Councillor Donovan Cavers
Image Credit: City of Kamloops website
March 19, 2013 - 11:47 AM
By Jennifer Stahn
With his pride on the line Coun. Donovan Cavers is seriously hoping Kamloops residents will get on board with Earth Hour this year.
After returning from a sustainability conference last month Cavers told council that he wanted to issue a challenge to Nanaimo to see which city could get the most resident participation. He looked in to it, he said, and B.C. Hydro would be able to provide data to see how effective each community was in engaging residents to take part.
Originally Cavers said they would issue the challenge with the understanding that the winning city would get “bragging rights”, but was open to another wager. City staffer David Duckworth jokingly suggested that they could trade Nanaimo bars for Milo-bars, which got a chuckle from everyone at the council meeting.
In the end, a friendly challenge was issued to the city of Nanaimo that will see the losing councillor - between Cavers and Nanaimo councillor George Anderson – wear clothing with the winning city insignia at a council meeting where they will also have to make an announcement.
The Canada Games Pool will be hosting a dim swim from 8-9 p.m. Other suggestions for taking part include unplugging all electronics and appliances and playing a board game by candle light, taking a moonlight walk or enjoying a fondue dinner.
Hosted by the World Wildlife Fund as a way to encourage sustainability, Earth Hour will take place march 23 from 8:30-9:30 p.m. The global event has been taking place for seven years with British Columbians saving 121 megawatt hours of electricity during last year's Earth Hour. Kamloops specifically reduced power consumption by 3.6 per cent and placed 15th out of 91 registered communities in B.C. Nanaimo achieved a reduced consumption of 1.67 per cent and placed 22nd.
To contact the reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca or call (250) 819-3723.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013