CALS Green

Energy Conservation and Sustainability Initiative

at the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Sticker Shock

• Cornell uses the equivalent of .1% of NY state electricity

• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is the largest college consumer of energy

Motivating Behavioral Change

Phases of Behavioral Change:

Education

Motivation

Repetition

Understanding AudiencePre-Pilot Construction Survey Highlights

• 64% response rate • Consistent support for conservation and high levels

of awareness• Opportunity: “It is not my responsibility to help Cornell reduce

it’s energy use.” 85% disagreed or strongly disagreed• Challenge: “If I wanted to, I could reduce my

energy use at work.”12% disagreed, 30% neutral, 45% agreed

Sample Building Profile (Bradfield Hall)

Partnerships

Institutional challenge: Time a scarce resource/competing demands

Education• Social Networks; Facebook vs. Twitter• Leverage Internet to motivate personal

change • Embedded Research Elements;

several disciplines including behavioral science, environmental engineering, and computer science

Repetition: Web/Individu

al Inter-action

(Web partners: CMU, NSF, Google, Intel)

http://staging.cornell.stepgreen.org/

Motivation: Friendly

Competition

• Participation in Stepgreen

• Carbon reduction as measured by personal actions

• Spot checks• Energy savings

Higher Goals• Wine and Cheese• Saving the planet• High Visibility Maintained by:– Weekly updates on building competition communicated in

publicly visible way – Video competition– Recognition for individuals who go above and beyond– Branding– Buy-in by central– Building awards – party for winners at end of year