A free catered party for your community from Sodexo: sounds a little unbelievable, doesn’t it? If your community is the winner of a biweekly energy contest, this dream could be made into a reality.

The third annual Binghamton University Energy Conservation Contest began yesterday and will run until April 23.

Every two weeks the campus community that saved the most energy during that time will get the catered party. The winner of the entire nine-week competition will also be awarded $10,000 to use without any restrictions. However, “our energy conservation team will suggest buying efficient energy to keep with the theme of the contest,” Julie Razryadov, the New York Public Interest Research Group’s Environmental Protection Project leader and a sophomore at BU, said

“The only negative aspect of the contest is that it’s a competition,” said Peter Knuepfer, director of environmental studies at BU. “It’s not so bad, though, as long as it helps students recognize that they are wasting energy, changes how they think about energy and ingrains energy-saving habits.”

This year, NYPIRG is teaming up with BU’s Residential Life to educate students about effective ways to save energy.

The University’s residence halls consume $2 million of electricity annually, which turns out to be 2,600 pounds of carbon dioxide produced per student.

The halls also consume $1.2 million of natural gas annually, with 1,900 pounds of carbon dioxide produced per student, according to statistics Razryadov compiled.

“It’s amazing how easily we can waste energy,” Knuepfer said. “Simply leaving the computer on all day and night wastes a lot of energy.”

With energy-saving projects such as high-efficiency lighting and occupancy sensors, BU saved $16,000 in 2006 and $15,000 in 2008.

Hillside Community will not compete in the biweekly contests because it doesn’t have individual energy meters. The Susquehanna Community will not compete at all because recent renovations will skew results, Razryadov said.

Mountainview College won the contest the first year it was held, and Dickinson Community won the second year.