exortech.com » environment http://exortech.com/blog Peripatetic thinking Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:56:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Earth Hour 2009 http://exortech.com/blog/2009/03/28/earth-hour-2009/ http://exortech.com/blog/2009/03/28/earth-hour-2009/#comments Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:53:36 +0000 exortech http://exortech.com/blog/?p=123 Earth Hour is a big event for my company, Pulse Energy. We are monitoring the energy savings for a variety of sites around Vancouver. This is our second year participating in Earth Hour and our first year as WWF partner for the Canadian Earth Hour campaign. Last year was pretty hectic, but it was a very successful event for us and our partners. This year, we’re much better organized, we have a real product, we’re monitoring more sites and seeing considerably more traffic.

If you’re interested in seeing in real-time the energy savings realized by the actions taken by some local sites for Earth Hour, check out the Pulse Dashboards.

]]> http://exortech.com/blog/2009/03/28/earth-hour-2009/feed/ 1 Earth Hour http://exortech.com/blog/2008/04/10/earth-hour/ http://exortech.com/blog/2008/04/10/earth-hour/#comments Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:20:48 +0000 exortech http://exortech.com/blog/2008/04/10/earth-hour/ At 8pm Saturday March 29th, people around the world turned out the lights in support of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a campaign organized by the WWF to raise awareness of the connection between energy use and global climate change. The event encourages people to take action by turning off their lights and power to any non-essential devices for the 60 minutes between 8pm and 9pm.

This year’s Earth Hour was a very busy event for me and my new company Small Energy Group. In partnership with the University of British Columbia, Vancouver City Hall, and the Village of Hartley Bay, we monitored the energy use over the day for each site to quantify and make visible the energy savings impact of their actions. UBC had committed to powering down non-essential services over the entire day; City Hall shut off the floodlights lighting the art deco facade for the building; and in Hartley Bay, they turned off the diesel generator that supplies power to the whole community plunging the village into darkness.

You can see the results of the savings achieved by each site by checking out the web site: http://earthhour.smallenergygroup.com/.

]]> http://exortech.com/blog/2008/04/10/earth-hour/feed/ 0 Exxon Valdez: Where’s the justice? http://exortech.com/blog/2008/03/13/exxon-valdez-wheres-the-justice/ http://exortech.com/blog/2008/03/13/exxon-valdez-wheres-the-justice/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:11:55 +0000 exortech http://exortech.com/blog/2008/03/13/exxon-valdez-wheres-the-justice/ 18 years later and Exxon Mobil is still in court appealing payment for damages caused by the Valdez oil spill. It’s one of the longest running US court cases ever, and the inhabitants of the towns affected by the spill have yet to receive compensation. The only people getting richer are Exxon and the lawyers. With 18 years separating the disaster and a resolution, any compensation would be so disconnected from the actual event as to be an almost meaningless windfall. As one of the town’s inhabitants says: ” I’d rather have had a few dollars in my pocket all my life, than have a heap of money just as I’m about to check into the old folks’ home.” Where’s the justice in that?

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