University of Alberta
ER-2: Student Sustainability Outreach Campaign

Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wildlife Fund). It is held each year on the last Saturday of March. Earth Hour asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. UAlberta's celebration of Earth Hour includes a variety of competitions and programs supporting this global movement. Examples of the Office of Sustainability’s outreach programming for Earth Hour 2014 are outlined below. ONE HOUR, NO POWER: CAMPUS CHALLENGE Building on a successful pledge competition since Earth Hour 2010, a “Call for Participation” will be sent province wide to broaden the reach of this event. Students, staff and faculty at all participating institutions will be encouraged to visit a common website and “make their pledge” to participate in Earth Hour 2014. The school with the largest number of pledges (i.e., proportional to school population) will win the competition, and individual participants will be entered to win prizes supplied by their own institution. DARKEST TOWER CHALLENGE Lister Residence, UAlberta's largest residence complex, houses nearly 1,600 students in four towers. In collaboration with Residence Services, a competition was held within Lister Residence that encourages residents to reduce their electricity consumption. New in 2014, UAlberta registered to participate in Campus Conservation Nationals (CCN) – a national competition that encourages North American post-secondary institutions to measure their electricity consumption. CCN provides awards to the schools with the best performance. As a participant in CCN, UAlberta’s Darkest Tower Challenge measures electricity use for a three-week period and gave prizes to the tower with the greatest reduction in electricity consumption per capita. NATURAL RESOURCES ENGINEERING FACILITY GOES DARK! As a symbol of campus commitment, the NREF building on North Campus turned ALL of its lights off. "LIGHTS OUT" FLASH MOB On Saturday March 29, 2014, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., students were invited to help campus participate in Earth Hour. In groups of two, these volunteers traveled from building to building shutting off as many lights as they could during that one hour.

The results from Earth Hour Celebrations at the University of Alberta for 2014 included: ONE HOUR, NO POWER: CAMPUS CHALLENGE Thirteen post-secondary schools from across Alberta, from Medicine Hat to Grand Prairie, teamed up to take part in this friendly competition. Coordinated by the University of Alberta, 3,042 students and staff from across the province pledged to the Campus Challenge. At the University of Alberta, a record-breaking 1,183 staff and students made pledges. DARKEST TOWER CHALLENGE Henday Hall won the Darkest Tower Challenge with 13.8% reduction in electricity consumption, compared to baseline data. Across all four Lister Residence towers, a total of over 25,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity were saved in the three week period. These results were announced at a charity dodgeball game with more than 600 Listerites in attendance. NATURAL RESOURCES ENGINEERING FACILITY GOES DARK! The 2nd annual Lights Out Flash Mob took place during Earth Hour, and 11 teams shut off 396 lights in one hour. "LIGHTS OUT" FLASH MOB A total of 475 of 1,183 of UAlberta participants completed an evaluation after Earth Hour, and 91% of those who pledged to participate in Earth Hour followed through with their commitment. In addition, 78% either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that as a result of participation they are motivated to engage in sustainability, and that they intend to make positive changes in their daily activities. OUTREACH TABLES Earth Hour promotional activities reached a total of 1,241 people. During the promotions we also gathered 83 One Simple Act on Campus commitments were collected supporting long-lasting sustainability-related behaviour changes in the participants.

This credit describes our participation in Earth Hour. Another activity that engages the whole campus is the One Simple Act on Campus program. Details on this program are available here: http://sustainability.ualberta.ca/osa