Do you know what to do this Earth Hour?
Kennedy Love sure does. The Grade 3 student has been turning off the lights and electronics with the rest of her class at Muriel Martin for about an hour each day since early February. "The only thing we didn't turn off was the wall clock," she says.
Her family has even done it at her home in Morinville. "All we had [on] was one computer and TV," she says — no lights all night.
Citizens around the world will be shutting off their lights for an hour this Saturday as part of a global effort to raise awareness about energy conservation and climate change.
Love and the rest of the students in Monique Waters' class have become conservation champions over the last two months as part of a national energy saving contest — one that coincidentally ends the day before Earth Hour. Who better then, to teach the rest of us about energy conservation?
The contest
Environment Canada says energy accounts for about 82 per cent of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, which makes energy conservation key to stopping climate change.
Waters' class is one of about 500 classrooms taking part in the national Energy Diet Challenge – a contest sponsored by Canadian Geographic and Shell Canada that aims to promote energy literacy. By completing various challenges, the class earns points that could qualify them for prizes. As of Wednesday, they were in second place.
Love and her classmates have spent the last two months learning how to make less waste. They've audited their trash, water, and electricity use, broadcast energy saving tips on the school's TV show, studied renewable power, recycled, composted – even grown local food to eat.
They have also built models of energy-efficient schools from recycled materials, Love says. "We had flowers for the garden," she says of hers, "and we used wind energy and water energy."
Waters says she entered her students into this contest to teach them about conservation. "If we start when they're young, it's something they can carry on when they're older."
The class has been shutting off all its electronics for about an hour a day since early February as part of the contest, Waters says, sort of Earth Hour in miniature.
It was a bit of a shock at first to teach without lights or smart boards, she says, but they got used to it. "We just go back to old school," she says: whiteboards, books and sunlight.
Lights out
Electricity use accounts for about 42 per cent of St. Albert's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the city's greenhouse gas inventory report. Godo Stoyke, president of the energy efficiency firm Carbon Busters, says about 10 per cent of this electricity goes towards lighting.
Waters says her class has found it can get by with using just half of its lights. Keeping the blinds open in the winter lets both light and heat in, she adds, saving more energy.
Using natural light in this way is a great idea, Stoyke says, as research suggests that students perform about 14 to 21 per cent better when exposed to sunlight. Waters' class could save more on lighting by putting reflectors behind their light tubes, he adds.
The class also went after phantom power, Love says. "Phantom power is when you leave something plugged in and it still pulls a little bit of electricity," she explains.
These "power vampires" can suck up about five to 20 per cent of a home's total energy use, Stoyke says — more than some refrigerators. Chargers, printers, TVs and DVD players are almost always power vampires, as are halogen lamps. "They can actually use more energy while [they] are turned off than during the time they are turned on," he says of the latter.
An external power brick is a sure sign of a power vampire, Stoyke says, as is an appliance that stays warm even when it's not on. "If they are warm, that means they are wasting energy."
Most homes can save about $500 over five years by using power bars to exorcise these energy ghosts — just plug the things into the power bar and shut the bar off when they're not in use. Or just unplug them. That's what Team Waters did to get rid of the power vampires they found in their computers and Waters' laptop. "After I charge my [Nintendo] DS," Love says, "I always unplug it now."
Ideas in motion
About 32 per cent of St. Albert's emissions come from transportation, according to the city.
The students examined the various ways they got to school, Love says, and determined that they produced about 38 "carbon feet" of emissions through transportation. Driving a car to school produced the most emissions (making it worth the most "feet"), while walking or biking produced none (zero "feet").
They also looked at how to drive more efficiently. "It takes more fuel to make a left turn," Love notes, "and it takes the least fuel to keep going straight."
The average left turn adds about two car-lengths to your drive, says the Alberta Motor Association's Don Szarko, and those car-lengths add up. "Think of the cumulative effect of reducing the number of car-lengths you have to travel."
He says underinflated tires can also sap mileage – losing about one per cent for every three pounds per square inch of under-inflation, and most cars are six to eight pounds under. A truck with tires that are eight pounds underinflated will cost about $139 extra a year in gas, he notes.
A combination of not speeding, proper maintenance, and smooth driving can easily shave 25 per cent off fuel bills, Szarko says. "That's money in your pocket."
Waste not
Trash accounts for about one per cent of St. Albert's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the city.
It takes a lot of energy to turn raw materials into new products, says Christina Seidel, executive director of the Recycling Council of Alberta. Producing a tonne of aluminium cans from recycled metal takes about 95 per cent less energy than making it from new material, she notes, and according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prevents about four tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
When the class did its trash audit, Waters says, they found that they could reduce the amount of waste they made by composting and using re-useable drink and lunch containers. While the total amount of waste they made actually rose a bit between their two audits, to 1,112 grams from 917 due to a hot-lunch event, they managed to keep about 53 per cent of their waste out of the landfill, compared to 38 per cent before.
Reusing your waste, Seidel notes, can save the most energy. Waters' students used this energy saving tip when they held a swap meet. Other residents can get in on the act through take-it-or-leave-it events.
Kids lead the way
Contests like the one Waters' class entered give students a hands-on way to learn about environmental benefits, Seidel says. "They can actually look at what they're producing themselves and the difference they can make."
Elementary school students are also some of the most effective energy-saving advocates around, Stoyke adds. "Once they understand the concept, they are amazingly vigorous in following it up."
Saving energy helps preserve fossil fuels and reduce waste, Love notes. "If the landfills keep filling up, then one day the world might be a huge landfill like in [the movie] Wall-E," she says.
Earth Hour runs from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.
