By Chris Nicholls
SYDNEY: Philips has announced it will continue its participation in Earth Hour for 2008, partnering with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers to send education supplements on global worming to primary and secondary schools, as well as educate online.
The company, which participated in the inaugural Earth Hour in 2007, will send the education supplement to schools in Victoria and New South Wales only, while other schools will have to download theirs. Philips said this would help reduce packaging and transport impacts.
The supplements will encourage students to turn off their own lights and appliances for one hour to help address the climate change problem.
“As a global business we are acutely aware of our duties as a citizen of the world and the role we can play in improving people’s lives,” said Philips Electronics Australia chief executive, Harry van Dyk.
“We believe concerted action in climate change is a social responsibility. As such, Philips will be supporting Earth Hour … to educate the thousands of primary and secondary school children around Australia.”
Philips will also be challenging all of its stakeholders, including: employees, suppliers and retailers to pledge their support for Earth Hour 2008.
“It’s not enough to simply align our brand on paper with Earth Hour – we are going to promote this association through our entire network both in Australia and around the world. Philips hopes Earth Hour continues to grow and we believe we can help achieve this by gaining the commitment of those that we touch on a day-to-day basis,” said van Dyk.
After Sydney’s initiative last year, this year will see Atlanta, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Bangkok, Ottawa, Vancouver, Montreal, Dublin, Perth, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense, Manila, Suva, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Christchurch also switching off for an hour.
For more information or to pledge support, visit www.earthhour.org