This is the second year the University of Bremen will be participating in “Earth Hour”. From 8.30 to 9.30 p.m. on 23rd March the external lighting on the drop tower were switched off. All around the world on this day, thousands of famous monuments and well-known sights were plunged into darkness. Prompted by this action, the University and the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) have decided to turn the symbolic Earth Hour happening into a longer-term measure of support for environmental awareness. In future, between the hours of midnight and 5 o’clock in the morning the Bremen drop tower will no longer light up the sky over the campus.
"At that time of night there’s nothing going on around the campus and very little traffic on the surrounding roads. When you consider that every hour the lights are turned off equates to a whole day‘s energy consumption for an average three-person household, you can see that the decision was not so difficult to take”, explains the head of the ZARM institute, Prof.Dr. Claus Lämmerzahl.
The step will require some modifications to the automatic time-switch system. The cost, though, is quite insignificant compared to the savings in electricity consumption, and the new equipment will soon pay for itself. The University expects the necessary technical implementation to be completed within a week or two.
This year the “Earth Hour” is taking place under the motto “Ja zur Energiewende” [We support the energy turnaround]. The action, which was launched in Sydney 2007, has since become one of the world’s most supported voluntary initiatives. Towns in Germany took up the cause in 2009, and in 2012 6,525 towns took part in 150 countries.
For more detailed information, please contact:
Dr. Doris Sövegjarto-Wigbers
Zentrum für Umweltforschung und nachhaltige Technologien
Phone: +49 421 218-63376
email: soeve@uft.uni-bremen.de
www.ums.uni-bremen.de
General press inquiries should be addressed to:
Birgit Kinkeldey
ZARM Fallturm-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH
Phone: +49 421 218-57755
email: birgit.kinkeldeyprotect me ?!zarm.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
www.zarm.uni-bremen.de
