On Wednesday, March 24, York’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) and Ecologically Conscious Organization (ECO) will host the university’s first annual Earth Hour Symposium. Earth Hour, a global event, asks people around the world to switch off their lights on March 27.

York’s symposium will feature a United Nations Climate Change Conference debrief by Ellie Perkins, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) and Jacqueline Medalye, a PhD student in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. James MacLellan, Adjunct Professor in FES, will give a talk on “environmental discounting,” using a comparative analysis to illustrate why economic discounting – an analysis used to weigh short-term benefits against potential long-term detriments – is controversial when applied to the issue of global climate change.

Students and faculty will take part in a campus-wide brainstorm on sustainability, followed by an official “de-lighting” ceremony and parade beginning at 6:30pm. The symposium will also feature results of the IRIS Waste Survey, and an update on YorkWISE Energy Projects. YorkWISE is an ongoing effort by the York community to take action that is ecologically, economically and socially conscious. The goal is part of a $40-million investment to reduce the University's energy consumption by 25 per cent over five years.

One such initiative is the annual Earth Hour Res Race To Zero contest, which runs from March 1 to 28 this year. All 10 undergraduate dorms, with 2,500 York students combined, compete to reduce their overall energy use for the same time period from the year before. Last year’s winning dorm, Calumet College, decreased their energy reduction by 32 per cent per student. The prize money and matching funds bought high-efficiency light bulbs that were installed in residences.

The York community at large is also challenged to decrease energy consumption through the Unplug Initiative, which asks faculty and staff to unplug computers and switch off office equipment before holidays.

Lighting improvements are ongoing at buildings across campus, including upgrades to more energy-efficient fluorescent lighting. A lighting retrofit and renewal of the Scott Library has allowed the facility to cut its energy consumption drastically – a savings in the neighbourhood of 1,000 tonnes of carbon. The library’s second floor will also undergo a major facelift as the space is reconfigured into a learning commons, featuring a green retrofit based on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, the gold standard for energy efficient buildings.

For more information on York’s ongoing efforts to reduce its energy consumption and its overall ecological footprint, visit: http://www.yorku.ca/yorkwise/index.html .

For a full schedule of Earth Hour @ York events, see: http://www.irisyorku.ca/2010/03/earth-hour-at-york-u/ .

York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 Faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.

-30-

Media Contact:

Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x 22097, mehughes@yorku.ca