Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities

Welcome to Earth Day,

April 22, 2008

You You CanCan Make A Make A

BIG BIG DifferenceDifference

It’s Too Darn Hot• If the thermostats in

every house in Canada were lowered by one degree during the winter, the nation would save 23 million barrels of crude oil.

Don’t Be Crude• Four Litres of used oil –

the amount from a small engine, can pollute 4 million litres of fresh water and create an 8-acre oil stick. (Each year, nearly 800 million litres of used oil are illegally dumped on the ground, tossed in the trash or poured down storm sewers and drains

Shower Power• If just 40 million

people would spend 1 minute less each day in the shower over their lifetimes, they would save 16 trillion litres of water

Give a Hoot, Don’t Commute

• If the GTA's residents who normally drove to work would telecommute just one day a year instead, there would a savings of more than $50 million in gas.

Straight Flush• If home builders installed

one dual-flush toilet instead of a standard low-flow toilet in every new house built in 2008, they would save 6.6 million litres of water a year

In the Can• One pop can recycled

by each elementary school students in Canada would save 2.5 million cans. That would be enough aluminium to create 2 Boeing 737 jets.

Metal Winner• One old cell phone

recycled by each cell phone user in Canada would reclaim enough precious metals to create 63 solid gold replicas of the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s funerary mask.

Virtual Payment• If every Canadian switched

to receiving just one bill as an electronic statement instead of a paper one, the one-time savings would be 21,780,080 sheets.

Use a Rake, for Goodness’ Sake!

• One hour of using a gas operated leaf blower produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as a car driving 7,081 km.

Extra! Extra!• If Every newspaper

reader in Canada recycled just one typical Saturday paper, he or she could help create 2.12 million pounds of cellulose insulation.

Wrapacious• One out of every 3 pounds

of the waste that Canadians generate is just for packaging, which each year adds up to 7.7 million

tonnes of waste

Bath Party• If every Canadian

collected 4 litres of water once a week while waiting for the shower or bathwater to get hot (use it to water your house-plants!), the total saved would be 6.32 billion litres of water a year.

Wear It and Air It• If just one passenger

per each flight in the world this year packed 1 pound less of luggage, they would save enough fuel to fly a Boeing 737 around the world 474 times.

Two Birds with One Stone

• If one 32 km trip per week was cut out (by combining errands) for every registered vehicle in Canada, 1.45 million fewer tonnes of greenhouse gases would be released into the air each year. That’s equal to the annual carbon dioxide emissions from 4 coal fired power plants.

Mood Lighting• One dimmer switch

replacing a regular on/off switch in every house in Canada would save the electricity necessary to light 120,000 homes.

Canada Switching• If every Canadian

household turned off the lights for one hour at 8 p.m. local time on March 29 during Earth Hour 2008, they would prevent more than 1,661 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released.

Honour Roll • Replacing just one

500-sheet roll of 100% non-recycled toilet paper a year with one 500-sheet roll of 100% recycled paper in every Canadian household would leave 42,400 trees standing.

Will you make a difference

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