National Guidelines for Starting A Green Cup Challenge™ in your school

(Click here for the PDF version of these Guidelines)

The Green Cup Challenge™ (GCC) is the first and only national student-driven, interschool energy challenge that builds awareness about climate change and the environment, educates the community about the importance of resource conservation, and encourages the participation of the entire campus.

The Green Cup Challenge™ invites schools to measure and reduce campus electricity use and related GHG emissions, as well as waste and water.

Whether you live in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest or West, whether you are a public, private or independent, day or boarding school, coordinating a Green Cup Challenge™ (GCC) event is possible.

The GCC event takes place each February to call attention to peak energy use, and to provide an opportunity to make every day Earth Day! Follow the guidelines below, and contact the Green Cup Challenge™ if you have any questions. Good luck!

GETTING STARTED:

All Schools Are Eligible: Day and Boarding, public, private and Independent schools are all eligible to participate.

School Coordination Team: Each school will form a team of faculty, staff, and students who are interested in helping to coordinate the effort.

Metering: You will need to be able to measure [meter] your electricity use [water and waste are optional per challenge]. Talk with your Facilities manager to find out who your utility provider is. Three years of utility bills is preferred. [see below for metering details] If you’ve made it through step two, you are ready to register!

Metering Day v. Boarding Schools: Day schools and Boarding schools have different baseline measurements and participate separately.

It Only Takes Two! Two schools can launch and run a successful interscholastic Green Cup Challenge™. If a GCC in your area already exists, you are in luck. If not, contact the GCC and we’ll work with you to get one started!

Registration: You must register with the GCC in order to participate in a Green Cup Challenge™ event. Registration is free. To register, please go to www.greencupchallenge.org for more information.

GCC Kick-Off Conference:

• Each state will coordinate a one-day GCC Kick-Off Conference aimed at preparing participating schools for the challenge. The conference will be organized by participating schools, hosted on the campus of one of the competing schools. Hosting schools will rotate from year to year.

• The focus of the Kick-Off is to discuss logistics and facilitation of the challenge at each institution. The kick-off conference may be the only opportunity to meet other participants and learn the ins-and-outs of the GCC first hand in a relaxed atmosphere. 

• For larger groups, breakout sessions can offer successful strategies for running the Challenge, and broader sustainability related topic as well.

• Every participating GCC School is required to attend their conference. Minimum attendance is one faculty or facility representative, and one student.

• In regions where registration is low and travel to the closest regional kick-off conference is not possible, exceptions will be made.

GCC Support: Communication is the key to a successful GCC. The more you educate your community, the more involved they will be, and the more energy you will save! The GCC will support it’s participants through its website, listserv and more. it is also recommended that participating schools send out weekly emails, hang posters/fliers on campus, make assembly announcements, etc.

Fees: Fees will not be charged to participate in the GCC. A reasonable one-time Fee, agreed upon by regional/state GCC participants, may be requested by the Conference Host school to cover Kick-Off Conference expenses.

Programmatic Ideas and Faculty Support: Involve Teachers. Faculty can support their campus initiative in the classroom. Your school can also join other national efforts to show solidarity to address climate change.

The Spirit of the Challenge: Although competitive, the GCC is a challenge and a commitment, not a competition. It’s about celebrating success and sharing experiences to build a community, while learning how to do it better. Our future depends on working, and winning, together. We encourage participating GCC schools to share information and discuss what’s new and what works.

THE GCC CHALLENGE: MEASURE & REDUCE

ENERGY CHALLENGE

• Baseline: Your school business officer of facility manager should provide electricity bills for three (3) past covering all meters on campus for all days in February (February 2006, 07, 08). Divide and convert KWh into a weekly average.

• Read and Report: Schools must meter their electricity usage weekly starting on the first day of the Challenge.

• The initial meter reading will occur on the first day of the Challenge. Every Friday, the included meters will need to be read and recorded at the same time each week. The initial and final reading of the meters must be performed by a team of two – one student Representative and one faculty or facility representative.

• If you do not have daily online data access from your local power provider, you must have the ability to read all included meters on a weekly basis and have readings available to report each Friday.

