Emory students and employees will be competing to win $1,000 in an initiative to save energy on campus from Oct. 1 to 31.

Throughout the month, Emory Campus Services will measure the energy used in every building on campus and award the prize to the building with the largest energy reduction.

Last year, Emory saved a total of 144,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, roughly enough energy to run the Goizueta Business School for a month. The prize went to McTyeire Hall last year, with a reduction rate of 43 percent. Runners-up included the Admissions Building, with a 30 percent reduction, the Miller-Ward Alumni House, with a 22 percent reduction and the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, with a 13 percent reduction.

In an attempt to reduce energy use by 25 percent by 2015, students and staff at Emory are being urged to turn off the lights, unplug chargers, take the stairs instead of the elevator and follow Emory’s thermostat policy of staying at 74 degrees in the summer and 68 degrees in the winter.

Although the $1,000 is a perk, College freshman Sal Phillips, who serves as the Sustainability Chair on Harris Hall’s Residence Hall Association (RHA), wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that he hopes the prize money will not be the only reason students unplug unused appliances, take shorter showers or recycle more often.

“I believe that it is important to recycle because more countries in the world are becoming developed and therefore using more energy, which entails using more of Earth’s resources,” he wrote.

Contact Alice Chen.