Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 10PM

Security lighting, any obstruction lighting, emergency lighting and lights in occupied offices will remain lit.

Where: Houston's Downtown and other areas of Greater Houston

Who: All Class A, B and C office buildings in downtown and all government-owned buildings (excludes hotels, streetlights, emergency lighting, etc).

Why:

• To raise awareness among office building operators and tenants to go LIGHTS OUT when the office is not occupied.
• To develop operating procedures, by the property owners and tenants, that change today's lighting habits, including working with janitorial service companies and building security to implement procedures to turn off lights when personnel is not present.
• To establish a sustained reduction in the use of non-essential electricity in commercial buildings. The downtown area has approximately 35 million square feet of office space. It is estimated that by eliminating just 50% of the lights routinely left on overnight and on the weekends, we can save 8.4M KW-Hours annually. That equals to almost $1 million annually. This is enough energy to power more than 600 Houston area homes for a year!
• To change Houstonians' habits at home by also remembering to turn off lights.

Companies that went Dark Smart in 2011