Walking through Luther Bonney this past semester it was hard to miss the group of campaigning students who called themselves the “Window Warriors.” This was the most recent campaign of the USM Green Team, whose past efforts in the fall of 2006 involved covering light switch covers with sticker bearing the phrase “Flip it Switch it Turn it Off.” Their most recent campaign focused on conserving heat by shutting open windows. At the end of the semester the Team released a report of the campaign results during a public forum on December 18th at USM’s Wishcamper Center in Portland.
The Green Team of ’08 comprised of five students from Professor Nancy Artz’s BUS 398 class, Marketing Practicum. Besides being part of this experiential learning class, the campaign helped USM to meet the goals of two environmental initiatives it has signed, the Governor’s Carbon Challenge and the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment.
The goal of the campaign was to try to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the University while also trying to cut heating costs. Professor Artz states she was very pleased with the amount of greenhouse gas that was reduced due to this campaign, but in her opinion there were more important successes of the campaign. She is most proud of how much her students learned and the amount of general awareness they raised.
“We changed behavior for some individuals that will last beyond the two week period we measured,” says Artz. “Just because we only saved so much greenhouse gas emissions from Luther Bonney over a two week period, doesn’t mean that people aren’t thinking about their behaviors in Masterton or Payson Smith or at home and will do so over the long term.”
Artz also adds how extremely impressed she was by the effort and work put in by the students of her class.
“My students were great, really great,” says Artz. “They did the project entirely on their own. They designed, ran, and evaluated a marketing campaign. You can only learn so much from lectures and multiple choice tests. At some point you have to do.”
The students from the Artz’s business class also considered the campaign a success and the experience wonderful. Michael Brett, the student project coordinator, was extremely pleased with the results that both reduced wasted energy and saved USM a notable amount of money.
“My team felt very good about the results because it showed that our actions were noticed by the USM community and people were actually listening to the environmental needs of USM,” says Michael. “Other than that, the experience of running a real social marketing plan as a small team of students was a unique and eye-opening experience into the realm of marketing that we all will surely remember for a long time.”
Despite the positive reception by the majority of the student body, there was the occasional negative comment. Someone wrote “Climate Nazis” across one of their fliers. But overall, Artz says she has noticed an increase in environmental awareness at the University since 2006.
“There was a greater receptivity this time to the campaign goals,” says Artz. “I think there has been a shift in cultural acceptance of climate change and human cause of climate change.”
Amanda Sarver, a senior Business student and the research coordinator of the campaign, agrees that one of the most important successes that resulted from the campaign was the level of awareness raised around campus.
“Even though we didn’t see a dramatic decrease in the number of windows left open we did see a big increase in awareness. For us this was success,” says Amanda.
Nancy Artz is unsure whether there will be another Green Team in the future due to budget issues, but she sees this class as a small part of a bigger change. She hopes that the awareness and issues raised by this campaign will continue to encourage people to change their behavior. This, according to Artz, is the only way to bring about real change.
“Most people in America say they’re concerned about the environment, but if you actually look at their behaviors it doesn’t necessarily correspond with the level they themselves say they care about the environment,” says Artz. “We’re creatures of habits and social norms so it’s important to not just educate people, but get them to change behavior patterns. This class was one small part of a much bigger piece of culture change.”