UMD Facilites Management is recruiting interns to turn off campus building lights

When walking around the University of Maryland campus late at night, students may notice something strange — it’s bright. Many buildings have their lights on.

This university’s electricity usage for 2014-15 is “trending in the wrong direction,” according to the latest available Office of Sustainability progress report.

The usage has increased from 267,313 mega-watt hours in 2013-14 to 271,233 mega-watt hours in 2014-15, according to the report.

However, just this year, The Princeton Review and Sierra Magazine nationally recognized this university for its sustainability efforts.

Sierra Magazine ranked this university as the 13th greenest campus in 2014 and 27th in 2015.

While it’s typical for facilities management to leave hallway lights on in buildings for safety reasons, Mary Ann Ibeziako, Department of Engineering and Energy director for this university, said they have noticed an excess of lights left on in buildings.

Turning lights off in academic buildings when they’re not in use is something Ibeziako said she hopes to tackle this October during National Energy Awareness Month.

In past years, the Student Government Association also developed programs to encourage the campus to reduce its use of electricity — with a little fun.

“We have addressed this issue by going to academic buildings at night and making a competition to see which groups can turn off more light bulbs in different parts of campus,” Maya Spaur, SGA sustainability director, wrote in an email.

This year, Facilites Management will recruit student interns to help with a “Turn Off the Lights” campaign that aims to reduce the use of unnecessary lights, said Julie Kromkowski, special assistant to the associate vice president of Facilities Management.

“The interns in the company of our Facilities’ personnel will first be tasked with auditing the buildings at night, turning off non-safety related lights and developing a communications plan,” Kromkowski said.

The communications plan will “inform the building occupants to simply turn off the lights when leaving at night and also show the financial implications of their behavior,” she said.

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the university’s Office of Sustainability is recruiting “Turn Off the Lights” interns. The sustainability office is supporting the campaign, but Facilities Management is recruiting interns and running the program. This story has been updated.