Winners of First Annual Earth Day Conservation Education Challenge

On April 22, 2008, NB Power announced the winners of the first annual Earth Day Conservation Education Challenge for New Brunswick grade six classes. The challenge was for students to demonstrate how their class would take measures to conserve electricity.

A total of 18 schools received Earth Day awards. Sussex Middle School received $3000 and each of the following schools received $1000: Bath Middle School, Quispamsis Middle School, Rothesay Park School, Forest Hills School, Sunbury West School, Harvey High School, Gagetown School, Ridgeview Middle School, Cambridge Narrows School, St. George Elementary, Dalhousie Middle School, L’Ecole le Domaine-Etudiant, L’Ecole Francois – Xavier – Daigle, Ecole Arc-en-ciel, Carrefour De La Jeunesse Edmundston, L’Ecole Marie – Immaculee de Grand-Sault and L’Ecole Grande-Riviere-Saint Leonard.

The judging criteria was based on participation, creativity, content and use of the prize money. The judging committee was impressed with the creativity of the submissions and said that each project demonstrated the students’ desire to make a difference by protecting the environment. One submission involved students who became “Energy Police” by enforcing the conservation laws they created by fining parents and teachers a quarter every time they did things like leaving a light on in an unused room. Several classes created Powerpoint presentations to illustrate how they can conserve energy. Others produced videos narrated by members of the class on topics like hybrid cars or skits to show some attitudes about conservation.

NB Power employees from around the province visited the schools on Earth Day to present students and teachers with cheques and congratulate the classes in person.

David Hay, President and CEO, with students at Sussex Middle School.

Earth Hour 2008

On Saturday, March 29th, 2008, thousands of individuals and hundreds of businesses across New Brunswick participated in Earth Hour 2008, an initiative aimed at raising awareness on climate change and the impact that each individual can have in making a change.

Earth Hour was introduced last year in Sydney, Australia with over two million residents participating. This year, Earth Hour expanded to over 50 million participants from cities across the world, making it the largest voluntary power-down event in history. Canada took the lead with over 150 cities and towns who participated. The concept was easy: participants were asked to turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday evening between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.

NB Power monitored the impact that Earth Hour had, in terms of electricity for New Brunswickers, and between the hour of 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. there was a savings of 8 MW of electricity, which is the equivalent of approximately 150,000 light bulbs. The environment and conservation is a priority for NB Power, as it is for you, and is part of our commitment to providing New Brunswickers with safe and reliable electricity. Apart from the Earth Hour initiative, there are things you can do everyday to conserve electricity. To help you do this, we have compiled information, which is available at Energy Information.