PHUKET: At 8.30pm today (Mar 25) Phuket residents and businesses will join thousand of like-minded people around the globe for the Earth Hour by switching off non-essential electric lights to draw attention to climate change and other environmental issues.
Non-essential lights will go off in various parts of Phuket from 8.30pm through 9.30pm today to mark Earth Hour. Phot: Khun Sutharat
Non-essential lights will be off from 8.30pm till 9.30pm today throughout the UTC+7 time zone spreading from as far as Norilsk in Russia to Christmas Island in Australia.
In Phuket, Patong Municipality has officially confirmed earlier this week that the resort town town will be joining the worldwide symbolic lights-out event with some major environmentally conscious hotels participating just as one year before.
Meanwhile many other businesses, environmental organisations and residents of Phuket will do the same without any announcement and not expecting any praise.
Even more, most of them try to follow the principles of sustainability on a daily basis turning every hour into Earth Hour. Here is what they say.
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Our association prides and takes focus on sustainability and environmental matters in our daily operations, we are constantly looking at ways how we can help to reduce our carbon footprint. Reducing the use of single-use plastic is one of our main agenda followed by waste reduction and energy conservation. We believe hotels, businesses, government, communities, and all citizens can be a part of Earth Hour and contribute to making every day Earth Day!
– Bjorn Courage, President, Phuket Hotels Association
We live on an island where we can easily see and appreciate the beauty of our amazing world. During the pandemic we saw what a decreased footprint could do to our beaches, islands and waterways: clearer water, returning marine life, restored reefs. If only we could all combine together to continue a commitment to more sustainable approaches to managing our impact on the environment.
This year, during Earth Hour, I invite all businesses on the island to take a stand for the environment. Don’t just say you are committed to sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism, show it.
While you are at it, why not invite your guests and team to help. Pick up some of the litter, clean your area, and stand in solidarity during this global Earth Hour.
– Shaun Stenning, 5 Star Marine
With all the electricity we consume daily, I think that switching off for one hour per year is doable, don’t you think? People want easy solutions to slow down the effects of climate change and solve the rubbish problem. In fact, it can be easy if we just try to reduce our consumption of everything and manage our waste responsibly.
Please tell me that you follow us on Facebook and Instagram (sustainable_maikhao2020). We really need your support to bring more awareness of the rubbish problem and ways that we can work towards solving it.
– Michelle Mouillé, Founder, Sustainable Mai Khao Foundation
Sustainability. A word that has become synonymous with responsibility and recycling. Lemonade Club, proposes a different view. As we are entering a new age of technology and more proactive progress, leaders will be shaping our future. Hence, Lemonade is dedicated to nurturing a sense of freedom of choice within our young leaders, yet with the forethought of sustainable choices and outcomes for the future.
Our kindergarten classes focus on the real detriment that our current way of living is bringing about, and the mindset that we must have moving forward.
Sustainability doesn’t only concern recycling and making sure to not use paper cups. It is also about choice, and what we do with the resources around us as we do not want to hinder the opportunities that are available to our children.
Our children are the path forward, so let’s give them the opportunity to create a brighter, sustainable future which they envision and which they will bring to reality!
– Julia Volodina, Lemonade Club
Earth Hour is a chance for all of us to do our small part in ensuring that we help reduce and reuse the necessary resources that some of us might have at our disposal.
As leaders of Plastic Free Phuket – an organisation which aims to clean up beaches on the coast of Phuket and create advocacy for reducing plastic waste – we all are committed to making a change for a sustainable future, and Earth Hour is a time for everyone to really commit and come together in helping achieve that goal.
Let’s all do our part in reducing and helping take care of the planet we call home, and create an important change in ensuring a brighter and more sustainable future for all of us.
– Plastic Free Phuket, a student-led organisation within UWC Thailand
If we all turn off the electricity together at the same time, it would create a great impact on the Earth and I support the idea and will support this campaign by asking for cooperation from the Phuket Real Estate Association (P-REA) members.
– Phattanan Pisutwimol, President, Phuket Real Estate Association
Any attention to the problem contributes to its resolution. When we turn off the electricity for even just an hour, and do not use aircons, it shows that we ponder how we can reduce energy consumption and our carbon impact, thus saving the earth’s resources for ourselves and for future generations.
In Thailand, the main problem is the heat, from which you need to protect your home. And apart of air conditioners, there are old, proven methods that don’t require electricity. First of all, it is the protection of windows from direct sunlight, since the main heat enters the house through the windows when the sun shines and heats the interior. You can tint the windows, it’s not that expensive. You can make large canopies so that the sun has to go down quite low to enable the light come into the room. You can use double walls, which is also is not too expensive, if you use inexpensive materials, but leave a gap between them. And of course, exhaust ventilation.
We at Vista del Mar are very lucky, as we can also use the natural contour. The project is located on a hillside next to the beach, and even now, in the heat of March, when we gather in one of our villas, we simply open the doors on both sides, and the breeze from the sea gives enough coolness to work indoors without turning on airconы.
You can use all of the above, but the first step is to take a thought on what Earth Hour is calling for.
– Sergey Nesterenko, Developer, Vista del Mar Phuket
Not only does Botanica focus on delivering quality products, but we also take pride on sustainability and how to live with nature in harmony. We bring the natural forest into our residential projects to create fresh air and reduce the carbon footprint.
Initiating the use of solar panels to create electricity in each residence and utilizing 100% electric vehicles for our company transportation, are just a few examples of how seriously our business takes its environmental social responsibility.
This is only our initial step we are taking to save the planet, but we plan to do more in the future because we believe that every hour should be an hour for earth and every day should be Earth Day.
– Attasit Intarachooti, CEO, Botanica Luxury Villas Phuket
To learn more about Earth Hour 2023 and discover various ways to give your hour to the planet, please visit www.earthhour.org.
