ndsu's Malini Srivastava

The FORCE behind FARGO’S $5 MILLION ENERGY PRIZE

and faculty members and city of Fargo interns, to carry out the work. Over a two-year period, the team gathered data, implemented programming and reduced energy consumption by 6.8 percent.

In December 2017, the Georgetown Energy Prize competition announced that Fargo won. The city was fourth in overall energy reduction. Innovative strategies that could be replicated in any city of any size pushed Fargo into first place, earning the seven-figure prize.

“Fargo built an extraordinary program that brought together the community through partnerships, leveraged local assets, and utilized a strong benchmarking system,” said Uwe Brandes, energy prize executive director, at a Dec. 18 news conference.

FARGO’S MAJOR PROJECTS INCLUDED: eFargo Game

Malini Srivastava’s career is on fire. She recently led Fargo to win the $5 million Georgetown Energy Prize, earned a teaching award from her academic unit at North Dakota State University and won a national award from the American Institute of Architects.

She hears congratulations a lot these days, but she doesn’t dwell on her personal achievements. “We have this massive problem on our back,” she says of the world’s environmental problems. “I feel this urgency to act.”

Srivastava has had a career-long interest in sustainability. She worked as an architect for 15 years before joining NDSU as an assistant professor of architecture. She designed energy efficient buildings and worked on the award-winning design team that made an inefficient building at Tulane

University in Louisiana into a sustainable university center. The question that was always on her mind was, “How do we improve existing buildings on a larger scale than client-by-client?”

The Georgetown Energy Competition was a way to address that question for Fargo, where 40 percent of the city’s energy consumption comes from existing buildings. She brought together the city of Fargo, NDSU and local utility companies. She built the eFargo team, which included NDSU students

Many energy-efficiency practices are relatively easy, such as running the dishwasher at non-peak times or switching from lightbulbs to LEDs. However, research shows that people are reluctant to adopt practices even though they will directly benefit through lower utility bills.

Srivastava wanted to test whether gaming would affect behavior. The team developed the eFargo Game that included educational content, energy-efficiency tasks, and prizes such as gift certificates to home improvement stores. More than 300 residents participated over eight weeks.

K-12 Challenge

EFargo challenged Fargo and West Fargo K-12 schools to reduce energy consumption over six weeks. EFargo provided materials to help teachers incorporate energy-use concepts into the curriculum and maintained a dashboard, so schools could see whether their actions, such as turning off lights and unplugging vending machines, were having an effect.

Fargo’s Roosevelt Elementary won the challenge, reducing the school’s energy consumption by 29 percent. They achieved this by educating students about energy use and empowering them to make changes through their knowledge and creativity. The program is being replicated for other school districts across the state.

In addition to the students’ work, school administrators were committed and supported staff and student efforts to reduce energy consumption.