Haier Marks Earth Hour with Cross-Continent Interactive Performances

BEIJING, March 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

A series of interactive performances across three continents is aimed at raising awareness about climate change

To encourage its millions of consumers around the globe to "switch off" for an hour during Earth Hour 2012, Haier is hosting a series of public performances across North America, Europe and Asia. For instance, some of the key events this year include the Beatbox champion's show with Haier products in Paris (France), a candlelight concert in Osaka (Japan), a unique home appliances percussion performance in New York (USA) and a performance by the Children's Choir in Beijing (China).

Furthermore, to lead by example and demonstrate the company's commitment to supporting this global movement, Haier's 70,000 global employees have pledged to turn off their lights at home between 8:30 and 9:30 PM local time to show their support of Earth Hour.

Those at home can visit http://ecolife.haier.com, Haier's dedicated Earth Hour website where users can "turn off the lights" online, experience unique music mixed with nature sounds and spread awareness through integrated sharing links to popular social media websites. Less than a week since its launch, the website has already been viewed over 2 million times. Haier is inviting consumers all over the world to be a part of its Earth Hour campaign via its Facebook, Twitter and Weibo accounts. 

"By participating in Earth Hour for the second consecutive year, we are joining the millions of people around the world who want to take a stand and raise awareness of the need for us to work together to protect our environment," said Ms. Zhang Tieyan, Director of Haier Global Branding Operations. "We hope that our global and online activities will encourage consumers to play their part and contribute to environmental sustainability."

Beginning in 2007, Earth Hour has evolved into the largest global campaign for climate change awareness, with hundreds of millions of people, enterprises and cities participating in over 100 countries and territories. Earth Hour 2011 had an estimated reach of 1.8 billion with participants in more than 5,251 cities and towns in 135 countries and territories in all seven continents.

Haier's Commitment to Sustainability

Haier is committed to environmental sustainability, and demonstrates this commitment through its focus on creating energy-efficient household appliances. In 2008, Haier provided over 60,000 green appliances to Olympic facilities to improve the ecological footprint of the games. In 2009, BusinessWeek China granted Haier the "Greener China Business Award" for its outstanding efforts to protect China's environment. Most recently, in March 2012, a report released by the World Economic Forum and the Boston Consulting Group identified Haier as one of China's top 10 global corporate citizens. 

About Haier Group Co. Ltd

Haier is the world's largest home appliances' manufacturer and the No. 1 major appliances brand in the world with 7.8% retail volume share in 2011.  To date, it has established 61 sales centers, 10 R&D centers, and 21 industrial parks across over 160 markets. It employs 70,000 employees, and generated RMB 150.9 billion (USD 23.3 billion) in revenues in 2011.  It is listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchange.  

For more information, please contact:

Rohini Mukherji
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
rohini.mukherji@hkstrategies.com
(86)-10-5967-7625

Ang Gao
Hill+Knowlton Strategies
Ang.gao@hkstrategies.com
(86)-10-5967-7648