CANTON -- St. Lawrence University students earned first place in the annual New York Negawatt Challenge.

The competition, which ended Nov. 21, challenged students at New York Six consortium of liberal arts colleges to reduce their electrical consumption in residence halls over a three-week period. This year's participants included Hamilton College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Union College, and Colgate University in addition to St. Lawrence.

St. Lawrence earned the top spot for a second time by reducing its electrical consumption 5.2 percent, or 12,031kilowatt hours. St. Lawrence won its first New York Negawatt Challenge in the spring of 2014.

The university’s participation in the competition was an effort of the campus Environmental Action Organization (EAO), which aims to improve campus sustainability at St. Lawrence.

While the competition is generally intercollegiate, the energy reduction per residence hall on St. Lawrence campus was also recorded. At Negawatt’s end, the residence and theme house with the highest percentage of energy reduction respectively will win a parcel of celebratory Pub Cookies. Reduction was tracked by residence each day online as well as school-wide.

In addition to the student-lead competition, St. Lawrence University recently made strides in sustainability at the administrative level. The university has committed to providing the campus with nearly 100 percent clean, renewable energy by summer’s end, entering into two long-term agreements for both hydro and solar power.