Green Cup Challenge Launches, Choate Looks to Improve
By Rebecca Han ’10
News Staff Reporter
From January 25th to February 22nd, the Green Cup Challenge will be held for the fourth time in its short history, the second time at Choate.
Originating at Exeter as an inter-dormitory competition in 2004, the Green Cup expanded the following year to include Exeter, Lawrenceville, and Northfield-Mount-Hermon. Last year, fifteen preparatory schools joined the competition. This year, the number of schools more than doubled for a total of thirty-two participants, including Choate Rosemary Hall. The school that decreases its energy consumption the most (by percentage) wins the Green Cup.
Last year, Choate took a disappointing 13th place out of 15 schools. A closer look into the details of the procedures nevertheless reveals that this apparently low performance may be partially attributed to how electrical conservation was defined and measured. As the base line—a “status quo” which energy usage reduction was compared to—Choate used statistics from the energy consumed in January, which amounted to an average of 170,000 kiloWatts/hour each week. Since last January was unusually warm, little energy was expended for heating purposes. In February, the average temperature dropped and the energy for heating various buildings on campus rose to a total of 182,000 kiloWatts/hour consumed each week. As a result, Choate consumed more energy—an increase of 2.9%—during the month of the competition.
This year, the base line will be an average of the energy consumed during the last three Februaries. Comparing energy usage reduction with a past-February base line will create similar terms of comparison with a built-in normalization. Mr. James Cahoon and Ms. Katrina Linthorst-Homan, members of the Sustainability Committee, note that “The Green Cup organizers have changed what we use as a baseline, giving us a better chance to compete; if we compare last year’s numbers to the average of past Februaries, we do show reduction.” The 2008 Green Cup will prove an interesting competition, since all schools are competing on near-equal ground. Each school will compete against its own record, which may give a slight disadvantage to schools that have been actively conserving energy for a long time as they will be judged by a more established and possibly higher standard.
Despite this new rule, Choate still needs to improve its acceptance and implementation of energy-saving practices. “Turning heaters down (in general and when you aren’t there), turning off lights and computers, lights in the bathrooms, and unplugging chargers while they are not in use” are all ways in which Choate students can conserve energy, says Ms. Homan. Elizabeth Needham ’09 and Rebecca Marber ’09, co-Presidents of the Environmental Action Coalition and members of the Green Cup Committee, observed: “People weren’t willing to change their lifestyle last year”, said Needham. Marber further stated people only try to conserve energy in the month of the Green Cup challenge.” The rest of the student body seems to agree. Katie Kilkenny ’10 adds, “Students weren’t very motivated last year…we could definitely do better if we tried hard.” A look at the school websites of Deerfield, Andover, and Exeter, show that “greenness” is a big part of each school. Environmental consciousness is evidently a large part of each school community as a whole, from headmasters to students. This year, Choate hopes to educate the entire community, from students to trustees, about the importance of energy conservation. So far, acknowledges Ms. Homan, “If you think we’re behind—we are.”
The Green Cup Committee, which already existed last year, is taking further steps to bring environmental awareness to Choate. Once again, Green Cup captains will be recruited for dormitories and day students. Their job is to remind people to conserve electricity. The Choate Conservation Proctors (to be selected) also have a hand in energy conservation. Posters will be distributed around buildings. “We want to make energy conservation a habit for people…and we can only do that by building awareness,” explains Needham. At the school meeting on Wednesday, January 30th, the Green Cup Committee will present a video detailing seven easy steps every student can take to improve energy conservation. A viewing of a live webcast “Two Percent Solution” by Focus the Nation (focusthenation.org) will be shown later in the evening. Along with the Green Cup Committee, the school introduced the Sustainability Committee last year. The Sustainability Committee is a permanent committee devoted to energy conservation and environmental awareness. This year’s endeavors to make energy conservation realistic and meaningful to Choate students are the first steps towards a more environmentally conscientious community.
With the improvements in place, Choate has a greater chance of succeeding. Needham says, “We’re aiming to win first place, but our real goal is to beat Deerfield.” There is strong speculation that Headmaster Edward Shanahan “will give us a President’s Day in the spring as a reward if we beat Deerfield,” she continues. The real reward of the Green Cup Challenge, though, does not come from the rankings, important though they are. Marber affirms, “Our goal this year is to encourage a sustainable conservation of energy.” Ms. Homan adds, “Increased awareness isn’t overnight…we’re building the community to come to awareness of this issue, in small steps.”
The Green Cup Challenge encourages students to conserve enrgy and resources in hopes of fostering lasting habits. PHOTO/Greg Stasiw ’11
