More than two million Sydney residents and businesses joined Earth Hour on Saturday, March 31 between 7.30 and 8.30pm by flicking the switch, turning appliances off stand-by and enjoying an hour of quiet darkness.*
If you live in Sydney or thereabouts and you took part, you’ll be pleased to know that this small effort caused a massive 10.2 per cent drop in energy usage across the Sydney CBD, according to the Earth hour website. This was double the anticipated energy saving and represents a reduction of 24.86 tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of taking 48,613 cars off the road for an hour.
Corporate Express was delighted to join with other responsible corporate citizens in this ground-breaking event, by turning lights off in its Sydney office.
“We wanted to show that it's possible to take action on global warming,” says Lena Geraghty, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager.
“We are investigating our current energy usage in Sydney, and this gave us the opportunity to revise some lighting configurations.
“This simple action engaged real debate amongst our employees, and stimulated our colleagues to take this message into their homes, for that particular evening, and beyond.
“We received some very positive feedback, and we truly felt that we, like many organisations and households, had sent a powerful message: Not only that we care about the future of the planet, but that we all have the ability to take action that will make a difference.
“We’re now looking to explore more opportunities in this area, throughout all our locations, having learned much from this valuable experience.”
Earth Hour was initiated by WWF-Australia and is the start of an ambitious campaign to cut Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent by March 2008.
What more can you do?
Your lifestyle choices have an impact on global warming, but there’s lots that you can do...take the bus, walk, drive less, use less electricity, buy less stuff.
How lightly do YOU tread on the planet? Calculate your carbon footprint, and see where you can make a difference:
http://www.acfonline.org.au/custom_greenhome/calculator.asp?section_id=86
Earth Hour in Sydney:
• 30% of businesses on the ASX100 committed to Earth Hour
• AGL offset greenhouse gas emissions for 180,000 NSW electricity customers for Earth Hour for the entire 24 hours of 31 March.
• The Coca-Cola sign at Kings Cross was switched off intentionally for the first time since the 1970s.
• One major retailer dimmed lights in over 200 sites across Sydney. This included over 100 supermarkets, 60 liquor stores and 40 electronic stores.
• Many Sydney icons were switched off for the hour, including the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House sails and the Luna Park face.
• 90 McDonalds golden arches were turned off across Sydney
• One major bank turned off all lights and signage in 17 office buildings in the three CBDs of Sydney. They also turned lights off in 30 Sydney branches.
*All this information and the statistics come from http://earthhour.smh.com.au/
