The University of Southern Maine, which is conducting several energy-saving initiatives on its Gorham and Portland campuses — including running Portland’s new Abromson Center for Continuing Education entirely on wind power — recently welcomed its first ever Sustainability Squad, a crew of between seven and 10 undergrads who trolled the Portland campus this summer changing light bulbs, measuring energy output, and insulating attics. The current Squad is made up of one woman and six men, none of whom are environmental-studies majors.
“It was amazing to see the change we could make in such a short amount of time,” says Chase Martin, 22, a political-science major and a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. Last year, Martin and another frat brother pressured other members of Phi Kappa Sigma to trash their energy-gobbling mini-fridges. Later that year, Martin saw an ad in the campus newspaper for summer work conserving energy on campus and applied for a job on the Squad. Materials for the Sustainability Squad are paid for with a $10,000 anonymous donation. The school pays the students an hourly wage.
So far, the Squad has replaced about 350 incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescents, insulated nine attics, wrapped a dozen water heaters, and air-sealed 24 basements in the old wood-frame structures that house many of the university's academic departments. They’ve also replaced dozens of steam traps to contain wasted heat in classrooms, replaced hundreds of air filters, surveyed the energy output of water fountains and mini-fridges, and held dozens of discussions with administrators, staff, and faculty on saving energy for the health of the planet and the health of the university’s finances.
"I think that the anxiety that's being created [about the environment] is a money issue," says squad member Shaun Herget, 21, a criminology major. "People in America need motivation and what better way than saving money?"
According to Robert Caswell, spokesperson for USM, the school hopes the Squad’s work will save 10 percent of its $2 million annual energy costs, or about $200,000 a year. The Squad is overseen by USM’s facilities management department and will continue, assuming students want the work, through the fall.
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This Just In
, University of Southern Maine
