Dorm Energy Competition - Office of Sustainability

Do it in the Dark takes place in October each year. Help your dorm win!

Each fall, the student group Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO), with Office of Sustainability (OOS) support and sponsorship, hold a competition for residential halls on the Medford campus to reduce energy usage during a month-long period.

ECO and OOS focus on getting students' attention focused on simple things they can do to save energy. The contest is widely publicized with flyers, chalking, posters, ads in the school's newspaper, etc. ECO and OOS hand out stickers, glow-in-the-dark condoms, and flyers with tips on how to save energy, such as:

What You Can Do to Save Energy

Turn off your lights when you leave your room.
Turn off your computer monitor when you aren't using it for 15 minutes or more.
Trade in your light bulbs for fluorescent bulbs that last up to 10 times longer.
Turn off your computer when you aren't using it for an hour or more (restarting it does NOT use more energy than letting it run), or at least turn it off overnight.

OOS and ECO also hand out compact fluorescent bulbs to students. Over the last couple of years, more than 3,000 bulbs have been given out to students and faculty. Read more!

The contest focuses on competition among dorms, inspiring students to save more energy than their peers. Electricity usage is monitored throughout the month-long contest, with the help of the Tufts Energy Manager, Betsy Isenstein, and Tufts facilities staff.

OOS helps plan the event, designs and produces promotional materials, and helps evaluate the results after the contest.

Student Comments:

"Signs in the bathrooms asking people to turn off lights were very effective. Students said they felt like the signs gave them permission and otherwise they feel like the lights must be on for a reason and they're not allowed to turn them off. One student said that she felt that 'she didn't have any authority outside of her room.'"

"Students mostly think about saving energy in terms of saving money, not in terms of 'saving the environment.'"

"Students think about turning off lights to save energy but not about turning off computers."

After the contest period, ECO determines the results of the month-long program. The winning dorm is treated to a celebration with food, entertainment, and prizes.