It’s lights off at Royal Resorts for one hour on Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 8:30 p.m. (local time) in observance of Earth Hour, the global movement that unites people to protect the planet. Royal Resorts will be joining millions of people around the world in switching off the lights for Earth Hour.
Turn your lights off
Non-essential lights will be turned off at Royal Resorts in Cancun and at The Royal Haciendas in the Riviera Maya during Earth Hour and if you are staying with us this Saturday, we invite you to join in too. Dim the lights in your villa and step out on to your terrace or spend the hour on the beach. As you gaze up at the starry sky, listen to the waves and feel the soft breeze on your face, think about what you can do to protect our planet by reducing your carbon footprint, after all, it’s the only home we have got.
#letschangeclimatechange
Earth Hour 60+ Dinner at The Royal Sands
La Veranda Restaurant at The Royal Sands is participating in Earth Hour. The lights will be turned off symbolically at 8:30 p.m. and diners will enjoy their meal by candlelight. There will be a 60+ Earth Hour buffet with décor inspired by nature and featuring natural and recycled materials and live piano music for diners to enjoy.
Celebrating Earth Hour 2017 at The Royal Haciendas
At The Royal Haciendas in the Riviera Maya, the lights will be dimmed at 8:30 p.m. and there will be a special Earth Hour Legends of Rock event on the stage in Phase II.
The theme of The Royal Haciendas Earth Hour event is “I love the Planet”. At 8 p.m. commemorative Earth Hour t-shirts will be on sale with all proceeds going to the conservation and community causes supported by the Royal Resorts Foundation. At 8:35 p.m., after the lights are turned off, the performers in the Legends of Rock show will take to the stage to sing hits by Michael Jackson, Black Eyed Peas and John Lennon, among others.
There will be time for a moment of meditation to take the Earth Hour pledge to protect the environment. Everyone can do something whether it’s switching to solar power, recycling, walking more instead of using the car, saving water and energy, switching to green cleaning products in the home and workplace, supporting reforestation and conservation projects, saying no to plastic bags, planting wild flowers to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds and the many other things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.
Going Green at Grand Residences Riviera Cancun
Grand Residences Riviera Cancun to the south of Puerto Morelos is also participating in the global Earth Hour movement on March 25 to spread awareness of climate change. Grand Residences owners and guests and their families will enjoy a day of fun activities culminating in the traditional dimming of the lights for one hour in the evening.
The morning starts with beach cleaning at 9 a.m. followed by yoga on the beach at 10 a.m. There are t-shirt painting sessions and a recycling craft contest at 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. respectively.
At 1 p.m. Grand Residences owners and guests and their families are invited to join staff in a tree planting ceremony.
Afternoon activities include a painting competition for children at 2 p.m., a nature quiz at 3 p.m. and a world on the beach event at 4 p.m.
To spread the conservation message, children can have their faces painted as cute pandas at 7 p.m. and owners and guests are invited to watch a Fire Show at 7:30 p.m.
Finally, at 8:30 p.m., non-essential lights will be turned off around the resort for one hour and guests can join in by dimming their lights. They can sit on their terrace, the pool deck or the beach and enjoy the sound of the waves and the beauty of a star-studded Mayan sky.
Earth Hour Around the World
Millions of people around the world in 152 countries will be observing Earth Hour on March 25 by switching off the lights and participating in a variety of ways ranging from candlelit vigils to dinners, processions, community events, conservation campaigns, reforestation programs and petitions.
More than 400 iconic buildings including the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House will also dim their lights. This collective action is to shine a light on climate action and comes as research shows that global warming is accelerating. Temperatures were the highest on record in many parts of the world in 2016 and readings for this year already show that this trend is continuing, with even higher temperatures.
The impact of climate change is being felt in many different ways around the world, from melting ice caps and glaciers and rising sea levels to catastrophic coral bleaching along the Great Barrier Reef, ocean acidification, flooding, droughts, famines and extreme weather events.
In the words of former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “climate change is a people problem. People cause climate change and people suffer from climate change. People can also solve climate change.” It’s time to come together.
#EarthHour #LetsChangeClimateChange www.earthhour.org
Our commitment to environmental stewardship at Royal Resorts
From recycling to sea turtle protection and support for regional conservation projects, Royal Resorts is committed to its role of environmental stewardship. It is always looking for ways to expand the green initiatives already in place at its resorts in Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos.
All the Royal Resorts properties are certified by the Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative or MARTI as being resorts with eco-friendly policies and three of them (The Royal Cancun, The Royal Sands and The Royal Haciendas) also have the Mexico Tourism Board Distintivo S awarded to resorts for their sustainability programs.
Green programs in place at Royal Resorts include recycling, using energy-efficient technology, saving water and substituting cleaning products for eco-friendly alternatives. There are solar panels on the roof at The Royal Sands in Cancun and all the resorts have energy-saving lights. Guests are invited to participate in the water saving program by not asking for the towels and bed linens to be changed on a daily basis.
Native species of trees and shrubs are planted in the gardens and plant and organic kitchen refuse is used to make compost. There are chef’s gardens at the resorts stocked with organic herbs, chilies and chaya, a Yucatecan plant which is more nutritious than spinach. The Royal Cancun also has a botanical garden for guests to enjoy and which features in several environmental awareness activities.
Other green programs range from beach cleaning and turtle protection to purchasing regional products and supporting reforestation programs, conservation and sustainable development. The green philosophy extends throughout the company and employees attend workshops on recycling, water conservation and other environmental and sustainability-related topics.
The Royal Resorts Foundation helping to protect the Mayan jungle
In partnership with Amigos de Sian Ka’an,A.C. the Royal Resorts Foundation is helping to fund an initiative to protect the Mayan Jungle, its wildlife and underground rivers.
Through this program, landowners in Ejido Juarez and El Eden, a private reserve in northern Quintana Roo are receiving environmental services payments in return for pledging to preserve the forest on their land instead of clearing it. To date, 400 hectares of forest have been saved using this system. This helps protect rare animals and birds, captures carbon dioxide emissions and safeguards the underground rivers that are the only source of fresh water in the area and which supply drinking water to Cancun and the Riviera Maya.
The landowners involved recognize that it is essential to protect the jungle for future generations and their passion is helping to convince other ejidos to join the program.
El Eden Reserve lies in an area of cenotes, underground rivers and lagoons where water is abundant year-round, attracting wildlife. A patchwork of jungle and marshland microhabitats, it is a sanctuary for the jaguar, puma, ocelot and other mammals such as the peccary, whitetail deer, spider monkey and anteater. Crocodiles inhabit the lagoons and the area is home to a host of forest and wetland birds.
The long-term goal is to expand this conservation initiative in the north and center of the state, linking larger areas of forest to the Sian Ka’an biosphere reserve and creating natural wildlife corridors for endangered species like the jaguar.
