Earth Hour 2008
Earth Hour was held on Saturday 29 March at 8pm, household across the Hunter participating in the global event.
If you can't measure it – you can't manage it
Official Earth Hour data confirms that the Hunter Region achieved a 4.3% reduction in electricity usage during Earth Hour. That equates to:
- Enough energy to power around 1.9 million energy efficient light globes.
- An estimated saving of 24 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a great result and will help us understand a starting point for next year’s Earth Hour.
Newcastle ClimateCam data
When Council's City Energy and Resource Management team looked into the Newcastle ClimateCam data they capture for each of the 15 Zones, they found electricity consumption data for quite a few zones actually went up during the earth hour period between 8pm and 9pm. This finding proves measurement is an essential element to effective change. There is clearly a lot of work to do to reach overall electricity reduction targets of 10 and 20% in the next decade.
Ongoing savings
The Earth Hour event saved 24 tonnes of greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere through the combined efforts of everyone in the Hunter Region.
The 2150 households that signed up during the month of March to have a free of charge Enviro Saver Kit installed will in contrast save 2,150 tonnes of greenhouse gas each and every year. That works out at about 90 times more effective than everyone turning off their lights for an hour. We can add these 2150 homes to the 20,043 homes that have signed up to Enviro Saver since April last year. Together these homes are saving 20,043 tonnes of greenhouse gas and 440,946 kilolitres of water each year.
Earth Hour 2009
If anyone has any ideas about how we can make Earth Hour 2009 even bigger please email Council and let us know.
