| Title: | Earth Hour |
|---|---|
| Date: | Saturday March 28 2009, between 8:30pm and 9:30pm |
| Contact: | energyinfo@ucd.ie |
| Audience: | All Welcome |
Earth Hour
Coordinated by the Building and Services Department and UCD’s Energy Champions, UCD is once again joining organisations around the world by participating in Earth Hour on 28th March. We would like to request your cooperation in helping us to repeat this success.
Earth Hour, run by the conservation organisation WWF, is a climate change initiative, calling
on individuals and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday March 28 2009,
between 8:30pm and 9:30pm. The inaugural Earth Hour took place in Sydney Australia in
2007. 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses participated in an effort that darkened
icons such as the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The massive collective
effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour, equivalent to taking
48,000 cars off the road for a year.
Last year Dublin was the first European city to support Earth Hour with EirGrid (national grid operator) reporting a reduction of 50 Megawatts (enough to supply 32,000 Irish homes). 2.2MWh of electricity is typically consumed between 8:30pm and 9:30pm at UCD, resulting in 1.2 tonnes of GHG emissions, and equivalent to leaving 22,000 100W bulbs switched on, or 64,000 PCs left on standby. In joining Earth Hour, we will not only be supporting the worldwide campaign, but also setting a benchmark for ‘good practice’ at UCD, showing what savings can be achieved through good housekeeping.
In order to make Earth Hour at UCD a success, we need your help. So please remember to:
- Power off computers and monitors;
- Turn off all non-essential office equipment (photocopiers, printers);
- Switch off all non-essential research equipment (fume cupboards, drying ovens);
- Switch off all non-essential lights;
before you leave for the weekend, to ensure that we have the lowest possible electricity
usage for Earth Hour (8:30pm on Saturday 28th March). The Energy Unit will also schedule
off as much automatically controlled plant as possible.
We will be monitoring the effectiveness of this initiative. Those of you interested in finding out
more, please feel free to contact us.
Thank you in advance for making Earth Hour a success at UCD.
