It is 9:27 p.m. and DU Environmental Team officer Lyndsay Thompson is outside sidewalk-chalking the campus to promote “DUET in the dark.”

DUET is an energy conservation initiative taking place winter quarter to educate students about the mass energy consumption on college campuses.

Thompson is a second-year member of DUET, the offspring of the DU Recycling team that started in 2001.

DUET is an environmental awareness group that tackles environmental issues one at a time, in order to make a difference both on campus and in the greater community.

The members of DUET are coming to the forefront of campus initiatives, growing in numbers and momentum.

“We’ve got a lot of energy and a lot of enthusiasm,” said Thompson, a junior at DU.

This year, the attendance to each meeting has been roughly 20 people, a significant increase from last year.

At each meeting, DUET members discuss their goals for the year and methods for putting them into fruition.

“Our two main goals this year are energy conservation and recycling,” said DUET officer Liz Pattison, a sophomore.

In addition to these goals, DUET has been working on getting the word out of the existence of the group, as well as finding ways to motivate students to care about the environment.

“We get involved with other clubs that help us explore the outdoors, this is a way to channel that interest in preserving the outdoors,” said Pattison.

Thus far, the group has made an appearance on the Driscoll Bridge, displayed their name in chalk throughout the campus and enlisted several students to be on their list serve.

Using the “eco footprint” to allow students to measure the amount of land and natural resources they personally use, DUET has been showing even the most environmentally savvy student that there is still room for improvement.

“I still have a long way to go,” said Thompson, who enlists her family in recycling everything in the house, including newspapers, cardboard, all types of aluminum containers and plastics. “But I am working on it.”

Before attending the Chancellor’s Roundtable on Monday, DUET solicited120 student signatures supporting recycling efforts to be proposed to the chancellor.

“He seemed very receptive,” said Pattison. “We are supposed to have a meeting with him in the near future.”

DUET was one of three organizations that were pushing for a more developed recycling program at DU.

In the past, several groups have addressed the issue of recycling on campus. As of now, DUET officers have uncovered that only 10 of the 75 buildings on campus offer recycling facilities.

“It is harder for people on campus, you are given a trash can but there is no recycling bin provided for you in your dorm room,” said Tracy Vlnicka, advisor to the Environmental Awareness LLC and long time advocate of recycling.

Students leading initiatives prior to DUET have been given several reasons why DU does not have accessible recycling.

“[I have been asked] who would pick it up? I have heard that it does not fit into the architectural scheme, there are always issues,” said Pattison.

Electricity conservation is another issue to be tackled on the DU campus by means of the “DUET in the Dark” campaign to begin this January.

College students use an abundant amount of electricity.

Students rarely turn off their laptops due to irregular sleeping patterns and the convenient “sleep mode” that their computers are equipped with that allow them to easily use it right away the next morning.

The combined electricity used in currently J-Mac, Centennial Halls and Centennial Towers is 4,831,303 kilowatt hours.

One kilowatt hour will power a 100 Watt light bulb for 10 hours.

This equates to enough energy to power one light bulb for 5,515 years.

According to research conducted by the University of Michigan, 89 percent of United States’ electricity is from the combustion of fossil fuels, a non-replaceable resource.

Fossil fuels are burned, producing immense amounts of heat that boil water into steam the steam is then converted into mechanical energy that will ultimately create the electrons distributed as electricity.

Conserving electricity is essentially preserving fossil fuels and prolonging the use of these resources.

The “DUET in the Dark” campaign is a competition between each of the four residence halls to reduce the measured amount of electricity they use during the winter quarter.

Prizes, including iPods, will be raffled off in the winning residence hall.

“We need to set precedent as a campus and act as an example for the community,” said Pattison. “People may think that one person cannot make a difference, but there is power in numbers.”

The efforts of DUET are aimed towards changing the culture of DU, into one that puts an emphasis on the importance of recycling.