Summary Description
ComEd’s 2013 $10,000 Earth Month Challenge is a contest-based program that promotes knowledge of energy management and energy efficiency via grass-roots educational outreach.
Schools will be invited by ComEd to participate and to compete against each other for cash awards during the month of April, 2013 (aka Earth Month). The school that ends the contest period with the highest ranking will win a Grand Prize of $5,000. The next four runners up schools will receive $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively. Schools will be selected based on demographic considerations in an attempt to effectively represent the diversity of ComEd’s customer base. Each of the schools must reside within ComEd’s service territory.
Sponsor
The 2nd Annual $10,000 Earth Month Challenge is sponsored by Commonwealth Edison Company, 3 Lincoln Centre, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 (“ComEd”).
Contest Design
Points can be earned by students, teachers, principals and school personnel and awarded to the school by ComEd, for the following types of activities:
• 500 points for each parent/guardian of a student who completes, signs and submits a Pledge form for each of their participating student children
• 20 points for every task in the Earth Month Challenge booklet that is completed, validated by a parent’s/guardian’s signature and submitted to the student’s teacher on the Friday it is due in April
• 50 points for every complete and validated by a parent’s/guardian’s signature Extra Credit Activity. (Some of these Extra Credit activities may need to be validated by ComEd in order to earn points. A completed and signed Pledge Card with social media information must be submitted in order to earn points for posting information about a completed Challenge task, activity or the Challenge contest itself to ComEd’s Earth Month Challenge Facebook page. Additionally, all posts must include the hashtag #ComEd2013EMC and a mention of the school name so that ComEd can track and award points. Limit one Facebook upload/post per day per student household. You may upload more than one photo/video per day, but you will only earn points once per day. ComEd will not use this information for any purpose outside of running or evaluating this Challenge. A Facebook account is required to post to ComEd’s Earth Month Challenge Facebook Page).
• 250 points for every 1 percent reduction in electricity consumption that each participating student’s household achieves according to the household’s April, 2012, ComEd bill as the base month and the April, 2013, ComEd bill as the comparison month. (kWh data will be weather normalized between years; to earn these optional bonus-points, the student’s parent/guardian must sign the Pledge card and provide a ComEd account number).
Normalizing Participation Among Participating Schools
Because the Challenge is designed to allow single classrooms, entire grades or entire schools to participate and not be at a disadvantage to larger schools who may have more participating students and student-households, points accumulated by each school will be “normalized” by dividing them by the officially enrolled number of students in the participating classroom(s), grade(s) or school to create a “per-student quotient” (PSQ). The leaderboard at ComEd.com/EMC will display total points accumulated by each school, but the PSQ will determine each school’s ranking and prize amount (if so awarded). The prizes will be awarded at the end of the Challenge starting with the Grand Prize to the school with the highest PSQ, second place to the school with the 2nd highest PSQ and so forth.
The school with the highest PSQ on May 28, 2013, or at a date to be decided by ComEd, will win $5,000. Each of the four runners up will receive smaller cash awards as described above.
Contest Period
The points-earning portion of this contest related to the tasks itemized in the Earth Month Challenge booklet begins April 1, 2013, and ends April 26, 2013. The points-earning portion of this contest related to the participating student households’ electric reduction efforts begins with their April, 2013, ComEd bill (which may include a portion of March, 2013) and ends with the conclusion of their April, 2013, ComEd bill (which may include a portion of May, 2013). Parents/guardians of participating student households should review their ComEd bills for exact billing cycle information, or obtain copies of previous ComEd bills through the ComEd.com MyAccount feature to understand their exact April, 2013, billing start and stop dates.
Eligibility
Participation in the Earth Month Challenge is by invitation only and only to schools and homes residing within ComEd’s service territory and that receive electric delivery service from ComEd. Schools and homes that receive electricity supply from an alternate supplier are eligible to participate. ComEd's decisions regarding invitations, participation and winning status are final and at its sole discretion.
