MU energy use decreases
Published April 18, 2008
An MU student was recognized Wednesday for coming up with an innovative solution to decrease global warming worldwide.
The National Wildlife Federation awarded junior Jason Fox and the Student Energy Conservation Society a $1,000 grant at its national competition, Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming, for his essay on how to reduce global warming.
The contest, which asked university students to write or broadcast their ideas on behalf of their universities, took place at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Fox, who is also president of the Student Energy Conservation Society, said he was excited to receive the award.
“I’m very happy,” Fox said. “I am even more happy about being able to recognize what the university has been doing for so long in a way students are actually aware of it.”
Fox’s essay was based on the energy conservation program that MU energy management uses. In his essay, Fox presented various solutions to decrease global warming, like building audits and burning bio-fuels in power plants.
He said the grant the Student Energy Conservation Society received would go toward advancing scientific projects by the organization.
“We are actually going to use it to buy the necessary equipment to basically test various batches and blends of bio-diesel that we are going to make from waste vegetable oil around campus,” Fox said.
At the competition, MU was also given an energy efficiency award for its energy conservation work on campus. Ever since MU began its energy conservation program in 1990, energy use on the campus has reduced by 19 percent while the campus has grown by nearly 60 percent, according to a news release.
MU Campus Facilities Associate Director Phil Shocklee was particularly happy to see the award come by the efforts of a student. Shocklee said MU over the last decade has made it a focus to be a more energy efficient campus.
“We are always looking at how to provide the most economical utilities for the campus,” Shocklee said. “We have been working on energy conservation since about 1990, and we continue to look for ways to conserve energy for the environment.”
Energy conservation efforts have also helped decrease MU’s energy costs by $4 million annually. Emissions produced by the campus have been reduced by 96,000 tons, according to a news release.
Sustain Mizzou President Ben Datema said the majority of people on campus sees the benefits of changes organizations like his promote, thus making energy conservation a more attractive topic.
“The primary way we attempt to influence campus energy efficiency is by advocating to and working with various groups on campus to influence campus policy,” Datema said.
Datema said Sustain Mizzou typically receives positive feedback for its work.
“We typically get a lot of cooperation from administrators and the rest of the MU community,” Datema said. “We have seen a lot of positive reactions and results from our past efforts.”
The NWF’s Webcast of its competition is available at nwf.org.
