Growing up in Buffalo, Chad and Jocelyn always thought that there would be endless amounts of energy generated by the Falls. “My parents are from Niagara Falls,” Jocelyn explains, “and they never even thought about conserving energy because it seemed so abundant.” But now, she says, “we’re trying to get away from that and be more conscious for the sake of the whole state.”

So after years of taking their energy use for granted, the couple became members of the Unwaste Lab to learn more about how they could conserve energy in their home. “I think we as a family are pretty good at conserving other things,” explains Jocelyn, “we drive small cars and we do other things to try to be conscious, so hopefully this will help us conserve electricity as well.” They explain that they wanted to become members of the Unwaste Lab so they can track their energy usage on their home computer. “We became curious about the unwasteNY program just because we could get a visual of our electricity usage through the website,” Chad says. They also like the idea of being able to track what specific things in their home are using the most energy and when. “It will be a nice time reference of when we are using the most energy and when we are using the least.” Jocelyn notes that the program will not only help provide their family with a better understanding of their usage, but also provide a motivation to become even more energy conscious. “I think when we see the results and when we can see real evidence of our energy usage we will be more motivated to turn things off,” she says, adding, “It could even be motivation to get new appliances like a smaller refrigerator or a new dishwasher.”