EGA makes Earth Hour a weekly event, saving 24,395 kWh in three months

United Arab Emirates, 23 March 2017: Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) today disclosed that it began practicing Earth Hour on a weekly basis in November 2016. In three months, the company has saved 24,395 kilowatt hours of electricity and reduced its CO2 emissions by 10,297 kilograms.

This year’s annual global Earth Hour is on Saturday.

Emirates Global Aluminium is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas. Aluminium smelting is energy intensive, making saving power a key focus for EGA. The company has participated in the annual Earth Hour since 2008, and made Earth Hour a monthly event in 2015.

Now for one hour a week, EGA turns off non-essential electrical devices to save energy and cut carbon emissions. The company was inspired by the global Earth Hour, an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund with one ask: turn off all electrical devices and lights for one hour per year. The annual campaign has raised awareness of climate change around the world.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA said: “EGA has participated in Earth Hour annually since 2008, but recently we took our Earth Hour to a new level. At first we switched off all non-essential devices for just one hour per month, but we quickly realised that we could make this a weekly event and maintain operational performance.”

The expansion of Earth Hour has reduced EGA’s carbon footprint and refocused staff to save energy throughout the business.

Tayeb Al Awadhi, Senior Vice President of Energy at EGA, who leads the weekly Earth Hour initiative, said: “Weekly Earth Hours deliver small but measurable energy savings for our business, but more than that they are a regular reminder to everyone at EGA that energy efficiency is an important priority for the company and society, and that we can all do something about it every day at work or at home. Earth Hour is a fantastic global initiative, and there is no reason to only focus on energy savings once a year.”

Over the last nine years, EGA’s participation in Earth Hour has delivered more than 188,186 kilowatt hours of electricity savings in total. The Earth Hour events have also saved more than 80 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Mr. Al Awadhi manages EGA’s power plants at Jebel Ali and Al Taweelah, which provide electricity for EGA’s aluminium smelters. EGA is the third largest electricity producer in the UAE after DEWA and ADWEA, with a total installed capacity greater than that required to power the Northern Emirates.

In addition to encouraging employees to switch off the lights, EGA has focused on technology innovation for over 25 years to improve the energy efficiency of its aluminium smelting process. EGA’s latest generation technology requires over a third less electricity to produce each kilogram of aluminium than EGA’s 1990s technology.