George School Turns Campus Green for Earth Day

George School in Newtown is scaling down their carbon footprint as part of their annual Green Cup Challenge. Throughout the entire month of April electricity use has been monitored in the dorms and at the Marshall Student Center with a goal to decrease energy use as much as possible.

“The building with the largest percentage decrease will win the coveted Green Cup and an ice cream party later this spring,” said Director of Operations Mike Gersie. He further discussed the initiative, “The purpose of the competition is to raise awareness of energy conservation and to engage the community in seeking solutions to improve George School’s environmental impact.”

The competition will use a carbon footprint calculator designed by students to measure kilowatt usage. The students who created the calculator are Tucker Ballantyne, Philip Chen, Sophia Guo, Martin Ma, Sam Shi, and Sumaanth Maddirala. They designed George School’s carbon footprint calculator for a science project and identified electricity as the school’s biggest energy user.

Electricity usage will be monitored in each dormitory on a weekly basis. Updates of the competition will be sent to the entire community on a regular basis.

This is not the first time George School has encouraged students to participate in its conservation efforts. Last year, the school hosted its Second Green Initiative Contest, inspiring students to develop new ideas for improving the environment or environmental education. Winning ideas included improvements to the trash system in the dining hall, installing low flow aerators in sinks, and displaying infographic posters across campus.