Switch It Off Challenge

Congratulations to the winners of 8th annual Switch It Off Challenge!  The residents of New South Hall won Most Energy Savings, reducing the building’s energy usage by 7.2% over the four-week challenge! The residents of Reynolds Hall won Highest Participation, with 13% of Reynolds’ residents taking the pledge to save energy.

Overall, Georgetown’s residential communities saved nearly 7MWh of energy during competition – equivalent to planting nearly 400 trees if this savings is kept up throughout entire academic year.

Thank you to all who took part in this important campaign to make a difference and advance sustainable energy solutions on campus!

Competition Leaderboard

Check out the competition results on Georgetown’s real-time energy dashboard!

purpose

The challenge is a friendly month-long competition between students in on-campus residential communities to save energy, cut carbon emissions and engage in Georgetown’s commitment to sustainability.

Its purpose is two-fold, helping Georgetown meet our goal of cutting our greenhouse gas emissions in half by the year 2020 while also building sustainable habits that Hoyas will carry with them on the Hilltop and beyond.

impact

2016 challenge recap:

• Henle Village won Most Energy Savings with 8,510kWh of electricty saved
• Copley Hall won Highest Participation
• View 2016 results here!

2017 competition details – How to Win!

There are three ways to win prizes for yourself and your GU Residential Community:

Step 1: SAVE ENERGY! Follow the Top 10 Ways to Save Energy – students can make a big impact with simple everyday actions! The residential community that saves the most energy during the competition will win a prize!

Step 2: TAKE THE PLEDGE! Take the Switch It Off Challenge Pledge, a personal commitment and reminder to help save energy on campus. The residential community with the highest pledge-rate by residents wins a prize!

Step 3: SHOW OFF ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Enter the weekly social media contest by posting a photo of yourself saving energy, or by sharing or tagging two friends in one of @SustainableGU’s #SwitchItOffGU posts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If you’re posting your own photo, be sure to use #SwitchItOffGU and tag @sustainableGU so we can find the photo!

Prizes

The GU residential communities that win for Most Energy Savings and Highest Participation will each win a catered Chipotle study break for all residents! The Community Director and RAs from the community that wins Highest Participation will also win Baked and Wired cupcakes at a staff meeting.

Social Media Participants will be entered into a weekly raffle for fun prizes including gift cards to local businesses and cool solar-powered electronics.

Energy Dashboard

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For the second year, Georgetown is using the Lucid Building Dashboard platform to track and compare the real-time energy use of the residential buildings in competition.

Click below to view dashboard data of each hall from any device, or click the dashboard image to access the full  campus wide Energy Dashboard from your laptop or desktop on any Flash-enabled browser.

Don’t see an icon for your Residential Community above? Unfortunately, not all communities could be included in the first phase of the Dashboard due to meter limitations. Currently, Arrupe Hall, Henle, Alumni Square and University-owned townhouses can only compete in Highest Participation and the Social Media contests. We will explore adding additional buildings to the Dashboard in the future.

Supported by

Switch It Off 2017 is a university initiative made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Office of Sustainability, Residential Living, University Planning & Facilities Management, the Office of Utilities & Energy Programs, undergraduate club GREEN, and other partners across campus and in the community.

Thanks to Coca-Cola for sponsoring the development of the Georgetown University Building Energy Dashboard!