Participation
In order for the school to earn points for reductions in the electricity usage of participating student households during the household’s April, 2013, ComEd bill, the student’s parent/guardian must complete, sign and submit the Pledge Form along with their ComEd account number which will give ComEd permission to review and analyze their household's electric energy usage for the purposes of this Challenge. If the student’s household does not reside in the ComEd service territory, points cannot be earned for reducing home electric usage.
Schools may participate at a classroom-, grade- or whole-school level – but schools may not “cherry pick” individual students with which to participate in the Challenge. PSQs will be calculated using the total number of students officially enrolled in the classroom-, grade- or whole-school level that the school is participating at.
The Principal, Teachers and teacher assistants from each school may participate in the same capacity as their students, and earn points for completing the tasks shown on the weekly Challenge Sheets. Additionally, they may also provide their ComEd account number and social media names and earn bonus points for their schools in accordance with Challenge rules. However, the points earned by principals, teachers and teacher assistants may only be counted once, even though they may teach more than one participating class.
Parents with more than 1 child participating in the Challenge may submit a Pledge form for each of their children and earn points for each submitted Pledge form. Furthermore, those student siblings may also submit separate Challenge Sheets and each completed task on those sheets will earn points as normal even though, in some instances, a task may not be unique to a single child.
Odds of Winning
A school’s odds of winning depends upon the participation and involvement of its students and their households and their ability to successfully complete the points-earning activities of the Challenge. However, based on the projected maximum participation of 20 schools, and assuming each of the 20 participates, the odds could be 1:4 that your school will win a prize.
Measuring Household Electric Energy Usage During April
The purpose of this Challenge is to encourage participants to try out and engage in energy efficient behaviors in order to reduce the overall amount of electricity that they consume during the month of April, 2013. Electric usage will be measured in kilowatt hours (kWh) as reported by each participating student household’s April, 2013 ComEd bill.
To determine whether or not participants have achieved electric usage reductions during the Challenge period, ComEd will compare a weather-normalized total kWh usage figure from April, 2012 for each student participant's household versus their weather-normalized total kWh usage for April, 2013. Usage data will be normalized by daily usage to insure varying length billing cycles will not unduly influence results.
ComEd occasionally implements an "estimated meter reading" when calculating monthly usage. This estimated bill is based upon an analysis of previous kWh usage and recent weather data. As such, an estimated bill may not accurately reflect the actual electric usage of the household for the month in which it is implemented. To help mitigate any usage inaccuracies for the purposes of this contest, participants can learn how to read their electric meter and then self-report kWh usage online at https://www.comed.com/customer-service/rates-pricing/meters/Pages/default.aspx. Please note that ComEd's online system only accepts customer-supplied meter readings within the meter reading window and if the meter has not already been read by a ComEd meter reader. Participants may review their ComEd bill for exact billing cycle information, or obtain copies of previous ComEd bills through the ComEd.com MyAccount feature to understand their exact billing start and stop dates.
If there is no April, 2012 ComEd bill for the participating household (ie: the student and the student’s family/guardian were not residing there in April, 2012) ComEd may substitute another month as a proxy at its discretion.
If you have a question about the calculation method described here, you may send an email to the ComEd Energy Doctor at [email protected] -- be sure to use “Earth Month Challenge Question" in your email's subject line.
Points will not be subtracted for any increases in electric usage by participating student households. Points for reduced electricity consumption in April 2013 cannot be earned from participating student households that are not located within ComEd’s service territory and which do not receive electric delivery service from ComEd; or from the households of students whose parent/guardian does not supply a ComEd account number and a signature on the Pledge card. Households that receive energy supply from a third party (ie: a non-ComEd energy supplier) are still eligible to earn points as described in this Challenge provided ComEd is their electric delivery services provider and they submit a properly completed Pledge form.
