The fifth annual Green Cup campus-wide energy efficiency competition kicked off last week.
The competition, sponsored by the Students for Ecological and Environmental Development (SEED), includes all residence halls. This is also the first year that the Greek community will be participating. The contest spans the month of February and provides prizes of up to $1,000 to the winning dorms and Greek houses.
SEED holds events every Wednesday night to promote energy efficiency during the month of the Green Cup competition. The most recent of these took place on Wednesday night at Swift Hall. SEED hosted guest speaker Mark Witte, a professor of economics at Northwestern, and gave away free compact fluorescent light bulb (CFLs) to encourage energy conservation.
Students take the competition quite seriously. “Some may refrain from showering during the duration of the competition. There haven’t been too many radical acts, though unplugging of vending machines and other common-area appliances has been known to happen,” said McCormick senior and SEED Green Cup Chair Phil Dziedzic.
Four divisions exist in the Green Cup competition: residences with dining halls, residences without dining halls, fraternities and sororities.
In previous years, Green Cup has successfully encouraged major reductions in energy and water use.
GREEN house won first place last year in the no-dining-hall division by reducing electricity 45% and water by 70%. Willard (1st place with dining hall) cut their electricity consumption by about 32% and Elder (2nd place with dining hall) reduced water intake by about 40%.
For more information, visit the Green Cup facebook group.