Earth hour = Happy hour

Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 26 Mar 09;

THIS Saturday, check into a five-star hotel and “sleep naked” ... without air-conditioning. Dine by candlelight for discounts. Get free beer. Trek to Mount Faber for a view of the city lights going out. Or check on your Blackberry how the rest of the globe is celebrating Earth Hour, which takes place at 8.30pm in Singapore.

Although it’s just the second time Earth Hour is being observed here, businesses and organisations are taking a creative approach to get the public abuzz about saving energy.

Five hotels under Hong Leong Group’s Millennium and Copthorne (M&C) umbrella —including :Grand Copthorne Waterfront and M Hotel — are going beyond just switching off their facade lights. Guests and staff are encouraged to do without airconditioning for the night.

“The idea for ‘Sleep Naked’ came from the fact that many South-east Asians living in rural areas sleep with little else but a sarong,” said M&C International Limited’s chief operating officer Yim Choong Hing.

“On very hot days, much of the sarong would come off.”

And to save paper, M&C staff are promoting the cause among guests largely by old-fashioned word-of-mouth.

Elsewhere, discounts, food and the promise of fun are being rolled out — mainly to get the buzz going for a good cause, establishments told Today, since business is already typically brisk on Saturday nights.

Making Earth Hour “happy hour”, Marriott Hotel’s Crossroads Café is giving a free half-pint of beer for every order of a pint, while Peranakan Place’s Alley Bar, Outdoors Café and Bar and Acid Bar are offering “green” drinks like apple martinis at $12 (usual price $16 to $18) all night long.

At Wisma Atria, retailers and F&B operators will offer candlelight dinners, star-gazing and acoustic music.

CANDLELIGHT DINNERS, A SPARKLER PARTY

Guests of the InterContinental Hotels Group — the stable includes Crowne Plaza Changi Airport and Holiday Inn Atrium — will have their bills halved at some in-house restaurants during Earth Hour, provided they turn off their room lights.

But “we’re not going to go into their rooms (to check), because it has to be based on trust and environmental awareness,” said Crowne Plaza Changi Airport’s sales and marketing director Bryan Gabriel.

Diners at Four Seasons Hotel’s One-Ninety restaurant will be part of a 21-hour vigil, as 35 of its sister properties spanning Sydney to Hawaii, hold candlelight dinners. A dinner menu from $48 will feature organic and local produce.

At Concorde Hotel (the former Le Meridien), fresh fruit, cookies and non-alcoholic drinks will be on-the-house at the hotel’s poolside, and guests will be given sparklers and entertained by a violinist and an accordionist.

“If guests stay in their rooms, they’ll have the lights, air-con and television on — how does that then support Earth Hour? So we thought, let’s have a party, let’s meet them and chat with them,” said Ms Evelyn Neo, its director of marketing communications.

IT’S IN THE STARS...

For those not up to shelling out money for dinner or a hotel room, there are other fun (and innocent) things to do in the dark.

Besides the official Earth Hour events at the Botanic Gardens and the Esplanade Park, there are activities catering to nature lovers, heartlanders, students, even virtual world fans.

For the latter, Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion has set up a dedicated mobile site for users to connect with others around the world, and to receive Earth Hourupdates.

Environmental group ECO Singapore is reaching out to 30,000 households with the help of 1,200 student volunteers, with community events at five locations — the Esplanade, Zheng Hua Community Club, Hong Kah North Community Club, Bedok Community Centre and Damai Secondary School. On the cards are cultural performances and movie screenings.

Fellow eco group Nature Trekker Singapore will conduct a night walk to Mount Faber for a bird’s eye view of the city lights going out at 8.30pm.

The number of participants will be capped at 50, so as not to “disturb the lovers there”, quipped founder Ben Lee.

Fortune telling, palm-reading and star gazing will be held at the Singapore Management University’s Campus Green for students and the public, even as exams loom for some in two weeks.

SMU wanted to support the World Wide Fund for Nature and “take students’ minds off the exams” for an hour, said senior corporate communications manager Kim May.

With so much going on, there is little reason not to “switch off” at 8.30pm on Saturday. “It’s sexy, its fun and it’s the right thing to do,” said M&C’s Mr Yim.

Get officially involved
Today Online 26 Mar 09;

Official events this Saturday will take place at the Botanic Gardens and Esplanade Park, courtesy of Earth Hour organiser the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature.

Pack a picnic basket and head down to the Esplanade Park for the carnival from 5pm, before counting down to the big “switch off” with WWF Singapore’s managing director Amy Ho. Local bands and DJs will continue to entertain celebrants during the hour of darkness.

At the Botanic Gardens, The Climate Project’s Singapore-based director Tony Boatman will give a presentation — based on Al Gore’s 2007 documentary An Inconvenient Truth — at the Botany Centre’s Function Hall, at 2pm. You’ll need to register as seats are limited.

The official events will be powered with biodiesel, thanks to Alpha Bio Fuel.

Other events include a candlelight reception and talk by social media groups at Tangs’ Island Café; Sacred Funk’s yoga and meditation session at Stamford Green in Fort Canning Park; and 400 volunteers lighting candles to form the phrase “We Vote Earth!” on the Formula One track adjacent to the Singapore Flyer.

A slew of corporates will do their part by switching off lights on parts of their premises, include their facades and signage, such as Cathay cineplexes, HSBC Building, Marina and Meritus Mandarin Singapore, Suntec Singapore and 29 CapitaLand Singapore properties.

More events and details on the Singapore Earth Hour blog and on the wildsingapore happenings blog