News

HILTON PRAGUE AND HILTON PRAGUE OLD TOWN GET READY TO SWITCH OFF LIGHTS FOR EARTH HOUR ON SATURDAY 28TH MARCH

Hilton hotels in Prague today announced that it will be joining over 60 Hilton properties in Europe to support the World Wide Fund For Nature’s (WWF) Earth Hour campaign on Saturday, March 28, 2009.

WWF Earth Hour is a global campaign which hopes to eventually reach more than one billion people, asking individuals, businesses and governments to switch off their lights for just one hour on Saturday March 28 at 8:30pm. This symbolic gesture is designed to highlight the importance of action on climate change.

Andy Ridley, Global Director of Earth Hour for the WWF said “The business community has an incredible ability and responsibility to engage employees, customers and suppliers to create a sustainable future for our planet, and we therefore welcome the involvement of major international businesses such as Hilton in Earth Hour”.

At Hilton Prague and Hilton Prague Old Town, the support of Earth Hour will involve a wide range of activities such as:

• Switching off main building exterior lighting and rooftop neon signage
• Dimming of interior lights in lobby, room corridors and reception areas
• Dimming lights in the restaurants and bar and hosting candle-lit dinners
• Encouraging guests to switch off their room lights
• Half of the elevators in the back area will be switched off
• Disconnecting air handling unit for entire hotel

Speaking about Hilton’s support of Earth Hour, Michael Specking, General Manager of Hilton Prague & Hilton Prague Old Town said, “At Hilton we work hard to be committed to the heart of the communities in which we operate. Our support of Earth Hour will enable us to illustrate this in a tangible way, while simultaneously improving our efficiencies and environmental practices. Most of all Earth Hour at Hilton will allow our hotel team members to work together with our guests, to raise awareness that everyone can help to make a difference”.

Hilton in Europe is committed to constantly working to improve its environmental performance, having already trained over 30,000 team members through workshops and online ecoLearning programmes - along with rolling out initiatives which have seen a reduction in energy and water consumption, resulting in US$21.5 million of avoided costs - proving that ‘being green’ is also smart for business.

Furthermore, in the UK Hilton has been working with the Carbon Trust since 2005 on major projects to explore further ways of reducing energy use.

Globally, Hilton was one of the founding members of the International Tourism Partnership www.tourismpartnership.org. This organisation is designed to bring together the leaders of some of the largest travel and tourism companies, to work through collective, industry-wide action at local, destination and country level to encourage real progress towards a more sustainable hotel, travel and tourism industry.

The support of Earth Hour by Hilton Hotels Corporation in Europe is in addition to support given by the hotel group in Asia, Middle East, Africa and the US.