At Brown University, one student’s class project has become a long-term climate solution at the fitness center.
Elina Pipa, a senior at Brown University from Athens Greece, submitted her final class project on energy-generating gym equipment, never dreaming that the project could one day become a reality for the Nelson Fitness Center on Brown’s campus.
Pipa’s idea was to use cardio machines that convert human energy into electricity and power for the fitness center. She was inspired by Brown’s solar panels that are already installed on the gym. These panels offset 2% of the building’s energy usage. In her project, Pipa’s goal was that the cardio machines would offset a similar percentage. Now, in reality, the school has taken Pipa’s project and purchased eight cardio machines, with 17 more on the way.
“I really hoped to make my pitch come true, if possible,” Pipa said. The senior is very climate conscious, and she was excited to implement climate-friendly options into the lifestyles of her classmates.
Similar equipment is already in use at Ohio State University and York University, so Pipa spoke with athletic directors at these other universities as well as product spokespeople at the companies. According to Fast Company, “She analyzed the electricity data from the fitness center (since it has a pool, energy is needed not just for lights and equipment but also heating and cooling), figured out the climate mitigation impact of the machines, and ran a cost-benefit analysis to figure out how much it would cost, or save, the school.”
“It was super exciting because you could see that there is an impact. When you see that even your gym equipment can do something . . . you start seeing that it is possible to have habits in your life that are positive for the environment,” said Pipa.
Gym-goers at Nelson Fitness Center are able to see the impact of their workout right away. The equipment shows the amount of energy generated based on the user’s pace and usage. The equipment that Brown and Pipa used for this project can create 80 watts of energy from 30 minutes of walking, or enough to power one lightbulb for six hours.
Brown is still gathering data to see how much energy has been created just from these machines, but as of Fall 2024 they will have a total of 25 pieces generating power.
