Building Energy Signs - Delivering the Shocking News about Energy Costs

Submitted by Niles Barnes on October 2, 2008 - 2:11pm
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The below article is from our friend Walter Simpson, the recently retired Energy Officer at the University of Buffalo.

On a busy campus, raising energy and environmental awareness can be difficult. It becomes a challenge to find effective ways of getting the message out there and getting attention when so much else is going on.
Over the years at the University at Buffalo we tried many approaches to encouraging participation in our energy conservation program. While drawing attention to the dollar saving potential of energy conservation typically only got attention from the upper administration and facilities staff, the wider campus community was generally more impressed and more motivated by the environmental benefits, e.g. by saving energy, we can reduce fossil fuel reliance and greenhouse gas emissions.

An exception to that rule was the building energy signs we installed in the vestibules of every campus building, an example of which is presented here.

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When we installed them, they got everyone's attention! It was not unusual to see students or faculty standing just outside the vestibules discussing the signs - having been surprised or even shocked by their dollar magnitude. The reality is that most people on campus never see (or have to pay!) the energy bills for the buildings they use. Sharing the numbers with people can bring that huge expense home and, in so doing, jolt at least some people into caring more and making a bigger effort to join in campus energy saving efforts.

Successful energy awareness requires a certain relentlessness on the part of campus energy educators as well as creativity to make what you do fresh and new so it continues to get attention. Thus, to remain effective, these signs should be updated each year - with a new sign design as well as updated numbers -- something we have not done because of the time involved. Of course, you could take this one step further and include signage describing conservation measures undertaken in each building and the savings they produced. This takes time, and there are trade offs (doing this vs. something else which might produce more savings), underlining the need for full-time energy staff and an active crew of student assistants to help with tasks like this.

For more from Walter Simpson on campus energy issues please see his webinar presentation, “Reducing Greenhouse Gases and Achieving Climate Neutrality” at: http://www.haleyaldrich.com/nodes/74.aspx?path=/knowledge_sharing/publications/&NewsId=94. This one hour PowerPoint with audio is available at no cost thanks to webinar sponsors APPA and Haley Aldrich.