Go Cold Turkey!

Go Cold Turkey! is one of our favorite events of the year. Before Thanksgiving, we hold a campus-wide challenge for students to sign a pledge to Go Cold Turkey over the break to save some energy. The winning dorm then receives a free breakfast of apples, donuts, and cider from the Farmer's Market.

This year, over 320 students signed the pledge--a huge success! John Jay was the winning dorm with 121 pledges, a full 26% of the dorm's population.

Below is the text of the pledge, with some extra info at the bottom.

Pledge to Go COLD TURKEY! 5 + 1 steps to saving energy

1. If you're going home for the holiday, DON'T FORGET to turn off
all your lights in your dorm room while you're away! It's also
important to unplug all your appliances (you'll need to plan ahead to
make sure you won't have any perishables left over in your fridge before you leave!) and other electronic equipment from the wall sockets. Even when they're off, or when there's no cell phone or ipod plugged in, they continue to use energy, so remove them from their sockets. Turn off any power strips you have too.
2. Close your windows tightly to prevent heat leaks.
3. Turn off heating/air conditioning systems, and don't block them when they are on.
4. When at home, convince your mum to turn down your thermostat a few degrees, and keep all windows and doors tightly shut.
5. Switch your light bulbs from regular incandescent to energy efficient Compact Fluorescent light bulbs. Each bulb can save 110 pounds of coal per year!
6. Change computer to "energy efficient" settings
• Windows 98/ME/2000/XP– Select Start, Settings, Control Panel, and Display. Select the Screen Saver tab. Choose a predominantly black screen saver and set it to wait for 5 minutes. Click on Power to reach the power management settings. Click the Shut Off Monitor box
and set for 10 minutes. Click Ok or Apply.
• Macintosh– Select System Preferences from the dock (OSX) or click the Apple and select Control Panels (OS9). Select Energy Saver. Under the Sleep tab you can enable your computer, display, and hard drive to go to sleep mode after a period of activity.

Please visit:
www.energystar.gov
www.columbia.edu/cu/environment
(be sure to check out the Guide to Green Living)
Contact adz2101@columbia.edu for info about Eco-Reps
for more information on how to save energy, or to page an EcoRep, see the EcoReps website: http://ecoreps.environment.columbia.edu/ecoreps-index.htm