Celebrating Earth Hour every hour at Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo

To celebrate Earth Hour this year Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo leans towards the famous saying “small actions lead to big changes.”

The internationally-awarded hotel encourages all its diners and guests to take positive action towards the environment on a daily basis and celebrates its continued commitment with a special line-up of events for Earth Hour.

Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo was the first Green Globe certified hotel in Colombo and is renowned for leading by example. Earth Hour is an annual, worldwide event which will be held on 23 March from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It is the largest movement for the planet in human history, spanning 7,000 cities across 152 countries with a digital reach of 200 million.

The movement encourages households and businesses to turn off their nonessential lights to increase awareness about the need to take action on climate change by reducing environmental impact.

With the aim of establishing and encouraging others to join an interconnected global community, Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo joins hands with the Earth Hour team to celebrate this drive with its own green initiatives. Earth Hour is much more than a symbolic action of switching off lights for an hour. It is a continuous movement driving actions, large and small. Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo continuously operates on a green platform and ensures that the message is carried out beyond just an hour. This was evident as, since last year the hotel reduced its carbon footprint by 35%, electricity consumption by 37%, water consumption by 40% and food waste by as much as 61%. The same measures taken to achieve these results will continue together with new initiatives that are constantly being introduced. These originate from ideas contributed from every level of the hotel’s associates. Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo’s sustainability initiative for 2012/13 includes a wide range initiatives such as recycling e-waste as well as burnt CFL and florescent bulbs, the reuse of used cooking oil for firing boilers, installation of LED lights for staff lockers and use of induction lamps for garden flood lights.

Additionally the implementation of a solid waste management plan from the CMC, avoidance of purchasing excessively packaged products, the use of low volatile organic compounds and lead free paints and automated time scheduling of air conditioners at restaurants are among the initiatives that will be taken throughout this year. Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo commemorates Earth Hour by reducing the lighting in the hotel by 50% in public areas and increasing the temperature of the hotel’s air conditioning by 3° in public areas. In addition a special documentary ‘Home’ will be shown on the hotel’s promotional TV channel from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., educating guests on the impact of human activities on earth, pollution and its impact towards humankind.

With the lights dimmed down, diners will be treated to a candlelit dinner at all of the hotel’s restaurants. A special note addressing the importance of Earth Hour will be placed on tables requesting them to join the hotel in commemorating the important occasion.

Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo maintains a close relationship with the local community, stepping in when its assistance is required. It continuously supports schools in the area and on the occasion of Earth Hour 2013, invites students from one such school, T.B. Jaya Maha Vidyalaya, to make the event extra special. With the lights dimmed, the students will perform a specially choreographed dance act with ‘pahan’ lamps to illuminate their movements.

The hotel recognises that Earth Hour is not only about saving an hour’s worth of electricity but that it is about going beyond the hour, creating awareness and taking action for the long term. The hotel lives by this pledge as is evident in its being the most Green Globe re-certified hotel in Sri Lanka.