Iko Congo is finalizing a project that consists in trying to study the effectiveness of the use of stickers in reducing electric consumption in student households.
These efforts are part of an entry to npower’s Future Leaders Challenge, a competition in which university students were invited to plan and implement an innovative project to help their community live more sustainably. The team, named SmartSwitch, is composed by fellow 2nd year undergraduate students Alex Waugh, Justin Allen and Jean Dupouy.
When they were reflecting on the problems that afflicted the community, they realized how common it was for students to leave the lights on when leaving a room, and after some research on the matter decided it would be innovative to see what impact could ‘turn it off’ stickers have on reducing the energy consumption in student households. They have put up 1040 stickers in over 200 houses owned by LUSU Living, letting company associated to the Students Union of Lancaster University, where the students are based, and 175 stickers in 25 houses in a student accommodation block in the Netherlands where one of their members is studying-abroad.