• During the four-week challenge, schools will be required to read all included meters and report their usage into the GCC spreadsheet developed by GCC coordinators. Each challenge has the option to have the coordinator only access the spreadsheet, or have individual schools enter their own data.

WASTE & RECYCLING CHALLENGE (OPTIONAL)

This optional portion of the challenge provides an opportunity to evaluate and raise awareness about the success of a school’s waste reduction efforts and recycling program.

Waste Management

• Count the number of Waste and recycling containers to be included. (Some schools will use only cafeteria and trash containers, some will use all trash containers in a building, and some may use all trash containers on campus.)

• To establish your baseline, have students measure gallons per trashcan and estimate [or weigh if possible] how much trash is each. Calculate gallons of trash per bin and combine for the total gallons of trash per day/week.

• The same GCC Google.doc used for energy has a separate row for waste.

Recycling

Appoint students to count the number of recycling containers to be included and to monitor the recycling bins for contamination on a weekly basis as follows:

• Recycling bins containing only recyclables

• Recycling bins containing some non-recyclable items

• Recycling bins containing only waste

• Waste bins containing only waste; some recyclables, etc.

WATER CHALLENGE (OPTIONAL)
Schools may include water metering in their Challenge. An additional line has been provided on he GCC spreadsheet for this entry.

GCC CONTESTS 2009:

STUDENT VIDEO CONTEST
The Green Cup Video Challenge has been a mandatory component of the GCC from 2006-8. [Although it is optional in 2009, we encourage all schools to participate.]

• Purpose: A student written and directed video for presentation to the school community to create awareness, excitement and motivation about the Challenge.

• Theme: Creativity and individual style are encouraged. The video is intended to raise awareness about Climate Change and the environment and what everyone can do to make a difference.

• Deadline: All videos should be submitted prior to the first day of the challenge.

• Posting: Upload instructions to follow separately.

• Submissions: Student video submission is limited to one video per school.

• Judging: Judging is an on-line student peer process—one vote per student.

• DON’Ts: Don’t include the names of students anywhere in the video; Don’t include material that is sexually explicit or suggestive, unnecessarily violent, or derogatory of any ethnic, racial, gender, religious, professional or age group, profane or pornographic, or contain nudity’ Don’t promote alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms, or weapons.

• Copyright and Trademark Laws: Each entry must be original and created for the 2009 GCC and must respect all Trademark and Copyright Laws. The Green Cup Challenge™ reserves the right to disqualify any entry for any reason, in its sole and absolute discretion.

STUDENT STATE LOGO CONTEST
Participating schools may choose to create a logo for their state Green Cup Challenge. Elements of the National Logo should be incorporated.

AGGREGATED GREEN CUP CHALLENGE™ AWARD
Each bioregion, or state, will compare this year’s performance against its prior year collective average electricity reduction:

• Percent Improvement

• Total savings

• Usage per student/square foot (normalized by bio-region climate and facilities)

INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL AWARDS
Individual Schools will be recognized in each bioregion, or state, according to their successful efforts to reduce electricity:

• Percent improvement

• Total savings

• Usage per student/square foot (normalized by bio-region climate and facilities)

SUGGESTED INTER-SCHOOL AWARDS:

• Video

• Green Cup Logo [state competitions]

• Essay

• Poster

• Multi-media

ADDITIONAL
The Green Schools Climate Commitment: Administration support will help give weight to the GCC effort. Encourage your school to sign the Pledge and become a global leader in your own community. Go to the Green Schools Alliance website for more information.

The Green Cup Challenge (GCCÔ) is the first and only national student-driven, interschool energy challenge that builds awareness about climate change and the environment, educates the community about the importance of resource conservation, and encourages the participation of the entire campus. The Green Cup Challenge™ invites schools to measure and reduce campus electricity use and related GHG emissions, as well as waste and water. The GCC was originally launched as an interschool energy challenge in 2006 at Phillips Exeter Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon and the Lawrenceville School. The GCC joined with the Green Schools Alliance and formally became a GSA program in 2007.

We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday,
and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet. - Margaret Mead