CSB’s Aurora Hall turns out the lights, earns pizza party

Back in the early days of Monday Night Football, commentator Don Meredith would start singing a Willie Nelson tune when the result of the game was in hand.

“Turn off the lights, the party’s over,” Meredith would sing slightly off-key.

It turns out in 2017, residents of Aurora Hall at the College of Saint Benedict turned out the lights — and the (pizza) party will be starting soon.

Aurora Hall won the “Cut the Current” competition at CSB, cutting its energy usage by 17.8 percent from Feb. 13-24. The East Apartments placed second at 8.6 percent, and Lottie came in third at 8 percent.

Aurora’s residents won a pizza party for finishing first. The party will be held at a later date.

The information gathered during the competition was compared to baseline data that was collected at the beginning of the semester. Lottie Hall’s baseline was modified to subtract the energy usage of the Institutional Technology and CSB Health Services offices.

Nine total residences and apartments competed – three first-year dorms, three upper-class dorms and three apartment areas (East, West and Centennial Commons).   

As a whole, all the dorms and apartments reduced CSB’s total residential energy use by 6.1 percent during the competition. Residents saved 4,487 kilowatt-hours of energy, which is equivalent to 3.2 metric ton of carbon dioxide, according to CSB Sustainability Coordinator Elissa Brown.

“To put that number in perspective, that’s also the equivalent to 360 gallons of gasoline consumed, 3,415 pounds of coal burned or the amount of carbon three acres of forest can sequester in one year,” Brown said.