Earth Hour is tomorrow and businesses are lining up to support this years Earth Hour “lights out” initiative to promote awareness of climate change.
Many of the companies participating in Earth Hour 2010 will also be encouraging staff to individually join the expected hundreds of millions of others from every continent who will turn lights off for one hour from 8.30 pm on Saturday, March 27.
Support for Earth Hour 2010 is coming from an ever-growing list of businesses around the world including the likes of Canon, Coca-Cola, HSBC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Wells Fargo. The companies are emphasising that while corporate efforts for Earth Hour are symbolic gestures, they also highlight the critical need for more action around climate protection.
One of the world’s leading financial institutions, HSBC, is taking the opportunity with its commitment of world-wide support to Earth Hour 2010 to reinforce the need for greater consideration of energy use habits.
“HSBC will switch off lights in its offices around the world to highlight to our employees, customers and the public the continued importance of thinking about the way we consume resources,” said Head of Group Corporate Sustainability for HSBC, Mr Simon Martin.
With around 8,000 office locations across 88 countries, HSBC’s worldwide power-down aims to inspire the behavioural change they
feel is required to address the ongoing indiscriminate threat of global warming.
“Climate change remains a clear challenge to human society, and the symbolic act of powering down our offices for an hour is a way of heightening awareness of the need for everybody to act responsibly and cohesively manage the challenge,” Mr Martin said.
Similarly, communications giant Nokia Siemens Networks will urge its offices worldwide to ‘flick the switch’ on March 27, while at the same time encouraging its 64,000 strong staff and worldwide customer base to be part of a global resolution to climate change.
Coca-Cola will be turning out lights in many offices and bottling facilities around the world while also helping to raise awareness by activating iconic marketing assets.
The implementation of sustainable business practices is not just an environmental imperative, it’s a commercial one, too,” said Earth Hour Executive Director Andy Ridley.
“Earth Hour brings together cities, communities, businesses and individuals on the journey to positive action on climate change.”
For more information on how your business can show support for climate action visit www.earthhour.org.
