SYDNEY, Australia, March 21, 2008 (ENS) – On Saturday, March 29, from 8 to 9 in the evening local time, hundreds of thousands of lights around the world will go dark for Earth Hour. The one hour event is intended to send a powerful message around the world about how important it is to reduce global warming and how many people care enough to take action.

Earth Hour is all about the simple changes everyone can make. Run by WWF, the global conservation organization, Earth Hour was initiated in Australia on March 31, 2007. Earth Hour moved 2.2 million people and 2,100 businesses in Sydney to turn off their lights for one hour.

This collective effort reduced the city’s energy consumption by 10.2 percent for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning their lights off and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, the world took notice.

This year Earth Hour is going global.

Andy Ridley, executive director for Earth Hour said, “Powering down a city’s skyline and some of the world’s most iconic structures and premier properties is a highly calculated and intricate process, and allowances need to be made to account for safety.”

The Smith Family enjoys Earth
Hour 2007 under the Sydney
Harbour Bridge at Milson’s
Point. (Photo by Jamie Williams)

“What makes Earth Hour a unique event is that it brings together governments, business and householders who all play a part in switching off the lights. Working together, individual households alongside the world’s most magnificent iconic landmarks can make an impact in the fight against climate change,” Ridley said.

“On behalf of the WWF International network, I want to commend and thank the mayors and officials in our flagship cities for playing a leadership role in supporting this unique global event and demonstrating their commitment to fighting climate change,” says WWF Director General James Leape, praising mayors in the all the cities that have signed up to go dark for Earth Hour.

Some of the Earth Hour flagship cities are – Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix, Bangkok, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Dublin, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense, Manila, Suva, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Christchurch. They all will switch off for Earth Hour on Saturday March 29, at 8 pm local time.

From Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, world famous skylines will disappear for one hour – Earth Hour. Among those switching off will be the tallest building in North America, the 110 story high Sears Tower in Chicago, and the CN Tower in Toronto.

In the Philippines, Pasay City Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad agreed to turn off all lights along Manila’s historic Roxas Boulevard seaside strip to show support.

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore told a breakfast of corporate leaders March 11, “Earth Hour started in Sydney, it’s now gone global, and it has firmly established Sydney’s credentials as a green leader.”

“Earth Hour resonated strongly with our sustainability agenda,” said Mayor Moore. “The Stern Report and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth helped thrust the issue of climate change very much to the forefront of public consciousness, and we saw Earth Hour as an event which could really galvanize action right across the community.”

“We saw it as much more than a one off event, and much more than mere symbolism,” the mayor said. “We thought it offered a real opportunity to change people’s thinking and generate long term behavior changes.”

The mayor is encouraging all City of Sydney tenants and residents to take action and make every hour Earth Hour by reducing energy consumption in their day-to-day activities.

In support of Earth Hour, more than 3,500 businesses across Australia and internationally have so far signed up and will be doing their part and turning off their lights. McDonald’s Australia has committed to turning off its Golden Arches nationally. David Jones will turn off the lights in its 36 department stores.

Says Leape, “Earth Hour will send a strong signal that people all around the world are deeply concerned and expect their leaders to take action before it’s too late. Climate change is a global challenge that requires global solutions and it’s clear that the people of this planet are ready to get involved and find the answers.”

Sign up for Earth Hour at: www.earthhour.org

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COLLEGE STATION, Texas, December 17, 2007 (ENS) – Agriculture students residing on campus have joined in Texas A&M’s ongoing energy conservation program, which has helped the university avoid multi-millions of dollars in costs.

With one of the nation’s largest on-campus dormitory operations, housing about 11,000 students, the program got a boost this semester when the university’s 29 residence halls began competing to determine which could cut their energy consumption the most.

“It’s highly gratifying to see our students so enthusiastically join in the campus-wide effort to conserve energy and help the university reduce its electrical and related costs,” said Ron Sasse, director of residence life at Texas A&M.

Motto of the Residence Hall Energy Challenge is “When not in use, turn off the juice.”

The Texas A&M Office of Energy Management gives computing tips such as:

* Turn off your computer at night and when you are not using it for several hours.
* Enable the Power Management feature for your monitor.
* Turn off your monitor when you are not using your computer for 15 minutes or longer.
* If you buy new computer equipment, purchase Energy Star approved equipment.
* If you buy a new computer, consider a laptop. Laptops use only 1/10 the energy of a desktop computer.
* If you buy a new monitor, consider a flat screen. They use only 1/3 the energy.
* Don’t enable screen savers on the computer – they keep the hard drive and monitor active and waste energy.

And in general Texas A&M asks that students:

* Turn off all lights whenever you leave a room or bathroom. Open your blinds on warm, sunny days instead of turning on extra lights. Use energy saving compact fluorescent lamps in your room.
* Don’t use decorative lighting (neon, lava, string lights, etc.).
* Turn off lights, computers, printers, coffee makers, television, VCR, DVD, radios and other equipment when not in use.
* Share a fridge!
* Wear a sweater or other clothing appropriate for reduced temperatures in cold weather and higher temperatures in warm weather.
* Use low flow control settings on air conditioners whenever leaving the room for an extended period of time, such as evenings and weekends.
* Close blinds after sunset on cold days to keep the heat in.
* Wash and dry full loads of clothing. Wash clothes in cold water. Clean lint filters after each use.
* Conserve water by taking short showers.
* Air dry your hair.
* Don’t leave water running when brushing your pearly whites or while shaving.
* Report energy and water waste to Resident Hall Manager.

Homer Bruner, energy manager, said, “The Residence Hall Energy Challenge was a cooperative effort between hall residents, Residence Life and the Office of Energy Management. It was a joy seeing Aggies getting involved in campus energy conservation and change their individual lifestyles by going green.”

