Earth Hour
At 8.00pm on Saturday 29 March 2008, Canberra joined other cities around the world in switching off its lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to take a stand against global warming.
As a global environmental initiative by WWF-Australia, Earth Hour is about taking simple steps everyday that collectively reduce carbon emissions – from businesses turning off their lights when their offices are empty to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.
ActewAGL, along with partners The Canberra Times, Canberra CBD Limited and the ACT Government, was proud to deliver the project to the ACT in 2008.
Canberra’s Earth Hour success
Residents and businesses across Canberra showed their support for Earth Hour 2008 by flicking the switch, turning appliances off stand-by and enjoying an hour of quiet darkness. The city’s tremendous support for Earth Hour resulted in an impressive 11.4 per cent drop in electricity consumption for the hour.
Canberra also led the nation with an outstanding 73 per cent participating in Earth Hour according to research company AMR Interactive. AMR Interactive surveyed close to 3,400 Australians and found 58 per cent participated in Earth Hour by switching off lights, turning off computers, televisions and other household appliances.
To congratulate Canberra, ActewAGL purchased enough green energy to offset the remaining essential electricity used by the city during Earth Hour.
Support Earth Hour
Sign up at www.earthhour.org and commit to turning off your non-essential exterior and interior lights at 8.00pm on Saturday 28 March 2009.