During last year’s Great Annual Energy Bowl and Water Derby, undergraduate dorms cut back 150,000 kilowatt hours of electricity and 1.2 million gallons of water compared to the year before, saving the University $22,000.

In the third annual competition, themed “Saving It For You,” sponsors Students for Sustainable Stanford and Student Housing aim to improve on last year’s 10 percent energy reduction in campus-wide undergraduate housing.

“A lot of students get into it,” Larry Hoffman, housing energy management coordinator, said. “Statistics like the 10 percent decrease [in total dorm energy consumption] have shown that there are students really trying to cut back.”

The competition has two categories, one for large dorms and a second for Row and cluster houses. The residence with the greatest percentage reduction in energy and water will win organic cotton “Energy Bowl” t-shirts and either EnergyStar refrigerators or solar panel-powered hot water heaters — appliances which use less energy and will theoretically give next year’s competitors an advantage.

Senior Emma Yuen, president of Students for Sustainable Stanford, suggested that would-be competitors go beyond traditional energy conservation methods like turning off lights and computers. She advised unplugging unused appliances, using a dorm refrigerator instead of a personal one and opening curtains during the day rather than using overhead lights.

Last year’s dorm winner, Freshman-Sophomore College (FroSoCo), cut back their winter quarter power usage by almost 25 percent compared to the previous year. But some residents from the dorm suggested that it might have been more a matter of luck than conservation efforts.

“To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if anyone was even aware of the competition,” said Zach Nevin, a sophomore in FroSoCo. “For certain, even if something had been mentioned in an email earlier last year, by the time we were announced as the winning dorm, the vast majority of us didn’t remember there had been a competition, not that anyone would begrudge another free t-shirt.”

He added that this year’s residents don’t seem to be doing anything differently.

Yuen said while she doesn’t expect everyone to participate, she hopes that the derby will grow more successful as it becomes part a of Stanford tradition.

Yuen cited dorm pride as an important motivational tool for the competition.

“In some houses people are taking pledges to reduce energy, and there are even sub-competitions in houses to see who can take really fast showers,” she said. “Last year the Theta Delt fraternity tried very hard to win because they were a unified, proud and determined house — and they did great in the competition.”

She said she expects mid-competition results posted in February to intensify dorms’ bids to win, and she has faith that students can improve on last year’s mark.

“Hopefully films like ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ will tie into the Energy Bowl to make people aware that they are going to have to change their habits sooner or later to address the enormous environmental problems we all face,” Yuen said. “The Energy Bowl is a convenient way to start saving.”