Beloit College to install environmental dashboard

Beloit College is taking another step into an environmentally friendly future, as Steve Huss-Lederman's capstone course builds an environmental dashboard that will track energy usage in residence halls.

“The purpose behind it is to give students a sense of their impact,” Sustainability Coordinator Lindsay Chapman told Whitney Helm of Campus News. “The complaints I get are two-fold, with facilities saying students don’t know their impact, leaving windows open in the winter, while students want to know their impact: how much energy does it take to run a dorm room?”

Submeters were installed in Aldrich, Chapin and Maurer residence halls last summer. The submeters can break down energy usage by floor in the buildings. The dashboard will allow students to view their energy consumption by the week on an accompanying website.

Huss-Lederman's class consulted with other schools and professionals while building the dashboard. The dashboard, while being implemented at Beloit, will not be specific to the college. Other schools are interested in using it to monitor their own energy usage. It is scheduled for implementation before the spring semester ends.

Chapman and the five students that make up the energy team are already looking for new ways to use the energy data once the dashboard is installed and implemented.