The results are in from the 2012 Green Cup Challenge, a month-long effort in schools across the country to reduce electricity consumption. This year we partook in the nationwide GCC, a head-to-head challenge against Phillip’s Andover Academy, and an intramural competition at DA between the different dormitories. Along the way, the boys and girls dorm that did the best job of reducing electricity usage (compared to a baseline period in January 2012) earned weekly prizes of a dress-down day. The overall winning boys and girls dorms earned themselves a restaurant feed. Chapin Hall (wings from the Hanger, perhaps?) and Harold Smith each earned a feed for their conservation efforts. Harold Smith took an early lead and held it the entire competition, finishing as the first dorm overall from either DA or Andover with an impressive 54% reduction. Â Including all the dorms, DA beat Andover (7.8% reduction for DA compared to Andover’s 3.6% reduction) and we finished 9th overall out of 32 New England boarding schools. Â Check out this video made by Deerfield Academy environmental proctors as part of their Green Cup efforts:
DA Green Cup 2012 motivational video
The Green Cup Challenge earned some nationwide media this year as well, with write-ups in the Huffington Post, Grist, and Mother Nature Network.
The real winner of this competition, of course, is the environment. Across the nation, the 113 participating schools in the Green Cup Challenge were able to reduce over 1,000,000 kwh of electricity! Â Deerfield Academy’s efforts during the Green Cup Challenge saved 7,768 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which prevented the release of many air pollutants from coal and gas-fired power plants. It also prevented many harmful impacts on human and ecological health that come from drilling for natural gas or mining coal. By the numbers, Â 6.7 lbs of smog-forming NOx, 18.2 lbs of acid-rain forming SO2, and 10,100 lbs of climate-warming CO2 were not released because of your efforts during the Green Cup. Great work, DA, and here’s to keeping these green habits going throughout the year!
great job