If students toting light bulbs have recently visited your dorm room, you've met the group behind the CHEER Program. Short for Campus Housing Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program, CHEER is a partnership between Strategic Energy Innovations and Quantum Energy Services and Technology—both environmental consulting firms—to work with students at universities within the Southern California Edison service area to promote energy efficiency.

Funded entirely by Edison, this project teaches students to perform energy audits on their campuses and offers incentives for replacing standard, less efficient light bulbs with more economical, compact fluorescent ones—better known as CFLs.

"There are multiple benefits to CMC through this program," says Brian Worley, director of facilities & campus services. "The students learn useful skills and gain knowledge about operating facilities in a sustainable manner. The College benefits not only through reduced operating costs, but also because these students can train other students and help in assessments of buildings that were not part of the original project."

Students perform a comprehensive audit of all light fixtures in a dormitory, from hallway lights to the types illuminating EXIT signs. Noting the types and numbers of the fixtures, CHEER volunteers then plug that information into a database that analyzes each residence hall's energy use on an annual basis.

This same analysis allows students to compare current energy use to more efficient lighting procedures, and calculate the costs of retrofitting, as well as the overall savings from decreased power usage.

Participants say the scope of the project also will involve future demonstrations of green, sustainable living for college students living in dormitories. Worley says students and representatives of the project are meeting to determine where this demonstration space will be, and also discuss the variety of sustainable living practices and products on display.

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CHEER pays for the distribution of 1,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs in dorms across campus. Earth-minded students may also like the fact that "used" incandescent bulbs gathered are donated to a local homeless shelter.

CHEER participants, from left: Anna Kheyfets '11, Aubrey Doede '11, Matt Bradley '10, Shae Blood '10, Emily Meinhardt '10, Brian Worley, director of facilities and campus services.