Wiktoria Parysek | Considering the green

Last week residents of Gregory College House, received an e-mail informing us that Facilities would be replacing the showerheads with new, water-conserving models. I was very impressed - the Oxygenics showerheads will save millions of gallons of water and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions (natural gas is used to heat the water). It is also predicted that the costs of the showerheads and installations will be offset just four months after the replacement.

A few days later, however, this replacement was postponed "until further notice." They'll be replaced this summer instead. But it got me thinking about "greener" energy. Penn has many ongoing projects to help reduce energy consumption and decrease costs. Selected residents of Harnwell College House have been participating in an energy-consumption awareness project. Through sensors mounted in their rooms and apartments, students can monitor their real-time energy use. This project, launched in 2007, aims to make participating students more aware of lamp hours, air conditioning and water consumption. Top that effort off with the much-publicized purchase of wind energy and the Penn Environmental Group's annual light bulb exchange, and Penn is definitely doing its part to save the planet (and dollars).

Most of Penn's efforts at individual energy saving, though, go on behind the scenes - particularly through improvements to residential living, like the installation of the Oxygenics showerheads. According to Ken Ogawa, executive director of Operations and Maintenance in Facilities and Real Estate Services, the Oxygenics models are some of the best on the market. They have already passed a pilot program in Kings Court/English College House, and Facilities plans to install 1,000 units across campus by the summer. Hopefully, too, students can now stop complaining about the quality of the hygienic experience at college. Ogawa says, "[I]nternal mechanisms enrich shower water with up to 60 times more oxygen to deep-clean skin, help fight free radicals and improve circulation." I've heard less-catchy language in brochures for day spas.

With a shower like that, though, one could assume that students will actually spend more time showering. Not that this is a bad thing, but that could eliminate some of the savings earned from the new technology. This raises the question of responsibility - a question that has been asked many times during this era where everything and everyone has to be "green." Students pay a one-time fee at the beginning of the year and then proceed to use as much energy as they want. Often, they leave it to Penn to be their environmentally aware conscience. But even though Penn is taking responsibility for campus energy conservation, it doesn't mean that students should be taking a back seat.

While simply being aware and better educated might teach them some good habits, it is not enough to make students fully responsible for their energy use. On-campus residents need to realize the extent of the energy waste going on around them.

By charging students utilities similar to the way off-campus landlords do, students would become more consistent in their energy-saving habits and better prepared for life A.D. (after dorm). Apathetic students would no longer leave the room without turning all lights off or leave the air-conditioning or heat running unnecessarily when there's money on the line.

While Ogawa says that a project on the individual suite or room scale would "not be practical or feasible from an operational standpoint within the University structure," he does say that the University already manages energy use per college house. By calculating the overage or underuse of energy for each dorm, Penn could reward those students making a difference.

The base price at the beginning of the year could be the same, but depending on whether the overall dorm saves energy or not, the students would receive a credit towards their next bill or they would face an overage payment. This system would force students to be aware of the strain overconsumption is putting not only on our campus but also on the rest of the planet, and to do something about it.

It's a shame that saving the planet has to come down to money, but if that's the only thing students will respond to, then shake 'em down.

Wiktoria Parysek is a College sophomore from Berlin. Wiki-Pedia appears on alternating Fridays. Her email address is parysek@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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