COSMOTE Romania launches the greatest Earth Hour Challenge

COSMOTE Romania will mark the 2012 Earth Hour, on March 31st, with the first outstanding initiative directly linking mobile telephones to environment's protection. 

Thus, on March 31st, COSMOTE Romania launches a challenge for each of their customers: for each mobile phone or accessory brought to recycling in COSMOTE and Germanos stores until September 2012, COSMOTE will plant 1 tree and grow it to maturity, this autumn.

"We invite our millions of customers to help us re-enact forests and rejuvenate the environment by simply bringing one old, unused or broken mobile phone. We have chosen the Earth Hour as starting point of this campaign to make sure as many as possible mobile phone users will learn about our initiative and join us. Through the Earth Hour new challenge, COSMOTE Romania aims to raise awareness of our fellow citizens on acting more responsible on the issue of the environmental protection. And, of course, all COSMOTE Romania's premises will turn off the lights in non-essential areas in office buildings in Bucharest and in the country. This way, each of us can contribute to a cleaner planet”, stated Ruxandra Voda, Corporate Affairs Manager, COSMOTE Romania.

COSMOTE Romania combines two programs developed by the company: I Love Recycling and Adopt a Forest. The company's employees will plant the number of trees gathered during this campaign in the autumn of 2012. Adopt a forest was launched in 2009 with a pilot-project in Caciulati, with 5,000 planted trees, and continued in 2010, with 10,000 baby oak trees planted on a surface of 20,000 square metres, in East of Ploiesti. The project was implemented with the support of MaiMultVerde Association and of the Administration of Public and Private Domain Ploiesti. COSMOTE Romania took an engagement to take care of forest for five years.

Since 2007, Earth Hour is the world's largest event during which hundreds of millions of people switch off the light for an hour. Earth Hour 2012 takes place on Saturday March 31st at 8.30pm (local time) and is a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community throughout the world. Earth Hour 2012 is the Challenge Moment, when companies challenge customers, celebrities challenge fans, cities challenge one another and friends challenge friends to act for the environment. It is a call to stand up, to take responsibility, to get involved and lead the way towards a sustainable future. 

Earh Hour is an initiative of WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature).

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COSMOTE Romania had approximately 6.5 million customers at December 31st, 2011. Launched in 2005, COSMOTE Romania achieved the fastest network development in Europe, according to the Citigroup report in June 2007. In less than 5 years, COSMOTE Romania surpassed its competitors in terms of national network coverage. Today, COSMOTE Romania offers seamless communication to more than 99% of the population and 90% of the territory. COSMOTE Romania is a subsidiary of COSMOTE Group, the operator with the strongest presence in SE Europe with approximately 20.5 million customers in Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. For more information, visit www.cosmote.ro.