Spider-Man and stars to lead WWF's largest Earth Hour event from Singapore
Singapore – the home of Earth Hour, leads groundbreaking global campaign to empower people across the world to "Use Your Power" and save the planet.Singapore, 27 February 2014 – WWF-Singapore today announced the director, producers, and cast of the highly anticipated upcoming motion picture The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be coming to Singapore to celebrate this year's global flagship event for Earth Hour, the world's largest environmental grassroots movement, to be held at The Float@Marina Bay on Saturday March 29 at 8:30PM, putting the country at the heart of Earth Hour celebrations worldwide.
Spider-Man will join the film's stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Jamie Foxx in the event, helping to switch off the lights across Singapore's signature Marina Bay skyline.
Spider-Man was recently announced as the first Super Hero ambassador for Earth Hour. Traditionally, the lights out activity has been a symbolic act of one's commitment to saving the planet and conserving the environment. This year on Saturday March 29, Singapore's iconic Marina Bay area will be plunged into darkness from 8:30PM to 9:30PM, making this Earth Hour event one of the world's largest ever.
"Earth Hour is a movement that is driven by the power of the civic society and the ordinary man on the street. This year we are inspiring everybody to use his/her power and become a Super Hero by driving a positive change for the planet," said Ms Elaine Tan, CEO of WWF-Singapore. "Earth Hour in Singapore will empower everybody to pledge and commit to one or more of the four key initiatives that WWF-Singapore is pushing forward to help make Singapore a sustainable city. With the collective power of each person in Singapore, we can all help drive the positive change and be the ambassadors of sustainability."
"Spider-Man is the first Super Hero ambassador for Earth Hour and we are thrilled that he will join us for our global celebration in Singapore. Since moving to Singapore, one of the world's greatest hub cities, Earth Hour has positioned itself in the region with a rapidly growing digital presence that has helped power our movement. Earth Hour Blue, the world's first crowdfunding platform for the planet, enables an everyday action that can inspire individuals to do something so powerful from the palm of their hand," said Mr Andy Ridley, CEO and Co-Founder of Earth Hour.
Considering Singapore's massive carbon footprint and urban consumption patterns, WWF- Singapore has launched a huge on-the-ground and online campaign for four key action initiatives and is urging everybody to pledge and commit to turning their air-conditioning up by one degree, switching to LED lighting, using fewer plastic bags and taking shorter showers. Individuals, educational institutions and public and private organisations can, therefore, all pledge their support for WWF-Singapore's sustainability efforts at the pledging microsite: http://earthhour.wwf.sg
WWF-Singapore is targeting to collect about 20,000 pledges and is urging the people of Singapore to do their bit by pledging to make this collective effort a success.
Earth Hour 2014's "Use Your Power" campaign kicked off earlier in mid-February with the launch of an Instagram competition for students in Singapore, inviting youths to showcase how they could be Super Heroes and use their powers to save the planet.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 director Marc Webb is also a judge in WWF-Singapore's film competition "Use Your Power", which will engage young filmmakers across Singapore toproduce engaging, innovative, and creative short films that show the connection between people and environmental issues.
This year's Earth Hour 2014 will be graced by Ambassador Burhan Gafoor, Chief Negotiator for Climate Change, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and will showcase world-class dance and percussion performances and several homegrown bands. The lights off will also coincide with the culmination of Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) iLight Marina Bay festival, thereby making this year's Earth Hour celebration in Singapore, a remarkable visual treat. WWF- Singapore is also delighted to announce that WWF International Director General Designate Marco Lambertini will attend the Singapore event.
In addition to the lights off event, WWF-Singapore has also announced its first crowdfunding project on the Earth Hour Blue platform. The project called Stop the Killing!aims to stop animal trafficking in Southeast Asia.
"Southeast Asia is an illegal wildlife trade hotspot, with surging demand for animal parts in the region. With this crowdfunding campaign, we are making a very bold and strong effort of bringing down the numbers of wildlife crimes in the region," said Ms Elaine Tan."We are very happy to see organisations coming together and going beyond the hour to pledge their own initiatives to save the planet. This year, Marina Bay Sands has taken the lead locally with their commitment as a business to turn their air conditioning one degree up, conserve freshwater, reduce the use of plastic bags and switch to LED lights. Commitment to actions like these are true to the spirit of Earth Hour, and a genuine reflection of business best practices."
