[email protected]
Tips for a Sustainable
Campus
How to have an impact this winter break
Sustainable Dorms, Page 1
As the New Year is just around the corner, we are all excited to go
home for a well deserved winter break. Before leaving campus, UA
Sustainability has made a list of effortless tasks that could have a huge
impact on the energy usage of our campus dorms or living groups. For
those who are staying over, we have also included some general tips to
keep your room warm and bright in the most sustainable ways.
To make things more interesting we have chosen Bananas (any
Minion fans or 9gagers out there?) as a metric of the impact each student
could have by inheriting these changes. We hope you enjoy this list and
please contact us in case of any questions, or additional advice!
The Banana Prelude
• 1kcal (1 Cal) = 4200J
• 1 Banana = 105 kcal = 630 kJ
• You need at a minimum 4 bananas a day to survive1
Tips for a Sustainable lifestyle
1. Electricity Usage
A. Replace your lightbulbs:
‣ A traditional 100W 1600l Incandescent bulbs is consuming 13.5 bananas per day
‣ A same luminosity 20W LED bulb reduces your energy usage to 2.7 bananas per day!
‣ Life Hack: Representatives of FILGs and dorms can contact us to provide their group
with free 11W LED lightbulbs!
B. Turn off all lights and electronic devices when not in use: Turning everything off for a
day in an average dorm room can save about 26MJ or 41 bananas!
C. Vampire Energy: Most appliances even when turned off, still use some electricity, so
make sure you unplug everything before leaving for Winter Break.
1 This
diet is the minimum intake requirement from an energy perspective, not a nutritional
Sustainable Dorms, Page 2
‣ Unplug all chargers when not in use
• Plugged charged laptop: 4 bananas per day
• Plugged laptop charger: 4 bananas per week
• Plugged phone charger: 2 bananas per week
• Rechargeable toothbrush: 1 banana per month
• Convection microwave: 3 bananas per month
2. Thermal Efficiency
A. Close you windows during winter! 25% of daily heat loads are due to windows
‣ Even if some dorms are heated unevenly and your room is feeling very hot, do not
open your windows since the thermostat will keep pumping more heat up because of
your open window.
‣ Instead buy a humidifier: Moist air holds heat better and creates a more soothing
environment! Even if it feels cold a humidifier will help.
B. Shower using mild water: 5ºC colder water consumes about 50 bananas less per
shower. Conventional shower heads have a flow rate of 6lt./min, so make it quick!
3. Recycling-Composting: Know the difference!
A. Recycling: Plastic, Metals, Cardboards, Paper, Glass (not pizza boxes with grease on
them!)
B. Composting: Food, used paper napkins (UA Sustainability is striving to bring compost
bins on non-dining dorms)
C. Batteries recycling on all dorms and W20.
D. Cell phones, PDAs, pagers, CDs (CD cases), cables and wires: Technocycle bins
located in most Distributed Mail Centers (W20 and all around main campus)
E. Monitors, CPUs, TVs, printers, copiers, mice, keyboards, speakers etc: Any MIT
member can request a free pick from your location through Atlas2
4. Resell and reuse old textbooks, clothes and appliances! (sign up @ mit.edu/reuse)
2
https://atlas.mit.edu/atlas/
Sustainable Dorms, Page 3