"Saving the planet and its natural resources is a worldwide issue that everyone should be addressing with the utmost care and concern. Southern Sun consistently endeavours to conserve energy and we have been hard at work implementing products, services and initiatives that assist in reducing our footprint on the environment," said Graham Wood, MD of Southern Sun Hotels.
All Southern Sun hotels placed an Earth Hour communiqué in the rooms to inform guests of the importance of Earth Hour and the various planned activities and reinforced the messages through placing educational materials in the lifts and public areas prior to Earth Hour.
The Garden Court East London hotel joined the I Will If You Will challenge - daring the world to save the planet. They reached out to staff and suppliers to join in the Earth Hour initiative at home and at their business premises, asking them, in turn, to reach out to their families and suppliers, eventually reaching many South Africans - and educating children about the need to save our resources.
The Garden Court East London and the Garden Court Hatfield hotels hosted a fun cocktail hour at the bar for guests and dinner was served by candlelight, while the Garden Court Milpark hosted a stargazing hour for their guests.
Southern Sun The Cullinan hotel's guests joined the Cape Town initiative by switching of all non-essential lighting and Southern Sun Cape Sun filled the restaurant with a variety of candles and gave each guest a candle to take home.
Earth Hour started early at Montecasino in Gauteng. Candles were handed out to staff and suppliers and to guests entering the covered parking areas on Friday, 30 March. Selected restaurant tenants showed their commitment by offering dinner by candlelight.
The SunSquare hotel printed educational cards and placed them in each room and on the tables at the MondoVino restaurant. Additionally, they replaced lights with candles and lamps in both the hotel and the restaurant and power saved the heat pumps.
Queens Casino Hotel hosted an hour of candlelight and Suncoast Casino turned off all the outside light while the Suncoast Hotel and Towers only operated on emergency lighting and placed glow sticks in the pool, creating a romantic and fun environment for dinner by candlelight under the stars!
The Drakensburg Sun Lifestyle Resort offered drinks and a stargazing experience on the pool deck. Guests were delighted when shortly after Earth Hour the hill across the lake lit up with the words "Earth Hour". Guests then wrote their pledges to save our natural resources on brown paper bags which were placed on the 60+ Earth.
The StayEasy Emnotweni hotel in the Lowveld hosted a sherry evening by candlelight and adorned the pool with floating candles.
"According to Eskom, South Africans saved 350 megawatts during the 2011 campaign. That is enough electricity to power Bloemfontein for an entire day. By implementing these initiatives, Southern Sun supports Earth Hour 2012 and joined the rest of South Africa to save even more megawatts this year! We are proud to be part of an inspiring global display to address global warming, to show what can be achieved through combined efforts, to encourage leadership through behavioural change and to demonstrate the growing desire around the world to make these changes a reality," concluded Wood.