Earth Hour 2014 in Singapore has been made possible with the support of URA – the Official Venue Partner for The Float@Marina Bay, National Environment Agency (NEA), National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) and Marina Bay Sands, the Associate Partner for Earth Hour 2014.
The Major Sponsor for this year's Earth Hour campaign in Singapore is Singapore Post, while IKEA and NTUC FairPrice are the Sponsors. The Official Radio Stations are Hot FM91.3, Kiss 92FM and UFM 100.3. Media partners are Clear Channel, SMRT and SMRT Media. Other partners include Energy Floors, The Hoffman Agency, Kevin Ou Photography, Leica, The Singapore Scouts Association and Yahoo! Singapore, the Official Online Partner for Earth Hour 2014.
– Ends –
Notes to Media:
· Earth Hour 2014 in Singapore will take place at The Float@Marina Bay on Saturday, 29 March 2014 from 5:00PM onwards.
· Be a superhero for the planet, use your power and pledge your support athttp://earthhour.wwf.sg/
· Amplify your voice on social media with Earth Hour hashtags: #useyourpowersg, #earthhoursg and #wwfsg.
· Take part in the Short Film and Instagram competitions. Visithttp://earthhour.wwf.sg/ for more details.
· Earth Hour is the world's largest environmental campaign, and is run in over 154 countries and 7,000 cities from Singapore.
· Kevin Teng, Director of Sustainability, Marina Bay Sands: "Sands Eco 360 is more than
just a corporate sustainability programme – it is part of Marina Bay Sands' DNA and drives the ways in which we operate our business and engage with our community. We will continue to deepen our outreach and spread the message of environmental conservation through working with like-minded people, organisations and the sustainability community including WWF and Earth Hour. Similar to previous years, Marina Bay Sands is lending our support and committing to 'go beyond the hour' as well as inspiring our employees, partners and suppliers to do the same. Besides switching off non-essential exterior lights during Earth Hour, we are taking concrete and measurable actions including helping WWF offset the carbon emissions from Earth Hour 2014, which could be as much as up to 14 tonnes. As part of Marina Bay Sands' ongoing efforts with WWF, we are also pledging to further reduce our own carbon footprint by an additional 14 tonnes per month for the rest of the year. We hope that our long term commitment is able to raise awareness for core environmental issues and encourage others to adopt environmentally-friendly lifestyle habits."
· Jason Chen, Director of Place Management, Urban Redevelopment Authority: "We are pleased to continue our collaboration with like-minded partners such as WWF-Singapore. The message of sustainability is central to i Light Marina Bay and coinciding the Festival with Earth Hour amplifies the importance to save energy through individual and collective actions."
For all media queries on Earth Hour and WWF-Singapore, please contact Wai Yi, Miko and Qi Hua from The Hoffman Agency at (65) 6361 0260 or wwfsg@hoffman.com.
WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature is one of the world's largest and most respected independent conservation organisations, 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 Planet'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. www.wwf.sg
About The Amazing Spider-Man 2
We've always known that Spider-Man's most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider- Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead. It's great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there's no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: Oscorp. Directed by Marc Webb. Produced by Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach. Screen Story and Screenplay by Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & Jeff Pinkner. Based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The film will be released in theaters internationally beginning April 16, 2014, and in the U.S. on May 2, 2014. #SpiderMan
About Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com.
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world's most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing and publishing, including licensing the Spider-Man universe to Sony Pictures. For more information visit marvel.com. ©MARVEL
About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global environmental movement of WWF. As one of the first open-sourced environmental campaigns, Earth Hour has grown from a symbolic event in one city into a global movement, crowdsourcing actions from individuals, businesses, organisations and governments to generate environmental outcomes. In 2014, the Earth Hour Blue sees the movement enter the most exciting stage of its evolution, to be at the forefront of crowdfunding and crowdsourcing for causes, innovation and creativity for the planet.