March 2012

Sky Tower Turns Off Lights in Support of Earth Hour 2012

Auckland’s tallest man made building and dominating landmark of Auckland skyline, the Sky Tower, will switch off its lights this Saturday night (31 March) at 8.30pm for an hour in support of the global environmental initiative, Earth Hour. The Sky Tower will be the one of the first major monuments to ‘go dark’ in the world being followed around the dateline by the likes of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Gateway of India in Mumbai, Berlin’s Brandenberg Gate, Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, the Obelisk in Argentina and Pakistan’s National Mausoleum.

Last year, across the entire country New Zealanders were amongst hundreds of millions of people across more than 5,200 cities in 135 countries who took part in Earth Hour, which since its inception in 2007 has grown to become the world’s biggest voluntary action for the planet.

This year, the theme for Earth Hour is ‘I Will If You Will’, which marks the start of a new phase for the Earth Hour movement, asking people and organisations to commit to an action, big or small, that they will sustain for the future of the planet.

SKYCITY Auckland, located in the centre of the city is home to two large hotels, the SKYCITY Hotel and the SKYCITY Grand Hotel who both hold Qualmark Enviro Gold ratings. SKYCITY Auckland is dedicated to environmental sustainability including employing a full time environmental co-ordinator, who works to identify ways for the business to become more environmentally efficient.

To improve its energy efficiency, SKYCITY Auckland has overhauled the Sky Tower internal lighting system and is now on motion sensing controls. In addition SKYCITY Auckland is also working through over one hundred energy conservation measures that arose from an energy use audit undertaken in 2011 which will result in enormous energy savings.

Stuart Wing, Chief Operating Officer for SKYCITY Auckland says: “We are proud to be supporting Earth Hour in the campaign to raise awareness on global warming. We will be turning off the Sky Tower lights for Earth Hour and we ask New Zealanders to do the same.”

About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global initiative in partnership with WWF. Individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 8:30 PM to show their support for environmentally sustainable action. Earth Hour started in Sydney, Australia in 2007 through a partnership between WWF Australia, Leo Burnett and Fairfax Media, when two million people in one city switched off their lights. By 2011, Earth Hour had created history as the largest voluntary action ever witnessed with participation across 135 countries and every continent, including the world’s most recognised man-made marvels and natural wonders in a landmark environmental action.

ENDS

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