Suva hotel joins Earth Hour and practices energy reduction

SUVA: JJ's on the park, one of Suva’s leading boutique hotel and restaurant, has pledged their support for the WWF lead Earth Hour event by organising a candle light dinner for its guests and the public on Saturday 29th March, 2008.
Peter Mazey, JJ's on the Park General Manager said: "JJ’s has for some time looked for ways in which we as a hotel and in which our guests can work at reducing their carbon footprint.”

"On Saturday 29th March a newsletter will be given to all hotel guests giving details of Earth Hour and asking all to participate. We will be advertising and promoting for people to join us for a Candle Light dinner."

“At the appointed hour we will be switching off all outside lights and will only have gas lanterns going. Only emergency lights will be on in the hotel and candles will be delivered to all guest rooms to enable their own participation," he added.

"In addition to our normal menu guests at dinner will be offered blackboard specials incorporating locally grown products."

This event will mark the beginning of an annual event for JJ's and they have also taken the initiative to inform their guests and all staff about the need to cut down on their energy use. The hotel has already taken the necessary steps from a professional consultant to advice them on ways to cut down on their energy consumption.

"In 2004 we employed an Electrical Engineering consultant to completely analyze our energy use in particular our electrical use. The result was a report with recommendations of simple actions such as removing a number of surplus light bulbs and we were able to reduce our electricity consumption. Our hall ways and restaurant had far too many light bulbs. Where possible light bulbs have been replaced with energy saving bulbs."

"We do promote energy saving principles and an interesting example of this is what we call our “energy patrol” whereby every night our room service staff go around the hotel and into all vacant rooms just to ensure that all lights are turned off and all air conditioners are off. This has assisted us in creating major savings in our electrical usage and wastage," Mazey said.

All businesses including hotels and restaurants are encouraged to join the Earth Hour campaign and look at their footprint. Earth Hour will commence on the 29th of March where the City of Suva will be the first city in the world to switch off and the only city from the South Pacific to do so.