SLO the FLOW Challenge

Green Campus invites all first-year residents to participate in a water and energy savings challenge. Each first-year residential community (North Mountain, Red Bricks, Sierra Madre, Yakʔitʸutʸu, and Yosemite) must work together to save the most water and energy out of all the communities. The residential community with the most significant savings wins a grand prize provided by the Inter Housing Council. See the Microsoft Power BI dashboard below for up-to-date challenge placing rankings.

Throughout the challenge, Green Campus will be present throughout the communities to engage with students about the challenge and about water and energy saving on campus, such as a Kick-Off Festival or informational booths set up in front of Vista Grande. Check out all SLO the FLOW Challenge related events on the sustainability calendar.

2025 Challenge Dashboard

Note: Dashboard will display accurate data starting on Feb 5th.

Past Challenges

For Love of Water (FLOW) Challenge

The For Love of Water, or FLOW, Challenge during Winter Quarter 2023 resulted in water savings for every first-year residential community that participated. To kick-off the challenge, the Green Campus team hosted a FLOW Festival in the University Union Plaza with the support of sustainability-minded clubs like Surfrider and Eco Reps. Green Campus also received support for the festival from the Inter Housing Council. Green Campus engaged with students during the challenge by posting FLOW Challenge signage in and around their communities, working with University Housing staff to email challenge messaging, and speaking with students at educational booths set up in their communities.

At the end of the three-week challenge, Yosemite was declared the winner by saving the most water and decreasing their water use by 23.31% compared to their baseline use. The average water saving across all the communities was 7.7%. In other words: residents decreased their average water use per person from 26.95 gallons to 25.26 gallons during the water conservation challenge. Yosemite’s grand prize was free ice cream from local business SLO Mama Sweets, purchased with the support of Cal Poly ASI.

Annual Diversion and Conservation Challenge (ACDC)

From 2016 to 2022, Green Campus collaborated with University Housing, Inter Housing Council, Associated Students (ASI), and/or Residential Life to put on a yearly energy and water conservation program for the South Mountain (Red Brick) residential community called Annual Diversion and Conservation Challenge (ACDC).

During ACDC, the five Red Brick buildings competed against each other to reduce the most heating and electricity in their buildings. Heating, electricity, and water use were tracked and summarized using a live dashboard. The winning hall, the hall that reduced the most energy and water from a baseline period, received a visit and free goodies from a local dessert truck. These challenges saved University Housing money in utilities expenditures and resulted in savings that continued throughout the academic year, suggesting that the competition results in long-term behavior changes for residents.