Contest Challenged Families to Go Green

Energy Efficiency Competition Finale Wednesday

Ten Medford families competed against each other as well as families from Arlington and Cambridge in a contest that challenged them to go green for a whole year. Energy Smackdown, a community-based reality show and project of the BrainShift Foundation, is in its second year in Medford and families are competing by reducing their energy consumption in five areas- electricity, gas, travel, waste, and food. Medford’s ten families are pictured above with members of the contest’s Leadership Committee, School Committee members Ann Marie Cugno and Paulette Van der Kloot and State Representative Carl Sciortino during last year’s kickoff event.

It’s been one year since 102 households from three communities challenged themselves to an “energy smackdown” competition to reduce their energy consumption. On Wednesday, the competition will come to a close at a special event at the Regent Theatre in Arlington.

Family teams from Arlington, Medford, and Cambridge spent the whole year becoming greener. They walked instead of drove, purchased locally grown food, made their homes more energy efficient, and replaced old light bulbs with compact flourescents. They also competed in a series of challenges to fuel the competition as well as raise public awareness about reducing energy consumption. In the recent Light Blub Blitz challenge, the families were dispatched around their communities to replace as many incandescent bulbs as possible with more energy efficient bulbs. In total, 888 bulbs were replaced, according to Medford participant Jonathan Hunt. According to Hunt, Medford took second place in the bulb competition.

The Hunt family (Jonathan, Alicia, and twins) currently leads all other Medford families with a total of 32,859 points. Overall, Medford is in third place with 45,725 points, while Cambridge is in second place with 49,939 points, and Arlington is in first place with 94,827 points.

“Reducing our carbon output has always been important to us, and we have been trying to make a difference for a long time. Before the Smackdown started we had replaced a few lightbulbs, set up rain barrels and started composting. We’ve always had a garden because we love gardening. We thought that we had done just about everything we could do without spending large amounts of money on things like new windows, a new boiler, insulation and hybrid cars. During the past months we have learned that there were many things we could still do, that add up to a lot,” wrote the Hunt family in their online journal.

According to data on the contest website, the average reduction in carbon emissions for households reporting data is 33%, while the average reduction in electricty was 14% and 37%, respectively.

On Wednesday, all of the participating families will gather at the Regent Theater in Arlington from 6PM-8PM to share stories, learn about the total amount of energy consumption reduced, and receive awards for their efforts. The event is open to the public and everyone is welcome. Videos chronicling some of the families and their experiences will also be screened.

The Energy Smackdown is in its second season. Only three households participated in the first season, compared to over 100 in season two. A third season is planned for even more families.

Information courtesy Energy Smackdown and Jonathan Hunt.