Human behavior directly impacts energy use.  As such, there are huge opportunities for lowering carbon emissions on campuses simply by changing the way students, faculty, and administrators carry out activities.  In addition, changing behavior is often one of the least expensive ways to lower carbon emissions on a campus.  In practice, though, teaching people to conserve energy is often a challenging task.

In the U.S., our "energy ethic"-the way we think about and use energy-has developed mostly during periods of cheap and abundant oil production.  This "fossil fuel paradigm" consists of deeply ingrained behaviors and attitudes, many of them wasteful and unsustainable.  Changing this paradigm often requires persistant and thoughtfully planned programs linked to clearly defined goals and objectives.  Complicating this effort is the fact that programs designed to change energy-use behavior are not always easily traced to direct cost savings, and so may be harder to justify.

However, all over the country, campuses are instituting programs that are helping people to conserve energy, and hence, lowering carbon emissions.  Successful behavior change programs show campus residents how they can lower energy use, teaching skills and knowledge that make it as easy as possible to change their behavior.  Through campaigns and other means of communication, they also show why this is important, teaching the environmental consequences of their energy choices or the value of their local resources.  Programs also provide incentives for behavior change, offering immediate benefits for saving energy.

How:
Many campuses are encouraging their students to power down their computers during periods of non-use, instead of using screen-savers.  Tufts University implemented software on their campus that automatically powers down computer monitors when not in use.  Tufts estimated that having its students and faculty turn off their computers between one and five hours per day would avoid 590 tons of annual carbon emissions and save up to $90,000 in electricity costs.

The State University at Buffalo has developed an entire campaign, "Conserve UB," that teaches an ethic of conservation throughout the campus. Printed materials, including posters and pamphlets describing energy-saving behaviors for transportation, electricity use, recycling and waste management, and others are produced and distributed to students or posted on campus.  Documented savings are in excess of $10 million dollars annually and $100 million since the beginning of the program.

Why:
Many institutions are recognizing the value of educating for sustainability on their campuses.  In order to successfully implement a Climate Action Plan, those who work and live on campus need to be fully "on board" with policies and programs where their active participation is required.  This is assured through education that aims to teach the value of resources, how to use them wisely, and the consequences of not doing so.  In addition, sustainability education can serve to unite the campus community by fostering a common understanding of the challenges faced in seeking to live and work sustainably.

Northern Arizona University and Emory University have implemented faculty development programs that have collectively helped approximately 200 faculty members integrate sustainability concepts into over 300 courses in virtually every discipline.  The University of Georgia has made coursework in environmental literacy a requirement for all graduates.  And Arizona State University recently established the world's first School of Sustainability, offering BS, MS, and PhD level sustainability-focused degrees and minors in Law, Business, Education, and many others.

Incentives:
Cornell University has decreased personal vehicle use through raising parking fees, redrawing parking systems to favor carpooling, integrating school transit systems with the city's, and granting free public transit throughout the county to anyone who doesn't get a parking pass.  These measures have saved 417,000 gallons of fuel and 10,000 vehicle miles traveled annually, reducing emissions by 51,100 tons over twelve years.

As part of the WildCAP project at the University of New Hampshire, students are encouraged to save energy in their dorms by being offered the opportunity to purchase Energy Star products and energy-efficient fluorescent light bulbs at a discount at local distributers.

Green Campus, a student-run conservation program at UC Berkeley, carried out a compact-fluorescent lightbulb (CFL) exchange program that swapped students' incandescent lighbulbs for 15 watt CFLs. A conservative estimate of the savings netted by this program was around $2,000.  In addition, the program coordinated an energy-saving competition within the residence halls.  The hall with the greatest savings was awarded an ice cream party and its choice of a ping pong or pool table.