Earth Hour takes place every year on the last Saturday of March, when people around the world turn out their lights for an hour at 8.30pm local time.
This year, Flow Communications was closely involved with the South African campaign, which was run by one of our clients, the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA).
It was a big Earth Hour year for South Africa as Cape Town was also named the Global Earth Hour Capital, an honour that was noted at a special celebration at the V&A Waterfront on Saturday night, where the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra gave a free performance at the outdoor amphitheatre.
While some people may think Earth Hour is simply about saving electricity during an hour of darkness once a year, that’s no longer the case.
Since it first started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, Earth Hour has evolved into a growing international campaign for sustainable choices, and the symbolic hour of darkness represents a groundswell of public participation.
For this year’s campaign, Flow helped WWF-SA develop a special promise platform located at www.earthhour.org.za on which people and organisations could make a public promise to the Earth as a way of encouraging sustainable behaviour. Flow's Janet Berger also created the design for the 2014 Earth Hour theme: “How do you honour the Earth?”
During the campaign, some really big corporate names came on board – think Woolworths, SAA and Pick n Pay – as did many environmental groups and smaller businesses, all of which visited the platform and made promises.
Several local celebrities made promises too, like golfer Gary Player, soccer player Matthew Booth and eNCA TV weatherman Derek van Dam. And DJ Fresh did his bit by interviewing the WWF-SA CEO, Dr Morné du Plessis, on the Fresh Drive show to ask him about the campaign.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba also created a special Earth Hour prayer, which was shared on WWF-SA's Facebook page.
At Flow, we were delighted that so many of our clients, like the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company, Maropeng, Jaci's Lodges and the Two Oceans Aquarium, responded to the appeal by publishing blogs and sending out mailers to encourage their supporters to get involved.
Flow CEO Tara Turkington made contact with schools in Johannesburg, many of which urged their learners to make their promises.
Among these were St John’s Preparatory School’s head, Patrick Lees, who made a promise in the name of the school and encouraged all learners and parents to participate, as did St John’s College head Roger Cameron.
The CEO of St David’s Marist Inanda in Johannesburg, Mike Greeff, dedicated school assemblies to Earth Hour, incorporated the information into the school newsletter and created a special button on the school's website which linked to the promise platform, while Inanda Seminary in KwaZulu-Natal also saw its head, Judy Tate, take up the topic in its school chapel service.
Other schools to also give their support were Dominican Convent School, Belgravia (where a whole class in natural science made a promise while at school among other contributions), The Ridge School, Marist Brothers Linmeyer, McAuley House, St Mary’s, Kingsmead College and St Andrew's. St Stithians, which had already made the commitment to become a carbon-neutral campus, also contributed magnificently, with dozens of learners making promises.
With so many educational institutions backing the campaign, the promises quickly started to flow in, with all those participating applying their minds to the little things they could do to ensure a more sustainable future for us all. Promises included things like saving electricity wherever possible, converting gardens to be more water wise, and eating in a way that is more mindful of the environment.
By the end of the campaign, the platform had more than 2 000 promises, and they continue to roll in. Now WWF-SA is contemplating keeping its promise platform way beyond Earth Hour in the interests of promoting sustainable living.
Thank you one and all for your enthusiasm and support for this worthwhile project!
