Shepard and Willard Residential Colleges got the gold for being green this quarter.
After hearing the results of this year's Green Cup, Jennifer Skene, the environmental chairwoman of Shepard, said she was thrilled and relieved.
"I screamed. People thought I had died," said the Communication freshman. "We put so much work into the competition. A lot of people made a lot of sacrifices and it made me so happy to see our hard work paid off."
Students for Ecological and Environmental Development sponsors Green Cup every year to challenge students living on campus to lower their energy consumption.
The competition is divided into two categories: dorms with dining halls and dorms without.
To determine the winner, each dorm's water and electricity consumption were measured three times throughout the competition. This data was compared with a "baseline" reading of the dorm's energy consumption taken before the competition began. Points were awarded based on the overall percent reduction of energy consumption.
"You can definitely see from the numbers the dorms that did try and made a conscious effort," said Tom Ledolter, McCormick junior and local projects co-chairman of Engineers for a Sustainable World. Ledolter processed the data to determine the winning dorms.
Shepard reduced water consumption by about 5 percent and their electricity consumption was down by about 30 percent.
Willard, which has a dining hall, did not reduce water consumption but cut their electricity consumption in half.
"We're not trying to make residents live in the cold or not use any coal," Ledolter said. "We just want to make people aware of the quantities of resources that they consume, to get people thinking of what they actually need to consume to be comfortable. Do I really need the light on 20 hours of the day?"
Little acts of conservation and daily sacrifices were key to winning, Skene said. One student who loves to bake abandoned the oven for six weeks, some residents did not do laundry, and many showered with the lights off, she said.
2008 Woodie Awards
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