Blackout support: Earth Hour in Singapore

More companies are supporting Earth Hour this year by switching off lights and air-conditioners
Sandra Leong, Straits Times 21 Mar 10;

Some business owners might think an extended blackout would be bad for business. Not Willin Low, though.

This Saturday, the chef-owner of Mount Emily bar Wild Oats is turning off his lights from 8.30pm to closing time at 1am. That is three hours more than what he has committed to do on paper for Earth Hour, a global campaign led by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that urges people to conserve energy by switching off their lights for 60 minutes one day a year.

'Everybody loved it last year,' says Mr Low. 'You could see only the silhouettes of people but the mood was very festive and everyone was laughing excitedly.'

To date, more than 3,000 individuals and 300 organisations have signed up for Earth Hour in Singapore this year, says project manager and WWF Singapore's director of corporate responsibility Carine Seror. More are expected to pledge their support this week. Others will also choose to commemorate the event on their own without necessarily recording their commitment with the WWF.

As it stands, non-essential lights at major tourist icons such as the Merlion Park, Singapore River and the Pit Building will be switched off, says the Singapore Tourism Board. More than 10 shopping centres in Orchard Road have also committed to turning off their facade lights.

Official sponsor SingTel will also be sending out 1.3 million text messages to encourage its subscribers to take part in Earth Hour.

Earth Hour, which began in Sydney, is in its fourth year globally but second year locally. Inferring from statistics from The Nielsen Company and the Energy Market Authority, the WWF estimates that 1.6 million Singaporeans took part in the inaugural event last year.

Support for Earth Hour is coming much earlier than last year, says Ms Seror. And many like Mr Low are going the extra carbon- friendly mile to spread the message of environmental consciousness. Also going on an extended, 10-hour lights-out is property group CapitaLand, which will turn off the facade lights of more than 190 of its properties worldwide from 8.30pm to 6.30am the next morning. Its shopping centre Ion Orchard will be throwing an Earth Hour Lights-Out Party featuring local musicians.

Next door, Wisma Atria will be organising a stargazing event on its rooftop from 8 to 10pm.

Other companies are roping staff into the cause. Apart from going dark at 34 stores and 'blacking out' its website, The Body Shop has also organised a staff walk from its Killiney Road office to The Esplanade to attend the WWF Earth Hour concert on Saturday. Performers include Jack&Rai and illusionist JC Sum & Magic Babe 'Ning'.

Its directors have also pledged to take public transport to work the day before.

Hotels under the Hong Leong Group, such as the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel and M Hotel, are going one step further by getting guests to pledge to sleep without air-conditioning on Saturday night. Its tongue-in-cheek campaign is called 'Sleep Naked 2' ('Sleep Naked' was last year).

Says a spokesman: 'We are planning to have our hotel general managers swop their suits for pyjamas and bathrobes during Earth Hour to encourage guests to join in the No Air-Con movement.'

Though Earth Hour here is clearly gaining momentum, drumming up awareness is still a big challenge.

Says WWF's Ms Seror: 'Industrialisation and development made us live in cities where everything is so convenient, easy and hassle-free. Water comes down straight to our pipes, we push a button to have light, we open the chute and our garbage disappears, and we walk into a shop to get ready-made clothes.

'It is magic but it made us forget where all this is coming from, how precious our resources are and that they are not endless.'

But will one hour a year really make a difference? Professor Hooman Peimani, principal fellow at the Energy Studies Institute at the National University of Singapore, says that though Earth Hour is a symbolic gesture and not a substitute for real change, it is still 'better than nothing'.

But Singapore, he points out, has some distance to go in terms of energy-saving. Public lighting is often switched on for unnecessarily long hours, people keep their appliances on stand-by power and recycling is not yet deep-rooted.

He says: 'Drops in the ocean may seem insignificant but all together, they create a huge reality.'

To this end, LifeStyle spends a day living without energy to find out what impact one person can make.