The University of Western Ontario’s Physical Plant is encouraging the campus community to participate in Earth Hour, by safely reducing as much energy as possible for an hour on Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 p.m.
Staff, faculty, and students who leave campus for the weekend are being asked to turn the power off on the way out the door. Students in residence and evening shift employees are being asked to flick off their energy consuming equipment and lights. Caretaking Services employees, working on the weekend, will be turning off all non-emergency lighting and non-critical equipment.
According to Physical Plant, Earth Hour is an event that demonstrates dependence on energy and brings awareness to responsible energy use. In a statement, Physical Plant notes the event is not a realistic model for how to operate on a daily basis “but it will help users recognize its true value.”
“We support Earth Hour and view it as an annual reminder of how valuable our energy resources are now and how we should do our part to protect them for the future,” says Roy Langille, Associate Vice-President Physical Plant.
Physical Plant is partnering with Housing Services to engage students in residence to be aware of their personal use during the worldwide event. Residence council presidents have met with a Physical Plant representative and are planning creative ways to participate.
Following the event, Physical Plant will collect the stories and pictures and post them on the Environment & Sustainability website (www.uwo.ca/ppd) along with the energy savings data.
Because the event occurs in the evening and on a weekend, many of the university’s energy consuming HVAQ systems will already be running on minimal power. It has been an established practice to schedule the shutdown of air handling equipment in buildings that are unoccupied on evenings and weekends.