SNG uses CFLs to light up campus How many students does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Ask SNG.

Author: Tom Brant

On Tuesday morning, several students wearing bright yellow jumpsuits invaded Stewart Hall. Carrying boxes of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), they knocked on the doors of startled Stew residents, encouraging them to reduce their dorm room energy use by replacing their old light bulbs with free CFLs.

These jumpsuit-clad students, members of Middlebury's Sunday Night Group (SNG), will continue their invasion of college housing throughout the week. Their goal is to distribute nearly 2,000 CFLs by Oct. 30, helping students, faculty and staff reduce their personal energy use on campus each time they turn on their desk lamp.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the new Energy Star-certified CFLs use a third as much energy as conventional light bulbs, saving an average of $30 or more in energy costs over its lifetime.

SNG member Sierra Murdoch '09, who participated in the first light bulb exchange last year, is organizing the current campaign. "Our ultimate goal is to get into academic offices and classrooms as well as the dorm rooms," she said. "It would be awesome to change every light bulb on campus."

Although using jumpsuits to promote awareness of the light bulb exchange is an idea unique to Middlebury, the SNG's invasion of the college is part of a national effort spearheaded by the EPA's Energy Star program during the month of October, called "Change a Light Pledge."

The campaign encourages people to make a promise to increase the efficiency of a certain number of light bulbs in their homes, and offers many ways for them to make good on this pledge - from discounted prices on CFLs to information about efficient energy use.

By pledging to replace nearly 2,000 light bulbs on campus, SNG has the opportunity to more than double the amount of light bulbs replaced so far in the entire state.

Vermonters have made 354 pledges and changed 718 light bulbs since the campaign began last fall, according to a report on the Energy Star website. By contrast, Massachusetts led the nation with 21,350 pledges.

Murdoch explained that light bulb replacements are just the beginning of a much larger effort to increase the College's energy efficiency. "It's a very good starting point," she said, "and it obviously helps out with increasing awareness of the carbon neutrality plan." Murdoch described how SNG will take part in an effort to reduce and eventually eliminate the College's carbon dioxide gas emissions over the next 10 years, which would decrease Middlebury's effect on global warming. According to a 2003 report on greenhouse gas emissions at the College, a wide range of initiatives in addition to light bulb efficiency can accomplish this goal - from encouraging the purchase of more hybrid and alternative-fuel cars to reducing the amount of solid waste generated on campus.

SNG is one of several groups at the College which has focused on the issue of carbon emissions over the past five years. These include the Environmental Council, which began discussing greenhouse gas reduction in 2001, and a J-Term course regarding the challenges of becoming carbon neutral. This class prepared a report in 2003, providing a detailed plan which outlines areas of the College where emissions can be reduced.

The most recent milestone in the College's effort to reduce carbon emissions is the Board of Trustees recent approval of the construction of an $11 million biofuel facility two weeks ago. The plan is to reduce the College's carbon dioxide output to below 1990 levels by 2012.

While greater initiatives loom on the horizon, for now, SNG members focus their energy on changing light bulbs as fast as they can in order to meet the Change a Light Challenge's October deadline. Middlebury students will continue to be startled by the army of brightly colored jumpsuits parading around campus as the SNG hands out the last of its energy saving light bulbs over the next week.

CFLS will be distributed throughout October during the hours of 8-10 p.m. For more information students can contact Sierra Murdoch.