Northern Michigan University will participate in the worldwide Earth Hour movement by shutting off its residence hall lights from 8:30-9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25. The annual event encourages individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise global awareness about environmental issues.

Environmental responsibility is a core value of the university, so NMU is partaking in Earth Hour to highlight the importance of using less non-essential electricity. NMU is encouraging off-campus students, faculty and community members to also participate by turning off their lights for the hour. NMU has localized goals of increasing environmental awareness between the campus and local community.

"The Use Less Electricity campaign will bring attention to the many ways that the campus community can help to reduce electric consumption in the buildings and lessen our impact on the environment,” said Kathy Richards, NMU’s associate vice president of engineering and planning/facilities. “By each of us doing our part to conserve electricity, the cumulative effect can be significant. I am excited to see what we all can accomplish together."

Emergency lights will not be shut off at NMU residence halls. The event is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature. To learn more about Earth Hour, visit https://www.earthhour.org/.