Power Down dorm energy challenge

Since 2006, Pomona students and administrators have hosted an annual dorm energy reduction contest, pitting residence hall against residence hall to see who can reduce their energy use the most. Started by Campus Climate Challenge and most recently hosted by the Sustainability Integration Office and PEAR (Pomona for Environmental Activism and Responsibility), the contest provides incentives for students to become more aware of their energy load and take the steps to reduce it.

2010 Power Down

In 2010, POWER DOWN was a part of Energy Month, a series of events and awareness-building activities that took place in November. Again, students pledged to reduce their energy use - including 30 students who pledged to use absolutely no electricity in their dorm rooms for one week (see this campus news story) - and engaged in a dorm-to-dorm competition. This year, a campus-to-campus competition was added, pitting Pomona against Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna!

Prizes during POWER DOWN included:

• A weekly raffle amongst pledgers for gift certificates to 21 Choices
• A Donut Man party for the residence hall who reduced their use the most
• Double the money saved by the energy reduction to a sustainability project if all residence halls combined reduced by at least 6% (with the winning dorm getting to choose where the money goes!)

And the winners were:

• OLDENBORG won for most energy reduction, at 23.4%!
• EVERYONE won the money by reducing total use by 10.5%! This earned over $6,000 (double the almost $3,000 in saved electricity costs) for a sustainability project on campus. Oldenborg residents will get to vote on where this money goes!
• POMONA won the campus-to-campus competition, compared to Harvey Mudd's 10.2% reduction and Claremont McKenna's overall increase. Pomona now holds the POWER DOWN title, and will get to display a small engraved solar panel on campus!

2009 Power Down

In Fall 2009, POWER DOWN was part of the Sustainability Integration Office's three-month campaign, each month highlighting a different aspect of sustainability: September was waste month ("There is no away"), October was energy month ("Power Down") and November was water month ("Every Drop Counts!").

Students took an online pledge to reduce their energy use and engaged in energy reduction activities. Prizes during POWER DOWN included:

• A weekly raffle amongst pledgers for gift certificates to 21 Choices
• Gift certificates to Yogurtland, a local frozen yogurt business, to all pledgers in the residence hall with the highest percentage of pledgers
• A Some Crust cookie and cake party for the residence hall who reduced their use the most
• Double the money saved by the energy reduction to a sustainability project if all residence halls combined reduced by at least 6% (with the winning dorm getting to choose where the money goes!)

And the winners were:

• LYON won for most pledgers!
• HARWOOD and the COTTAGES won for most energy reduction!
• EVERYONE won the money by reducing total use by just over 6%! This earned over $5,000 for a sustainability project on campus, which went to retrofitting over 90 toilets on campus to water-saving dual-flush valves.