Conditions
ComEd and its agents are not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the promotion; computer, online, or technical malfunctions; delays or human errors that occur in the processing, transmission or receipt of submissions, inaccurate meter readings submitted by participants, or delays caused by computer transmissions; or any injury or damage to persons or property, including but not limited to entrants' computers, hardware and/or software, which may be caused directly, or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrants' participation in the Challenge or receipt, redemption or use of any prize.
If, for any reason, the Challenge is not capable of being conducted as planned, including but not limited to infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or other causes beyond the control of or unforeseen by ComEd, ComEd reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the promotion. ComEd also reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual and/or school found to be violating these Official Rules or suspected of attempting to disrupt or defraud the submission process or the operation of the Challenge, and ComEd may prosecute or seek other legal redress against anyone suspected of engaging in these acts.
ComEd reserves the right to audit the ComEd bills and/or meters of the winning school’s participating student households in order to verify correct kWh usage information and ensure compliance with the spirit of the Challenge. ComEd reserves the right to disqualify a school or household if the actions of either violate the spirit of the Challenge.
Copyright and Use of Submissions
Pictures, videos and descriptions of events submitted pursuant to this Challenge must be original and cannot incorporate third party property, including intellectual property such as, but not limited to, third party owned or copyrighted art, photos, artwork, music, trademarks or the likeness of any individual, unless the use of such material is allowed by law. No restrictions on use apply if the submitter has secured the appropriate written permission from the owner of such material. In the event the submitter chooses to incorporate such material into the picture or video, the submitter will provide ComEd with copies of all licenses and permissions in advance of the submission.
All pictures, videos or other material submitted for the Challenge must be original and must not include anyone else’s property, including art, photos, artwork, music or likenesses, unless permission for such use was obtained and proof of permission can be provided to ComEd upon request. Participants further agree that all material they submit for the Challenge is owned by the student and/or the student’s parent or family or the submitter, and that the submission is hereby licensed to ComEd without limitation or further compensation, including the right to display the picture(s) and/or video(s) in any media now existing or yet to be invented. Submitter waives any right of publicity, attribution and integrity, including any moral rights in the picture(s) or video(s).
Prize Award and Acceptance
Because of the post-contest analyses which must be performed, ComEd reserves the right to confirm and announce the Challenge’s winners at such time as it is able after completing all necessary evaluations and investigations. Every attempt will be made to announce and affirm winners during the month of May, 2013, but participants should be aware that ComEd’s winner’s announcement could occur later than that. Prizes are not transferable or assignable. No substitution allowed except by ComEd. All taxes, including federal, state and local taxes, are the sole responsibility of the winning schools which may be issued an IRS 1099 tax form (winners are advised to seek independent counsel regarding prize winnings). Officials of winning schools will be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility/Release of Liability and Publicity (where permitted) within five (5) days of notification. If a winner cannot be contacted within five business (5) days after the first attempt to contact the potential winner, if the potential winner does not sign and return the Affidavit of Eligibility/Release of Liability and Publicity (where permitted) in the required time period, or if a prize is returned as undeliverable, the prize will be deemed forfeited. By accepting a prize, the winner consents to use of their school’s name, state of residence and likeness for advertising and promotional purposes in any media worldwide in connection with the promotion, without limitation and without additional compensation worldwide, except where prohibited by law. By accepting a prize, the winning school further agrees to release ComEd and its subsidiaries, affiliates and related companies and each of their respective officers, directors, employees and agents from any and all liability, loss or damage of any kind arising out of or in connection with the winner's participation in this Challenge, or with respect to the awarding, receipt, possession, use and/or misuse of the prize.
Entrant's Personal Information
Information collected from participating schools and participating students’ households is subject to ComEd's privacy policy, available for viewing at https://www.comed.com/Pages/privacy-policy.aspx.
©2013 Commonwealth Edison. Smart Ideas® is funded by ComEd customers in compliance with Illinois Public Act 95-0481.
