Project Porchlight Blog

One change. Two million times over. It’s amazing the impact people can have when they believe their actions matter.

It was this belief that inspired One Change Founder and Executive Director Stuart Hickox to take action when he famously discovered a surprising statistic on the Energy Star website in 2004: If every household in Canada replaced just one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb, the reduction in pollution would be the equivalent of taking 66,000 cars off the road.

“I thought, ‘How hard can it be to get everyone to change one light bulb?’” Stuart recalls. Always connected to the grassroots, Stuart joined forces with a couple of friends to launch One Change’s flagship campaign—Project Porchlight—in 2005. The team started out by delivering 50,000 free CFL bulbs to households in Ottawa South.

Since then, Project Porchlight has ballooned into a continent-wide campaign, empowering millions of North Americans to believe that they can protect the environment by making smart energy choices. More than 2 million free energy-saving light bulbs have been distributed by 10,000 volunteers and 2,000 community groups in more than 500 communities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Vermont, and New Jersey. The energy-efficient CFL bulbs have helped residents reduce their energy use by 1 billion kilowatt hours, save more than $86 million, and stop 630,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from being released into the air.

Stuart believes that Project Porchlight is so successful because it does more than increase awareness—it empowers people to believe that simple actions matter. “Most people want to help the environment,” says Stuart. “The problem is they don’t believe that they alone can make a difference. Project Porchlight shows them that they can.”

Today, the campaign is more relevant than ever. Not only is it saving energy, it also helps people save money. Given that the environment and the economy present two of the biggest global crises of our time, Project Porchlight is a much-needed source of inspiration.

“Climate change and economic turmoil are inextricably linked,” says One Change President Ralph Rick. “Not only because climate change will inevitably cause more economic hardship; but because modern economies have contributed to—and intensified—the problem of climate change. Crises like these leave people feeling helpless and disengaged. We believe that real economic and environmental progress will be achieved by empowering everyday people to make changes they can believe in.”

As Project Porchlight moves forward, Stuart and One Change will continue to tip awareness into action by making simple first steps accessible to everyone. “We want to show people that something as simple as changing a light bulb can catalyze a wide-scale shift toward more sustainable choices and lifestyles,” says Stuart.

Those choices can now be measured in the millions. That’s a lot of power for just one change.