Green Cup Challenge

Loomis Chaffee placed second among 48 Northeast boarding schools that participated in the 2010 Green Cup Challenge, a national, student-driven interscholastic effort to reduce energy use on campuses.

The school cut its energy use by 16.9 percent in February compared to the average electricity consumption on campus during February of 2009 and 2008. Loomis reduced its electricity consumption by more than 73,000 kilowatt hours and saved more than 98,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions during the month-long challenge. The effort coincided with Loomis Chaffee’s Interdorm Energy Challenge, a competition among the residence halls on campus.

The 16.9 percent reduction is especially impressive considering the fact that the school also competed in the Green Cup Challenge during 2008 and 2009, the baseline years for the 2010 competition, notes Edward Kirk, director of the Physical Plant and adviser to the student environmental group Project Green.

Avon Old Farms was the only boarding school in the Northeast to realize a higher percentage of savings, with a reduction of 18.7 percent. Proctor Academy in New Hampshire was third with a savings of 16.6 percent.