Earth Hour
Aboitiz leads team members
ABOITIZ Equity Ventures (AEV) president and chief executive officer Erramon Aboitiz led some 250 Aboitiz Group team members during the Earth Hour celebration in Cebu City.
“We believe in the Earth Hour’s cause, and for the 4th straight year, are taking part in this movement,” Aboitiz said. The Aboitiz Group partnered with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) and the Cebu City government to organize a full program, with festivities held at the Plaza Independencia.
“This annual event is consistent with the policy of the city to ensure environmental sustainability, for the current generations and for the generations to come,” said Cebu City Councilor Nida Cabrera, who led this year’s switch-off as chairperson of the council’s committee on environment.
According to Visayan Electric Co., the one-hour switch off saved 11 megawatts in its franchise area, surpassing the 3 MW in 2012.
Aboitiz Group team members from Cebu-based AEV, AboitizLand, City Savings Bank, Metaphil, Pilmico, Veco, Tsuneishi Heavy Industries and RAFI joined the walkathon to the Plaza in a show of solidarity.
smart SWITCHES OFF LIGHTS
SMART Communications Inc. (Smart) has once again joined the rest of the world in making a stand against climate change.
Using social media, Smart made a call to the public to support Earth Hour and the switch off of lights last March 23, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
In Cebu City, Smart was part of the Habagat Earth Hour Night Ride 2013, where around 2,000 bikers went around the city on bicycles, encouraging establishments to turn off their lights. In Cagayan de Oro City, people opted for neon colors as lights went off at the SM Mall. During the switch off, participants danced in the dark for Mother Earth, with faces painted neon and using glow sticks for props. In Davao City, lights also went out for an hour. Activities that include a parade, various entertainment numbers and the traditional switch off happened at the SM Mall.
The telco also provided connectivity to the Davao blogging community, enabling live tweeting of pledges to save Mother Earth.
SM MALLS JOIN OBSERVANCE
SM City Cebu and SM City Consolacion joined the rest of the nation on March 23 during Earth Hour.
At exactly 8:30 p.m., SM City Cebu and SM City Consolacion switched off all its malls’ building lighted logos and 50 percent of mall interior lights and perimeter lights.
The celebration was attended by environmentalist and former Cebu City councilor Nestor Archival, Department of Energy Regional Director Antonio Labios, and Fr. Tito Soquiño who led the prayer for the environment before the start of the program in SM City Cebu.
Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado lauded the management of SM City Consolacion for initiating Earth Hour in her town, and remain hopeful that other establishments will follow. The celebration in SM Consolacion culminated with a glow-in-the-dark zumba party. Fire dancers and party music from DJ Kirby added to the festive mood in SM City Cebu.
METRO Stores back campaign
IN support of the global campaign to save Mother Earth against climate change, the Metro department stores and supermarkets all over the country joined the world last March 23 by switching off lights an hour before it closed.
As their contribution to the global phenomenon, the Metro stores have saved a large number of kilowatt hours and helped reduced thousands of carbon emissions from air conditioning units, generator sets, lighting equipment, among others.
Earth Hour is a global event organized in 2007 by the World Wildlife Fund to encourage households and businesses to switch off their lights for one hour to raise awareness on the need to take action on climate change.
