Hotel Taj Gateway goes ‘Blackout’ for 1 Hour to mark ‘Earth Hour 2018’

Hotel Taj Gateway goes ‘Blackout’ for 1 Hour to mark ‘Earth Hour 2018’

Mangaluru: If you happened to pass by Hotel Taj Gateway on Bunder Road, near State Bank and were wondering how come the Hotel was looking totally dark between the hours of 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm- no need to panic- the Hotel was just observing “Earth Day 2018”- an initiative that started in Australia in 2007, and now its been carried forward in nearly 178 countries and more than 8000 cities and towns worldwide, thereby supporting the worldwide grassroots movement uniting people to protect the planet/save energy, which is organized by World Wildlife Fund {WWF}. But for Mangaloreans, “Lights Off” is something not new, because in the past years we have experienced “Power Out” or “Lights Out”- a hide-n-seek game that used to be played by Mescom every now and then, for silly weather reasons etc- you never know when you’ll be in dark?

But that’s a completely different story, but coming to the real awareness project called “Earth Hour”, that is commemorated all over the world, to save energy for an Hour, thereby engaging in a massive mainstream community on a broad range of environmental issues, Earth Hour which was famously started as a “lights-off” “event in Sydney, Australia, since then it has grown to engage a large number of cities and towns worldwide, and the one-hour event continues to remain the key driver of the now larger movement.

BEFORE EARTH HOUR…….

And as always, in Mangaluru, in keeping with their adherence towards preserving and promoting a healthy planet, Hotel Taj Gateway-Bunder Road, Mangaluru reiterated its support to the worldwide movement – Earth Hour 2018, the global environmental awareness event created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), as they switched off their lights on Saturday, 24 March 2018 between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm. Hotel Taj Gateway-Mangaluru is one among the nearly 130 plus Taj hotels in India across all its brands which include Luxury, Vivanta by Taj and The Gateway Hotels, which joined millions around the world to send a powerful message about a brighter future for the planet.

As soon as the electric lights were switched off at 8.30 pm, Peter Nirmal -General Manager of Taj Gateway-Mangaluru along with few other hotel staff lighted Diyas placed on the traditional Deepa and hotel surroundings. Guests staying at the hotel namely, Mr and Mrs PK Pramanik; and A K Tiwari, joined along with other staff of the hotel namely, Adhirath Bannerji (Sales Manager), Deepak S N { H R Manager} Irshad Mohammed ( Front Office Manager), Ravi Golla (Chief Engineer), Ms Kamala Ashok (Executive House Keeping), Noor Mohammed (Food and Beverage Manager), Hanibal Soans (Security Manager), Aayush Ranjan {Front Desk Manager} and Ms Ashwini Shetty { Front Office Associate} in kicking off the ‘Earth Hour 2018’.

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Speaking on the occasion, Peter Nirmal said, “In the ever-changing environmental conditions, we believe it’s imperative for every business to contribute towards the betterment of our planet. Taj Hotels always believes in encouraging awareness on the environment; We thank World Wildlife Fund-India (WWF) for introducing this noble cause and bringing together people worldwide to participate in Earth Hour 2018. We do this [turn out the lights] each year to call attention to the need for climate action now and the brighter future that lies ahead if we act together. It’s nice to note that WWF has taken the initiative at the global level that touches the lives of innumerable individuals and helps them understand the severe effects of climate change. I along with the staff at Taj Gateway are honoured to be part of this great event-Earth Hour 2018.

DURING EARTH HOUR…..

Making a remarkable history across the globe, Earth Hour 2018 has become the biggest organized Earth Hour event ever. With a record of over 178 countries and territories that joined the global display of climate action including iconic buildings and landmarks in the Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and America observed the power switch off creating a worldwide effort to support a common cause. I am quite sure that this Earth Hour did bring together people across the globe to express concern over climate change. This campaign provided a platform to create awareness on renewable energy among individuals, corporate entities and decision-makers to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Earth Hour was aimed to encourage an interconnected global community to share the opportunities and challenges of creating a sustainable world. On Saturday, many organizations and people across India and world turned off their lights for an hour. But there is much, much more. The full ambition of the organizers of this campaign is to make people take action beyond the hour. Whether it’s supporting a crowdfunding or crowdsourcing campaign on www.earthhour.org or getting involved in Earth Hour campaigns in their own country, or starting the movement in their own community. The vision is always to do more, so make the light switch the beginning of your journey.

In conclusion, we should also know that participating in Earth Hour symbolizes a commitment to change beyond the hour. Earth Hour takes every effort to minimize our footprint, not just for the hour but also all year round. All of Earth Hour Global’s emissions are offset and the campaign embraces digital technology to minimize the usage of natural resources and to spread their message. We have to take steps to save our nature, biodiversity and the earth. We must judiciously use the resources. Along with Earth Hour, India has also made a strong pitch for “Give Up to Give Back” and “Connect2Earth”. This campaign is seen as an opportunity to adopt a shifting of the consumer culture and behaviour change towards sustainability, helping economize operations and reduce the costs. The campaign includes taking steps like giving up single-use plastics, giving up fossil fuels, giving up lonely car rides for your employees, give up e-waste among others. “Give Up” is a choice that needs to make smarter decisions for nature and deliver a long-term impact.

Observing Earth Hour is also a “part and parcel” of the “Green Good Deeds” movement, in which every individual ought to take small, voluntary green actions to protect and conserve the environment and the earth. People need to undertake one “Green Good Deed” every day – such as planting a sapling, segregating waste, cycling to work or use carpool, stop using plastic. Therefore, Earth Hour is the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment where citizens around the world unite to take a stand against climate change by turning off non-essential lights for one hour.

About Earth Hour?

Earth Hour came from a think tank initiated by Earth Hour CEO and Co-Founder, Andy Ridley, resulting in the formation of a partnership between WWF Australia, Leo Burnett and Fairfax Media to address the climate change issue. In 2007, there was still a degree of scepticism and denial about the issue of climate change. Earth Hour came as the inspiration to rally people to the reality of climate change and start a dialogue about what we as individuals can do to help address the greatest problem facing our planet today. Leo Burnett partnered with WWF to promote the idea and help make the campaign a reality in Sydney, a campaign which has now gone beyond climate change to symbolize the growing global pursuit of a better, healthier world.

New York City -USA

The first Earth Hour event was on March 31, 2007. WWF-Australia inspired Sydney-siders to show their support for climate change action. More than 2.2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses turned their lights out for one hour in the first Earth Hour event. Earth Hour 2018 marks the eleventh year of the campaign. You may ask, Is Earth Hour an annual event? Earth Hour is more than an annual event – it is a movement that culminates in an hour of inspiration across the world held towards the end of March each year. WWF embraced the idea of an open sourced campaign that would allow communities and organizations to become part of a global movement to protect our planet.

“Earth Hour” in Sydney, Australia