Next 27 March, from 20:30 to 21:30, Pull and Bear will leave the shop windows of its most emblematic stores in darkness to join in with the Earth Hour campaign organised by WWF.

Earth Hour 2010 will be the biggest call to action ever organised and will serve to demonstrate that, by acting together, we are all part of the solution to climate change.

Earth Hour aims to involve more than a thousand million people and to mobilise 6,000 cities around the world to demonstrate global support for action against climate change.

What happened during Earth hour 2009?

In 2009, some one thousand million people from over 4,000 cities in 88 countries took part in the event. The world’s response was amazing, switching off Brooklyn Bridge in New York, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament in London, Élysée Palace and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube in Beijing, A Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong, The Sydney Opera House and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.

Symbols are very powerful. From the Boston Tea Party to the peaceful protests of the 60s, symbols have ignited the spark of change that has flowed all over the planet. Switching off for the Earth Hour event is a way in which people can get involved and demand action wherever they are. It’s so easy that everyone can take part whatever their location, age or income. A gesture is a symbol; a thousand million gestures is a global act.

Next 28 March, from 20:30 to 21:30, Pull and Bear will switch off the lights in some of its most emblematic shop windows in Spain, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Poland and Portugal in order to join in symbolically with the Earth Hour campaign organised by WWF.

We will also change the colours of this blog to black.

This initiative is the biggest campaign in defence of the environment in history in which 1000 million people will participate. Together we will demonstrate that the fight against climate change is possible.

Earth Hour will involve governments, citizens and companies in a collective action to call attention to the effects of global warming and to try to control CO2 emissions before it’s too late.

With this initiative, Pull and Bear joins more than 1,700 cities in 80 countries that have committed themselves to switching off the lights in their most emblematic buildings as a symbolic gesture of support for the campaign, from the Statue of Liberty in New York to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

You can participate too. Switch off the lights and act during Earth Hour. We will tell you how:

1. Organise an eco-party, using candles, rechargeable battery lamps and torches for lighting, serve organic food, avoid plastic utensils, decorate with real flowers and plants and organise some acoustic music.

2. Renew the energy in your home, with the emphasis on efficient energy. Replace old light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, install switches to turn off electrical items more easily and change the filters in your air conditioning system. When you buy electrical items, check that they are class A and call your electricity company to ask for green energy (wind, hydraulic or solar).

3. Play the recycling game. Use a torch and look for everything in your home that can be recycled: tins, bottles, paper, boxes, plastic. See who finds the most objects. Then, deposit them separately in the correct recycling bins.

4. Reduce energy consumption in the office, using double-sided printing, switching off computers and printers when you go home…

5. Switch off and relax. How long is it since you last spent some time chatting to your friends or family? Take an hour to relax. Switch off the computer, TV, the music system… and use the time to read or be with your friends and family. You will realise how hooked to the electricity network you are.

6. Regulate the temperature in your home. The fridge and the thermostat are the main culprits of the carbon footprint. If you haven’t done it yet, turn down the temperature on the thermostat to 19-21ºC, the fridge to 6ºC and the freezer to -18ºC and you will soon see the difference, especially in your electricity bill.

Take advantage of the Earth Hour to change your daily habits which don’t mean much inconvenience for you and which could help to stabilise the Earth’s climate.

More information: www.earthhourus.org

The Pull and Bear Forest campaign has come to an end. If you have managed to memorise at least one tip to be GREENER, we have achieved our goal. Now you just have to put it into practice. What’s more, the effects of the Carbon Offsetting project in Sierra Gorda (Mexico) which we have collaborated with will remain.

The people who have achieved the highest scores in the games till 12.00 p.m. of October 31st (Spanish time) will be sent a forest T-shirt to their homes. We will contact them shortly to know their size and their address. Please, find enclosed the list:

1. Ilellan: 1.081.448 points
2. Enigmajps: 909.147 points
3. Ragazza: 856.154 points
4. M: 762.880 points
5. Inm: 732.766 points
6. Rbk: 687.644 points
7. Yogui: 685.397 points
8. Donatello: 674.214 points
9. Blancosueiro: 628.101 points
10. Abacom: 611.192 points
11. JEANNIEL: 590.818 points
12. karen.: 590.415 points
13. Proteus: 579.047 points
14. Fendi: 530.139 points
15. Xurde: 527.059 points
16. Rosacom: 525.431 points
17. Bradipa: 521.516 points
18. Milindri: 514.029 points
19. r2d2islove: 505.232 points
20. likylie: 490.469 points
21. locos: 490.052 points
22. 666: 464.770 points
23. Aleix: 459.688 points
24. aloulou86: 457.067 points
25. mamachicho: 456.705 points

Thanks to everyone who has taken part and remember that you must continue to collaborate with the conservation of our planet in your day-to-day lives. See you next time.

