Earth Hour 2008

In March 2008 we teamed up with public and private organisations to make Dubai the first Arab city to take part in Earth Hour.

WWF’s Earth Hour movement began in Sydney, Australia, and is now a worldwide climate change movement. On a given day millions of people around the globe turn off non-essential lighting for an hour. This hour rolls through 14 time zones and traverses more than 25 cities, starting in New Zealand and ending in the Pacific Time Zone.

To make this happen in Dubai on Saturday 29 March 2008, we joined forces with the Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (DEWA). We also had the support of Dubai Municipality, Dubai International Financial Centre, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Dubai World Trade Centre, Nakheel and Leo Burnett.

5,000 people from the local community also showed their support, with a Lantern Parade along Dubai’s Beach Road.

Our participation

Within our investment portfolio, the Business Parks and Hospitality verticals manage a large number of corporate, residential and leisure properties, making them ideal to actively participate. In total, Dubai’s energy use fell by 100,000 kWh.

Business Parks

Dubai Internet City, Dubai Knowledge Village, Dubai Media City, Dubai Outsource Zone and Dubai Studio City took part. Common area, brand signage and parking lot lights were all turned off from 8 to 9pm. Some of our employees also participated from home by turning off their lights and non-critical appliances and encouraging friends and family to do the same. They prevented an estimated 400kg of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere.

Hospitality

A number of properties managed by The Jumeirah Group, including the Burj Al Arab, which shut down its spectacular light and fire display, and Madinat Jumeirah, where all outside lights were turned off or dimmed.

Other properties included:

Jumeirah Emirates Towers

We promoted Earth Hour to our guests from 22 to 29 March as they checked in, with a reminder placed in rooms on the day, encouraging them to switch off their lights. Our Estate Management office also asked tenants to participate. During the Hour, we dimmed our back-of-house lighting or switched it off where it would not affect health and safety.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel

We told guests about Earth Hour on check-in and asked them to turn off room lights. During the Hour, we turned off all outside building lights and dimmed our corridors to emergency lighting only.