Since 2015, the Environment and Development Centre (EDC) has hosted a competition for students to reduce the electricity use in their dormitories. Once they’ve completed the competition period, the staff review the data and determine the students’ rankings. Then they host a ceremony to congratulate the winning students. The students competed separately based upon their dormitories: the Student Hostels and Cultural Village (SHCV) and the New Cultural Village. This time on 3 March, they awarded a total of 25 students from the fall 2015 competitors. More than 150 students competed last semester.
The EDC team welcomed Vice President Prof Cong Zhang and Whole Person Education Office Director Dr Haipeng Guo to share words of encouragement with the students.
Vice President Prof Cong Zhang
“Here, I see people who study hard, carry their own weight, and also mind their step,” said Prof Zhang to the participants. “They try to leave the softest impact on our environment.”
WPEO Director Dr Haipeng Guo
Dr Guo explained that “saving energy is one of many ways we are happy to see students gain environmental awareness in Whole Person Education.”
Energy Fighters Team
The 1st place SHCV winner was Zhuoqun Xiao. Two competitors shared the New Cultural Village’s 1st place: Yuehua Zhao and Yutong Sun.
In SHCV, 2nd and 3rd place winners respectively were Xin Zhang and Pei Miao. The New Cultural Village 2nd and 3rd place respectively awarded to Dehua Zhang and Weiming Shi.
The SHCV winners from 4th through 10th place were as follows: Binwei Wu, Yun Yu, Qiqing He, Ruoqing Lan, Keyan Wang and Baoqian Jiang (tie), Haoming Xin, and Liting Ma and Yonghui Xu (tie). The New Cultural Village’s winners from 4th through 10th place were the following: Tianyuan Wang and Yuxin Li (tie), Miao Zhang, Yasen Lv and Siji Tao (tie), Yuying Chen, Anjia Liu, Sushan Liu, and Ruide Huang.
(From left) WPEO Director Dr Haipeng Guo, ISO Director Lawrence Yeung with the New Cultural Village 5th Place Winner Miao Zhang, and MC Chris Hall and Kai Wang
“Estimated at 10 months, if every student used as little as the 1st place [New Cultural Village] winners, the New Cultural Village would only use 221,000 kWh, and save an outstanding total of ¥740,000 or 755 metric tons of CO2 from expulsion into the atmosphere,” explained MC Chris Hall.
After they received their awards, the 1st place winners shared their advice. They recommended to “spend less time in the room and more time in public spaces,” “use the air conditioner as little as possible,” “not spend too much time in the shower,” and “go to bed early.”
1st Place Winners Yuehua Zhao and Yutong Sun
This advice might be more applicable than one might initially consider. Using shared or public spaces theoretically minimizes air conditioning and lighting in the same way as public transportation does gasoline. Air conditioners and shower heaters are the most energy- demanding utilities in the dormitories, so managing them should have a definitive impact on one’s power consumption. Going to bed early might seem like odd advice, but this idea is actually implemented quite frequently just to save energy. In many countries around the world, time zones shift back an hour during what is known as Daylight Savings Time.
EDC hopes to boost the number of participants to at least 300 this semester. All students are welcome to join.
Writer: Chris Hall
Editor: Siutai Tsim
(from the EDC, with special thanks to the ELC)
