Tag Archives: Green Cup Challenge

Green Cup Challenge: Dorm Listings

From January 15th to February 11th, the Williston Northampton School was a participant in the Green Cup Challenge. The Green Cup Challenge is a school to school competition to see which school could save the most energy during the four weeks, with the hope to instill sustainable habits in the students. At Williston, the Sustainable Life Club also narrows the competition to make it a dorm to dorm competition. Although Williston’s data will not be processed and posted until later this week, the final data for the dorm competitions are in!

The amount of energy used per week by dorm is compared with the amount of energy used from a baseline of three years during the month of January and February. Conant and Sawyer had switched their heating system last year, which helped  it use less electricity. Although, the amount of enthusiasm in the dorms, was supported with the data throughout the competition.

The school made a HUGE improvement from only four dorms in the first two weeks that were saving energy (Memorial Hall, Conant and Sawyer, Hathaway, and Logan) to seven dorms in the last week! Below are the top three dorms for each week.

Week 1  First place: Conant and Sawyer   Second place: Memorial Hall     Third place: Logan

Week 2  First place: Conant and Sawyer   Second place: Memorial Hall      Third place: Logan

Week 3   First place: Conant and Sawyer   Second place: Memorial Hall     Third place: 194

Week 4   First place: Conant and Sawyer   Second place: Memorial Hall      Third place: Reed

Dorm by dorm competition during the four weeks

Conant and Sawyer had held on strong for all four weeks as first place. They will continue to have possession of the Green Cup Flag until March break. Memorial Hall had earned second place, continually saving energy for all four weeks. Combining the amount of energy saved from Memorial Hall and Conant and Sawyer, a total of 3,480 lbs of carbon dioxide was saved throughout the competition. Logan and 194 continued to switch back and forth for third place throughout the competition, as well. Reed, or the day student’s building for the competition, gained an honorable mention from averaging 27 kwh saved to 147 kwh saved in the last week.

All of the dorms in the last week (excluding data that was transcribed incorrectly from Hathaway), the school had saved a total of 1,076 lbs of carbon dioxide.

Although we saw a tremendous amount of enthusiasm in the dorms to save energy, the especially cold month may contribute to the loss of energy in certain dorms. With the new solar lamps distributed to each dorm, we hope that this enthusiasm is still harnessed after the Green Cup Challenge, and that students are inspired to help save energy outside of the competition as well.

The final results for Williston, in the school to school competition, will be released later this week, so keep an eye out!

New Firefly Solar Lamps in Dorms!

As a new introduction piece to the ongoing Green Cup Challenge this year, Williston has purchased several solar lamps for the students to use in the dorms. One of Sustainable Life’s main goals for the school is to encourage sustainable habits on and off of campus. These lamps have helped put that goal into motion through the category of solar electricity. During the Green Cup Challenge the students were in a competition with each other and other schools, to see who could reduce the most energy when compared to previous years. One solar lamp was provided for each floor in every dorm. With the guidance of proctors on each floor, they are set to be charging during the day with the solar panel attached to the lamp, and students sign the lamps out for use during study hall. With six other attachments, the solar panel would also be able to charge a variety of electronic devices.

A moment before the solar panel and lamps are assembled to charge.
A moment before the solar panel and lamps are assembled to charge.

Besides environmental sustainability, these solar lamps also touch upon the economic and cultural sustainability categories that Williston’s Sustainable Life Club strives to meet. By purchasing a Firefly Mobile lamp from OWLI Africa, the money will hopefully help with the removal of kerosene lamps and provide a source of light for those in Ugandan, Kenyan, and other, villages that don’t have the lamps. The solar lamps makes the villagers capable to work and study during the night, as well. Through the One World Leadership Institute (OWLI), Williston was able to take the opportunity to help  young student leaders in other villages with this lamp initiative and upcoming entrepreneurship. Kerosene lamps are the cause of major health risks as they are damaging to villagers’ eyes and frequently burn down houses. With this removal, the villagers are one step closer to living a healthier, cleaner life. If students are interested in owning their own solar lamp, they should stop by the school store to purchase one!

 An excited student ready to sign out the solar lamps during study hall.
An excited student ready to sign out the solar lamps during study hall.

Sweater Day!

Today is Sweater Day!

In celebration of the end of the Green Cup Challenge, we have asked Physical Plant to reduce the heat to 65 degrees in the Classroom buildings.

By reducing the temperature, we hope to reduce energy while celebrating the last day of the Green Cup Challenge. This temperature is warm enough so that it will not distract from the classroom atmosphere, but will be a good incentive for students to throw on a sweater in the morning for energy conservation!

We thought that the Green Cup Challenge mainly targets boarders, and does not affect day students or faculty as much. The Sustainable Life Club thought that Sweater Day is a good way to allow students in the community to come together on the idea of reducing energy. We hope that day students and teachers – not just boarding students – will find some awareness of the environment through putting on a sweater or fleece to conserve energy on Sweater Day!

Green Cup Challenge Final Week!

194 Main Street Sunrise
This week's measurements - the last week of the Green Cup Challenge!
This week’s measurements – the last week of the Green Cup Challenge!

This week, Conant and Sawyer stay in the lead while Clare and Hathaway follow closely behind.

Now, at the completion of this week, we are officially finished with the Green Cup Challenge! We hope, though, that these methods of conservation that you have been practicing for the last few weeks stay with you.

The Sustainable Life Club wants to help students gain a greater understanding and mindfulness of the environment, and we hope that by participating in this challenge, we have come closer to this goal.

Since the Green Cup Challenge is also a national competition, we will post our final rankings within the participating schools as soon as possible, as well as announce the winning dorm soon.