About the Ecolympics

Ecolympics is a three week competition between dorms to reduce electricity and water use. The two dorms that reduce their electricity or water use by the largest percentage take the win! A third winner will be crowned for participating in the most Ecolympics-sponsored events.

Oberlin’s event is part of Campus Conservation Nationals — a quarter million students at 150 colleges and universities are holding their own competitions this spring, working collectively to reduce electricity by one gigawatt hour.

The competition starts at midnight on April 3 and runs till midnight on April 23.

Reduce your usage (here’s some tips), connect your dorm to Facebook and commit to conserve, and earn EcoPoints by attending Ecolympics events!

Why does this matter?

About half of each dorm’s electricity consumption is directly controlled by its occupants by what they plug in and turn on. Oberlin is working hard towards a goal of 90% clean electricity by 2015, but much of Oberlin College’s electricity is currently produced by burning coal which pollutes the air, causes acid rain and and changes the climate. Buildings are responsible for ⅔ of electrical use and 12% of water consumption in the US. Last year, electricity use accounted for about half of Oberlin College’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Students, faculty, and staff each used an average of almost 7,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 15,000 gallons of water on the Oberlin campus.

How do I compete?

• Work with your dormmates to reduce water and electricity use during the competition (see tips below).
• Go to oberlin.edu/dormenergy to track your dorm’s resource use, connect to your Facebook account, and make commitments to conserve. Some dorms have electricity monitored and displayed for each floor or wing.
• Attend Ecolympics events to earn EcoPoints by getting your green Ecolympics card punched. Cards can be picked up at any Ecolympics event. See Ecolympics events or go to the Oberlin College events calendar and click on Ecolympics 2012 on the sidebar to see a list of events.
• At the end of Ecolympics, turn in your card at the Earth Week celebration in Tappan Square on Sunday, April 22 before noon, or before then in the box at Wilder Info Desk.

Who wins and what do they win?

Individuals

• The first 300 students to fill up their Ecolympics card by attending 10 events will get a free water bottle.
• Everyone who turns in a card, even with just one hole punched, will earn points for their dorm and be entered in a raffle for a gift certificate to downtown businesses.

Dorms

There are three winners that will receive an ice cream party during finals:

• Dorm with the largest reduction in electricity use
• Dorm with the largest reduction in water use
• Dorm whose residents accrue the most points

How the winning dorms are determined

The Campus Resource Monitoring System compares resource use during the competition to a baseline period earlier in the semester and computes a percent reduction from that baseline. Because we look at percent reduction (and not absolute reduction), small dorms can compete against large ones. The dorms with the largest reductions win.

Similarly, we will account for differences in dorm populations in calculating the EcoPoints dorm winner. That winner will be the dorm that accrues the most Ecolympics points per capita by going to Ecolympics events.