Help make a difference!

Simple changes in our everyday lives can help slow climate change. Together, we can make a difference.

What you can do:

• Reduce your home heating and electricity use. A more energy-efficient home will lower your utility bills and reduce the emissions that cause climate change. Find out how you can increase energy efficiency in your home through the EnerGuide for Houses program and BC Hydro’s Power Smart program.
  
  
• Choose energy-efficient appliances. New refrigerators, for example, use 40 per cent less energy than models made just 10 years ago. Find out more
  
  
• Check the Canadian government’s Auto Smart ratings for the next car you intend to buy to make sure it’s fuel efficient and low polluting. A typical SUV uses almost twice the fuel – and releases nearly twice the emissions – of a modern station wagon, although both seat the same number of passengers. Visit the Canadian Annual Office of Energy Efficiency EnerGuide Awards to find the most fuel-efficient vehicles.
  
  
• Walk, bike, carpool or take transit to get to one of your regular destinations each week.
  
  
• If you are moving, choose a home within a 30-minute bike, walk or transit ride from your daily destinations. A convenient place to live reduces the amount you drive, which means you’ll lower your greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants.
  
  
• Take the Pembina Institue's One Less Tonne challenge to change the way you use energy at home and on the road 
  
  
• Take the David Suzuki Foundation’s Nature Challenge to learn more about other ways you can help protect the environment.
  
  

What businesses can do:

• Purchase energy-saving models of office appliances and equipment, such as EnergyStar-approved computers, LCD monitors, printers and photocopiers. Not only will this help save energy, but it will save money too.
  
  
• Design for lighting intensity of 1.0 watts per square foot or less. Over-lighting wastes energy and produces glare.
  
  
• Install lighting controls to turn lights on only when needed and to provide the required amount of light. Based in Langley, B.C., Ledalite's office lighting technology, Ergolight, incorporates sensors and computer-based dimming controls to provide significant savings in energy costs. Business customers using the Ergolight system have experienced major decreases in energy consumption, in some cases up to 80 per cent.
  
  
• Encourage staff to commit to taking alternative modes of transportation for their daily commute at least once a month. This can include options such as car-pooling, cycling, taking public transit or walking where possible. Visit Go Green to help your company reduce vehicle trips to the workplace.
  
  
• Create a recycling program and decrease paper use.
  
  
• If you have a fleet of vehicles, try to use the most energy-efficient models possible. For example, Novex, one of the Lower Mainland’s largest couriers, plans on converting its entire fleet of cars, vans and trucks to low-emission vehicles.
  
  
• Energy-efficiency upgrades and retrofits to office buildings can have long-term paybacks. For example, instead of spending more than $3 million to build a new leisure centre, the District of Mission, B.C., upgraded its existing leisure centre. It replaced the refrigeration plant and hot water boiler systems and installed energy-efficient lighting systems among other measures. As a result, Mission will enjoy annual energy savings of $74,000.
  
  
• Visit Cool Companies or Power Smart for businesses to find out how your company can cut pollution and save money with clean, efficient energy technology.
  

Did you know?

• Standard light bulbs give off 90 per cent of their energy as heat. New compact fluorescent "spiral" bulbs are 75 per cent more efficient and fit in standard sockets.
  

• If you combined all the "heat leaks" in an average Canadian home, you would have a hole the size of a basketball! Proper weather stripping and caulking of doors and windows can reduce heating bills by 25 per cent.
  

• A typical car produces three times its weight in carbon dioxide emissions – a major greenhouse gas. Light cars produce fewer emissions and cost less. Annual fuel costs average $648 for a new Volkswagen Jetta and $2,067 for a Ford Expedition 4x4.
  

• Refrigerators are an energy-hogging home appliance. Replacing a 10-year-old refrigerator with a new EnergyStar-approved model would save enough energy to light your home for more than three months.
  

• The transportation sector accounts for about 40 per cent of British Columbia's greenhouse gas emissions. About a third of transportation emissions come from individual cars and small trucks – such as SUVs. A reduction in automobile use and a switch to cleaner, renewable fuel systems will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and significantly improve air quality in the region.