Each November, the Office of Campus Sustainability organizes New Paltz Unplugged, a three-week energy conservation competition between residence halls.
How to Reduce Energy Use in Your Residence Hall:
- Use power strips and turn off when items not in use.
- Wash clothes in cold water on the brights setting.
- Turn off electronics when not in use.
- Turn off lights when leaving a room.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Do laundry only when you have a full load.
- Throw a glow-in-the-dark party with glow sticks.
- Play board or card games instead of computer games.
- Exchange an incandescent bulb for a compact fluorescent at your RA office.
- Change your computer’s power setting to sleep mode after 5 minutes.
Electricity Use Trends in Residence Halls
- From September 2013 to September 2014, all of the residence halls used ~4.7 million kwh of electricity generating over 1,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (MT CO2) at a cost of ~$500,000.
- Residence Hall electricity use represents approximately one quarter of the total electricity use on campus.
Past New Paltz Unplugged Winners
- 2015 – Esopus Hall
- 2014 – Tie between College/Shango Hall and Gage Hall (Fall competition)
- 2014 – Gage Hall (Spring competition)
