The Energy Conservation and Alternative Futures Fund is allocating $25,000 to students with project ideas in sustainable energy, conservation and energy education on campus.
Students, staff and faculty are encouraged to submit ideas in the next month to help continue the advancement of sustainable energy and increase awareness about the effects of energy production on the environment.
Last spring, 80 percent of student voters supported a 60-cent increase to the incidental fee, which now costs each student $191 per term, to improve energy conservation projects on campus. A report by the Environmental Leadership Program, which is part of the University’s
Environmental Studies Department, proposed the fee increase in the ballot measure. The vote led to the allocation of $11,400 to help support wind-energy for the EMU.
The goal of the April ballot measure was to raise more than $36,000, said Steve Mital, University sustainability coordinator. After the EMU project, $25,000 remains in the conservation fund.
“We’d love to see buildings become more energy efficient and we’d like to see projects that highlight energy (awareness),” Mital said.
According to the Environmental Studies Service Learning Program, the University is the third largest energy consumer in Eugene, behind Weyerhaeuser and Hynix.
“The University uses more energy than all Eugene city governmental buildings put together,” according to the Environmental Leadership Program Web site. The EMU, according to the futures fund Web site, constitutes about 5 percent of the University’s energy use.
As a result of efforts to power the EMU with wind energy, the University was 1 of 12 campuses to receive the National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Recognition award for the 2004-05 academic year.
The number of groups that receive funding and how much they receive will depend on how many proposals are submitted. Mital said there could be 25 groups receiving $1,000 each, or the $25,000 could be split between three groups.
Any student or student organization, as long as it is registered with the ASUO, is eligible for a grant.
A committee of students and faculty will decide which projects deserve the most funding before sending its recommendation to John Moseley, the University’s senior vice president and provost.
“ECAFF strongly encourages those submitting proposals to demonstrate ways in which they will increase awareness of their projects to the campus community, create leadership opportunities for UO students, and where appropriate, leverage faculty support and expertise,” according to the project proposal guidelines.
Projects should aim to decrease energy consumption of campus buildings, modernize technology to save energy, promote “wise use of energy both on and off campus,” teach the campus community about the pros and cons of conventional and alternative energy sources, and inform people the environmental impacts of energy production. Projects must be completed within one year of award date, according to the guidelines. Applications are due Feb. 21 at noon and must be e-mailed to Mital in PDF format, according to the futures fund Web site.
For more information contact Steve Mital at [email protected] or visit uoregon.edu/~ecaff.
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