Green Cup Challenge by James Coenen '10 On January 23, Berkshire School began participating in the 4th annual Green Cup Challenge, the first student-driven competition of its kind. It is a nationwide contest among over 230 boarding and day prep schools to raise awareness of climate change and reduce energy usage. Berkshire School is one of the organizers of this competition and we have been proud participants from the beginning. We won in 2008 with close to a 20% decrease in electricity usage. We are not only conscious of our carbon footprint, but we now serve as a role model for other schools who are beginning to go green and become more environmentally friendly. The Sustainable Resource Management class is diligently working on reducing our energy by creating incentives for the community to improve energy efficiency. Allie Blanchard, a member of the Sustainability class, turns off lights in Berkshire Hall While working on the Green Cup Challenge, the sustainability class is administering concurrently the school’s emissions trading contest, a nationally recognized program that was started two years ago. The contest is structured upon the European Union’s cap-and-trade system, which rewards countries for reducing their energy usage. This system has helped reduce our campus’ energy usage. The sustainability class monitors and records each dorm’s electricity use and at the end of the month, the students in the class figure out if each dorm was above or below their standards. Many dorms have gone below their standards in the past and now have budgets from which they can purchase goods for their dorm. This year, we are also introducing another new challenge: the oil reduction contest, which involves every building on campus. The sustainability class created teams based on the oil tanks that the buildings use. The contest puts a dorm versus an administration building versus a faculty home. The team that reduces their oil usage the most will be able to use a percentage of what the total campus saved for their own benefit. This means at the end of the contest, if a faculty building wins, the occupants will be able to buy a new Energy Star-certified washing machine or refrigerator. In the end, we are just looking for ways to make people more aware of their energy use habits. Hopefully, these programs and contests will work to make our community more energy responsible. Click here to view some of the videos, including a Berkshire video, that students are producing as part of the Green Cup Challenge at their schools.  This page is maintained by the Green School Alliance, an organization for which Berkshire is a national metrics coordinator.   Date: 2/2/2010

NEWS Berkshire at Tanglewood Wil Smith Faculty Focus Online Registration California Dreamin' more news...