Get Clean! Power Your Room Green!

Get Clean! Power Your Room Green! is a joint initiative of the Tufts Office of Sustainability and the campus undergraduate organization Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO). The voluntary carbon offset purchasing program emerged after student wind referendums passed with an overwhelming majority in two successive years. These referendums, which called for a $20 per year increase in the student activities fee to be allocated to a wind energy purchase, are non-binding, thus leaving the final decision in the Trustees' hands.

The administration was unwilling to institutionalize the fee increase, so TCI and ECO launched Get Clean! Power Your Room Green! as a way for students to individually pay to offset the energy consumption of their dorm rooms.

Students purchase offets through TCI with Points Plus, cash, or checks. They may choose to pay $10 to offset their energy use for a single semester, or $20 to offset a year's worth of energy consumption. TCI then uses this money to purchase Renewable Energy Credits.

ECO initially researched the possibility of purchasing RECs from local wind energy providers. Although investing locally is preferable, the local wind market is far less developed and the cost of New England wind RECs is substantially higher than in other areas. The group decided to purchase from 3 Degrees, which sells RECs certified by the Green-e(r) Renewable Electricity Certification program. ECO determined that 3 Degrees' RECs, although from Midwestern wind farms, are more reliable, more cost effective, and have a larger overall carbon impact than those offered by local providers. To date, we have had over 250 students sign up for the program, and it will continues to grow as we partner with Residential Life's Housing lottery, table in the campus center and dining halls, and 'dorm storm' throughout the semester.