The Regional Municipality of York will turn off all non-essential lights at Regional facilities for one hour in recognition of the World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour which takes place Saturday, March 27th at 8:30 p.m.

 

York Region will turn off all lights at our facilities where feasible and without jeopardizing safety.  In particular, the Region will focus attention at two main locations:
 
• York Region Administrative Centre, located at 17250 Yonge Street in the Town of Newmarket
• York Region South Services Centre, located at 50 High Tech Road in the Town of Richmond Hill
 
Approximately 2,800 York Region employees and their families are also being encouraged to turn off the lights at home.
 
As part of the commitment towards reducing our ecological footprint and CO2 emissions, York Region continues to make a significant investment towards energy conservation.  York Region has conducted energy audits and retrofits of a majority of existing Regional facilities and adopted minimum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver standards for all of our new buildings.
 
Energy retrofits of the York Region Administrative Centre have produced annual savings of approximately $200,000.  Retrofits have included the installation of more energy efficient florescent lighting and motion sensors to turn off lights when occupants leave their work space.
 
York Region also works with Rodan Power (part of the Ontario Power Authority's demand reduction program) to reduce energy consumption at the Administrative Centre during peak demand times, especially during the hot summer months.

 

Everyone has a role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Earth Hour is not just about turning off the lights for 60 minutes, but simple everyday actions we can take to reduce our energy consumption at work and at home.

 

Click here to find out more information about Earth Hour 2010.