Business View Magazine - June 2016 87
Another program is called SLU Energy Madness. “It’s
a competition among the residence halls to see which
hall can reduce more energy,” says Verhoff. “It’s a
bracket style – kind of like March Madness. Whoever
wins the last round gets to go to the next round. To
further promote the program, we include energy am-
bassadors in each of these residence halls. They’re
drumming up support, giving tips and information,
turning off lights, and doing those things that reduce
energy usage.” The University’s two energy suppliers,
Ameren Missouri, the area’s electricity supplier, and
Laclede Gas read the residence halls’ meters at the
completion of each round and forward the information
to Verhoff. “Ameren is sponsoring energy ambassador
first, second, and third place winners of the competi-
tion by providing a box seat for the students to go to a
St. Louis Cardinals game,” he adds.
Regarding the school’s physical plant, Verhoff reports
that, last summer, SLU installed nine solar arrays on
nine different campus buildings. “They’re each 25 KW
and produce approximately 30,900 kWh annually” he
says. “They offset the equivalent of 191 metric tons of
carbon dioxide annually.” The school partnered with
Ameren’s solar incentive program, which helped de-
fray the project’s costs. In addition, two new residence
halls, which are currently under construction, one to
open in the fall, are being built to LEED Silver stan-
dards. “Highlights of the project include LED lights and
a bio-retention area to collect storm water from the