The Pull and Bear Forest Illustrations

Personal works

As with the participants of last season’s GENERATION ME catalogue, we discovered Ángel de Franganillo thanks to Internet and social networking websites like MySpace or Fotolog, sites which introduce us daily to young people with something to say and with whom Pull and Bear identifies closely. These youngsters bring us a beginner’s freshness and they take on projects as if they were their own – with care. And it’s clear that Ángel has no shortage of talent or zeal. 25 years old and full of energy, he’s always involved in all kinds of projects. In a record time of only two months, he’s brought the Pull and Bear Forest to life not only on our shop assistants’ uniforms, but also the shop window displays and the digital version which our web site launched on September 11, International Tree Day. He’s been in charge of artistic direction, design, the illustrations and animations of the project.

DEFINE ÁNGEL DE FRANGANILLO
Ángel is a being who was born in León with a pencil in his hand. He spent his childhood and adolescence drawing everything within his reach, doing animation, skateboarding and getting bad marks at school. At 18, he took a train to Barcelona to escape from the cold of his homeland and the last we heard of him, he says of himself ironically, he’s still drawing, making animation and weird videos on Internet.

WHAT DO YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS TRANSMIT?
In general, people tell me that they remind them of children’s drawings, with a certain innocence, but not completely so, because there’s always a certain something that gives them a twist and takes them in the opposite direction. I think they’re “gore” illustrations with a touch of sweetness.

SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
Above all life…and reading, lots of reading…and not turning your nose up at anything because everything has its allure.

YOUR PERSONAL PROJECT ANTIHEROE.COM
Antiheroe isn’t a studio or an agency or even a company. Antiheroe.com is a place where I show my work as a professional. If you have a problem that nobody can help you solve and you find me on the net, maybe you can contract me… Da da da daaaaaaa…

THE BEST AND WORST THINGS ABOUT CREATING THE PULL AND BEAR FOREST
The best thing of all was that right from the word go I was given carte blanche with the creativity and ideas. I was also able to work with an excellent interactive production team – Grapa.ws and with the Pull and Bear team. The worst part is that the forest will only last for 50 days which is a bit of a pity…

THE EASIEST PART OF THE PROJECT
Once we had thought through the whole concept of the forest, it was very pleasant and enjoyable to develop the characters… the bear, the prim and proper girl, the thuggish boy, the squirrel and the bird with their advice, the weekender with the barbecue…

THE STICKIEST PART OF THE PROJECT
Designing the screen that will close the forest on 31 October… Although it doesn’t all finish there, as we’ll always carry the squirrel’s lovely advice in the bottom of our hearts… Sniff.

Illustration by www.antiheroe.com

We will set in train a double project next 11 September, the International Tree Day.

On the one hand, we will start publishing our catalogue exclusively on our web site, in order to help prevent the potential deforestation to manufacture paper; Pull and Bear will invite all our customers to visit our website www.pullandbear.com

And on the other, we will start collaborating towards the reforestation of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, to help fight at the same time both the climate change and the poor living conditions of local communities. Through this initiative, Pull and Bear seeks to compensate the “carbon footprint” of our catalogues and to contribute to the environment also by planting some 13,000 additional trees in the above mentioned Reserve. This measure will entail that upwards of 16,000 trees will be planted.

In addition, we will launch an interactive micro-site to teach users how to be “green” while enjoying themselves at the same time with games and learning some tips. Through this campaign, both accessible and recreational, we intend to raise awareness about the climate change issue in a positive way, thus addressing the interests of our clients, young people committed to the environment.

This project is part of the Environmental Policy of Inditex and is being put in place together with the ZeroCO² campaign, a joint initiative of Fundación Ecología y Desarrollo and AccióNatura, which seeks to raise awareness of society members regarding the need to take immediate steps to fight global warming, by offering tools to calculate, reduce and compensate CO2 emissions.