Thompson Rivers University

TRU’s Casual Shirt Days saves cash and energy

September 15, 2016

Event volunteer Dustin Melan shows off his awesome casual shirt!
Casual Shirt Days 2016 Matt Milovick

Matt Milovick, TRU’s VP Finance, wearing one of his favourite casual shirts from The Tragically Hip.

Dressing for the weather can help save cash and energy… and you can get free ice cream!

TRU’s 2nd annual Casual Shirt Days event, June 27, 28 and 29, 2016, proved to have a winning formula around campus. By turning down the air conditioning 2°C in all major campus buildings, 2544 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity was saved, resulting in a cash savings of roughly $230. If TRU maintained these temperatures over the whole summer it could save in excess of $10,000 dollars. That’s equivalent to saving over 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere (1.). This is equal to roughly what 275 average sized Canadian cars spew from their tailpipes daily, and enough money to buy each TRU community member a kiddie-sized ice cream cone!

Casual Shirt Days 2016 ESL Students

ESL students toast their good luck getting free ice cream!

85 people came by the event booth on June 29 to show off their favourite casual shirt and get a picture in the photo booth, enjoy a free ice cream cone, and answer some questions in the TRU Energy Trivia Game. The winners of the Casual Shirt Day Story Contest were Susanne Cross, Marg Hanna and Brain Harris. Congratulations! Finally, most TRU community members thought turning down the air conditioning and dressing accordingly for warm summer weather made sense!

Please send media enquiries to James Gordon at the TRU Sustainability Office: jgordon@tru.ca or 250-852-7153.

1. http://www.carbonzero.ca/calculate

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