TELUS turns out the lights and turns on the texts for Earth Hour 2010 Canada

TELUS supports WWF-Canada by turning out the lights and launching text-to-donate campaign

VANCOUVER, March 26 /CNW/ - TELUS customers can now text-to-donate to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada to further show their support for Earth Hour 2010.

TELUS, in cooperation with the Mobile Giving Foundation, has created an easy way for Canadians to text-to-donate funds to the WWF-Canada, the official organizer of Canada's Earth Hour. Through their mobile devices, customers can text the word "earth" to 45678 to donate $5, to a maximum of $30 each month.

Additionally, this Saturday night, TELUS and its team members will join tens of thousands of businesses and millions of people around the world in turning out the lights for 60 minutes in support of Earth Hour 2010.

"I'm very proud of TELUS' commitment to environmental sustainability and our team members' enthusiastic support of Earth Hour," says Andrew Wilczynski, TELUS director of Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility. "For our sake and for future generations, we all have a responsibility to continue to explore new ways of protecting our environment."

TELUS will turn off all non-essential lights at 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday night at 32 of its major buildings across Canada in support of Earth Hour 2010's global call to action against global warming.

More than 2,500 cities in 120 countries around the globe have already signed up to participate in Earth Hour 2010.

"Earth Hour is a global celebration of our commitment to help fight climate change and reduce our individual footprint on the planet," says Gerald Butts, president and CEO, WWF-Canada. "We are so pleased that TELUS has initiated this great opportunity for Canadians to text their support and help WWF-Canada continue its important conservation work."

TELUS is also encouraging its team members across the country to get involved and turn out the lights and other electricity-consuming devices in their homes during Earth Hour on Saturday night in support of the cause.

More on Earth Hour can be found online at www.earthhourcanada.org.

TELUS Means Green

TELUS has made green initiatives an enterprise-wide priority; from helping out in the community to integrated business decisions, we mean green.

    
    -  TELUS has 12 Green Teams across Canada, each team comprised of a group
       of committed individuals spreading environmental sustainability
       messages across the company and sharing ideas for working and living
       green.

    -  The annual TELUS Day of Service connects team members, retirees and
       their families with local volunteer organizations across the country
       to perform community service with an emphasis on environmental
       activities including; river valley clean-ups, tree planting and park
       revitalizations projects.

    -  The TELUS Work Styles program equips team members to be mobile workers
       and work where it suits them best. This program not only contributes
       to better work/life balance but also minimizes our environmental
       footprint by cutting commuting times.

    -  TELUS' Smart Commute program encourages team members to carpool, or
       utilize public transit.

    -  In 2009, TELUS' partnership with Tree Canada supported the planting of
       more than 128,000 trees.

    -  TELUS reduced paper consumption by 24 per cent in 2009, saving more
       than 15 million sheets of paper.

    -  In 2009, TELUS helped our customers recycle 108,000 wireless devices.

    -  From 2008 to 2009, TELUS reduced carbon emissions nearly 27 per cent
       through reduced travel.
    

To learn more about TELUS' commitment to the environment and sustainability, please visit our CSR report at TELUS.com/csr.

About WWF-Canada

WWF-Canada (World Wildlife Fund Canada) is a member of WWF, one of the world's largest independent conservation organizations, active in more than 100 countries. WWF is creating solutions to the most serious conservation challenges facing our planet, helping people and nature to thrive. In Canada, we create solutions to conservation issues important to Canadians and the world. WWF-Canada works collaboratively with governments, businesses and the public to help fight climate change, the single biggest environmental threat to our planet; conserve our oceans and freshwater resources; and educate and mobilize people to build a conservation culture. For more information visit wwf.ca.

About TELUS

TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications company in Canada, with $9.6 billion of annual revenue and 12 million customer connections including 6.5 million wireless subscribers, 4 million wireline network access lines and 1.2 million Internet subscribers and 170,000 TELUS TV customers. Led since 2000 by President and CEO, Darren Entwistle, TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment and video.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed $158 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered more than 3 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Nine TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead TELUS' local philanthropic initiatives. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company ever to receive this prestigious international recognition.

For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

For further information: For media inquiries, please contact Tara Wood, Head of Press WWF-Canada, [phone], [email protected]; Chris Gerritsen, TELUS Media Relations, [phone], [email protected]