Several U.S. and Canadian campuses informally participated in Earth Hour 2009, and over 80 U.S. campuses participated formally as "Flagship Campuses."

Earth Hour, a World Wildlife Fund initiative, took place for the first time two years ago in Sydney, Australia at which time 2.2 million people turned out their lights for one hour as a symbolic vote for action on global climate change.  The initiative went global in 2008, and in 2009, the World Wildlife Fund specifically invited colleges and universities to take part.  Several campuses did take part in 2008, but their participation was formalized this year as "Flagship Campuses." 

So, on March 28, 2009, campuses participated in various ways:

Michigan State University turned off its lights from 8:30 - 9:30 pm along with all of the other participating campuses, cities, organizations, and businesses.  MSU also held its own event called Dim Down on Friday, March 27th from noon-1:00 p.m. Similar to Earth Hour, Dim Down is an MSU initiative specifically designed to get the entire campus community engaged in sustainable behavior by rethinking their everyday energy uses.  During Earth Hour and Dim Down we asked the MSU community to turn off its lights and non-essential equipment for one hour. Non-essential equipment included computers, monitors, speakers, printers, copiers, fax machines, and unplugging unused phone chargers. The goal was to engage the campus community to rethink about their daily energy uses and what steps they can take to conserve energy. As a result of MSU's Earth Hour paricipation, it realized 1.5 MW decrease in campus energy usagecompared to the hours immediately before and after the event!!

University of British Columbia partnered with a Vancouver energy management software company to track electricity usage in campus buildings and show real-time greenhouse gas emission savings.  As part of the initiative, UBC asked nearly 60,000 students, staff and faculty on its Vancouver campus to unplug non-essential electrical loads, such as computers, monitors, printers, photocopiers, lighting and - where possible - additional heating and ventilation systems.  As a result,UBC saw a 3.32% (809.8 kW) decrease in energy usagecompared to typical consumption at that time.

Indiana University turned off interior lights in classroom and office buildings, exterior lights across campus that were not essential to personal saftey, and lights at althlectic fields.   IU also encouraged residence hall students to turn off their dorm room lights and gather in central locations for group activities.  The University also shut down the cycling building chillers and air handlers to further increase energy savings.