Electric Co-op Today

Could free pizza be the secret to energy savings? When targeting college students, the answer is probably yes.

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, students in one dorm went so far as to win an EPA competition to save energy. (Photo By: UNC)

Dangling a pizza party for the dorm that saves the most energy is just one way that co-ops can get involved in what’s becoming a new trend: college dorm energy competitions.

“Pizza really does work. These are hungry college kids,” said Brian Sloboda, senior program manager at NRECA’s Cooperative Research Network. “They respond to pizza. They respond to trophies, so if you’re pitting one dorm against another dorm, the winner gets a trophy.”

CRN and its strategic business partner E Source have compiled a report on these competitions and how co-ops can get involved. For many co-ops, it’s a good deal.

“They tend to be low cost, but really high visibility—you can get a lot of public relations value out of it. And you can also, at the same time, help one of your key accounts—the college or university—save a lot of energy and, in turn, a lot of money,” Sloboda said.

First: the savings.

“In the contests that have been done in the United States and Canada, you typically see somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 20 percent energy savings per building,” Sloboda said.

Some contests have risqué names, such as “Do It in the Dark,” that can make CEOs nervous. But Sloboda cautioned co-ops not to treat college students the same as their parents. The younger generation responds to edgier material, not the serious messages and marketing materials for older members.

The result, Sloboda said, has been some “really creative competitions that get some good, positive public relations for the local utility.”

“In some colleges that have done the ‘Do It in the Dark’ campaign, some of the students actually moved out of the dorm, lived in tents for the month that the contest was going on,” Sloboda said. “When they did that the media came and showed what the students were doing and how the utility was partnering with them.”

And utilities that participate in dorm competitions reap bonuses beyond energy savings.

“The college administration is very happy because they’re reducing their energy bills. Tomorrow’s member is very happy because the utility cares about them and wants to help them out, and is seen as more human,” Sloboda said.

“It makes the utility look pretty cool. And when you’re competing for tomorrow’s workforce—especially now that electric utilities are high-tech companies—having that cool attachment to your name could help.”

Registered users of cooperative.com may click here for the CRN/E Source report.

Tags: Cooperative Research Network, Efficiency and Conservation, Energy Efficiency