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Hilton Colombo celebrated Earth Hour 2016 from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. local time on Saturday, 19 March. The hotel joined Hilton Worldwide’s network of more than 4,600 properties across 102 countries by reducing energy use and shining a light on climate change by hosting various Earth Hour activities for team members, franchised employees and guests.
This year, Hilton Worldwide is spreading its environmental celebrations throughout March, reinforcing the company’s commitment to addressing climate change and creating an even greater positive impact.
Some of the sustainability initiatives Hilton Colombo is committed to instituting have been structured into the following three categories:
Energy – Changing existing lights to those of the LED energy-saving variety in most of the hotel’s light systems and the changing of existing TV designs to more energy-efficient LED types.
Waste – Wet garbage/organic waste for animal feeding collected by farms and used newspapers collected by recycling suppliers.
Water – water-saving designed WC for new guest room’s washrooms.
As part of its commitment to preserving the environment, Hilton Colombo has in place regular programs in the team members’ dining area to instil awareness and drive action around food waste reduction.
Hilton Colombo celebrated Earth Hour through the following activities - switching off all non-essential lights in the building including concessionaire shop lights while in the hotel reducing the operation of laundry machines, boilers, swimming pool pumps and dishwasher machines operated in the kitchens, switching off cooking ovens, blast freezers, electrical grills and building lights.
All computers, printers, copiers, etc. in offices were shut down to save energy during the night. Moreover, the hotel also shut down one elevator and the back corridor lights were reduced by 50% while all the floor corridors were kept on emergency lighting for one hour.
The well-known Hilton neon logo was also switched off as a symbolic gesture to further demonstrate the hotel’s support of Earth Hour. All restaurants were lit up with candles and in-house guests were invited to take part in the Earth Hour celebrations in the lobby.
Guests got together and cut the ‘Earth Hour’ cake and also witnessed a beautiful globe ice carving which conveyed a message of man’s impact on global warming.
A special candle-lit lunch at the team restaurant was held with educational movies on climate change and environmental pollution.