Beiruting News

Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand and Hilton Beirut Metropolitan Palace celebrated Earth Hour 2016 from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on Saturday, March 19^th. The hotel joined thousands of Hilton Worldwide's more than 4,600 properties across 102 countries in switching off energy and shining a light on climate change by hosting various Earth Hour activities for Team Members, franchised employees and guests to take part in reducing energy use and preserving the environment. This year, Hilton Worldwide is expanding environmental celebrations to the full month of March, reinforcing the company's commitment to addressing climate change and driving an even larger impact.

"Celebrating Earth Hour is one of the many ways we demonstrate how we conserve waste, water and energy every day, and we are encouraging our guests and neighbors to join us in support of this global effort," said Naif Zureikat, Cluster General Manager, Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand and Hilton Beirut Metropolitan Palace.

Hilton Hotels in Beirut celebrated Earth Hour by turning off lights for one hour on March 19, and lighting outlets with candles while live bands performed acoustic music. Energy-saving activities throughout the month include reducing plastic waste in offices by replacing all plastic cups with glass ones, reducing food waste in the staff canteen by organizing a 'no bin day' once a week, and last but not least, installing special water saving devices in all guest bathroom faucets to reduce water consumption by 30%.

Created by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour began in 2007 as a way for individuals and businesses to show how simple steps can make a significant impact on addressing climate change. The idea was conceived during a WWF meeting held at the Hilton Sydney, Australia. In its first year, more than two million people turned off their lights for an hour and reduced the city's energy consumption by more than 10 percent.

It became a global movement in 2008 with more than 50 million people participating, and today it is the largest grassroots environmental movement in the world with more than 7,000 cities and towns in 172 countries and territories and hundreds of millions of people participating across seven continents. In 2015, over 620,000 actions were taken to combat climate change during Earth Hour.

Hilton Worldwide is committed to Preserving Environments, one of the three pillars of the company's responsibility and sustainability strategy, Travel with Purpose. Hilton is one of the first major multi-brand hospitality companies to make sustainability measurement and reporting a brand standard. LightStay, Hilton Worldwide's proprietary measurement platform, is used to measure, analyze and report on global data to drive greater efficiencies, savings and value for hotels and communities around the world. Hotels are able to record their efforts including Earth Hour activities and other environmental and social initiatives into the measurement platform. Hilton is also the first global hospitality company to be ISO 50001 certified - of the more than 11,500 facilities worldwide that are ISO 50001 certified, more than 4,600 of those buildings are in the Hilton portfolio.