Over the weekend, Sheridan participated in Earth Hour by shutting off non-essential lights to show its commitment to sustainability.
Earth Hour is an annual event organized by WWF to raise awareness about climate change. Businesses, organizations, residents, and governments around the world participate by powering off their lights from 8:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. It began in Australia in 2007 and has since grown to include millions of people from an estimated 172 countries.
At Sheridan, starting just before 8:30 p.m. Sheridan’s electricians went around Davis, Trafalgar, and HMC campuses to shut off breakers for corridor lights and certain outdoor lights. Lights that are now on the new DALI system as well as fan units were programmed to shut down.
Some students and employees also chose to take part by shutting off lights, powering down their computers, and shutting off monitors in their space before leaving campus on Friday evening or by participating at home. The Residences also chose to participate in Earth Hour by having an environmental trivia night, shutting off lights off and using flashlights. Animation students in A-Wing voluntarily shut off lights for an hour and worked in the dark.
The Impact
Although Earth Hour is just one hour out of 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, and 8,760 hours in a year, this symbolic event is not insignificant. We wanted to share with you what impact it had on our campuses’ electricity use.
Thanks to sub-meters set up at Davis and Trafalgar campuses, we are now able to capture interval consumption data by building. The graphs below show electricity use (in kWh) for Davis and Trafalgar campus on March 28th. The impact of Earth Hour can be seen starting at 8 p.m.
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It is estimated that about 370 kWh (~25% reduction in hourly use) were saved total over the 8-10PM time interval at Davis and another 450 kWh (~19% reduction in hourly use) total at Trafalgar. That’s enough energy to power a home for a whole month[1]! Although the data are not available, additional electricity use was also likely reduced at HMC, which also participated in Earth Hour.
Beyond the Hour
As part of its IECMP, Sheridan College is doing its part to install energy efficient lighting, gain control over heating and cooling of spaces, and improve energy efficiency. This helps us reduce our carbon footprint and reliance on fossil fuels. In the future, most lighting will be on occupancy sensors and heating/cooling will be set back during lower occupancy hours.
In the meantime and going forward, you can help us reduce energy use by turning off lights when you leave an empty room, shutting off your computer and monitor when not in use (as well as at the end of your work day), and letting Facilities know when your space is too hot or cold.
Thank you to everyone who made this year’s Earth Hour possible including Facilities managers and operations staff, Security & Parking, Health & Safety, as well as everyone who participated. For questions/comments about Earth Hour or what you can do to go “Beyond the Hour,” contact the Office for Sustainability at sustainability@sheridancollege.ca.
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Clik here to view.
[1] http://www.energy.gov.on.ca/en/clean-energy-benefit/