“Earth hour is a global reminder that even though our technology is rapidly advancing in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy the simple act of turning off our devices, developing a culture of conservation, has a role to play in our fight against climate change,” says Kori Jones, energy specialist.

Earth Hour takes place this Saturday, March 28th from 8:30 – 9:30 pm.

Earth Hour is a global environmental movement of WWF that mobilizes hundreds of millions of people to make a difference for the planet. Its core vision is to create environmental impact by utilizing the power of the crowd in a symbolic demonstration for action on climate change.

This year, the ninth annual Earth Hour focuses on Climate Change and the call to action is to Use #YourPower to Change Climate Change. It’s connecting to a global movement that is raising public awareness on climate change in the lead up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later in 2015.

The impact locally & globally

The City of Vancouver has been named Canada’s Earth Hour City Challenge capital 2015!

Vancouver received the award for “exemplary leadership in sustainability and innovation within energy efficiency.” Read the full story here.

Earth Hour is the single largest, symbolic mass participation event in the world and celebrates the symbolic “lights off” hour, which has grown from a one-city event to a mass global initiative, involving more than 162 countries, and 7,000 cities and towns, uniting a a global community, making our voices heard through the individual action of turning off the lights as a massive show of concern for our impact on the environment.

What’s happening to make Health Care go beyond the hour?

Staff across health care can look at the Turn-It-Off / Unplug it toolkit to see what they can do to save energy at work.

As one of the most energy intensive sectors, we have an intensified need to reduce our energy consumption and our reliance on fossil fuels. Learn more about the Energy Conservation being done by the Energy & Environmental Sustainability (EES) team across the Lower Mainland Health Organizations here.

Some highlights from your VCH Energy Team:

· In 2013/2014 we completed energy efficient lighting retrofits at VCH sites (VGH, RGH, LGH Evergreen) for total annual savings of 1,805,759 kWh. This equates to the annual electrical needs of about 181 residences in BC.

For 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 we are continuing lighting retrofits at the VGH Site and Squamish Hospital for an additional savings 1,347,000 kWh. This equates to the annual electrical needs of about another 135 residences in BC

Power in numbers

Help make 2015 another great success by switching off all non-essential office lights and unplugging non-essential equipment before leaving your workplace at the end of this workweek.

Reminder: Our focus is on non-essential lights and equipment only – essential services that require electricity will not be affected.

GreenCare Community: For more information on how GreenCare supports energy savings across the health authorities, visit here and login to share your Earth Hour stories and read tips and ideas on sharing the moment with family and friends.

About GreenCare

To learn more about GreenCare and the environmental programs that are taking place through the Health Authorities, please sign-up to the GreenCare Community and help to make our organization a leader in conservation and sustainability.