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September 20, 2007

Nash, Kreuk among celebrities drafted to Team Power Smart

Some conservation actions are almost laughingly simple, the collective impact dramatic and necessary. That was the message delivered by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell at Thursday's Team Power Smart kickoff in Vancouver.

"Think of the five light bulbs you use the most, and they're probably incandescent," said Campbell at the Steve Nash Sports Club on Granville Street. "Change those to compact fluorescent light bulbs and we'll be saving enough energy to light 235,000 homes in British Columbia."

"Five light bulbs – that's all it takes – a little bit of thoughtfulness."

Campbell is "general manager" of Team Power Smart and was on hand to help announce the drafting of over 20 prominent British Columbians – from NBA star Steve Nash to Smallville star Kristin Kreuk – as Team Power Smart Leaders. Those leaders, from sports, government, business, entertainment and the media, will act as energy-saving ambassadors in a year-long project that asks all British Columbians to join the team and conserve electricity.

Among those drafted were husband-and-wife restaurateurs Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala, who run Vancouver's wildly popular Vij's restaurant. The couple have tried to adopt a conservation lifestyle that includes his and her Priuses, wearing sweaters at home to cut heating costs, and toning down a certain guilty pleasure.

"When I met Meeru 13, 14 years ago, she used to have a 20-minute shower," said Vij. "Now she actually times herself. She loves that hot shower when she wakes up in the morning, but she's reduced it to almost two minutes."

All British Columbians are being asked to take similar measures by following a variety of tips and setting personal electricity-reduction goals at www.bchydro.com/teampowersmart that can be tracked using real consumption data. And even those without BC Hydro accounts can join the team by subscribing to BC Hydro's Connected newsletter, which will keep them up to date on energy-conservation tips and programs.

"We know our province is growing – there's lots of economic growth around the province and lots more to come in the next 20 years," said BC Hydro president and CEO Bob Elton, the official "head coach" of Team Power Smart. "We're going to need a lot more electricity, and there's a gap between supply and demand.

"We're planning very carefully how to meet that gap, and the best and first way to meet that gap is conserving and using energy wisely."

The 2007 BC Energy Plan calls for an ambitious conservation target – making B.C. electricity self-sufficient by 2016. It also sets the target of offsetting 50 per cent of the expected additional demand for electricity in the province through conservation measures by 2020.

BC Hydro's long-range plans show the province's electricity use will increase as much as 45 per cent over the next 20 years. To meet the conservation target, each home in British Columbia will have to curb the trend of growing demand for electricity and consume 10 per cent less electricity than they do today.

Are British Columbians prepared to make the changes in their energy habits to meet that goal? Team Power Smart member Chief Shawn Atleo, whose home in Ahousaht off the coast of Vancouver Island is solar-powered with a generator as backup, believes we don't have any choice but to act.

"I would go out fishing years ago and we'd see these tropical fish in our territories on the west coast," said Atleo, Regional Chief for B.C. "It made no sense, and my grandfather would say, ‘change is coming'. We've got to wake up to these changes, and we've been slow to it.

"Hopefully it's not too late, and we have to put some effort into it."

To that end, Atleo looks to what he can do about his other home – in Nanaimo – now that his kids have graduated and he's left with a rather large empty nest.

"Now we have this big home that feels so gargantuan, and we've got to downsize that," he said. "It doesn't make any sense, because our ecological footprint is just massive right now in relation to what it should be."

Related link:

• 2007 BC Energy Plan