Shell Development Oman Participates in Earth Hour 2013

For the past four years, millions of people around the world have joined the global initiative “Earth Hour” to show their willingness to help the future of our planet.  Participation involves doing one thing: turning off all lights and non-essential appliances for one hour.  This year, Earth Hour took place on Saturday March 23^rd from 8:30-9:30pm.

Earth hour is one of the largest climate campaigns in the world.  To contextualize this, more than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries switched off their lights in 2012 and, in Oman alone, 53,430KW of energy was saved (this is enough to power 1000 households for 5 days!).

Alongside many other organizations and institutions around Muscat, such as The Royal Opera House Muscat, The Grand Mosque and Sultan Qaboos University, SDO participated by turning off its lights from 8:30pm – 9:30pm.

For one hour, the SDO office, which spans 10,000 square meters in Mina al Fahal, shut down the power of the entire office.  All lights and non-essential electrical appliances were switched off inside the building and on the surrounding premises.

Employees of SDO were also encouraged to participate in the event by doing the same at home and to spread the message to their friends, families and colleagues.

Hilal al-Mawali, General Manager of External Affairs at SDO, stated the following: “After much success last year, we are proud to have once again taken part in Earth Hour.  We undoubtedly support this ESO led initiative as it is very much in line with many of Shell’s obligations in sustaining the future of our environment.”

Although SDO is a proud participant of Earth Hour, it is important to note that it considers the environment every day.  The SDO office is designed to minimize energy consumption.  It is equipped with advanced sensor systems that switch off lights automatically when not in use, double paned windows and insulated walls.  Furthermore, the SDO water heating system runs on solar energy.