Green Cup Challenge™

The exciting Green Cup Challenge™ empowers students to take action, raises awareness about climate change and resource conservation, and unites school communities around a common goal.

We invite all K-12 schools to measure and reduce their ENERGY use, improve their RECYCLING and waste reduction programs, and activate student engagement by creating VIDEOS or running OnAir campaigns.

  • Students at St. George Memphis School reading and recording their school’s energy data in the Green Cup Energy Challenge.

  • A student at the Chapin School, NY reducing cafeteria waste by bringing his own reusable lunch box.

  • Students at Marin Country Day School creating awareness about sustainability and climate in the Green Cup Video Challenge.

The Green Cup Energy Challenge has to date
saved over 120 million kWh, eliminating up to
180 million lbs of CO2!

Run the Green Cup Challenge at your school! 

  •  Student Engagement.

    This fun competitions gives students practical experience in conceiving, promoting, executing and tabulating real and meaningful projects in sustainability in their own schools!

  • Financial Savings.

    On average, participating schools have seen a 5-10% reduction in electricity use, and approximately 60% persistence in energy savings from year to year, with a lifetime cumulative reduction of >40,000 kWh/each school!

  • Transparency and Accountability.

    By collectively tracking energy use, there is greater transparency and accountability for resource consumption in schools, and the results translate to tangible financial savings.

During an exciting ‘energy scavenger hunt’ over 4-weeks, participating schools compete against their own historical energy data and each other, while aggregating collective savings across schools, buildings even entire districts.

Schools compete for Bin Points by 'recycling right', improving recycling compliance rates and uniting the school community around a common goal.

The Green Cup Video Challenge showcases students’ talents and environmental passions and creates awareness about lowering energy use, recycling, reducing waste, and rethinking consumption.

OnAir Schools is a STEM-aligned initiative that inspires preK-12 students to take the lead on classroom challenges to reduce traffic and air pollution at their school.

 Green Cup Challenge Timeline

  • The Green Cup ChallengeTM (GCC) began at Phillips Exeter Academy (PEA) as a campus-wide energy conservation competition designed to raise awareness about energy consumption. The inter-dorm challenge was successful, saving PEA thousands of dollars in utility costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and educating the community about the importance of energy conservation.

  • The GCC expanded from an inter-dorm competition at PEA to an interschool competition with two more schools: The Lawrenceville School and Northfield Mount Hermon. The Green Cup Challenge interschool competition was a great success, thus expanding the ecological, financial, and educational impacts of the challenge. 

  • GCC had grown to 40 schools and the three founding GCC Schools formally handed over the reigns to the Alliance, where it has been a registered program of the Alliance ever since -- guided by schools for schools.

  • Alliance member schools in the Chesapeake Bay area piloted a recycling version, launching the Green Cup Recycle Challenge with the goal of teaching recycling compliance and reduction.

  • As new members of the Alliance, the New York City Department of Education partnered with the Alliance to start running the Green Cup Energy Challenge in their schools. 

  • In December 2016, Green Schools Alliance became the owner of OnAir Schools, a preK-12 educational initiative created by The Clean Air Campaign that inspires students to take the lead on classroom challenges to reduce traffic and air pollution at their school.

  • Together, participants reduced their electricity consumption by 151,100 kWh and prevented 229,673 lbs CO2 from being released into the air!

  • Consistent with the roots of the Green Cup Challenge and the Green Schools Alliance, the GCC continues to be driven and run "by schools for schools." Every school is a winner when they work together to lose CO2.