The Green Cup Challenge Serves Multiple Purposes Green Cup helps environment; boosts school spirit
By Zoe Gorman ’09
News Associate Editor
It is difficult to argue against the Green Cup. Reducing a community’s carbon footprint to benefit the environment is a noble cause. Political opinions about global warming aside, everyone probably agrees that reducing our energy usage, to any extent, is a good idea. However, the issue remains that the Green Cup Challenge uses superficial and material goals (such as beating Deerfield and winning a Spring President’s Day) to encourage students to conserve. The apathetic energy guzzler can always opt to ignore the competition entirely, but the frugal environmentalist might take offence at such notions.
For me, the underlying question of the Green Cup is whether or not we should encourage people to do the right thing for the wrong reasons. Under most other circumstances, my answer to this question would be “no.” False sentiments behind a good deed nullify the moral quality of the act and ultimately lessen it altogether. In this case, however, none of the reasons for conserving are immoral or corrupt; in fact all of them, even the shallowest ones, are geared towards positive goals. Although the primary goal of the Green Cup is to help the environment, the competition’s secondary goal is to promote both intra and inter-school bonding through friendly competition and student-geared rewards. If students aren’t conserving for the sake of the environment, at least they are turning off their lights and lowering their heat settings in the name of school spirit. Who can point at bolstering school spirit and say that it is not worthy of our efforts?
Ideally, everyone would conserve all the time, for environmental reasons. But this February is a time for us to push ourselves below even our normally-reduced consumption in the name of a campus-wide endeavour. There is no limit to how much effort we can invest in this undertaking to reduce our output within our modern, technologically dependent society. No matter how hard we try to conserve throughout the year, we could always be doing more. The Green Cup Challenge gives us that extra motivation; it allows us to imagine returning to a more simplistic, peaceful, and ascetic way of life.
As much as the Green Cup Challenge urges students to conserve energy during this period, it also promotes awareness of “green” issues. Is that not the purpose of a school—education and enjoyment? We cannot hope to change the mindsets of the masses, but we can educate ourselves and encourage changes wherever possible. Teachers are conduits of ideas that students will arrive at in our own ways, sowers of seeds that are still in need of cultivation. Those who wish to conserve for the right reasons are motivated to do so during the Green Cup Challenge; those who do not might be tempted by other rewards. And even these individuals are not worse off ideologically than they were before the event. In fact, they have unwittingly helped to further a higher cause while seeking more appealing goals.
The pains of the Green Cup Captains (myself included) and of the environmental clubs on campus have revealed many aspects of the competition. Students have employed a variety of advertising methods to motivate others to join in the conservation drive, including educational fliers, dorm incentives, humor, and even threats. The 10-step guide to reducing energy and student signature banners posted in the dining hall, along with the facts (e.g. “America holds 5% of the world’s population but uses 26% of its energy”) from the Choate Moose, teach students about the importance of conservation. Many of the student activists embrace the nature of the competition and promote President’s Day and other incentives. One Nichols sign reads: “Mr Easton will shave off his moustache if you don’t conserve. Do you really want that on your conscience?” Playing off of community guilt in a satirical fashion, captains have posted signs in academic areas reading, “What would Paul Ryder do?” referring to the creative and comical green video in which Paul Ryder ’08 starred. One Pitman sign even reads, “Conserve or you will serve…in jail!” The effectiveness of these seemingly innocuous fliers is debatable. But many signs are more practical, urging students to take shorter showers and unplug their computers before they leave. This microcosm of American advertising detracts from some of the legitimacy of the event, but also helps to boost student morale and community bonding.
Not all of the Green Cup Captains’ initiatives directly impact the results of the competition, and therein lies some of the greater value of the exercise. Initiatives within dorms and in the day student lounges encourage students to become “green” in ways that are not measured on the competition’s meters. For instance, in the spirit of the competition, captains are urging students to print double sided and to recycle whenever possible. This shows a direct focus on what will actually help the environment as opposed to what will reap immediate rewards. Having said that, I have noticed that there is less hype about the Green Cup this year than there was last year. The presidents of the Environmental Action Club, a student organization, agree that the education that comes with the Green Cup Challenge has continued throughout the year. Students are conserving without having to be told to do so. Consequently, constant reminders to save electricity and to recycle have become somewhat unnecessary. The positive weekly results have encouraged continued labour, creating a cycle of positive energy in our Green Cup efforts.
Personally, earning a President’s Day in the spring will not taint the purity of my efforts or, in my eyes, undermine what we have a school have and will have accomplished. The rewards will simply become an added bonus to for us to enjoy after a month of working as a unified student body. We should feel no shame in doing what we know is right. So, for whichever reason is most appealing, you should put in the extra effort this month to really make a difference in our energy output and in our community, bond with your dorm in the process, and relish the fruits of your efforts to save the environment.
