Tomorrow night will mark the start of Lights Out Houston. It's a four-night, three-day campaign by local businesses to encourage energy conservation, as part of Earth Week. Andrew Schneider has the story.
From 10 p.m. Thursday through the start of business next Monday, more than 140 million square feet of Houston will go dark.
Frank Staats is chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Green Building Committee.
“The hope is, and we’ve seen it over the last four years, that people will make the effort, send up some of the crews in these buildings to get these lights turned off, but then do it day in and day out, because there’s an economic benefit in getting the lights turned off in addition to saving energy.”
Staats helped to create
Lights Out Houston four years ago, following a late night conversation with Air Zone International vice president Andy Bergman.
“I was leaving the George R. Brown Convention Center at night, around 9:30, and looked up at downtown and saw it was lit up light a Christmas tree.”
More than fifty major property owners are participating in Lights Out Houston this year. They include dozens of private companies, the City of Houston, Harris County and the Houston and Humble Independent School Districts.
