Switch off for Earth Hour - Saturday 29 March

Friday, 21 March 2014

The University is encouraging staff to support Earth Hour 2014. Organised by the WWF, Earth Hour is the largest symbolic mass event around the world, and involves simply turning off your lights for one hour at 8.30pm on Saturday 29 March.

Millions of people around the world now turn their lights off as part of Earth Hour in order to show their concern for the environment, and the University has signed up in support.

Dan Fernbank, Energy Manager, said "Earth Hour is a demonstration of the power of collective action. Simple actions by each of us really can add up to significant impacts. Have a look around and see what you can turn off when you leave for the weekend - if we each turn off our PC, monitor and light, this can collectively save over £2,000 in a weekend; and of course it doesn't need to stop there - let's see what we can save together.

"The savings from these few simple steps is equivalent to a 25% reduction in our typical weekend electricity bills, and of course over a year, would save over £100,000!"

The University has already cut its carbon emissions by 15%. Significant further progress is expected this year to keep the University on track to meeting its commitment to 35% carbon reduction by July 2016.

Find out what else you can do to help reduce our carbon footprint >>>

Alternatively feel free to ask for advice, or send suggestions directly to the Sustainability Team: sustainability@reading.ac.uk, or follow them on Twitter for regular updates @UniRdg_Sust.

WWF encourage everyone taking part, whether at home or at work, to sign up to Earth Hour online (top right of the page), so they can track the volume of people who are involved.