Sign up for the Sustainability Newsletter to receive information on upcoming sustainability events, tips for sustainable living, on campus job and internship opportunities, and more.

Energy and Water Challenge

About the Challenge

The Energy & Water Challenge is a competition between Student Housing residents to promote the adoption of energy and water conservation behaviors and contribute towards the University's sustainability goals. The Energy & Water Challenge is facilitated in partnership with UC Davis Energy & Engineering, UC Davis Office of Sustainability and UCOP Cool Campus Challenge.

2022–23 E&WC

The 2022–23 Energy & Water Challenge, powered by the University of California Cool Campus Challenge starts on Monday, January 23, 2023.

As a resident of our Residence Halls or The Green, you will compete as part of your building's team against the other building teams in your division.

For 2022–23, there will be 36 teams competing across two divisions: The Residential Halls (27 teams), and The Green (9 teams).

The Challenge kicks-off on Monday, January 23, 2023 and will run for three weeks, ending on Sunday, February 19, 2023.

Residents will need to log-on to the Energy & Water Challenge Webpage and find their team to start competing.

The web platform is full of different energy and water saving actions you can take, as well as some "extra credit" waste and sustainability tasks in the mix. When you have completed an action, you can check it off by answering a question or providing some details of what you did. Different actions have different points, some can be completed multiple times across the three weeks of the challenge and there will be new challenges added each week – so make sure you keep checking in and building up those points!

You will earn points as an individual participant, but those points will also contribute to your team score along with the points of all your teammates

How It Works

Each residential building in Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto and The Green will be a team in the competition.

When you first log on to the web platform you will be able to find and join your team.

Once you are signed up you can begin completing the available tasks and actions and start earning points.

As this is the Energy & Water Challenge, the energy and water saving tasks will earn you the most points, but you can boost your score with some "extra credit" waste and sustainability actions too!

Some actions you can take will include:

Keep checking in on the web platform to see how your score stacks up against others and to see new actions that will be added throughout the challenge.

How to Win

As you complete actions you will earn points that contribute to both your individual score and your team score.

Top scorers will win awesome sustainability swag and prizes in three categories:

Weekly Star Performers

1st, 2nd and 3rd place individuals across all teams at the end of week 1, week 2 and week 3 of the challenge

The top three individuals with the highest score shown on the leader board as of 8am on Monday, January 30; Monday, February 6; and Monday, February 13 of 2023

Top Teams

Highest scoring team from Res Halls and The Green

The top team in each category with the highest score (total points weighted by size of team) as of Monday, February 20 @ 8am

MVP

Highest scoring individual from across all teams

The top individual with the highest score shown on the leader board as of Monday, February 20 @ 8am

Why Compete

  • Win sustainable swag
  • Earn bragging rights for your team
  • Learn more about energy and water conservation and tools to adopt sustainable living practices
  • Fight climate change – Your actions to save energy and water will save valuable resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Learn More

Competition Winners

2021–22 Competition

  • Residence Hall Division: Team Regan
  • The Green Division: Team 2079 Tilia

2020–21 Competition

  • Residence Hall Division: Team Pine
  • The Green Division: Team 298 Celadon

2019–20 Competition

  • Energy Winner: Cuarto (Yosemite, Tahoe)
  • Water Winner: Segundo North (Alder, Thompson, Miller)

2018–19 Competition

  • Energy Winner: Team Tercero 1 (Kearney, Laben)
  • Water Winner: none (no teams saved water)

2017–18 Competition

  • Energy Winner: Team Segundo Regan (Campo, Indio, Nova, Paloma, Rienda, Sereno, Talara)
  • Water Winner: Team Segundo Regan (Campo, Indio, Nova, Paloma, Rienda, Sereno, Talara)