The Hill School continues its efforts to go green by participating in the 2012 Green Cup Energy Challenge beginning on Wednesday, January 18 and running through Wednesday, February 15. The month-long challenge will help raise awareness and conserve energy. This is the fifth year the School is participating in the Challenge, which is sponsored by The Green Schools Alliance.

In preparation for the Challenge, the first campus-wide Blackout was held on Sunday, January 15, during the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Celebration. All members of The Hill community were encouraged to “power down” and turn off all lights and electronics that would not be in use while they were attending the event. The first Blackout proved to be a success, as the campus achieved a 94% blackout rate! Another Blackout is scheduled to be held on February 12.

 

Another activity held prior to the official kick-off was a sculpture contest held during the Food Fair on Saturday, January 14.  Students were challenged to create sculptures out of recyclable objects such as soda cans that were displayed and then judged.

 

A kick-off celebration was held during the school meeting period on January 18 in Student Center. As part of the event, The Green Initiative (Hill's sustainability club) encouraged all students, faculty, and staff to “sign” a pledge to do one simple thing – use cold water to wash clothing, turn off lights when you leave a room, etc. – to conserve energy. To sign the pledge, people stamped their hand print on a poster of tree, thus creating a unique art piece of a tree filled with green "leaves." The completed banner was unveiled in the Dining Room on Thursday afternoon during lunch.

 

In addition to signing the pledge, students had the opportunity to swamp incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs, and Sustainability Coordinator Marie Fechik-Kirk plugged daily appliances such as hair dryers and lamps into a device to demonstrate how much energy the average appliance uses.  Students also had the opportunity to ride the "energy bike," designed by physics instructor Mr. Rob Steinman, to see how much energy they could produce. View photos of the Green Cup kick-off celbration.

 

The Information Service Department is doing their part to help, undergoing  an infrastructure update by virtualizing the servers. The department will be taking several of its older non-Energy Star compliant servers and merging them into one system that can create a virtual environment for the replaced servers. The department has timed this with the Green Cup Challenge to help aid in the reduction of energy costs consumption on campus, cooling costs, and their carbon footprint.

 

The official Green Cup Challenge Video is being produced by Zander Metz ’12, Jessica Park ‘13, and Karin Harvey ’13. The video must be submitted by February 1 and will be posted once it has been finalized.

During last year’s challenge, the School’s energy usage during week four was 8% less than our energy usage during week one. Our efforts resulted in a savings of 9,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, five tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and more than $650 in electricity costs compared to week 1 of the challenge.