TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!

The Energy Conservation Initiative

By: Victoria PanSophomore

Ridgewood High School

An Introduction Hi! My name is Victoria Pan. A couple of

months ago, I founded the organization, The Energy Conservation Initiative. Sponsored by Students for Environmental Action, the ECI implements multiple projects geared toward reducing my school’s energy consumption.

The Goals To raise energy awareness to all students

and faculty To serve as a model for other institutions

in our efforts to improve our carbon footprint

To educate others about this pressing environmental issue affecting our world today

To ultimately reduce as much of our school’s energy consumption as we can!

This is my school Ridgewood High School

1892 2010

Background It was early evening, after sports

practice. I was wondering in the halls of Ridgewood High School. The building was mostly empty; everyone had gone home for the day. However, I noticed that many of the unoccupied classrooms I passed by still had the lights left on.

THE LIGHT WAS LEFT ON!

This got me very concerned.

Time to put on my thinking cap…

I decided to do some investigation on this particular matter.

I talked to the janitors and Mrs. Shah, a science teacher, and from them I acquired some important information…

Me A janitor

RHS’s Lighting System 1 light bulb = 32

watts/hour Approximately 36 light

bulbs per classroom 94 classrooms in the

school Lights left on usually from

6:00am to 6:00pm (12 hours)

But the school day only goes from around 7:30am to 3:30pm (8 hours)

That’s four more extra hours of electricity use!

RHS’s Electricity Bill Last year, my school paid $354,444.99

for electricity!

Will we see a reduction this year?

Last year’s totalNow I knew something must

be done.

Turn Off the Lights!

Project #1

Start: December 23, 2009

The Process I partnered up with my friend, Kristina,

and we worked together to develop the project, “Turn Off the Lights!”

Our idea: To organize teams of students to raid RHS afterschool every Friday and turn off all the classroom lights.

We organized it into multiple steps: Step 1: Proposal Step 2: Organization Step 3: Implementation Step 4: Documentation

Step 1: Proposal

We put together a proposal and presented our project to our principal, Mr. Lorenz

We explained to him our goals to reduce RHS’s energy consumption through excessive light use.

Step 2: Organization We mapped out the school and allocated

a number to each corridor

Step 2: Organization At the Students for

Environmental Action club meeting, we presented our project to a large group of students, and many showed great interest. This was one of the sign-up sheets (we used it to assign teams of students to different areas):

Step 3: Implementation Every Friday afterschool, students report

to the usual meeting place to pick up a chart.

Then they take off and raid their area, turning off all the light switches in the classrooms

Every classroom that is completed is checked off on the chart.

Here are a few of the charts taken from over the course of the project:

Step 4: Documentation The charts will help us

document our progress and keep track of which rooms we have completed every week.

We will measure our progress by keeping track of all the lights in RHS and monitoring their on/off status. At the end of each raid, we will compile our results from the students. We will determine our success by examining the monthly electricity bills and checking for reductions in energy costs. We will also measure our progress by the feedback we receive from students and teachers about their energy habits and how much this project influenced them.

HOW WILL WE MEASURE OUR PROGRESS?

Feedback from the students“Turn Off the Lights is a great idea.  It's ridiculous that so much energy is wasted when solutions as simple as turning off a switch exist.”

-Sophia, junior

“It’s fun, and you meet new people. We have good times saving the environment!”

-Marc, sophomore

“It would be great if we were able to do it every day!”

-Kim, sophomore

Conclusion As an energy advocate, I want to do as much as I

can to reduce our world’s energy consumption. But because I know that goal seems far-fetched, I’m starting small. At Ridgewood High School– my school– there are so many opportunities available to cut back on energy use.

That’s why I’m taking the initiative. I am passionate about energy conservation, and I want to make a difference. Turn Off the Lights is just the first step in reducing RHS’s energy consumption.

In the future, I hope to reach out to other schools across the nation to share the concept of Turn Off the Lights. If other institutions follow our model, we can all share the ultimate reward: achieving a greener earth.

MY NAME IS VICTORIA PAN, AND I’M HERE TO SAVE ENERGY.

THE ENERGY CONSERVATION INITIATIVE