Village Green Wars March 23- April 17

Check the progess of the Village Green Wars on JMU's new electricity and water monitoring dashboard site:

http://buildingdashboard.com/clients/jmu/

Greetings Village residents!

This March and April join with the JMU Clean Energy Coalition (Green Team) to
win the second Green Hall Competition, a rivalry between village residents to
find out which Hall has what it takes to take care of the Earth.

For four weeks (March 23 – April 17) ORL and the Green Team will measure the
energy and water use of each village residence hall. At the end of the four weeks, 

we will tally all resource use, and there will be a fantastic prize for the hall with the 
greatest percentage reduction in energy use, declaring your hall's sustainable 
superiority! There will also be prizes for dorms which reduce their energy and water 
use by at least 10%.

By reducing your energy and water use, you will be showing all those older
generations that we care about our future. You will also start to realize how
much energy you use on an average day, and how much of it is not necessary.
But most importantly, you'll have the right to brag, the right to say (Fred,
Hanson, White, Ike, YOUR HALL!) is the Greenest Hall at JMU!

Throughout the four weeks of the competition, the Green Team will be keeping
you up to date on your hall's progress, and provide new ways to reduce your
resource consumption in the halls.

So, why should you care? The Unites States is by far the leading resource user
per capita of any nation in the world. With only 5% of the worlds population, we
consume 25% of the world’s energy. Our energy and water use also has direct
implications on the environment. The fossil fuels we burn are a major
contribution to global climate change. Also, over 50% of our electricity comes
from coal, which is increasingly mined through mountaintop removal, a form of
strip mining. In Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, mountaintop
removal has destroyed over 400 entire mountains, and buried more than 1200
miles of mountain streams; headwater streams that feed water sources from the
Mississippi to the Shenandoah rivers.

The JMU Green Team, AKA the Clean Energy Coalition (CEC), in addition to being
ex and current proud village residents, is made up of student organizations
from every corner of JMU. From the Association of Energy Engineers to
Geography Club, to Students for Free Enterprise and EARTH, and many others.
Your group can be a coalition member too, just come out to meetings on
Thursdays at 7:00 PM in TDU. Our mission is to move JMU into a clean energy
future, where 100% of our energy is produced through clean, renewable
sources. This year we are focusing on decreasing JMU student's energy uses by
10% over 2008. Help us reach this goal by becoming active in the Village Green
Hall Competition!

Join the JMU Green Team

Interested in joining the JMU Green Team? Drop a line to energy@jmugreenteam.com


Club involvement can include, but is not limited to: taking part in meetings, organizing energy and environmental events on campus, attending conferences, networking with other organizations, planning campaigns, meeting with JMU administrators, and influencing JMU policy for years to come. 

More organizations = A stronger resource base

Example member organizations: EARTH Club, Students for a Democratic Society, Geography Cub, Energy Club, Caving Club, Environmental Management Club, Net Impact, Office of Residence Life, Sociology Club, Anthropology Club, Latino Student Alliance, and others. 

Contact energy@jmugreenteam.com for more info!

Organizational Goals

Promote environmental sustainability at JMU through policy tools 

Encourage the production and purchase of renewable energy
Facilitate sustainability education at JMU
Empower students and member groups to become active in sustainable developments at JMU

JMU Green Team (Clean Energy Coalition) Mission

Our mission is to facilitate sustainable energy and environmental operating practices at James Madison University and to empower students and organizations to become active in campus events and policy. We strive to reduce JMU's energy use and carbon footprint through conservation and efficiency measures, renewable energy purchases and generation, education, and outreach events.

A New Energy and Environmental Policy

Congratulations to President Obama. A slew of new goals are listed at whitehouse.gov today but one page in particular should be of interest for any reader of this site: his energy and environment challenge.
Of note:
  • Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
  • Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
  • Put 1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars -- cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon -- on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
  • Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
  • Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

Good luck to the new administration from the Green Team.