Although campaigns such as Earth Hour might not be a quick fix for the problem of over-consumption, they do raise public awareness about energy reduction.
“It’s more than about turning your lights off for one hour, it’s about the importance of energy conservation year-round to reduce our environmental footprint,” says Susan Barnett, Hydro Ottawa’s communications supervisor.
Earth Hour is a global initiative that encourages people to turn off electricity on a chosen date for one hour. This year, 88 countries were involved.
Ottawa participated in the program on March 28 and reduced consumption by six per cent, an improvement from last year’s four per cent.
“The success of the initiative is not so much the measurement as in the fact that it engages the city and raises public awareness about the importance of conservation,” says Barnett.
While the energy saved in Ottawa is enough to power 58 homes for a month, Barnett says the city probably won’t hold a similar initiative because it is the World Wildlife Fund’s campaign.
But Hydro Ottawa offers other strategies to reduce energy consumption.
Its peaksaver program gives residents a free programmable thermostat and reduces electricity from central air conditioning systems on the hottest summer days. The fan continues to run, so the temperature change is hardly noticeable.
Ontario Power Authority also picks up old, inefficient refrigerators for free through the “Great Refrigerator Roundup” program.
“The real reductions in energy use are going to come from efficiencies,” such as more energy conserving appliances and houses, says Paul Andrée, an environmental politics professor at Carleton University.
There are also other energy-saving projects going on in Ottawa.
Ecology Ottawa is promoting green buildings and workplace challenge where teams compete to make cuts in energy consumption. Lights left on in commercial and institutional buildings overnight are also problematic, as the lights in some buildings cannot even be turned off, says Lori Waller, an Ecology Ottawa policy coordinator.
“You just walk around downtown Ottawa anytime after dark…and they’re all lit up.”
Waller says while Ottawa residents are participating in environmentally-friendly acts such as switching to fluorescent light bulbs, there is no leadership at city hall on these issues.
While Toronto and Vancouver have adopted green revolutions, Waller says “it doesn’t seem to be a strategic focus in Ottawa right now, especially with our current mayor who is focused on other things.”
Andrée says Canada should take Nordic countries, such as Sweden and Norway as their model, because they have managed to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
“They really show that it’s possible to reduce overall consumption and greenhouse gas emissions…while maintaining a viable economy.”
He says this is a challenge for Canada because it is so dependent on resource extraction.
“If we don’t figure out how to do it soon, we’ll just be lagging behind everyone else.”
He says electricity generation is only one part of a huge shift Canada will have to go through.
“Sometimes it seems like everything we do is contributing to the problem, but that also means that almost everything we do there’s an opportunity to do it differently,” says Waller.