Singapore, 21 May 2009. Just two months after thousands of Singaporeans joined WWF’s Earth Hour, leading market research firm The Nielsen Company and figures released by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) have confirmed that Earth Hour Singapore was a huge success with phenomenal levels of participation and action.
Nielsen research revealed that a massive 40% of the Singapore population took part by turning off their lights for the hour and 56% agreed that they would be making a conscious effort to save the Earth by deliberately reducing their energy consumption going forward. Nielsen's research was based on a sampling of 1,000 participants.
According to EMA, there was a 42 MW drop in electricity demand during the period of 8.30pm to 9.30pm on 28 March 2009. WWF infers this reduction in electricity consumption represents an equivalent participation of over 1.6 million people in Earth Hour.
Earth Hour Corporate Awards
WWF hosted the “Earth Hour Singapore 2009 Corporate Participation Awards”, designed to celebrate the involvement of businesses in Singapore across three categories. These were the winners:
Earth Hour Singapore 2009 Corporate Participation Award for greatest impact – MacDonald's Restaurants
Earth Hour Singapore 2009 Corporate Participation Award for best engagement activities - StarHill Global Reit
Earth Hour Singapore 2009 Corporate Participation Award for "beyond 60 minutes" initiative - Jebsen&Jessen SEA and Holcim (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
A special recognition was also presented to Colliers International for the Best Creative and to Baik Singapore for the Best Picture.
(left to right) Carine Seror WWF, Amy Ho WWF, Jebsen&Jessen, Starhill Global Reit, Panda,Baik Singapore, MacDonald's Restaurants, Colliers International, Holcim.
Speaking about the Nielsen and EMA results Earth Hour Campaign Manager Carine Seror said, “The results reflect what we hoped and felt to be true - that Earth Hour really captured the imagination of Singapore and was the first step towards lasting change regarding environmental awareness and action. The next step is now to keep up the good work by making long lasting behavioral changes.”
Craig Law-Smith Marketing Director Southeast Asia for Microsoft and member of the Earth Hour committee said of the results “In our experience, results such as those achieved by the WWF do not come along every day. These are participation figures that many commercial brands would be very proud of and an indication of how far reaching Earth Hour really was here in Singapore.”
Earth Hour is over for another year but the fight against climate change is not. Later this year world leaders will meet in Copenhagen for the Global Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) to decide on the agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol.
In participating in Earth Hour, people in Singapore voted for the planet vs global warming. WWF will take their vote to Copenhagen sending a strong message to the UNFCCC that we, in Singapore and around the world, are looking for a science based and effective new global climate change deal.