No More Suits in Church?

By Reuters
Tue, 12 Jun 2007, 09:59AM
TORONTO (Reuters) -

Workers of Ontario: ditch the pinstripes and save the planet.

The premier of Canada's most energy-thirsty province has urged government workers to dress down and leave their business attire at home to cut air conditioning costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

"We're asking everyone to do their part to protect the environment," Premier Dalton McGuinty said in a news release on the go-casual recommendation, which will be in effect through early September.

"Wearing more comfortable clothing during the warmer months cuts down on the air conditioning we use and increases awareness about how important it is that we address the challenge of climate change."

Ontario wants provincial government offices to crank their thermostats up to 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit), from 23C (73F) in previous summers. That should reduce electricity use and ease the need for costly imports.

"When electricity demands rise, often we have to import electricity from the U.S., which often comes from coal-fired plants, which are quite dirty and costly," said Jessica Zippin, from the Clean Air Foundation environmental group.

"Every move toward making people more aware about being more energy efficient is really important ... turning up the thermostat, even one or two degrees is extremely important because that has a cumulative effect."