Staff Editorial: Conserving energy at night

We at The Lawrentian have noticed that some buildings on campus are lit at all hours of the day. This seems to contradict Lawrence’s well-advertised commitment to a sustainable and eco-friendly campus. There are small changes that we as a community could make to conserve a substantial amount of energy on campus.

The Warch Campus Center is open 24 hours a day. Subsequently, most of its lights are on all night as well. Although we are aware that the building is still in use, we suggest that only the lights on the third floor be left on. The other lights could be motion-activated, so they would only be activated when needed.

Students can also help to save energy around campus by making the effort to turn off lights that are not in use. In residence halls, most hallway, bathroom, computer lab and lobby lighting is left on all day. Students can simply switch off lights as they leave a room.

Especially at night, students can turn off the lights in their hallway. In Hiett, for example, the hallway lights cannot be manually turned off. These lights could be dimmed at night, or a manual switch could be installed. Also, RLAs could make an effort to turn off unused lights at night, and to encourage their residents to do the same. While we understand the need for safety or emergency lights at night, dorms like Hiett use an excessive amount of energy to light the hallways at night.

We at The Lawrentian commend Greenfire for already placing numerous reminders around campus to switch off lights that are not in use. We also commend efforts to save energy in the Mudd’s bathrooms — the lights are usually off, and must be manually switched on. However, we encourage the University to extend these efforts to larger buildings on campus — especially ones that are not in use at night. Students can do their part as well, by making it a habit to turn off lights on campus when not in use.