To make the energy-reduction competition as fair and balanced as possible, the university’s residence halls, were divided into six categories by architecture: ramp-style halls, balcony-style halls, corridor-style halls, halls in the Commons, modular Northside and modular Southside halls.

This year Clements Hall, with A.J. Stramaski as hall director, achieved the highest reduction of 20.15 percent.

The halls in each group with the greatest reduction in energy usage compared to a consumption baseline from last year will be awarded $400 in Department of Residence Life-funded items for their halls. Clements Hall will receive a traveling trophy, engraved with the hall name.

One of the goals of the challenge, sponsored by the Department of Residence Life and Physical Plant Utilities, is to raise awareness of and promote greater campus involvement in conservation while still having fun, organizers say.

The student organizers note another goal is to encourage their fellow students to “go green” and change their individual lifestyles and attitudes about the need for conservation and the importance of sustainability.

They also encourage residence hall students to participate in campus energy conservation as the “right thing to do” to help save money and reduce fossil fuel emissions from power generation plants.

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The whole “less is new more” ideal isn’t just another movement destined for the fringe; it’s started to catch on in places other than the blogs and online resources, though the ‘net has certainly helped foster the movement. TreeHugger’s pals at Apartment Therapy have been holding a “Smallest, Coolest Apartment” [www.apartmenttherapy.com] contest for three years now. Not necessarily because it’s greener, but out of necessity; the New York City-based blog knows that many New Yorkers live in shoebox-sized apartments, and need design advice to make the most of their diminutive space. But that’s just the beginning.

Image credit: Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
The king of newspaper media, the New York Times, has even caught on, embracing the “tiny house movement” with this article [www.nytimes.com] about people building sensible second homes whose square footage can number in the double digits:
“A wave of interest in such small dwellings — some to serve, like the Shepherds’ home, as temporary housing, others to become space-saving dwellings of a more permanent nature — has prompted designers and manufacturers to offer building plans, kits and factory-built houses to the growing number of small-thinking second-home shoppers. Seldom measuring much more than 500 square feet, the buildings offer sharp contrasts to the rambling houses that are commonplace as second homes.
“This reduction of scale makes sense for a lot of people. Second homes are often geared toward outdoor activities, so for several months of the year interior space is superfluous. Minimal square footage means reduced maintenance costs, less upkeep and reduced energy consumption. Prefabricated and pre-built models can require little or no site preparation, which means no anxious weekend drives to the country to make sure construction is moving along. Add to this an element of instant gratification (once the planning stage is over, most houses go up in days, even hours, and many are delivered, turn-key, to the site).”

The “smallest, coolest” wave even washed over Oprah [www2.oprah.com], whose interior design guru, Nate Berkus, was tasked with making over a 250 square-foot NYC apartment to create a functional, livable, fun space for a show:

“Nate says his ‘biggest challenge ever’ was rewarding because it made him reprioritize some things in his life. ‘I mean, how much space do we really need?’ he says. ‘I thought to myself there was so much joy coming out of those four walls, that it really motivated me to do the best I could do—literally the best I could do.’”

Back in the online world, this ideal is nicely summarized by another TreeHugger pal, Harry Wakefield at MoCo Loco [www.mocoloco.com]:

“The bottom line, don’t be a slave to high mortgages or rent, you can live well with less than you think. An idea we’ve been advocating for a while now, in fact, it goes further than that, we feel it’s really about “less is the new more”. It’s a surprising statement from a blog that generates a non-stop stream of objects made to be consumed. The twist? Consume objects gracefully. Spend more money, buy an item that’s made to last, that’s multi functional and sustainable, that brings beauty and art into your life. Then stop. Take some time to think before buying the next thing.”

Taken separately, these stories are simple examples of one person making a difference; considered together, as a whole, they offer a blueprint for a new, greener way to live your life.

When it comes to lighting, compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) are a giant step forward when compared to traditional incandescent bulbs, and TreeHugger recommends them for everyone. Even though CFLs offer superior energy efficiency and life expectancy, another light source is on the consumer products horizon with the potential to revolutionize the way we flip the switch: light emitting diodes.

Better known as another three-letter acronym, LEDs offer a similar efficiency upgrade over CFLs that CFLs offer over incandescents; whereas CFLs boast about 66% less energy usage and a lifespan of about 10,000 hours, LEDs can reduce energy consumption by 80-90% and last around 100,000 hours. They light up even faster than incandescents (and way faster than CFLs, which take a minute or two to warm up), which is a nice feature in your house, but could be a life-saving feature if they’re installed as your car’s brake lights.

Since they’re just now beginning to break into the consumer market, LEDs (and the fixtures that they usually come built in to) are almost always more expensive, though they have the potential to be cheaper over their lifespan because you’ll only buy one every 100,000 hours, rather than ten CFLs or dozens of incandescents. As is typical with a burgeoning movement, we’ve seen some high-end, designer-oriented implementations of the technology help break it in; Herman Miller and Yves Béhar’s Leaf Light (pictured; learn more about it here [www.treehugger.com] and Lucesco’s Halley Light (read more about that one here [www.treehugger.com] are a couple pretty chic examples, but Sylvania [www.treehugger.com] and Koncept [www.treehugger.com] have more affordable desk lamps for sale. Though many fixtures and lamps come with bulbs pre-installed, companies like Mule [www.treehugger.com] and Enlux [www.treehugger.com] are leading the charge for screw-in bulb replacements, allowing you and I to slowly start replacing LEDs in your everyday life and light fixtures.

The prices are steadily heading south, and we know that it’s no coincidence that the Millennium Technology Prize went to the inventor of the LED. Learn more about green lighting at TreeHugger’s How to Green Your Lighting Guide [www.treehugger.com], and get ready to get the LED out.