Nearly 1,900 towns and cities in 81 countries from all corners of the world have already signed up to take part in Earth Hour – and cast their vote for action on climate change.
Earth Hour is about taking simple steps every day that collectively reduce carbon emissions – from businesses turning off lights when their offices are empty, to households turning off appliances rather than leaving them on standby.
We believe that energy saving work is important and have done a great deal over the years in this area, but we’re committed to doing more. Our Carbon Management Action Plan, adopted in 2004, has helped us reduce our carbon dioxide emissions from heating and lighting in our own buildings by 20%.
We’ve also worked with local small businesses to help them reduce their carbon emissions by a total of 3,500 tonnes over the past six years, saving them hundreds of thousands of pounds in energy bills.
To support Earth Hour, we aim to:
- ensure that unnecessary lights are switched off in County Council buildings – but we won’t be compromising essential safety lighting, such as pedestrian crossings and traffic lights
- encourage staff and residents to take up the campaign at home
- promote the campaign to businesses via our award-winning Business Excellence Through Resource Efficiency (BETRE) programme – that includes free energy audits (see below), and
- remind staff and contractors of the need to save energy and thereby save money all year round.
County Council Deputy Leader, Councillor Tony Reid said "Saving energy saves money, and by reducing our energy use we can cut down the carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere and help combat climate change. It is good common-sense all round. I’m proud of our record so far in this area and we’ll take up the challenge to do even more.
"If each household in East Sussex could switch off 500 watts of electrical goods for just this hour, together we’d prevent over 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released."
Further information
For more information about Earth Hour and ideas for different ways you can get involved, go to the Earth Hour website.
East Sussex County Council leads the carbon dioxide reduction work to implement the East Sussex Community Strategy. The County Council and partners are seeking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 75,000 tonnes over the three years 2008/9 to 2010/11, with further effort from national government. Our work to deliver this will include public organisations working together on energy ‘house-keeping’ and in supporting schools and residents.
In 2008/9, for the first time, all councils were challenged by the government to measure and report in the same way on the carbon dioxide emissions from their own fuel use (as a result of heating and lighting buildings, lighting streets and staff travel at work). In 2009, East Sussex County Council will publish its 2008/9 baseline and set targets for improvement, as well as publish a Climate Change Strategy for East Sussex.
The BETRE East Sussex business programme is supported by the European Union’s INTERREG IVa programme and offers a range of free services to business, including training, environmental audits, grants of up to £500 to implement improvements, a telephone helpline, information in newsletters and on the BETRE website.
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