Malls, companies and hotels will join hands to observe Earth Hour across the city on Saturday with simple gestures like switching off the lights for an hour or organising awareness programmes or workshops.
Earth Hour, a global campaign created by the WWF-India, motivates governments, businesses, communities and individuals to take a stand against climate change in one crucial hour by uniting the world through the collective action of switching off non-essential lights.
Going ‘powerless’
‘Turn off the lights’ will be the line of the day for many.
Infosys, which has been participating in the Earth Hour campaign for the last six years, is having a centrally co-ordinated 60-minute power switch off across all its development centres (DCs) between 8.30 p.m. and 9.30 p.m.An employee walkathon, where Infosys volunteers will walk across the campus and encourage other employees to adopt sustainable living practices, has also been planned.
IT company Virtusa has requested employees to shut down their systems across its centres in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai from 3.30 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. and join the discussion on energy conservation at that time. Digital imaging major Canon India is also adopting a one-hour lights-out policy where all lights at its offices. A release from the company said it observes a yearlong extension of the Earth Hour with ‘de-light days’ on Wednesdays, where employees leave office at 5.30 p.m. every Wednesday to save electricity.
Sheraton Bangalore Hotel at Brigade Gateway, in tune with this year’s theme, ‘Uniting people to protect the planet’, will have candles lit for the evening while prominent areas of the lounge will have LED lighting. The Lalit Ashok will turn off non-essentials lights and reduce the intensity of lights in rooms, restaurants, spa, main porch, façade, garden, back offices, service areas, corridors and public areas.
Activities and workshops have also been organised across the city. Orbit Mall, Whitefield, is hosting daylong activities to spread awareness on being eco-friendly. NGO Samarthanam Parisara Trust will be conducting an interactive workshop at noon in the mall. The NCC Directorate of Karnataka and Goa will be conducting an awareness programme in co-ordination with WWF-India. A rally will be flagged off at 8.30 a.m. from Cubbon Park.
ING Vysya Bank has roped in netizens to promote the cause through an online game ‘Switch off and save’. A release from the bank quoted Jayant Mehrotra, Chief Financial Officer of the bank, as saying, “Ever since our bank took up the challenge of reducing energy consumption during Earth Hour 2009, we saved over 1.76 million KwH of energy.”
