Anyone with a ComEd electricity account can help Northwestern win the Big 7 Savers Challenge while enjoying local discounts and vying for a year of free electricity.
NU, along with the six other biggest employers in Evanston, including Evanston Township High School, Rotary International and the City of Evanston, are competing in the contest to recruit the most members to reduce electricity bills with the free Citizens Utility Board Energy Saver program. The program tracks an individual electricity bill online, rewards savings with points and provides tips on how to reduce electricity use.
One member from the two winning teams will be chosen to receive a year of free electricity worth up to $1,800. Any member of the NU community with their own ComEd account, including off-campus students, faculty, staff and parents can sign up and receive discounts and coupons for retailers such as Macy’s, Best Buy and iTunes. The program kicked off last month and will continue for the rest of the year.
The Green Ribbon Committee, comprised of representatives from the seven largest employers, planned this first event to reduce Evanston’s carbon footprint and achieve sustainability, said Catherine Hurley, Evanston’s sustainable programs coordinator.
“One of my main missions as sustainable programs coordinator is to help the city operations, as well as the community as a whole, reduce our carbon emissions, and residential energy is our largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions, so we thought that this contest is a great way to help rally the whole community to a common goal that would also reduce our carbon footprint,” she said. “This is very unique in the sense that as a community we decided to create a contest where we would challenge each other within the community to save energy.”
The City of Evanston introduced CUB Energy Saver to Evanston by partnering with the Citizens Utility Board last August, and this competition is the first of its kind after a pilot program in Illinois this January, said Jim Chilsen, a spokesman for CUB.
“Evanston is the pioneer, and the reason is that Evanston has a lot of people who care about the environment, care about energy efficiency and care about their bottom line,” he said. “Everybody loves to save money, everybody loves to shop and we’re using those incentives to draw people to energy efficiency.”
The competition is still in its early stages, but NU Facilities Management has already included the link in an email to faculty and staff about Earth Hour, an annual sustainability movement held March 26 that encourages people across the globe to turn off their lights for one hour, and there are plans to promote the program via newsletters, Northwestern News and the Mount Trashmore event next Friday, said Julie Cahillane, manager of recycling and refuse at NU.
“This is a tool for individuals to use to learn more about their energy usage and work towards reducing energy use, which will save them money,” she said. “We want the NU community to engage in this and learn how they can save money on their home electricity bills and reduce energy use, and we want to support Evanston in this competition and their efforts to reduce overall community energy use.”
