Sent out by the County Council below – Please support Earth Hour next week. It is an excellent event. The more we can do to cut energy usage the better.

 

From council:

Buildings across County Durham will be turning their lights off next week in support of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Earth Hour.

Durham County Council will again lead the way in promoting Earth Hour on both the 22 and 23 March when non-essential lighting is switched off. Council buildings will be joined by DurhamUniversity, numerous schools and DurhamCastle in turning off lights to reduce their energy use and encourage staff, residents, businesses, and visitors to think about their impact on the environment.

As the official hour, between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on March 23, takes place when schools and the majority of council buildings will be closed, the council will hold their own hour a day earlier, on the 22 March, to show their support for the campaign. Participating schools will join in between 2:00pm and 3:00pm with the council holding their hour between 3:00pm and 4:00pm. This will see all non-essential lighting and unused electrical equipment switched off in buildings as well as staff and pupils being asked to reduce their electricity consumption to as low a level as possible.

Stuart Timmiss, head of planning and assets, said: “Earth Hour is a great way to both reduce our carbon footprint and raise awareness of the issue and we would like to encourage everyone to join the council and Durham University in taking part. We hope that the hour will encourage everyone to consider cutting down their energy use throughout the year to help us make this a low carbon county. We have taken part in Earth Hour for the past four years to encourage people to save energy as it will make a difference to their energy bill as well as the environment.”

Residents wishing to sign up to Earth Hour can find further information on the WWF’s website: http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/