During the 1970s, California’s largest electric utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), came under intense pressure from environmental organizations and the California Energy Commission to encourage its customers to conserve energy. PG&E complied, launching a public relations campaign that included this button, which dates from about 1980.
The button is among the more than 1,500 pin-backed environmental buttons that Gerald H. Meral donated to the National Museum of American History. Meral spent his career addressing natural resource concerns for the California state government and California-based non-governmental organizations. He began assembling his button collection in 1970.