du promoted this year’s Earth Hour on 29 March through a unique activation, supported by internal and external communication messages. As part of the activation, the words ‘Turn Off’ lit up across the windows of the company’s headquarters in Al Salam Tower, Dubai Media City, for a limited time on Friday evening to raise awareness of Earth Hour amongst all passersby, ahead of the actual event. The message was also actively pushed through du’s social media channels. 

During Earth Hour the company went dark, with lights switched off in its offices in Al Salam Tower and Dubai Academic City along with other locations including Fujairah call centre, DIP warehouse and Lotus Plaza. All employees were encouraged to do the same at their home and du’s customers received an SMS reminding them to participate in switching all lights and electrical appliances off for Earth Hour.

Earth Hour in the UAE is promoted and coordinated by Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF (EWS-WWF). This year, Earth Hour called on all UAE residents to ‘Get Enlightened and Make the Switch’ to energy efficient light bulbs for the benefit of the planet.

Further, du supports EWS-WWF’s  ‘Make the Switch’ campaign that highlights the importance of using energy efficient lighting in order to reduce energy consumption. Globally, lighting comprises 20percentage of energy consumed and 57percentage of the UAE’s ecological footprint comes from households.  As of 1 July, it will be mandatory for UAE residents to use energy efficient lights only, as per a new lighting standard announced earlier this year. 

“As a responsible company, we are committed to increasing levels of sustainability across our company, and to encouraging our community to do the same,” said Hala Badri, Executive Vice President, Brand and Communications, du. “Sustainability is a core pillar of our company ethos, and is something that we actively pursue through numerous initiatives. We observe Earth Hour on an annual basis, spreading awareness both amongst our customers and colleagues in an effort to help both our business and the UAE to become increasingly sustainable.”

 “It is truly inspiring to see such a wide support from the UAE community for Earth Hour and such a strong willingness to go beyond the hour and make a change in our daily lives to protect our planet. We would like to thank Du for mobilizing their channels and for their creative contribution to make Earth Hour an even bigger climate awareness movement and platform for environmental action. We would also like to thank every individual, every organization who answered our call to ‘make the switch’ to energy efficient lighting’ thereby helping to reduce our country’s Ecological Footprint” says Nicolas Delaunay, Director, Business Development & Marketing at EWS-WWF.

In order to reduce its own consumption of energy, du has implemented several energy-saving initiatives across its offices and network. These include switching all light bulbs to energy-efficient options along with motion sensors, using alternative energy sources to powerbase stations and calculation of the company’s carbon footprint. Complete details of du’s sustainability efforts can be found in its recently-released Sustainability Report 2013, compliant with the GRI G4 - Comprehensive guidelines.
WWF’s Earth Hour is the world’s largest grass-roots environmental movement towards action on climate change. Earth Hour is an opportunity for people around the world to unite in taking a symbolic stand against climate change and act for a sustainable future.

For more about du’s sustainability initiatives, view our 2013 Sustainability Report on: http://www.du.ae/sustainability-flipbook/flash/index.html