ComEd’s 2013 $10,000 Earth Month Challenge is a contest-based program that promotes knowledge of energy management and energy efficiency via grass-roots educational outreach.
Schools will be invited by ComEd to participate and to compete against each other for cash awards during the month of April, 2013 (aka Earth Month). The school that ends the contest period with the highest ranking will win a Grand Prize of $5,000. The next four runners up schools will receive $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively. Schools will be selected based on demographic considerations in an attempt to effectively represent the diversity of ComEd’s customer base. Each of the schools must reside within ComEd’s service territory.
Sponsor
The 2nd Annual $10,000 Earth Month Challenge is sponsored by Commonwealth Edison Company, 3 Lincoln Centre, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 (“ComEd”).
Contest Design
Points can be earned by students, teachers, principals and school personnel and awarded to the school by ComEd, for the following types of activities:
• 500 points for each parent/guardian of a student who completes, signs and submits a Pledge form for each of their participating student children
• 20 points for every task in the Earth Month Challenge booklet that is completed, validated by a parent’s/guardian’s signature and submitted to the student’s teacher on the Friday it is due in April
• 50 points for every complete and validated by a parent’s/guardian’s signature Extra Credit Activity. (Some of these Extra Credit activities may need to be validated by ComEd in order to earn points. A completed and signed Pledge Card with social media information must be submitted in order to earn points for posting information about a completed Challenge task, activity or the Challenge contest itself to ComEd’s Earth Month Challenge Facebook page. Additionally, all posts must include the hashtag #ComEd2013EMC and a mention of the school name so that ComEd can track and award points. Limit one Facebook upload/post per day per student household. You may upload more than one photo/video per day, but you will only earn points once per day. ComEd will not use this information for any purpose outside of running or evaluating this Challenge. A Facebook account is required to post to ComEd’s Earth Month Challenge Facebook Page).
• 250 points for every 1 percent reduction in electricity consumption that each participating student’s household achieves according to the household’s April, 2012, ComEd bill as the base month and the April, 2013, ComEd bill as the comparison month. (kWh data will be weather normalized between years; to earn these optional bonus-points, the student’s parent/guardian must sign the Pledge card and provide a ComEd account number).
Normalizing Participation Among Participating Schools
Because the Challenge is designed to allow single classrooms, entire grades or entire schools to participate and not be at a disadvantage to larger schools who may have more participating students and student-households, points accumulated by each school will be “normalized” by dividing them by the officially enrolled number of students in the participating classroom(s), grade(s) or school to create a “per-student quotient” (PSQ). The leaderboard at ComEd.com/EMC will display total points accumulated by each school, but the PSQ will determine each school’s ranking and prize amount (if so awarded). The prizes will be awarded at the end of the Challenge starting with the Grand Prize to the school with the highest PSQ, second place to the school with the 2nd highest PSQ and so forth.
The school with the highest PSQ on May 28, 2013, or at a date to be decided by ComEd, will win $5,000. Each of the four runners up will receive smaller cash awards as described above.
Contest Period
The points-earning portion of this contest related to the tasks itemized in the Earth Month Challenge booklet begins April 1, 2013, and ends April 26, 2013. The points-earning portion of this contest related to the participating student households’ electric reduction efforts begins with their April, 2013, ComEd bill (which may include a portion of March, 2013) and ends with the conclusion of their April, 2013, ComEd bill (which may include a portion of May, 2013). Parents/guardians of participating student households should review their ComEd bills for exact billing cycle information, or obtain copies of previous ComEd bills through the ComEd.com MyAccount feature to understand their exact April, 2013, billing start and stop dates.
Eligibility
Participation in the Earth Month Challenge is by invitation only and only to schools and homes residing within ComEd’s service territory and that receive electric delivery service from ComEd. Schools and homes that receive electricity supply from an alternate supplier are eligible to participate. ComEd's decisions regarding invitations, participation and winning status are final and at its sole discretion.
