The UW-Madison ""We Conserve"" campaign is a proposal by the university to cut energy consumption by 20 percent by 2010, supported by the university and the state government and is lacking only in student involvement.
""Twenty percent is going to be a very difficult goal to reach if we do not tackle the HCV systems in the building—heating, cooling and ventilation accounts for nearly 70 percent of our energy costs,"" said UW-Madison ""We Conserve"" Program Director Faramarz Vankili Zadeh. ""That is the 800-pound gorilla that we need to hit.""
""We Conserve"" is being implemented at the same time as Gov. Jim Doyle's announcement last week for his plan to have four UW System universities—Green Bay, Oshkosh, River Falls and Stevens Point—become energy efficient by 2012.
At the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, academic programs advisor to undergraduates Mary Mercier said she knew of no student involvement on the campaign, though she said it was likely the initiative was being discussed in class.
James Miller, graduate advisor at the Nelson Institute, also said he did not know of any specific graduate work being done with the campaign, though he suggested graduate students often work on an individual basis and frequently come into the program with their own ideas from previous energy project experiences.
""They might have a particular research area or topic in mind when they get here,"" he said, noting that after their graduate work is done, they often become involved in Madison energy campaigns.
Another factor cited by Miller was that, in the Nelson Institute, only four students are in the Energy Analysis and Policy Program.
Zadeh said all existing campus buildings would be evaluated on an individual basis, scanned specifically for efficiency.
While these actions may not be heavy in student involvement, Zadeh said this was only one of four general strategies: evaluating systems' efficiencies, informing people, establishing reasonable expectations and expecting responsible actions.
Zadeh said there are 27,000 university-owned computers on campus and approximately 50,000 student-owned. He said simply putting the university computers in sleep mode when not in use will save the university up to $1 million.
""This will require everyone keeping [energy] down, from all levels and layers, from people making budget decisions at the state levels to the person using a computer,"" he said.
