Find Earth Hour In Your Country
Singapore - 20 February 2012 - After six years since its conceptualisation in Sydney, Australia, the largest global climate change movement, Earth Hour, will be moving its global headquarters to Singapore. Earth Hour Global will be the first worldwide grassroots campaign to base its operations in this country.
This move represents the next frontier of the campaign with Singapore acting as a gateway that bridges Southeast Asia, a growing community base, to the rest of the world. Singapore Economic Development Board welcomes the move.
“Earth Hour Global is setting up a new global home. As a global hub, Singapore offers us a level of connectivity and opportunity that the campaign needs and desires moving forward,” said Executive-Director and Co-Founder of Earth Hour, Andy Ridley at the Earth Hour media event which took place at ION Sky, Orchard today.
The Earth Hour Global operations is currently based in Sydney, Australia, where the campaign first took place as a single-city initiative in 2007.
”WWF Singapore is pleased that our global team at Earth Hour will be co-existing with us in Singapore. It will further fortify our efforts to connect individuals and communities to co-create a healthier and more sustainable world we live in,” said Elaine Tan, Chief Executive Officer, WWF Singapore.
At the event, Andy also took the opportunity to unveil Earth Hour’s “I Will If You Will” YouTube video platform. The video platform is significant in promoting action for climate change by empowering people with the power to change the world they live in. A collaboration with YouTube, this digital platform is the culmination of efforts to bring together the world’s biggest social video platform and the ‘world’s largest action for the environment’ together. Earth Hour 2012 Campaign – “I Will If You Will” This year’s “I Will If You Will” campaign theme centres around providing a social contract for two parties – connecting one person, business or organisation to a promise and their friends, family, customers or members to a challenge – uniting them behind the common goal of creating a positive environmental outcome.
Championing the campaign this year is Ms. Nadya Hutagalung, WWF Singapore’s Official Earth Hour Ambassador. The 37-year-old former model and iconic face of MTV Asia has been supporting the campaign since 2009.
An avid eco-activist, Ms. Hutagalung and her husband, ex-national swimmer Mr. Desmond Koh will be challenging their friends and fans to take on meaningful initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint on Earth.
Ms. Hutagalung will be using social media to encourage her 100,000 Twitter followers to take up her challenge. She has pledged to cycleto the Earth Hour celebration event at Orchard Road on 31 March if 60 of her Twitter followers take on an herbivorous diet for a month. Her husband in turn will get 6 of his friends to be vegetarians for a month. The couple aims to complete their challenge by 31 March.
Corporates can Take up the Challenge too
Organisations are not left out on the eco-challenge. Earth Hour Singapore has received “I Will If You Will” challenges from SAFRA radio stations, Power 98 fm and Jia 88.3 fm. The official radio stations for Earth Hour 2012 Singapore will be pitting against each other in a battle to garner the most support from their listeners who will commit to an eco challenge for 2 weeks. The showdown begins this Wednesday, 22 February 2012, and the station that receives 100 pledges first will only need to turn off the lights in their recording studio for a day while the losing station will have to do it for a week.
Other participating celebrity supporters include television celebrity couple, Ms. Pan Ling Ling and Mr. Huang Shinan, as well as MediaCorp Chinese news anchor, Ms. Tung Soo Hua.
Earth Hour will take place from 8.30 pm – 9.30 pm on Saturday 31 March, 2012.
Media Contact:
Diana Chng, dchng@wwf.sg, (65) 6730 8115, 9723 9517
Ms. Wenjia Foong, wfoong@webershandwick.com, (65) 6825 8018
Ms. Pamela Choo, pchoo@webershandwick.com, (65) 6825 8200
About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global environmental initiative in partnership with WWF and Leo Burnett. Individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 8:30 PM to show their support for environmentally sustainable action. In 2012, Earth Hour’s I Will If You Will concept invites individuals and organizations to challenge others to an ongoing environmental commitment beyond the hour. Earth Hour began in one city in 2007 and by 2011 reached over 1.8 billion people in 135 countries across every continent, receiving reports as ‘the World’s largest campaign for the planet’.
About WWF
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations, with almost five million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the earth’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
