This February, we will organize a Minnesota Campus Energy Challenge (MCEC). This friendly statewide competition to reduce college and high school energy use will promote a pioneering mindset in which energy conservation, efficiency, and revolution become realities across Minnesota. The MCEC is an innovative approach for energy conservation through which students will evaluate, measure, and change their energy use habits. 

The organization of the competition is the responsibility of college students partnering with grassroots youth coalitions such as the Transcampus Energy Action Movement (TEAM MN), local high schools, and college environmental organizations. Beginning with the February Campus Energy Challenge, we will use these partnerships to change first college and then statewide environmental policies.

The competition seeks to educate, engage, and empower Minnesotan students using a variety of methods. Teach-ins, debates, and speakers will be educational. Building weatherization, energy monitoring, waste reduction, and similar projects to normalize reduced energy consumption will empower action and catalyze further community organizing. Other events (such as acoustic concerts and campus campouts) and the prize for the winning school that most reduces its energy consumption will create an exciting and lasting culture focused on sustainability.