Launched in 2014, Daylight Hour is a global social media campaign organized by the Building Energy Exchange, a non-profit based in NYC that provides resources to improve energy efficiency in the building industry. The campaign aims to bring awareness to the fact that the use of daylight in commercial office spaces improves the quality of work environments while minimizing the use of electric lighting.
On June 19, 2015, for one workday hour, organizations all around the world turned off the lights to demonstrate the availability of daylight. Among the 300+ participants was the SUNY System Administration building, plus fifteen SUNY campuses:
- University at Albany
- Binghamton University
- University at Buffalo
- Clinton Community College
- SUNY Cortland
- SUNY Fredonia
- Genesee Community College
- Jefferson Community College
- SUNY New Paltz
- Onondaga Community College
- Orange County Community College
- SUNY Oswego
- SUNY Polytechnic Institute
- Stony Brook University
- Suffolk County Community College
At 12 PM, organizations took to Twitter and Instagram to share their lights-off experiences, using the #DaylightHour hashtag. After an hour of Tweets and posts, the lights came back on and the results were in – including a 19% energy reduction at Stony Brook University, a 17kW reduction at SUNY System Administration, and a 15.3 MW reduction in the Capital District! Daylight Hour 2015 was definitely a success and hopefully the 2016 campaign will be even bigger. In the meantime, SUNY will continue to support and promote sustainability initiatives across its many campuses for an Energy Smart NY.
