Recycling water bottles, avoiding driving long distances and taking shorter showers are several approaches to helping the environment.

Students in residential halls are also able to track their efforts to “go green” by watching a television screen that shows the amount of electricity consumed in dorms.

The PackPulse, an energy conservation project that the Inter-Residence Council, Student Government and Token Energy Technologies are hosting, is an energy competition between Owen and Syme halls throughout October and November. The purpose of the competition is to stimulate the residential halls towards lower energy consumption on campus.

Matt Peterson, IRC sustainability chair, said this will encourage students to change their usage habits, which hopefully will reduce energy usage noticeably in the two dorms.     

“With involvement of student organizations, the results of this change can be popularized on campus and lead to even more energy reduction as a greater population of students realizes the importance of saving energy,” Peterson said.

According to a PackPulse executive summary, the goal of the project is to increase awareness of energy issues to students, faculty and visitors of the University and to continue the search to find the most effective means of displaying energy data through analytical and behavioral research and experimentation.

Anup Engineer, the founder and president of Toke Energy Technology, said the group wants to inform students about energy usage so they can become aware of their own behavior about conserving energy.

“Our goal is to increase energy awareness of the students and increase the environment profile of the University, and hopefully get people consciousness of good energy habits,” Engineer said.

Kylee Phillips, Inter-Residence Council president, said when students live in residential halls, they do not have to pay for utilility bills, and it makes it harder for them to conserve energy.

“If they give some energy up, students can actually see the number of electricity reducing on the television screen,” she said.

Phillips said the amount of electricity being consumed isn’t going to change unless people change their habits.

“That’s what this project is aimed for,” Phillips said. “We want PackPulse to make students realize the importance of conservation and to increase their knowledge of conservation.”

Over the past year, Token Energy Technologies has worked with University Housing and student groups to move the project from an idea to a working system called Smart Meter. The system is operational in Owen and Syme.

Engineer said to present the electricity consumption data to students in a manner that allows them to see their energy usage, it would make students more informed of their habits.

“This is an active way to environmental change. It is purely an upside to conserving energy,” Engineer said.

Philips said there are lot of different movements and projects going on campus and its all for the same cause to save energy.

“This is a different approach to sustainability. It’s more in your face, actually showing you the results of the electricity consumption. This will make people realize that conservation is big,” Philips said.

Peterson said his favorite part of the movement is PackPulse’s potential to encourage change in students’ behavior — a change that will involve a lifestyle choice that will be beneficial for the environment.

“By giving students the chance to experiment individually and as a group to see how their personal energy usage affects a larger sum of usage, they will see that their actions can have an affect,” Peterson said. “This will encourage students to change their usage habits, which hopefully will reduce energy usage noticeably in the two dorms.”

According to Peterson, the energy competitions that will occur during the next two months will bring the energy conservation issue to the forefront for the two residence halls, and students will learn the best ways to conserve energy when they get involved.

“In a way, Packpulse isn’t just about solving the energy conservation problem, it’s also about solving the problem of our generation not being motivated to address the issues of the day,” Peterson said.