Bursa Malaysia Blacks Out For 60 Minutes To Support Global Earth Hour

Bursa Malaysia will join millions of world citizens on Saturday, 28 March 2009 to observe the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Earth Hour in its stand against global warming. At exactly 8.30pm, all non-essential lights and air-conditioning in the offices of Bursa Malaysia will be switched off for exactly 60 minutes to support the cause.

As the first exchange to be awarded with the ISO14001:2004 Environment Management System certification, Bursa Malaysia has been practising efficient energy consumption and waste management in its operations. The participation in Earth Hour is an opportunity for Bursa Malaysia to help raise environmental awareness on the need for energy saving among its employees, stakeholders and the public at large. The Exchange is encouraging its employees and stakeholders to participate in Earth Hour as well, not just by switching off lights, but other appliances as well for the designated period.

“At Bursa Malaysia, we recognise the importance of our action and responsibility towards the environment, especially in relation to the growing global warming issues. We hope that more organisations would participate in this collective yet simple action by just turning off lights.  This also serves as a great opportunity for corporations to integrate environmental awareness and corporate social responsibility within their organisations,” said Dato’ Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia.

WWF Earth Hour was initiated in the city of Sydney in 2007 to combat global warming which saw over 2.2 million Sydneysiders and 2,100 businesses lights out that year. A year later, 371 cities, towns and municipalities around the world joined the cause. This year, Earth Hour aims to reach 1 billion people in 1,000 cities worldwide. In Malaysia, the Federal Territories, Penang, Kota Kinabalu and Shah Alam have pledged their support to the cause.  The Kuala Lumpur Tower, Sultan Abdul Samad Building as well as the Penang Bridge will go dark for one hour in the biggest voluntary power down in history.