City encourages citizens to power down and celebrate Earth Hour
The City of Calgary is participating in Earth Hour this weekend by shutting off lights at City facilities on Saturday, March 25 from 8:30 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
During Earth Hour, The City will turn off all non-essential and feature lighting at:
- The Municipal Building;
- Calgary Public Building;
- Manchester Centre Building E;
- Water Centre;
- all fire stations;
- Centre Street Bridge;
- the 4th Street S.E. underpass; and
- Reconciliation Bridge.
The City also invites citizens to switch off their lights and electronics during Earth Hour as a reminder of the simple energy-saving actions Calgarians can take throughout the year.
Earth Hour is a global initiative to raise awareness about how limiting our energy use can reduce our impact on the environment. The City works hard to be a leader in environmental stewardship and is committed to reducing energy use in its operations, far beyond Earth Hour. Last year, The City implemented a computer power management initiative which adjusts power settings on City computers. Computers which are idle automatically go into sleep mode on evenings and weekends to conserve electricity. Results from a pilot in 2015 showed a 62 per cent reduction in energy use for computers automatically switched to low power state each night, with virtually no impact to users. This change in policy promotes a culture of conservation among City employees and is estimated to save the Corporation $400,000 annually.
The City is also making significant progress in its LED streetlight retrofit project, where all Calgary’s high-pressure sodium streetlamps will be replaced with LED fixtures. These new fixtures provide equivalent lighting but use 40 to 50 percent less energy. LED fixtures are expected to last for ten years without requiring bulb changes or planned maintenance; this is expected to save approximately $1 million in bulb replacement costs annually.
The City encourages Calgarians to take simple steps every day to reduce energy use. A list of energy saving tips for homeowners is available on Calgary.ca.