Climate Change Challenge

Another day when the sun is up and plenty of energy is floating around us - and freely available for all. Anybody?



A dear friend of mine from Amsterdam invited us to join the Greenpeace's '7 step Efficency Campaign' which I invite you all to join in!



It is about implementing a few changes to reduce your energy use - and hence reducing the total emissions from fossil energy sources. As you probably guessed, the first step will be ( hold your breath....) - changing the light bulbs. Boring as it may sound, it has many merits, one of which is the benefit to your wallet - saved energy usage equals reduced cost. So ok, you say you have done it already. Then here is a real challenge for you - convince someone else in your family or in your network of friends or colleagues to do it - someone who hasn't done it yet. And apart from changing the bulbs, you should also remember to turn them off if you don't need the light...



Talking about not using lighting. My company ikko participated this year in the EarthHour along with tens of thousands of other businesses and turned off all lights. Anybody who was in Sydney city area during that night experienced something special - the symbolic shutting down of lights from a huge amount of office buildings, people's homes and even the Harbour Bridge showed that when we want to pull together to achieve a common goal - we can. Millions of Australians turned off lights at their homes and many hosted candle -lit dinners to celebrate Earth Hour. And it wasn't only people in Sydney, or in Australia who took part - it went global. The results in energy savings from the night were amazing - 13% for Christchurch ( NZ) , and probably to Sydneysiders annoyance the Melbourneans raced to save c.10% compared to Sydney's 8.4%...well, it only means that we can rally up next year to break two digits again.



Key point is that we need these amazing energy savings more than just during one hour, during one special day of the year. So the real challenge is to keep it going for the other 364 days of the year as well. Over to you!