TO promote energy efficiency and sustainable everyday practices that the public can adopt, especially in light of the Middle East fuel crisis, the Department of Energy (DOE), in partnership with SM Supermalls, launched the Oras Natin sa Efficiency (O.N.E.) initiative on May 21 at The Globe, Mall of Asia.

The practice simply requires that the participants turn off all unnecessary lighting and power usage for one hour every week, specifically Saturdays, from 8 to 9 p.m. Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said that this “one-hour challenge” can maximize the use of power, with a consistent weekly one-hour reduction of electricity, which can “take that same energy to give back to our communities every Saturday.” She said that one similar exercise conducted recently “reduced the country’s electricity demand by 145 megawatts in a single hour, the equivalent of powering roughly 1 million homes.”