MTN to support earth hour

MTN South Africa has placed its full support behind Earth Hour 2011, which takes place on Saturday, 26 March, from 20:30 to 21:30.

MTN SA will be turning off all non-essential power supplies and lighting at its 14th Avenue head office in Johannesburg as a demonstration of support for Earth Hour. Since the MTN Innovation Centre is the largest corporate building on the West Rand, it is expected that a significant amount of electricity will be saved during Earth Hour 2011.

MTN SA’s staff have also pledged their support for Earth Hour and will be turning off their lights at home that evening.

‚MTN SA is making a difference to climate change through its many initiatives to conserve the planet’s resources and improve energy efficiency. In addition to ‚turning the lights off’ in support of Earth Hour 2011, MTN is also leading the green drive among telecoms companies through its long-term, sustainable initiatives such as its tri-generation plant, its off-grid BTS sites around the country and the LEED Greening 14th Avenue project,‚ says Karel Pienaar, managing director at MTN South Africa.

MTN took the initiative in October 2008 to build and generate a self-sustaining power supply initiative at its head office campus in Fairland, Johannesburg, and off-set carbon emissions. The result is a two-megawatt, methane-driven tri-generation power plant, which is the first of its kind on the African continent.

The MTN SA tri-generation power plant, which was completed in July 2010, generates electricity, produces waste heat, reclaims the waste and, through a re-absorption chiller cycle, generates water for air conditioning.

‚The initiative by MTN SA to once again support Earth Hour is further evidence of MTN’s continued focus on being a customer-centric organisation with the customer at the core of everything it does. We’d like to see all MTN subscribers and South Africans follow suit and turn off their lights during Earth Hour,‚ he says.

‚As a responsible and caring corporate citizen MTN SA is making a difference every day to reduce its carbon footprint and save the environment through its various greening projects and initiatives. We encourage all South Africans to view Earth Hour as a step towards sustaining their energy conservation actions beyond the hour into everyday life,‚ concludes Pienaar.

Every year, Earth Hour asks the world to switch off their lights at 8.30pm and celebrate a collective commitment to the planet. Sign up and share stories of your actions that benefit the planet at www.earthhour.org.