It's a pretty brilliant idea
Blog by Nadhirah, student ambassador, University of Warwick (UK)
It’s a pretty brilliant idea to incentivize energy-saving behavior, especially with such target-specific incentives such as the ones offered by Student Switch Off. I attended the ambassador training program at the beginning of the year and was pleasantly surprised by how they tried to target specific groups of people. I remember doing a puzzle where one had to match the incentive to the type of person. For the foodie, they offer Ben and Jerry’s vouchers; for numbers lovers, they publicize the percentage of energy saved with each act, and so on. It’s a lot like marketing, except for a selfless cause rather than profit.
Of course, signing up to be an ambassador has made me acutely aware of how my lifestyle impacted the environment as well. It started with small habits like turning off the shower whilst I apply shampoo. But then I started thinking, ‘How much more eco-friendly can I be?’ and I started leaving little notes near switches to remind myself to turn them off and putting on multiple layers and my sleeping bag before I resorted to the heater. So you lose nothing signing up for this. I’m glad I did!
