National Sweater Day has become a fun annual event on campus, where the heat gets turned down 2˚C and the sweater swagger gets turned up.
With impressive results over the last three years, saving approximately 90 GJ’s of natural gas and roughly $800, the Office of Environment and Sustainability has stretched the event from one to three days in hopes of making three times the impact and having three times the fun.
“Last year we had 157 people come by to have their sweater portraits taken, so we’re shooting for 200 this year, along with three times the natural gas savings over what we saw last year,” said James Gordon, environmental programs and research coordinator.
National Sweater Day, which is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, has seen over one million Canadians participate in supporting energy conservation and action on climate change since 2010.
“My favourite part of the event is the sweater portraits, people get really into it,” said Gordon. “We have free snacks on hand and both students and staff can have fun with it.”
Students, faculty and staff are also encouraged to take the challenge at home. Reduce the heat and put on some extra layers—the cost of heating rises approximately 5% for every degree above 20˚C.
The three-day event kicks off on Tuesday, Feb. 2, with “sweaters for schwag”, followed by a hockey sweater contest on Wednesday, Feb. 3 to coincide with Hockey Day in Canada, and wraps up with the main event and photo contest on Thursday, Feb. 4.
Activities will take place on Student Street in Old Main and the entire TRU community is invited to participate. See the full Sweater Days schedule for more details.
More information
James Gordon
Environmental Programs and Research Coordinator
jgordon@tru.ca
250-852-7153
