Turn It Off

We’re all looking for ways to save the planet that are within our reach. We recycle, we reduce our energy consumption, we teach our children not to pollute. Small measures for sure, but tiny steps can lead to big leaps.

At SavvyMom we are doing our best as a company to make a difference. We recycle everything—from Starbucks cups to those nasty toner cartridges. We rarely turn our office lights on (thanks to our beautiful skylights), and we eat ‘boomerang lunches’ (lunches packaged in recyclable and reusable materials so nothing is thrown out, except maybe a napkin). But we can’t seem to reduce our carbon footprint as much as we would like to with the number of computers we run.

Last but not least, we are proud to be supporting Earth Hour this month and we encourage you, our loyal readers, to do so as well. Just recently Vancouver officially agreed to support Earth Hour so there is no excuse for our Vancouver Savvymoms not to as well.

Earth Hour is a global initiative that began last year in Sydney Australia. Last year 2.3 million Sydneysiders and 2,100 businesses turned their lights off, resulting in 10% reduction on the electrical grid (that’s 25 tonnes—the equivalent to taking 50,000 cars off the road for an hour). More importantly, this community action sent a powerful message which has evolved into a global initiative with over 20 cities participating (the list grows every day), over 68,000 people and 4,400 businesses signed up so far. What are they doing? Simple, they are turning their lights off on Saturday, March 29, from 8–9 pm.

The easiest way to support Earth Hour is to sign up and then spread the word. Tell as many people you know and encourage them to turn off on March 29 too. At SavvyMom, we want our friends and family to be involved so we’re hosting a candle-lit dinner party (cold food of course) and letting the kids play Monopoly by the light of the fire.

Just one hour. That’s all it takes to send a message that we care about the environment and together we can make a difference.

For more on how to get involved, go to http://www.earthhour.org/page/get-involved