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  |  | Porter's Earth Club Kicks Off 2010 Green Cup Challenge
1/28/2010
On January 25, Porter's kicked off the 2010 Green Cup Challenge with a viewing of the Earth Club's Green Cup Challenge video and an informative skit. Following the kickoff activities, the entire community was invited to sign a pledge to reduce electricity consumption for the duration of the challenge.
The Green Cup Challenge is a national, student-driven challenge where schools compete to see who can most reduce campus electricity use over a four-week period. Started in 2006 as a challenge between Phillips Exeter Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon, and the Lawrenceville School, the Green Cup Challenge grew to include fifteen boarding schools the following year, before joining the Green Schools Alliance as an official Alliance program. Over 225 private and public schools nationwide will compete this year.
Led by student co-heads Jessica Grady-Benson '10 and Esme Lovell Smith '10, Porter's Earth Club will be active throughout the Green Cup Challenge. Earth Club members implemented reminders for community members to turn off lights and unplug "vampires" (chargers or appliances that use electricity even when not in use), and will hold periodic "Dorm Raids" to inspect dorm rooms for energy waste. The Earth Club will also look for ways to reduce waste in the dining hall, weighing food scraps in an effort to reduce the community's food waste. Additional activities include a candlelight dinner; an eco-art project; and an environmentally-themed movie night with students from Avon Old Farms School.
"Our goal is to reduce Porter's energy consumption by an additional 8 percent over our baseline," shares Katy Perry, Porter's environmental initiatives coordinator and co-advisor to the Earth Club. "That would be a 20,000 kilowatt-hour reduction over the course of the Green Cup Challenge, preventing approximately 30,000 pounds of carbon from entering the atmosphere and saving over $2,000 from the school's utility bills."
This year, Porter's has also introduced a "Home Edition" of the Green Cup Challenge, which will include faculty and staff members living both on and off-campus. Participants in the Green Cup Challenge Home Edition will use their electric bill from February 2009 to establish a baseline for their home energy use. They will then monitor their electric usage for the duration of the challenge, taking weekly electric meter readings to calculate their energy reduction percentage compared to their baseline usage.
The 2010 Green Cup Challenge began on January 25 and concludes on February 22, with weekly readings of campus electric meters. At the end of the four weeks, each school will calculate percent improvement in energy usage, total savings, and usage per student/square foot, compared with its prior year usage. Individual schools will receive awards within each bioregion based on this data.
For the past two years, Porter's has achieved 10-13 percent energy reductions during the Challenge weeks. The Earth Club will announce Porter's 2010 results and standings once they have been calculated at the end of the competition. |
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