To actively echo "Earth Hour 2012" and act on climate change, AU Optronics Corp. and BenQ Foundation invite the BenQ Group companies, including BenQ, Qisda, BenQ Material, Darfon, Forhouse, Lextar, Briview, Daxin, Sipix, Toppan, Raydium, AUO Crystal, and BenQ Medical Tech, to participate in a lights off campaign for one hour on March 31, 2012. More than 120,000 employees of BenQ Group worldwide are encouraged to join this event with their families and friends. It is estimated that around 17,516 kWh of electricity, sufficient to supply approximately 1,717 Taiwanese households per day (*), will be saved by the action of turning off the lights for one hour. AUO has practiced to be even greener by turning off the lights for one hour every day at noon.

Earth Hour is a global event organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund). There had been more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide with a total of 2.2 billion individuals switching off their lights for Earth Hour 2011.

By inviting all the employees to join this event with their families, AUO wishes to raise awareness and call for people's actions on climate change. To encourage further participation, all companies of BenQ Groups are invited to join the event this year. All office and dormitory lights around the world will be turned off at 8:30pm on Mar. 31. The group's 120,000 employees worldwide and their family members are also invited to join this event.

With the goal of sustainability, AUO not only continuously implements AUO Green Solutions, cultivates green thinking among employees, but also advocates its green experiences to the public. AUO launched its Green Ark Project this year by targeting a 25% reduction of carbon emissions in all fabs by 2015 with the efforts of continued green innovations. Meanwhile, AUO devotes itself to encouraging green thinking among students and sharing the world's leading green experiences with industry players. By working together with the industry and academia, AUO continues to make efforts to ensure environmental sustainability.

To protect the earth is as easy as switching off the lights. Hereby we would like to sincerely invite you and your friends to take actions to protect the planet by joining Earth Hour 2012.

* The figure is calculated based on an average of 306 kWh of electricity consumed by each household per day.