How to Participate in Daylight Hour

#DaylightHour is a social media campaign designed to raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in work spaces. Our companies have been enthusiastic supporters of this initiative since its inception in 2014.

Participation is easy, whether you are in an office or working remotely:

1) Register your location by completing a short survey. This will help us track participation numbers and calculate our collective impact.

2) Simply turn off lights (only where it’s safe to do so!) in day-lit areas from noon to 1 pm local time.

3) Document your participation with photos and videos tagged on social media with #FirstServeOthers AND #DaylightHour. In addition to posting to corporate accounts, encourage your team members to post to their personal accounts also if they are willing.

Tips for Success

Form a Daylight Hour committee or designate a leader in each office to be responsible for:

1. Registering your location and providing instructions to remote employees on how to register theirs

2. Sending a calendar invite to employees so 6/18/21 from noon-1 pm is on their calendars

3. Determining which areas of office are safe to turn lights off

4. Understanding where all light switches are located

5. Scheduling a test run in advance of the big day

6. Coordinating social media posts about your participation

7. Taking photos and posting to social media showing how much people are enjoying the day (suggest test shots with lights off to ensure lighting is adequate for photos)

Engagement Ideas

In-office

1. Plan a team lunch/get together

2. Host a glow stick party

Remote employees

1. Plan a virtual Zoom lunch

2. Provide branded Zoom virtual backgrounds with company logo and hashtag

3. Invite team members to join a Zoom but ask everyone to turn off their cameras and mute themselves and just take a guilt-free wellness break

Promotional Ideas

1. Video invitation from leadership outlining why we are doing this and how to get involved. (Doesn’t have to be professionally produced, smart phone/selfie videos are fine for this)

2. Build into town halls and scheduled meetings/huddles

3. Send invite to whole staff to block the hour

4. Add to email signatures

5. Expand it to focus on wellness

a. No computer use for one hour

b. Go for a walk/get fresh air (post pix to social)

c. Consider a “screen free day”

d. Offer participants something in return – examples include donating a tree or other environmental friendly incentive

6. Promote “DayLife Hour”

a. Go for a walk

b. No meetings

c. Disconnect hour

d. Turn it off

e. Group yoga or other activity

7. Develop Top 5 reasons to turn off lights (make it funny, i.e. look better on Zoom)

Internal Communications

#1) Announcement – suggest sending first week of June as a calendar invite

We invite you to join us on June 18 as we go lights out from 12 – 1 pm local time for #DaylightHour. #DaylightHour is a social media campaign designed to raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in work spaces. Whether you are working in-office or remotely, we’d love for you to participate.

Participation is easy, whether you are in an office or working remotely:

1) Register your location by completing a short survey. This will help us track participation numbers and calculate our collective impact.

2) Simply turn off lights (only where it’s safe to do so!) in day-lit areas from noon to 1 pm local time.

3) Document your participation with photos and videos tagged on social media with #FirstServeOthers AND #DaylightHour. In addition to posting to corporate accounts, feel free to share to your personal accounts too!

#2 – Reminder email – suggest sending June 11

We are just days away from #DaylightHour.

Help us raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in work spaces.

If you haven’t already signed up, now’s a great time to!

Participation is easy — just follow these simple steps:

1) Register your location by completing a short survey. This will help us track participation numbers and calculate our collective impact.

2) Turn off lights (only where it’s safe to do so!) in day-lit areas from noon to 1 pm local time.

3) Document your participation with photos and videos tagged on social media with #FirstServeOthers AND #DaylightHour. In addition to posting to corporate accounts, feel free to share to your personal accounts too!

4) Have fun!

#3 – Day of email – suggest sending by 9 am June 18

Today’s the day! We are going “lights-out” in our offices from noon to 1 to raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in work spaces. This is part of the #DaylightHour campaign. We encourage you to take pictures of your work environment during the event and post to your social media accounts using the #FirstServeOthers and #DaylightHour hashtags.

Social Media Post Copy

Sharing your #DaylightHour participation on social media is an important component of this campaign. Get creative with your own social posts of feel free to use these ideas:

1) Save the date post – Suggest deploying June 1

o Save the date! Join us in going lights-off for #DaylightHour on June 18, noon – 1 local time! Register now! #FirstServeOthers

2) Announcement post – Suggest deploying June 1

o COMPANY NAME is showing its commitment to energy savings by participating in #DaylightHour. Join the movement at noon local time on 6/18 and sign up your location. #FirstServeOthers

3) Reminder post – Suggest deploying June 11

o Don’t forget! COMPANY NAME is turning off the lights in day-lit spaces this Friday as part of #DaylightHour to raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in commercial spaces. Join us on June 18 from noon- 1 local time. #FirstServeOthers

4) Day-of post – Suggest deploying 8 am June 18

o Today’s the day! From noon to 1 pm, our offices are participating in #DaylightHour, a global initiative to raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in commercial spaces. We’ll be turning lights off at noon in day-lit spaces. Join us! #FirstServeOthers

Email Signature Example

Join me on June 18 at noon when I go “lights out” as part of #DaylightHour to raise awareness of energy conservation and wellness in the work space. Learn more.

Need inspiration? See how your colleagues celebrated #DaylightHour in 2020!