Morinville kicked St. Albert’s butt in terms of energy conservation during Earth Hour, says FortisAlberta, but the big winner was the environment.
About 7,000 cities around the world went dark for Earth Hour last March 23 as part of a global call for action against climate change reports the World Wildlife Fund. Earth Hour was from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
The annual event encourages people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by saving energy, and, as a symbolic act, calls on them to shut off non-essential lighting during Earth Hour.
St. Albert’s electricity use dropped 3.1 per cent during Earth Hour relative to the same hour a week before, said FortisAlberta spokesperson Alana Antonelli, saving enough juice to energize about 2,140 homes in the process.
That’s not as big as the 5.8 per cent drop we saw last year, unfortunately, said city environmental co-ordinator Kalen Pilkington. “Maybe (the smaller drop) had something to do with the hockey game being on?”
And it’s proportionately less than Morinville’s 8.6 per cent drop, which saved enough to power 1,010 homes.
St. Albert placed 28th in terms of energy saved out of the 42 cities Fortis monitored during Earth Hour, Antonelli said. Morinville was fifth.
Pilkington said she was happy St. Albert took part in Earth Hour this year, and amazed by Morinville’s accomplishment. “Good for them!”
Residents can save energy year-round by sealing window drafts, unplugging unused phone chargers and installing LED bulbs in place of incandescent ones, Antonelli said.
St. Albert plans to enter WWF’s Earth Hour City Challenge next year, Pilkington said, which challenges cities to take innovative actions to reduce emissions and promote renewable energy. This year’s winner was Vancouver.
Hundreds of city residents will be asked about the state of St. Albert’s environment this month as part of a new telephone survey.
About 1,600 St. Albert homes can expect a call from Bannister Research sometime in the next two weeks, said Leah Kongsrude, manager of community sustainability for the City of St. Albert.
The calls are part of the city’s first-ever Environmental Master Plan Survey, Kongsrude said. The city is doing a review of its environmental master plan next year, and wants to know how well the plan works.
That plan was based in part on a non-scientific survey done in 2008 as part of a rain barrel contest, Jackson said. She wanted a more robust one done for the plan’s revisions.
Bannister Research (which will appear as “Bannister Surveys” on caller ID displays) is looking for about 800 city residents over the age of 18 to take the survey, Kongsrude said. The survey itself will take about 10 minutes, and involve 15 demographic questions and 30 environmental ones. Bannister expects to have to call 1,600 homes to get the number of responses it needs.
Most questions will focus on the city’s progress (or lack thereof) towards the goals outlined in the environmental master plan, Kongsrude said. “Are we doing enough? Are we doing too much?” The survey will also ask residents to rank those goals in terms of importance.
Some of the questions will be about trash collection, said Christian Benson, the city’s solid waste programs co-ordinator. “We’ve reached our (waste) goals for 2020,” he noted, and the city’s looking to set some new ones. He also wanted to ask people about blue-bag collection and the city’s waste fee structure.
Calls will be made throughout the day from March 27 to April 15, Kongsrude said, excluding the Easter long weekend. Results should be ready by about June, and will be used to shape revisions to the environmental master plan.
Questions should go to Kongsrude at 780-459-1746.
