their reduced energy needs
and increased lifespan will save money over the total cost of ownership.
3. 70% of power plants are coal fired and thus burn fossil fuel to produce energy. These
power plants will emit 10 mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an
incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4 mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same
time.
Use power-operated doors only when necessary
Power-operated doors require the use of energy and they let out the heat and AC. Avoid
using these doors except when necessary.
In addition, if your building has revolving doors, utilize these as much as possible. Revolving
doors are energy efficient. They prevent drafts, which prevents increases in the heating or
cooling required for the building.
Over the weekend, try at least one of the actions at home
Take what you implement in the office and apply it at home! You’ll notice a difference in
the amount of energy you consume and the amount of money you save.
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Appendix
What is Sustainability? How Does it Impact You?
Sustainability is not just about the environment. It’s about a better way of doing things.
Sustainability, as defined by Penn State, is “the simultaneous pursuit of human health and
happiness, environmental quality, and economic well-being for current and future
generations.”
Let’s look at personal health through the lens of sustainability. Living sustainably means
eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, and exercising enough to keep your body
happy. With a healthier body, you can more actively pursue the hobbies that you enjoy.
We can extend this concept to issues facing Penn State, such as providing reliable, clean,
and efficient energy. At its core, sustainable energy means decreasing energy use and
increase energy savings. While we might look to solar panels and windmills as the answer,
they might not be the best solution at this time. Solar panels are still developing and are
expensive; windmills are not viable in all terrains. Sustainable energy may be as simple as
conserving power by turning off your computer or by using natural lighting from windows
rather than overhead lighting.
Every single one of us can make a difference. Incorporating more sustainable daily practices
into our lives is the first gust in a wind of change. By learning to take small steps, we can work
toward a positive and healthy future for all.
Thank you for the steps you are willing to take!
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