Creighton University’s GreenJays, a student organization aimed towards raising awareness and encouraging participation in environmental activism and sustainable practices, is hosting the return of its annual Energy Madness competition with the help of Creighton’s Office of Sustainability. Until April 7, Creighton residence students will be challenged to reduce their consumption of energy within their residence halls.   

“Energy madness is a bracket style competition between the residence halls with the overall goal of saving more energy and spreading awareness for students on how to save energy. So basically, we created a bracket system where we matched up different residence halls and then we compare their energy usages to their previous year energy usages,” vice president of the GreenJays and College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Addy Lawse said. “So, each hall is basically competing against itself. And whichever hall reduces its personal energy consumption by the highest percentage within each bracket match…will move on to the next section… [until] you reach the final winner.”  

During the three-week challenge period, which began on March 17, the Office of Sustainability is monitoring and analyzing the data collected regarding the energy consumption of each residence hall on a weekly basis via meters that are embedded in the building’s electrical panels. These tools are known as EnergyCAP meters, which were installed by Optimized Systems, an external company that Creighton has contracted for eight years to better record their energy consumption and improve energy efficiency.  

According to Office of Sustainability Programs Director Andrew Baruth, once the data is collected from meters that measure the electricity, water and steam the building utilizes, Optimized Systems will then calculate, record and use these findings to compare the energy consumption of the current tenants to the previous year’s tenants within that residence hall. These meters also monitor the uses of natural gases; however, this data will not be included in the data for this competition.  

“So, [for] McGloin Hall, you would compete against McGloin Hall from one year ago. So…day for day, week for week, how does your usage today compare to that exact same hall, [but with] different people. … We looked to see ‘how much did you save?’ And then we normalized it by how many people are in your hall. And we say, ‘All right, you saved 2% of your energy since last year. So, you did 2% better than the cohort who lived in McGloin last year.’ And then we put you…against Deglman and we say, Deglman, you try and do this too. Can you beat 2%, right? So can you do 2% better than whoever lived here a year ago? And what’s been fun then is that every year we do this, we get more and more data,” Baruth said.  

As the success of Energy Madness is heavily reliant on resident student participation, there are many ways one can go about conserving energy.  

Baruth mentioned some of the smaller aspects of energy consumption that this challenge focuses on, such as unplugging cords and shortening the amount of time individuals use things like hair dryers.  

Clara Hasemeier, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the president of the GreenJays, has participated in Energy Madness since her freshman year.  

“I was…unplugging my lights all the time…whenever I was leaving. If I was done charging my phone, I would unplug it. I tried taking cold showers, but that really did make me miserable. So I wasn’t super effective, but I took short showers to save water,” Hasemeier said.  

For Hasemeier and Lawse, the practice of energy conservation has been integrated into their lifestyles prior to their participation in Energy Madness. However, they are aware that this way of living can be challenging for new individuals.  

“I would say that you don’t have to change every single thing about your life. I think the most effective goal is a realistic one. So, obviously, you’re not going to be like ‘I’m just not going to use any energy all three weeks of Energy Madness.’ … You’re a college student. You need light and computers and everything. So, I would just say set realistic goals so…you can stick to it. That consistency is what’s going to make a difference. … Set a realistic goal and go from there,” Hasemeier said.  

 According to Baruth, Lawse and Hasemeier, there are many benefits from participating in Energy Madness. For instance, there are two ways participants can win prizes for themselves and their dormitory. For the individual, students can visit the GreenJays’ table in the Skutt Student Center, which will be open in the afternoon for the next two weeks, to scan a QR code and create their own brackets to predict which residence hall will win. For each bracket they predict correctly, they will be entered into a raffle to win a merch basket. As for the residence halls, the residence hall that conserves the most energy by the end of Energy Madness will receive Kookaburra cookies for its residents.  

Students can also benefit through the idea of self-growth and the fulfilling feeling from helping impact the planet positively.  

“It’s always good to change something about yourself and about your life for the better. … So, doing something on an individual scale [that] is something that is a little different…[is] a fun new challenge. … You literally can see the reduction [in energy] of the dorm that you live in…[so] just knowing that you’re doing the tiniest thing for the environment is really rewarding and impactful,” Hasemeier said.  

Throughout Energy Madness, students can see their residence hall’s progress in real time via the monitors displayed around the university. The bracket’s graphic will display which hall is competing against another, along with a color-coded progress bar that shows how much energy the residence hall has conserved compared to the prior year. Hasemeier and Lawse hope that by being able to visually see the impact students are creating, it will provide even further encouragement to continue engaging in healthy energy consumption far beyond the time frame of Energy Madness.  

“I think…part of Creighton’s mission is [to] care for creation and sort of [integrate] that [into] care for the whole person and the environment. … It is part of our responsibility to help care for the earth,” Lawse said.