AE SMITH draws on pedal power to highlight energy efficiency challenges

Pedal power met watt hours when AE Smith took its commitment to driving awareness of environmental sustainability issues literally at the Green Cities 2010 conference in Melbourne this February.

Close to 200 participants from over 35 teams swapped their business suits and school uniforms for bike wear at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on February 22nd and 23rd, in a series of virtual 'races' aimed at emphasising the importance of energy efficiency.

Held annually, Green Cities is Australia's pre-eminent annual conference focusing on sustainability for the built environment.

The inaugural "AE Smith Pedal Power Generator Race" was inspired by a desire to spotlight the effort required to be energy efficient by drawing on people to help generate power via a special bicycle generator.

Pitting teams of four against one another throughout the two day conference in a series of pedal power bike battles, AE Smith undertook to not only provide a Business Centre & Internet Cafe for the major green event, but to draw on representatives of the building industry to generate the power to run it.

AE Smith CEO, Andrew Permezel said that while the Pedal Power Generator Race was a innovative concept designed to complement their sponsorship of the event, it belied a serious message.

"The pathway to an energy efficient future is going to be an uphill challenge for all businesses and industries," Mr Permezel said.

"With resource scarcity looming as a major issue of the 21st century, the options available to industry in the way of conservation and energy efficiency are becoming increasingly important to be aware of."

Emphasising that point was the fact that despite the some 200 individual efforts over the two days of the conference, the energy generated fell well short of the target 5,000 watt hours per day needed to power 6 measly laptop computers.

But Mr Permezel praised the efforts of the peloton of enthusiastic pedallers, who collectively produced more than 7,500 watt hours over the course of the conference. What turned into a highly competitive battle to generate the most watt hours per race was ultimately won by representatives from Thylacine Cycles, closely followed by Lend Lease.

Assisting in those effort were Year 8,9 & 12 students from Melbourne Girls College and Caulfield Grammar, who sent their rowing teams along to take part in the AE Smith High School Pedal Power Regatta, which saw the girls go head to head in a battle to see which school could generate the most pedal power over two days.

Other initiatives offered at the event included free massages for weary delegates from the 3 Minute AE Smith Angels, complimentary internet access and barista served coffee to keep the conference delegates wired up and wired in at all times.

Final race results for the Green Cities 2010 AE Smith Pedal Power Generator Race are available now at www.aesmith.com.au or www.aesmith.mobi on your mobile phone.

For more information contact Raymond Lee, Marketing Manager on 03 9271 1999.