Citizens encouraged to power down in celebration of Earth Hour

Calgary - The City of Calgary is participating in Earth Hour this weekend by shutting off lights at City facilities and hosting a free outdoor event for citizens.

Citizens are invited to switch off their lights and electronics and attend Calgary Unplugged, a free, family-friendly lights out event at Confluence Plaza on St. Patrick’s Island on March 19 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The event will feature kids’ nature games, an LED lantern and drum parade and free hot chocolate in compostable cups for the first 300 attendees. Event-goers will help power music and lights on bikes provided by Open Streets Calgary.

During Earth Hour, The City will also turn off all non-essential and feature lighting at:

• The Municipal Building and old City Hall;
• Calgary Public Building;
• Manchester Centre Building E;
• Water Centre;
• all fire stations;
• Centre Street Bridge;
• the 4^th Street S.E. underpass; and
• Langevin Bridge.

Earth Hour is a global initiative held Saturday, March 19 from 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. to raise awareness about how limiting our energy use can reduce our impact on the environment. The City’s commitment to reducing energy use in its operations goes far beyond Earth Hour. Some of the work underway includes piloting cleaner types of fuel in City-operated vehicles and training employees to use fuel-saving driving behaviours to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The City also recently installed 600 solar panels on the roof of Calgary’s Southland Leisure Centre, located in the city’s southwest. The installation uses the sun’s energy to produce approximately 184,000kWh of electricity annually. This will offset the electricity usage of up to 24 average Calgary homes each year.

The City encourages Calgarians to also take simple steps every day to reduce energy use. A list of energy saving tips for homeowners is available on Calgary.ca. 

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