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From the Dartmouth College of Public Affairs:

This animated polar bear lets students know how well they’re conserving energy.

The initiative, Green Lite Dartmouth, aims to educate Dartmouth students, through real-time feedback, on how much energy is used, for example, by a hairdryer, a microwave, or a laptop. Green Lite Dartmouth will also serve as a resource for students looking for ways to reduce their energy use.

[...]

At the April 24 program launch event, Green Lite team members will be passing out energy-saving devices like compact florescent light bulbs and power strips to make energy conservation as easy as the flick of a switch.  Neel Joshi ‘11,  a member of the Current Reductions team said, “the program will make energy conservation tangible. The demands on students will not be monumental - no studying in the dark or hand-washing clothes. The changes we are suggesting are very reasonable, things like turning off unused lights, using a power strip, and taking shorter showers.”

The most visible aspect of the initiative will be real-time, animated displays in the common spaces of the Rauner, Bildner, Goldstein and Thomas residence halls. The displays, broadcast on low-energy monitors, will show an animated polar bear, designed by Sonia Lei ‘08, at various levels of comfort or distress, depending on the amount of energy being used in the building. Low energy use equals a happy, healthy polar bear. High usage results in the bear suffering the effects of global warming. “The polar bear animations were chosen to give a simpler representation of what still seem to be far-distant effects of humans’ energy consumption, and to visualize those effects on the bear while offering some level of interactivity,” said Lei.  The touch screen displays can also be used to view graphic representations of overall dorm performance in energy savings. The website, and eventually, the display will also provide a record of the residence halls’ energy use over time, enabling students to see whether they have made progress in reducing overall energy use.

Green Lite Dartmouth is the brainchild of Lorie Loeb, the co-director of the digital arts minor and research assistant professor of computer science. Inspired by the vision of the late Donella Meadows, a professor in Dartmouth’s environmental sciences department, Loeb worked with more than a dozen undergraduates to develop the technology, educational and design components of the initiative. Loeb and the Green Lite team decided to implement the pilot program in four of the McLaughlin Cluster residence halls, which opened in the Fall of 2006.

H/T Dartlog.