For inauguration day, Green Campus Interns gathered several employment announcements from various employers in California and across the nation and called upon CSUSB students to become the next leaders of a green economy. Interns also displayed President Barack Obama's Energy and Environmental Plans to stress to students the measures that the new administration was gearing up for. It was a monumental day for our country and it's energy efficient future!

Every year the Green Campus Program brings it's state wide program together, including Interns and Stakeholders from 12 California campuses, for networking, training, and to update everyone on the current trends in energy efficiency. This year's end of year summit was held at UC Irvine on January 24, 2009. Highlights of the three day summit include:

• a comprehensive one day intensive in which GCP Interns were educated about new technologies, student best practices, and the importance of academic integration of energy efficiency.
• a career panel including representatives from Southern California Edison, the Food Technology Center, TAS, Trane, and President of the Alliance to Save Energy Kateri Callahan. Representatives spoke on how what employers are looking for, the current state of the green job market, and answered several questions from the primarily student audience.
• the Wold Cafe in which students mingled with Stakeholders to brainstorm new project ideas and discuss the invaluable information gained over the previous days of the summit!

What better way to share the love than via Valentine's Day Postcards! Postcards were hand-drawn by Green Campus Intern Rebecca Rivera and contained educational energy efficiency information, such as the importance of replacing incandescent bulbs with compact florescent lamps as well. Four different postcard versions were created, topics ranging from Phantom Load to Green Jobs! Green Campus Interns encouraged students to read the postcards themselves and then send them off to those they love. Overall, 60 postcards were distributed and Interns were eager to suggest that to be energy efficient was the best way to Love the Earth!

Green Campus Interns Sarah Mercurio and Rebecca Rivera were joined by Team Lead Jennifer Alvarez and several of their campus Stakeholders for a conversation about potential projects as well as past successes. Attendees included Jon Mohoroski, EHS Director, Louie Alvarado, Residential Life and Housing Maintenance Director, Michelle Dyck-Turner, HVAC-Waste Division, Phil Westbrook, Chief Energy Engineer, and John Muir, Network Analyst. The meeting covered projects such as academic integration, networkbased power management software for computer energy efficiency, and a Shut the Sash campaign modeled after previous campaigns run by other campus' Interns. Stakeholders were very responsive and excited about all the ideas covered and the Green Campus Interns hope to get the projects off the ground for the next school year!

Green Campus Interns Rebecca Rivera and Sarah Mercurio teamed up to relaunch the program's office energy audits. The Women's Resource Center was eager to be the first to participate!

Office Energy Audits allow Interns to survey an office's typical daily energy use by plugging watt meters into all electronic devices. A baseline watt usage is then calculated into daily, monthly, and annual energy use. Interns analyze this data, looking for ways that energy can be used more efficiently or, in some cases, can be cut out completely. General lighting is also scrutinized for ways to cut back or use natural resources before flipping the switch.

Green Campus Interns recommended that the WRE share one refrigerator, use an energy efficiency setting on all computers, and also suggested that staff install the power management software available to them through the campus. Interns were also excited to see that most electrical devices were already plugged in to powerstrips, and that natural daylight was being used in place of artificial lighting! In total, the WRE has the potential to save 1,474.80 kWh annually, or $206.47 per year. This savings would also prevent 2,335 lbs. of CO₂ from entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The Green Campus Team attended the Adult Re-Entry Center's Women's Work Event, which celebrates women's progress through live performance and art display. This years event had a red theme, but what event doesn't need a little green? Interns Sarah Mercurio and Rebecca Rivera handmade felt keychains to educate attendees of their cause. Compact florescent lamp (CFL) and power strip shaped key chains were also adorned with informations leaflets explaining what the key chain stood for. The CFL key chain would remind use more energy efficient light sources, and the power strip key chains would suggest the importance of properly using power strips, not only to organize your electrical devices, but to cut out phantom loads when such devices aren't in use!

Celebrating the Earth is an every day occurrence for the CSUSB Green Campus Team, but on April 22, 2009 the Team joined other CSUSB clubs and organizations to celebrate Earth Day! The Green Campus Program brought out the Relay for a Brighter Future, where students raced each other through energy saving obstacles to win a free power strip!

The Green Campus Team also put out a pledge board where participants could state how they planned on celebrating Earth Day every day. Over 200 students, faculty, and staff signed a personal pledge on the sheet of paper, and Interns posted the pledges in the Santos Manuel Student Union for all to see and add to! Pledges consisted of reminders for people to "Go Green!" and promises of action such as "I will take shorter showers," or "I will turn off my lights."

Though the Department of Health Science and Human Ecology was previously audited by Green Campus Interns, the Department's new office in the Natural Sciences building had yet to undergo such a survey. Green Campus Interns Sarah Mercurio and Brett Griffin revisited the department in May to find that many of the behavior modifications suggested after the initial audit were still being practiced by the staff! Half lights were being used in place of full lights, and if applicable daylight with chosen over all else. In addition, personal printers were found turned off and compact florescent bulbs were in use.

Of course when it comes to energy efficiency, there is always room for improvement. Green Campus Interns found that one refrigerator could be shared by all, which would generate a significant amount of savings for the office as a whole. By adopting the current suggestions offered by the Green Campus Team, the department could save up to 992.54 kWh per year, or $138.96 annually. This is a total of 29% of the department's total energy use that could be squelched by simple behavior changes!

Hosted at UC Santa Barbara from June 21-24, this year's Sustainability Conference was themed, "Working our way to Zero." Green Campus Interns Sarah Mercurio and Brett Griffin joined Interns from the other 12 Green Campus Programs across the state to attend and engage in the conference, as well as the Green Campus Program's End of Year Meeting, also held at UC Santa Barbara.

The End of Year Meeting kicked off the conference events on June 21. Interns from across the state gathered to share their project ideas and enthusiasm. Interns introduced themselves as many were new to the program, some best practices experiences were shared, and after a recap of the programs expectations a Project Bonanza took place. During this Bonanza Interns grouped together to discuss new exciting project ideas that were forming and formulated next steps and networks or resources that could be used to make said project be a success!

During the Sustainability Conference, CSUSB Green Campus Interns attended various sessions that covered topics from student-led initiatives to marketing strategies. Interns also took a tour of the wetland conservation project that is currently underway UC Santa Barbara's campus. At the awards dinner, CSUSB's Chief Engineer Phil Westbrook accepted the award for Best Practices in Monitoring-Based Commissioning, which was awarded for monitoring-based commissioning of the Chemical Sciences Building.

The conference ended with a last round-up of students from diverse programs and campuses at the Student Convergence. These sessions were primarily taught by students and focused on training. CSUSB Green Campus Interns attending sessions on job searching, brining a Green Fee to the college campus, and waste audits.

As always, the UC, CSU, CCC Sustainability Conference reinvigorated the CSUSB Green Campus Team. Interns left feeling eager to work on new projects, reach the student population, and spread word about the growing importance of energy efficiency!