Smith
Students to Receive EPA Award
This year’s
Rally Day Show, on Tuesday, February 21, at 8 p.m. in John
M. Greene Hall, will include a different kind of award presentation
as representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency drop in to give a certificate to President Carol T.
Christ and the student org Clean Energy for Smith.
Last fall, Clean
Energy for Smith (CES) led the way in an energy-saving student
campaign among Smith, Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges to
activate a device on their computers to automatically power
down monitors when not in use. The campaign was part of the
nationwide Million Monitor Drive, a program of the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
For signing up
the most students among the three colleges in that campaign,
CES and President Christ will receive a Million Monitor Drive
certificate from the EPA during the Rally Day Show.
CES signed up
1,852 students in the campaign (Mount Holyoke took second
with 1,325 pledges, Amherst gathered 831), which will collectively
save thousands of dollars a year and substantially reduce
emissions from power plants.
In addition, Smith
received 350,000 kilowatts worth of Renewable Energy Certificates,
which can be exchanged for zero-emissions electricity, such
as that generated by wind power. The certificates were awarded
by Community Energy, a Pennsylvania company that promotes
the use of wind-generated energy.
The certificates
will be used to purchase enough wind-generated electricity
to power all of Smith’s student computers for a year,
saving 250 tons of carbon emissions.
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