Bennett College – Ifeoma Henry-Ajudua – 2011

Ifeoma Henry-Ajudua and Bridget Wilson spent their summer as EDF Climate Corps fellows at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Established in 1873, Bennett College is an all female, historically black college.

For 10 weeks, Henry-Ajudua and Wilson conducted an extensive survey of Bennett’s historic residential halls, the new green residential hall, and water usage. A primary recommendation for the residential halls was replacing T12 lights with T8 lights, which have lower wattage and longer life spans. The payback period for this investment could be less than one year with Duke Energy incentives and energy cost savings on the new bulbs. Henry-Ajudua and Wilson also found that placing the residential halls in a temporary mothball status during vacation and summer months would generate savings of about $35,000 per year. In addition to identifying energy saving opportunities, the fellows assisted the college in creating student and faculty initiatives to build the spirit of energy efficiency and champion future energy projects.

Overall, if the fellows’ projects are implemented, Bennett could reduce its annual energy costs by almost $400,000, save about 860,000 kWh each year, and keep 470 metric tons of carbon emissions out of the atmosphere.