Jetwing Hotels says Lights Out

Earth Hour 2012 :

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children as the Native American proverb goes.

It is with this philosophy in mind that Jetwing Hotels will be participating in the Earth Hour campaign on March 31. Jetwing will be the first Sri Lankan hotel chain to do so and will be joining a global initiative to help protect our planet.

Earth Hour is an international campaign initiated by the World Wild Life Fund (WWF) in order to inspire individuals, societies, businesses and governments to combat climate change.

Considered the largest environmental campaign in the history of the world, Earth Hour is a combined effort that takes place in March on the last Saturday of the month yearly from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm when lights are switched off for one hour.

By being a part of this monumental movement Jetwing Hotels will be joining the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, New York's Time Square and the Gateway of India in Mumbai.

"Taking part in this year's Earth Hour is not something we take lightly; we have a long-term plan to raise awareness about sustainability and green living. It isn't just about switching off lights for an hour, but in doing so saving the planet we live in a step at a time, and we sincerely believe in this effort," Jetwing Chairman Hiran Cooray said.

Earth Hour was first put into practice in 2007 in Sydney, Australia.

Over 2 million people and 2,000 businesses turned off their lights for an hour. By 2008 what had begun as a country based event had panned out into a "Global Sustainability Movement" with a participation of 370 cities and towns in over 35 countries crossing 18 time zones.

By 2010 Earth Hour had become a phenomenal environmental event with the amazing record of 1.3 billion persons taking part in 4616 cities in 128 countries, and more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries in 2011. 2010 also marked the beginning of Sri Lanka's participation in this exciting event.

On March 31, Jetwing Hotels will be contributing to this exceptional event by switching off lights for an hour from 8.30pm at all Jetwing properties across the country.

Jetwing's participation in Earth Hour is a continuation of their commitment to protect the environment not just for the people who inhabit the world at present but also for the generations that come after.

They have always been at the forefront of promoting and initiating environmentally friendly initiatives that educate and create awareness about our need to protect the planet, as well as sustainability measures and practices through the Jetwing Eternal Earth Programme (JEEP).

Firstly in order to ensure greater sustainability Jetwing Hotels have begun assembling together Green Directories with the intention of making sure that all their hotels follow high environmentally friendly standards.

Jetwing does not take its responsibilities or resources lightly which is why the hotels use solar power and biomass boilers to generate hot water and have radically reduced their usage of plastic goods, and reuses recycled waste water within the grounds.