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Results are in from Week #1 of this spring’s four-week POWERless Energy Competition. Residence halls on campus have a combined energy reduction of 7.9 percent.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ’s 5th POWERless Energy Competition begins this week for residence halls across campus to reduce their electricity use over the four-week contest. The official competition kick off will take place at College Coffee on Feb. 15 with energy saving tips, trivia questions, free CFLs and other giveaways.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ senior environmental studies major Sam Shoge received a statewide award for innovative undergraduate research using Geographic Information Systems at the 2011 North Carolina GIS conference held this month at the Raleigh Convention Center.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ has added Octagon to the list of campus composting locations, which also includes Colonnades and Harden Dining Halls. In 2009-2010 ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ diverted more than 100,000 pounds of waste from the landfill through food composting initiatives.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ collected more than 9,600 pounds of material in the first week of the national RecycleMania 2011 contest and is currently in 6th place in North Carolina for the total amount saved from landfills.

RecycleMania returns to ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ this month for the university’s fifth year taking part in a recycling competition involving hundreds of colleges and universities across the nation, including 19 institutions of higher learning in the state of North Carolina. New this year is an ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ campus contest where students spotted recycling at certain times of the week can win extra Phoenix cash for their efforts.