The second annual Power Down for the Planet pledge challenge will begin in January 2010. Eco-conscious students and campus communities will join together in a movement to reduce the energy consumption of computers. Students, staff and faculty at participating universities will compete in the challenge by pledging their support to adopt green computing practices and spreading the word to others.

The University of Maine at Farmington was the 2009 winner in the first Power Down for the Planet University Challenge with more than 24 percent of its campus community pledging to commit to sustainable computing practices. The University of Iowa also received honorable mention for garnering the highest number of campus-wide pledges with 6,013.