Taking Earth Hour beyond 60 minutes

To date, 178 countries and territories have pledged their support towards WWF‘s Earth Hour campaign. — filepic

ONCE a year on March 25, national landmarks and households switch off their lights for one hour, from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, in support of Earth Hour.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the annual initiative by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) which began in Sydney, Australia.

To date, 178 countries and territories across seven continents have pledged their support towards the programme.

In Malaysia, Earth Hour was spearheaded by WWF-Malaysia on March 31, 2009, with an inaugural event switching off all non-essential lights in buildings nationwide, including the Petronas Twin Towers.

Consecutive years saw hotels and shopping malls switching off their lights and creating supporting events, such as night walks and candlelit dinners, to commemorate the hour.

Ten years on, the question remains – how effective is Earth Hour?

An answer would require a look at what is being done on the state, city, organisation, household and, finally, individual levels.

The campaign

WWF Malaysia executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said the hour was proven to be a significant way of drawing attention to climate change and allowing environmental initiatives to gain momentum.

“When we see the Petronas Twin Towers with all its lights switched off for one hour, it has a physical impact on people.

“Over time, people are eager to participate in switching off the lights in their households because it makes them feel good to do their part in a small way.

“Once we have their attention, we use it to get them further involved beyond the hour.

“That is why in 2011, we incorporated the plus sign into the Earth Hour logo to signify the campaign’s evolution beyond the hour.

“For example, instead of only turning off their lights for that one hour, people can actively practise simple things such as refusing unsustainable products or things wrapped in excessive packaging and demand for sustainable options, during their shopping trips every other day,” he said.

In 2016, WWF-Malaysia launched the Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) to engage cities in Malaysia to minimise the effects of climate change.

Last year, four Malaysian cities participate in the EHCC – Kuching Utara, Malacca, Petaling Jaya and George Town.

The various features at EcoKnights Headquarters, such as mobile phone recycling, composting buckets, a fish pond and a community garden that operates round the clock.

Petaling Jaya City Council won the EHCC two years in a row as it continued to work on its target of reducing its carbon footprint by 25% from 2014 to 2018.

Dionysius said unlike individual campaigns and buildings switching off their lights, WWF-Malaysia was able to follow up with individual cities on their pledges.

“It is difficult to tell if the 1,000 people who participated in the Earth Hour Night Walk will walk the talk after the event.

“What we can do is focus on the green initiatives by local authorities and follow-up on the pledges they have made.

“What we cannot do is follow-up with individual participants,” he added.

Dionysius said every organisation that decides to take part in Earth Hour this year ought to run a postmortem to gauge the effectiveness of what they had done.

“Ask questions such as ‘What did we really achieve?’, and ‘What more can we do?’

“If something seems to work, for instance, changing all the lightbulbs to LED bulbs, the team should make recommendations on how the organisation can collectively save energy.

“The point is to ensure that we are living Earth Hour every hour,” he said.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia students taking part in the Earth Hour campaign on campus grounds last year. — filepic 

Playing our part

While WWF-Malaysia continues its green work on the macro level, homegrown environmental non-governmental organisation EcoKnights, which was founded in 2005, focused its efforts on instilling environmentally conscious attitudes within micro communities.

Operating a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week recycling centre in 41, Lorong Burhanuddin Helmi 11, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, EcoKnights reaches out to communities and entrepreneurs to educate them on environmental issues and sustainable lifestyle.

Founder and president Yasmin Rasyid said the inconsistent implementation of green initiatives on a national level had a trickle down effect on the community.

“Every time a new minister is elected, a new green campaign is launched.

“Each programme costs a lot of money, easily RM10mil minimum. But who does a green audit of these initiatives?

“We have some of the best policies, but the implementation and enforcement is poor.

“Every time a new business is formed, it makes an impact on the environment because it is depleting resources and using up energy.

Yasmin says the role of EcoKnights in educating the people on basic recycling and composting should not be as pertinent simply because people are already equipped with the know-how.

“What we need is good enforcement and public pressure, so that people understand that not using plastic bags and harvesting rainwater, for instance, are here to stay. Human behaviour does not change overnight,” she said.

With information on green initiatives easily available online, the role of an NGO should not be as pertinent as it used to be.

“My vision is for EcoKnights to be obsolete. If we are no longer needed, it means that we have been successful in ensuring that everyone is able to look after the environment and apply what they know in recycling and composting.

“Unfortunately, I do not see that happening soon and, as I say this, more environmen­tal NGOs are being formed and registered in Malaysia.

“This shows that we still have a lot of work to do, in terms of making people react more strongly to environmental issues and play their part,” she said, adding that although Earth Hour was a successful communication effort, a lot more could be done that just switching off the lights for an hour.

Centre for Environment, Technology and Development Malaysia (Cetdem) executive director Anthony Tan saw the hour as an opportune time to educate families on how to contribute as a household.

“Climate change is not a sexy topic. Our job is to bring the message across in the most interesting way so that people realise that we can’t reverse the damage done, but there is still time for us to do something about it.

“People also often think that environment means their external surroundings, or outside their home, when actually the environment is everything that we are living in,” he said.

“Simple things such as switching off electrical items when they are not in use and using energy efficient products go a long way.

Dr Sharma says the hour has proven to be a significant way of drawing attention to climate change.

“For instance, a regular iron uses 750W while a steam iron uses about 2000W of energy because it has a water boiler built in.

“The problem with consumers is that they would rather buy the steam iron simply because they are lazy to spray water on their clothes while ironing.

“Instead of burning fuel and increasing carbon emissions by driving to Kuala Lumpur to see the Petronas Twin Towers with its lights off, we should spend Earth Hour with our families to plan out the simple changes we can make in our own home.”