With an average electric bill at University Park costing about $1 million each month, Penn State is pursuing several initiatives to decrease its energy bills and reduce its ecological footprint.

Reducing campus energy usage allows for the redirection of funds to other aspects of campus life, said Laura Miller, energy conservation engineer for the Office of the Physical Plant (OPP).

Student involvement in these initiatives has the potential to limit tuition increases, said Sean Flynn, the facilities chair of the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA).

"Twenty-five percent of each student's tuition goes to [paying for] energy. When I heard that, my jaw just dropped," Flynn said.

After receiving positive feedback, the Take Charge campaign plans to extend its initiative to the entire campus in the fall, with the ultimate goal of reducing energy consumption by 30 percent campus-wide, said David Manos, the assistant director of housing.

Take Charge was developed to involve not only student groups but also the general student population in the implementation of Penn State's environmental initiatives, through education and awareness campaigns, Manos said.

Paul Ruskin, communications coordinator for OPP, hopes that Take Charge will teach students that by helping to run the buildings efficiently, they're reducing pollution, improving health and reducing their ecological footprint.

One student-initiated project within the Take Charge campaign is Friday Night Lights Out, a project that involves about 35 student volunteers gathering on Friday nights and turning off light in campus buildings' classrooms and bathrooms.

"The main goal [of the program] is to promote service, awareness and conservation. It's an easy thing that over the year makes a difference. Everyone can make an impact, do some good on campus and hopefully, think about what else they can do to protect the planet," said Dawn Snyder, the project's student organizer.

Take Charge began as part of a Guaranteed Energy Savings Program, one of three categories into which the OPP divides its environmental projects, said Robert Cooper, OPP's director of energy and engineering. Projects within this category are generally the most expensive, but the cost of the energy that is saved through each project actually pays for the project itself, Cooper said.

The Guaranteed Energy Savings Program funds energy-efficient building improvements, such as new lighting, water-saving faucets, showerheads, and toilets, and insulation and mechanical system upgrades, Miller said.

The second project category is Continuous Commissioning in which a team of technicians and an engineer "tune up" existing buildings, primarily through improving the efficiency of the buildings' HVAC systems, Cooper said.

The final project category is Energy Conservation Measures -- smaller-scale, individual projects. For example, Energy Conservation Measures was responsible for plugging some holes at the Bryce Jordan Center so that energy didn't leak out of the building, Cooper said.

OPP is attempting to adopt a comprehensive plan that sees the connections between all of the processes that are needed to run campus, Cooper said.

In addition to attempts to reduce energy use on campus, OPP's projects include examining all university business practices to see how they can be environmentally improved; making sure that all new buildings adhere to the standards of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design; limiting the use of pesticides; and promoting reuse and recycling through campaigns such as Trash to Treasure, Ruskin said.

Penn State's environmental initiatives are part of a growing trend among both individuals and organizations in the United States to "go green," according to msnbc.com, which also notes that environmentalism is currently on the rise in the United States.

Ruskin defines Penn State's take on this trend as a comprehensive plan designed to affirm the slogan that "Penn State makes life better."