On 26 March, starting from 20:30, people all over the world turned off all their lights for 60 minutes.
Earth Hour started in Australia when 2.2 million people and more than 2,000 business joined together to turn off their lights in a statement against global warming and climate changes.
Earth Hour is now the largest global climate change movement, organized by the WWF, whose mission is to stop the degradation of Earth's natural environment. In 2010, hundreds of millions of people across 128 countries and territories participated in Earth Hour.
Many landmarks and important public places worldwide, such as Rome’s Coliseum and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, have also joined this movement.
This year Tianjin and its most celebrated establishments also participated, drawing awareness to energy use in Tianjin and across China:
Ascott China
The 35 serviced residences of Ascott China in 15 cities in China participated Earth Hour activities for the third year in a row. In addition to switching off lights, Ascott invited its Tianjin residents to bring their expired newspapers and magazines to collecting points for recycling in exchange for soft drinks.
Raffles Tianjin
Around 8:30pm, the splendid lights that would usually decorate the 50-storey tall building went off at once including the very eye-catching blue logo lights on top of the hotel. Everything was dark for an entire hour, and went back on by 9:30pm the same night. Even though practicing every possible way in its daily operation to save energy and preserve the environment, Raffles Tianjin has decided to take on this more public method to openly cheer for the good cause of Earth Day.Â
Astor Hotel
The Astor Hotel Tianjin switched off lights around the hotel for Earth Hour. Energy-saving measures included turning off exterior signage lighting, dimming or turning off non-essential interior lighting, using candlelight in restaurants and bars, and sharing information with guests about Earth Hour via in-room voicemail messages and in-room television messages.
Sheraton Hotel Tianjin
Sheraton Hotel Tianjin offered a candlelight dinner in all restaurants and turned off exterior signage lighting, dimmed non-essential interior lighting, and used candlelight in appropriate public areas such as restaurants and bars. All outlets were decorated in green for the event.
Sheraton Tianjin Binhai Hotel
Sheraton Tianjin Binhai Hotel switched off its lights in observance of Earth Hour, and shared other energy-saving measures like turning off exterior signage lighting, dimming or turning off non-essential interior lighting and using in-room voicemail messages and in-room television messages to inform guests about Earth Hour observances. In-room guests and the local EPA were involved the activity as well.
