2009 Vancouver Earth Hour Recap

So the earth hour came and went by rather quickly.  We live in a condo downtown and when we looked out of the window during earth hour, to be honest, I barely noticed any change….  Just as bright as I remember =).  

According to BC Hydro - the province of BC had recorded a 1.1% power consumption reduction.  This is unfortunately lower than last year, where 2% power consumption was reduced.  

Some facts to share:

• Vancouve recorded a power reduction of 1.3%, slightly above average
• Pemberton recorded the highest power reduction - 4.6%
• New Westminster and Richmond had the lowest power reduction - 0.1% and 0.3% respectively
• Amount of energy saved: 72.67MWh, equivalent to powering 2,400 homes for an entire year

What are your thought of earth hour?  There are a lot of (valid) criticism of this activity.  The truth is this is more of a awareness campaign as supposed to an act of actually saving energy.  This is because even though electricity used on the demand side (i.e. after the electricity meter) was decreased, the supply side was unchanged (i.e. before the meter: generation and transmission).  To make it easier to understand - basically even if you have participated in earth hour and turned of the light and have reduced the energy consumption by 72.67MWh, the grid still produced just as much electricity.  So where did the extra electricity go?  You may not want to know but the electricity just got wasted, as there is no current storage facility for the Grid!!

Personally i think it’s a good event - but to make any practical use of it, we need to conserve energy all the time, and not just one hour out of the year!

Earth Hour - vote earth and switch off tonight

Hello world, 

This is one of the biggest events….  Earth Hour!  Please switch off whatever you have from 8:30pm to 9:30pm your time.  

Check out some pictures here!  Some other parts of the world has “‘finished” their earth hours =0)

NHLPA carbon neutral challenge - updated

I blogged about the NHLPA carbon neutral challenge a couple weeks ago.  The data I had was for year 2007-2008 and 523 players signed up - including the highest profile ones like Syd the kid and Alex the Great.  Today I came across this TSN article which stated that 420 players are signed up (for 2008-2009?).  The article also answered one of the questions i posted before - how much is their carbon footprint?!

The answer is 10tonnes of Carbon credits!  Does that feel like the right number?  To put that in perspective, here are some stats:

• The average footprint for people in Canada is 20.00 tonnes
• The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes
• The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes
• The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 tonnes

Of course our footprint is not just about traveling - heating, cooling, electricity, driving, and our buying habits all have carbon emission associated with it.  But you might think that 10 tonnes is not enough for hockey players…

Let’s  put it in perspective of just traveling by air - the carbon emission per km travelled is approximately 200g-CO2-equivalent.  Assume that the Vancouver Canucks travels on average 13 trips per season (3-4 game road trip), and assume that the average trip distance traveled is around 3000km (Vancouver to Toronto is about 3500km).  Using these figures, the distances traveled for a Vancouver Canucks player is 60,000km and the CO2 emission is 14 tonnes!  not that far off the 10tonnes estimated given that the Vancouver Canucks probably travels 30% more than some of the eastern teams!  Anyway, I guess the point is that 10 tonnes is not a bad estimate, even though it might feel otherwise when we find out about our average Canadian carbon footprint!

I also found out that Andrew Ference started this initiative and I even found a blog entry by himself on GreenNexxus!  In Vancouver, Willie Mitchell is our “green” guy as he drives a Prius and apparently walk to work sometimes.  I haven’t seen him on the street but since he lives in Yaletown, i just might have a change.  Here’s an article about Willie and his green habits…

This is the quote from Andrew Ference:

“I’m very proud that we’ve offset more than 4,200 tonnes of carbon emissions this season, which is like taking 840 cars off the road for a year,” Ference said in a release. “But best of all, I’m hearing of more and more players in the dressing rooms talking about ‘going green.”‘

Google your cycling route in Vancouver

UBC has developed this awesome Metro Vancouver cycling route planner for Vancouverites using Google Maps.  Cyclists can search for routes that have features such as minimum elevation gains, minimum air pollution, and minimum distances, ..etc.  Pretty cool, I think.  I mapped out my route already - from downtown to West Van.  My route details include:

• Route length: 7.591 km. 
• Estimated time: 0 hr 30 min. 
• GHG prevented: 1.9 kg. 
• Calories burned: 165.1 kCal. 
• Mean NO2 level: 25 ppb. 
• Elevation gain: 107 m. 
• Mean veg cover: 24 %. 
• Bike activated signal:   ->> Not sure what this means…….
•  

What is your cycling route like?

NHLPA carbon neutral challenge

I consider myself a Vancouver Canucks hockey fan.  In fact, although not not expert in NHL, I usually keep an eye on what’s going on.  I just discovered the NHLPA Carbon Neutral Challenge that initiated April 2009.  I honestly have NOT heard of it, ever!  I did stop watching hockey because Canucks didn’t make the playoffs, but I thought I might learn about the challenge as 523 players have signed up!  For a 23-men roster for 30 teams in NHL, that works out to be 76% of the rosters in NHL have signed up for the challenge!  You think there should be a bit more PR….  or maybe there was, i just completely missed it.  Actually all high profile players you can think of are on the list!

The process is quite simple.  You sign up, you calculate your personnel carbon footprint from designated websites, and then you buy “good” carbon credits to offset the carbon footprint…   Unfortunately, in addition to minimal PR, it also feels like that players just pay their way to carbon neutrality because caring for the environment just seems like a fad!  I want to know:

• what’s the carbon footprint of a Canuck who travels more than an Islander?
• what’s the carbon footprint of a NHL hockey player comparing to you and I?
• did they calculate their own carbon footprint?
• what’s going on in 2009?

If you know anything.. let me know…