Help Mac Unplug This Weekend
Message from VP Admin, Karen Belaire:
McMaster University is joining the global initiative Earth Hour to get people to think about the environment, and we're asking for your help. We are encouraging staff, students, and faculty to reduce energy consumption on campus this weekend and support Earth Hour by shutting off (not just logging off) your computers, printers, and non-essential devices at the end of business on Friday and for the duration of the weekend.
As outlined in the Campus Plan, McMaster University is committed to sustainability and to the environment, and events such as Earth Hour are opportunities to reinforce and further entrench those values.
Earth Hour is hoping to get as many people as possible to turn out their lights for an hour at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. Unfortunately, we cannot do that on a wide-spread basis on campus for security, logistical, and research reasons.
Still, McMaster wants to be involved in and supportive of Earth Hour. So instead of turning off all the lights, we thought we would contribute to Earth Hour by shutting down computers, printers, photocopy machines, coffee machines in short, any device that is non-essential for the entire weekend. If you can shut down your Blackberry port, and your Blackberry, that would be terrific. And if you can make a habit of this practice each Friday before you head home for the weekend so much the better.
McMaster is also asking its general contractors to turn off as many lights as possible at such campus construction sites as the new Engineering building and the McMaster Innovation Park.
McMaster students are also getting involved through MacGreen. They're being asked to turn off the lights in their homes and apartments, and to turn off computers and small electronic devices.
In addition to conserving energy, we're also hoping that McMaster's participation will spark awareness and get people on campus to share ideas for energy conservation. Please send any suggestions to my office at
[email protected]
Thank you.
Karen Belaire
Vice-President, Administration
