PowerDown!

Share story

pitzer poster

No lights in our room after sundown for 3 weeks: my roommate, Marissa, and I decided that we would take on the challenge proposed by the 5C Power Down competition. Every year, the 5Cs compete for the Green Cup, the prize for a month of the most water and energy conservation/reduction in consumption.

power down

Power Down chalk art by the talented Sarah Silcox!

powerdown pledge

The PowerDown pledge form

I am on Harvey Mudd’s ESW/MOSS organizing team for the competition. We’ve met several times to discuss competition logistics, dorm incentives, pledging, and how to just raise awareness for the competition.  The PowerDown competition is both Mudd vs. the other 4Cs and dorm vs. dorm. The college that wins will be presented with the Green Cup, while the dorm on Harvey Mudd campus that does the best will win a pizza party and really cool mugs. We hope that the parallel competitions incentivize people to participate and become more aware of how their actions impact the environment.

We have been metering the dorms’ power consumption with the help of Facilities and Maintenance. Two weeks prior to the competition, we took a baseline reading of all the meters. Now, we are calculating the percentage decreases/increases and ranking each of the dorms. Currently, East Dorm is in the lead, with a 6.5% reduction in their energy consumption.

East1

The Building Dashboard interface we can track dorm power consumption on

Sometime next week, we want to make the entire school wear green to signify the importance of PowerDown. There are 5C wide events to educate people about certain actions they can take to reduce their carbon footprint. Last week, Scripps hosted Jam and Jam, where students made *jam* from Scripps oranges, while *jamming* out to student musicians. The 2 hour session covered discussions on local, sustainable food, and food politics. Mudd will also be hosting a barbeque event to bring PowerDown participants across the 5Cs together.

I’m really enjoying working with the ESW/MOSS team to make PowerDown a success!