I’m on Facebook, my boss is on LinkedIn, my friend is on Twitter, and Searle Chemistry Laboratory is on Dashboard! Yes, it is true; the social networking craze has officially spread to buildings at the University of Chicago. Searle Laboratory is the first building installed with a Lucid Building Dashboard© energy monitoring system. And while you can in fact find a few juicy pictures of Searle on its Dashboard profile, the most interesting and important part of the Dashboard is its interactive display of real-time energy consumption.

At any time during the day or night—or if you just need a quick study break—you can go on Searle’s Dashboard profile to view the electricity, natural gas, and chilled water consumption of the recently renovated LEED Gold building. It is especially fun to stalk these areas of Searle, as they collectively comprise over 75% of the building’s energy use. For added media sensation, you can examine Searle’s energy data across multiple time scales and according to different unit equivalents, like gallons of gasoline, tons of carbon, or plain old cash money.

The Searle Dashboard is part of a wider University initiative to install energy monitoring systems in all campus buildings that will help track greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The University is currently considering three different systems and anticipates eventual campus-wide installation.

Searle’s Dashboard can be viewed the old fashioned way in the lobby of the building, as well as from wherever you and your laptop, smart phone, or tablet happen to be. So go friend Searle today!