Month: April 2013

Earth Hour is an annual event organized worldwide by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) towards the end of March with the main objective of encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. The event, conceived by WWF and Leo Burnett, first took place in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. Following Sydney’s lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008. In 2013, as the clock counted down towards Earth Hour at 8:30 pm on Saturday, 23rd March, members of Earthlink NTU and numerous volunteers pledged not only to go beyond the hour “! but also make earnest efforts to rally more support for the green campaign this year.

In direct collaboration with WWF, Earthlink NTU enthusiastically lent a helping hand during the campaign as well as actively participated in the Dance2Power “! event to raise awareness on energy conservation at The Float @ Marina Bay from 4:00 pm to 10:30 pm. Volunteers were asked to dance on a first of its kind kinetic pad that converts the kinetic energy of people danceing on them to electrical energy, which was one of the main highlights of this year “!s program. 76,530 Watts of power was harnessed via the act of dancing by the conclusion of the event.

In addition to active participation in events organized over the duration of Earth Hour Singapore, Earthlink NTU set up booths for the Eco-Carnival at the venue in an attempt to garner more attention to the importance of conserving energy and how small contributions from a large number of individuals could make a significant difference. The notion of collecting of pledges using glow in the dark pens which would then be displayed during Earth Hour as well as interactive games proved to be captivating and were extremely well received.

Another crucial component of the Earth Hour 2013 campaign, was to make a contribution towards saving power by collecting pledges from students to turn their air-conditioner temperature up by 1 degree. Earthlink NTU successfully manages to collect over 200 pledges signed by fellow NTU students vowing to make a sincere effort to increase the air conditioner temperature by 1 degree.

The primary objective of Earth Hour is to propagate awareness about the importance of preserving energy for a sustainable future. Earthlink NTU was successful in holding attractive booths as well as in urging fellow students to make a vow to lower their energy consumption, proving to be instrumental in bringing about a change in the lifestyle of the NTU population as well Singapore residents as a whole.

r conservation principles as an initiative driven by the UN Water Group. In December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly had declared that the year 2013 would be considered the Year of Water Co-operation. In view of the declaration, World Water Day 2013 was celebrated dedicated to the same theme, raising awareness, both on the potential increased co-operation as well as on the challenges faced by water management in light of increasing demands for water access, allocation and services.

In Singapore, the Public Utilities Board (PUB), the National Water Agency has been organizing World Water Day celebrations annually. This year “!s celebrations comprised of numerous enjoyable and exciting activities held at the anchor site, Marina Barrage on Saturday, 16th March 2013 in concurrence with 15 other locations such as Kallang River at Ang Mo Kio Bishan Park, Lorong Halus, Punggol Waterway, Yishun Pond, Kranji Marshlands, Alexandra Canal, Jurong Lake, Sengkang Floating Wetland, Lower Seletar Reservoir, Bedok Reservoir, MacRitchie Reservoir, Kolam Ayer Waterfront and Pandan Reservoir.

This year, PUB launched the Shower Less Campaign 2013 “! in attempt to reduce the per capita water consumption from 153 litres to 140 litres. Earthlink NTU, in collaboration with PUB, T-net Club and Singapore Science Centre, organized a variety of exciting and informative activities at Jurong Lake. The highlight of the event was the Mass Walk by more than 1250 students around the Jurong Lake area, in an effort to allow school children to reflect on the significance of water bodies in their vicinity as well as raise awareness on water conservation practices, in addition to the launch of ABC (Active, Beautiful and Clean) Water learning trails and mass yoga and story-telling sessions for children.

The Guest of Honour for the event was Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien, Minister, Prime Minister “!s Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources & Foreign Affairs, MP for Yuhua SMC and Adviser to Yuhua GROs. Dr. Amy Khor, the mayor of Southwest CDC also graced the event.