Participation
In order for the school to earn points for reductions in the electricity usage of participating student households during the household’s April, 2013, ComEd bill, the student’s parent/guardian must complete, sign and submit the Pledge Form along with their ComEd account number which will give ComEd permission to review and analyze their household's electric energy usage for the purposes of this Challenge. If the student’s household does not reside in the ComEd service territory, points cannot be earned for reducing home electric usage.
Schools may participate at a classroom-, grade- or whole-school level – but schools may not “cherry pick” individual students with which to participate in the Challenge. PSQs will be calculated using the total number of students officially enrolled in the classroom-, grade- or whole-school level that the school is participating at.
The Principal, Teachers and teacher assistants from each school may participate in the same capacity as their students, and earn points for completing the tasks shown on the weekly Challenge Sheets. Additionally, they may also provide their ComEd account number and social media names and earn bonus points for their schools in accordance with Challenge rules. However, the points earned by principals, teachers and teacher assistants may only be counted once, even though they may teach more than one participating class.
Parents with more than 1 child participating in the Challenge may submit a Pledge form for each of their children and earn points for each submitted Pledge form. Furthermore, those student siblings may also submit separate Challenge Sheets and each completed task on those sheets will earn points as normal even though, in some instances, a task may not be unique to a single child.
Odds of Winning
A school’s odds of winning depends upon the participation and involvement of its students and their households and their ability to successfully complete the points-earning activities of the Challenge. However, based on the projected maximum participation of 20 schools, and assuming each of the 20 participates, the odds could be 1:4 that your school will win a prize.
Measuring Household Electric Energy Usage During April
The purpose of this Challenge is to encourage participants to try out and engage in energy efficient behaviors in order to reduce the overall amount of electricity that they consume during the month of April, 2013. Electric usage will be measured in kilowatt hours (kWh) as reported by each participating student household’s April, 2013 ComEd bill.
To determine whether or not participants have achieved electric usage reductions during the Challenge period, ComEd will compare a weather-normalized total kWh usage figure from April, 2012 for each student participant's household versus their weather-normalized total kWh usage for April, 2013. Usage data will be normalized by daily usage to insure varying length billing cycles will not unduly influence results.
ComEd occasionally implements an "estimated meter reading" when calculating monthly usage. This estimated bill is based upon an analysis of previous kWh usage and recent weather data. As such, an estimated bill may not accurately reflect the actual electric usage of the household for the month in which it is implemented. To help mitigate any usage inaccuracies for the purposes of this contest, participants can learn how to read their electric meter and then self-report kWh usage online at https://www.comed.com/customer-service/rates-pricing/meters/Pages/default.aspx. Please note that ComEd's online system only accepts customer-supplied meter readings within the meter reading window and if the meter has not already been read by a ComEd meter reader. Participants may review their ComEd bill for exact billing cycle information, or obtain copies of previous ComEd bills through the ComEd.com MyAccount feature to understand their exact billing start and stop dates.
If there is no April, 2012 ComEd bill for the participating household (ie: the student and the student’s family/guardian were not residing there in April, 2012) ComEd may substitute another month as a proxy at its discretion.
If you have a question about the calculation method described here, you may send an email to the ComEd Energy Doctor at [email protected] -- be sure to use “Earth Month Challenge Question" in your email's subject line.
Points will not be subtracted for any increases in electric usage by participating student households. Points for reduced electricity consumption in April 2013 cannot be earned from participating student households that are not located within ComEd’s service territory and which do not receive electric delivery service from ComEd; or from the households of students whose parent/guardian does not supply a ComEd account number and a signature on the Pledge card. Households that receive energy supply from a third party (ie: a non-ComEd energy supplier) are still eligible to earn points as described in this Challenge provided ComEd is their electric delivery services provider and they submit a properly completed Pledge form.
