Earth Hour 2009
Earth Hour 2009 Results
Congratulations to the Baldwin Spencer Building, which was the overall winning building for Earth Hour, which took place on Saturday 28th March. Each staff member in the building will be receiving a free energy efficient light globe to take home with them. We are in the midst of contacting key staff to distribute your lightbulbs!
Congratulations are due to all staff and students who participated in Earth Hour. Electricity consumption on the Earth Hour weekend dropped by 11% compared with the previous weekend. This resulted in cost saving of $5,500 and reduction of 62 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Further detailed results are downloadable below:
- Electricity Consumption for University of Melbourne - Earth Hour Weekend Comparison, March 2009 [.pdf]
We encourage everyone to continue Voting for Earth and switching off all lights and computers at the end of every day.
Earth Hour 2009 Call to Action
The University of Melbourne Votes Earth
At 8.30pm on 28 March 2009, Earth Hour aims to inspire 1 billion people in 1,000 cities around the world to take part in turning off all non-essential lighting and appliances.
Earth Hour 2009 has a theme of Vote Earth, and invites people of all ages, nationalities, race and background to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming.
Following the success of our participation in 2008, and in the context of the strong targets for carbon emission reduction we have adopted for 2008-2010 and 2030, the University has again signed up to Earth Hour in 2009.
We need your help
We need staff to help by making sure you turn off all lights and appliances before you leave your office on Friday 27 March 2009.
In teaching and study spaces, if you are the last to leave on Friday 27 March 2009, please turn off all lights and appliances for which manual controls are accessible.
Prize for best building: Property & Campus Services will give away an energy efficient light globe for each staff member building occupant, up to a limit of 500 globes, for the building that best gets behind the initiative, as judged by the Vice-Principal, Property & Campus Services.
Please help the University play its part in the campaign against global warming by switching off not just for this weekend, but any time you see an opportunity to reduce our energy consumption.
You can also take part in your own home. For more details, see: http://www.earthhour.org/
What Property & Campus Services will do
Property & Campus Services will provide the following assistance to the University's efforts:
- The Building Automation Systems will be programmed to have those buildings with central lighting systems turn off lights before 8.30pm (Parkville).
- Building Supervisors and Security Guards will turn off any unnecessary lights leading up to Saturday (Parkville).
- Asset Services staff will be in attendance on the evening to arrange any area that can be turned off (Parkville).
- Grounds Lighting will remain on for safety purposes (all campuses).
- Asset Services staff at the VCA, Werribee and Burnley campuses will assess external lighting (spotlights on buildings) to see if they can be turned off for the entire weekend.
- EHS Unit staff will use contact networks to increase staff awareness of the need to switch lights off (all campuses).
- Dookie and Creswick campuses have been asked to consider how they might contribute.