Macao Science Center Responds to "Earth Hour 2022"

To raise public awareness of climate change, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) continues to launch the Earth Hour global lights-out movement this year. At the invitation of the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) of the SAR Government, the Macao Science Center will turn off the non-essential lighting inside and outside the building for one hour at 8:30 pm on March 26 (Saturday), supporting this global environmental event with practical actions.

The "Earth Hour" was first held in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and now it has become the world's largest collective environmental event. The theme of this year's event is "Attitude to Life", encouraging the public to protect ecology with an attitude to life and pay tribute to nature's unsung hero - wetland habitat. More than 190 countries and 7,000 cities worldwide, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, are expected to participate in the event. The Macao Science Center has been participating in Earth Hour for 12 consecutive years to encourage the public to live a green lifestyle.

In addition, in line with the Macao SAR Government's promotion of environmental protection and energy conservation, the Macao Science Center has been striving to optimize its facilities to save energy and promote public awareness of environmental protection and energy conservation and green buildings. In 2016, the Macao Science Center was awarded the "Three-starred Certificate of Green Building Design Label" by the China Green Building and Energy Saving (Macau) Association, the highest level of green building design certificate in China. The building is designed with a large number of floor-to-ceiling glass and skylights to provide more light, and the lighting is mainly LED with compact electronic ballasts that automatically reduce the light level to the lowest to save electricity when the Center is closed, and the temperature inside the building can be regulated by the introduction of outdoor air to keep the environment cool and comfortable.

In the future, the Macao Science Center will gradually replace the ineffective or obsolete lighting fixtures with environmentally friendly ones, upgrade the air-conditioning facilities, and optimize the energy consumption sub-metering system, so as to continuously monitor the energy consumption of every area in the building, and timely reduce the lighting power density of the less frequently used spaces to further reduce electricity consumption and enhance energy efficiency.

Macao Science Center is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from Monday to Sunday regardless of public holidays. It is closed on Thursdays and Lunar New Year's Eve. To learn more about the activities and information of the Macao Science Center, please visit the website of the Center at www.msc.org.mo.

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Macao Science Center Limited

March 17, 2022                                                                                                                      05-PR-PUB-22