Conditions
ComEd and its agents are not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the promotion; computer, online, or technical malfunctions; delays or human errors that occur in the processing, transmission or receipt of submissions, inaccurate meter readings submitted by participants, or delays caused by computer transmissions; or any injury or damage to persons or property, including but not limited to entrants' computers, hardware and/or software, which may be caused directly, or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrants' participation in the Challenge or receipt, redemption or use of any prize.
If, for any reason, the Challenge is not capable of being conducted as planned, including but not limited to infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or other causes beyond the control of or unforeseen by ComEd, ComEd reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the promotion. ComEd also reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual and/or school found to be violating these Official Rules or suspected of attempting to disrupt or defraud the submission process or the operation of the Challenge, and ComEd may prosecute or seek other legal redress against anyone suspected of engaging in these acts.
ComEd reserves the right to audit the ComEd bills and/or meters of the winning school’s participating student households in order to verify correct kWh usage information and ensure compliance with the spirit of the Challenge. ComEd reserves the right to disqualify a school or household if the actions of either violate the spirit of the Challenge.
Copyright and Use of Submissions
Pictures, videos and descriptions of events submitted pursuant to this Challenge must be original and cannot incorporate third party property, including intellectual property such as, but not limited to, third party owned or copyrighted art, photos, artwork, music, trademarks or the likeness of any individual, unless the use of such material is allowed by law. No restrictions on use apply if the submitter has secured the appropriate written permission from the owner of such material. In the event the submitter chooses to incorporate such material into the picture or video, the submitter will provide ComEd with copies of all licenses and permissions in advance of the submission.
All pictures, videos or other material submitted for the Challenge must be original and must not include anyone else’s property, including art, photos, artwork, music or likenesses, unless permission for such use was obtained and proof of permission can be provided to ComEd upon request. Participants further agree that all material they submit for the Challenge is owned by the student and/or the student’s parent or family or the submitter, and that the submission is hereby licensed to ComEd without limitation or further compensation, including the right to display the picture(s) and/or video(s) in any media now existing or yet to be invented. Submitter waives any right of publicity, attribution and integrity, including any moral rights in the picture(s) or video(s).
Prize Award and Acceptance
Because of the post-contest analyses which must be performed, ComEd reserves the right to confirm and announce the Challenge’s winners at such time as it is able after completing all necessary evaluations and investigations. Every attempt will be made to announce and affirm winners during the month of May, 2013, but participants should be aware that ComEd’s winner’s announcement could occur later than that. Prizes are not transferable or assignable. No substitution allowed except by ComEd. All taxes, including federal, state and local taxes, are the sole responsibility of the winning schools which may be issued an IRS 1099 tax form (winners are advised to seek independent counsel regarding prize winnings). Officials of winning schools will be required to sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility/Release of Liability and Publicity (where permitted) within five (5) days of notification. If a winner cannot be contacted within five business (5) days after the first attempt to contact the potential winner, if the potential winner does not sign and return the Affidavit of Eligibility/Release of Liability and Publicity (where permitted) in the required time period, or if a prize is returned as undeliverable, the prize will be deemed forfeited. By accepting a prize, the winner consents to use of their school’s name, state of residence and likeness for advertising and promotional purposes in any media worldwide in connection with the promotion, without limitation and without additional compensation worldwide, except where prohibited by law. By accepting a prize, the winning school further agrees to release ComEd and its subsidiaries, affiliates and related companies and each of their respective officers, directors, employees and agents from any and all liability, loss or damage of any kind arising out of or in connection with the winner's participation in this Challenge, or with respect to the awarding, receipt, possession, use and/or misuse of the prize.
Entrant's Personal Information
Information collected from participating schools and participating students’ households is subject to ComEd's privacy policy, available for viewing at https://www.comed.com/Pages/privacy-policy.aspx.
©2013 Commonwealth Edison. Smart Ideas® is funded by ComEd customers in compliance with Illinois Public Act 95-0481.
Smart Ideas(R) is funded by ComEd customers in compliance with Illinois Public Act 95-0481.