By: Ciptanti Putri

At the end of March every year, the Earth Hour campaign brings together people from all over the world to celebrate their commitment to an energy-efficient lifestyle by turning off lights and electronic equipment that are not in use for 1 hour. The sixth annual Earth Hour in Indonesia will take place on March 29, 2014, from 20:30-21:30 local time. A new platform will be implemented in the global movement. "Earth Hour Blue" provides a platform for the public to use their power to take action for a sustainable Earth.

The organization of Earth Hour in subsequent years has increasingly shown the enthusiasm of the world community who want to be part of this campaign. Earth Hour 2011 was recorded as the year that involved the most volunteer actions in the history of the campaign. Around 5,251 cities in 135 countries were involved, reaching around 1.8 billion people worldwide. The digital footprint grew to 91 million.

In Indonesia, the campaign was first prepared in 2008 by WWF-Indonesia. The implementation took place in 2009. Success was achieved by the campaign organizers, which at that time was still fully organized by WWF-Indonesia. In February 2012, Earth Hour Global launched the "I Will If You Will" campaign which was soon adopted as "This is my action! Where is your action?" by Earth Hour activists in Indonesia. Since then, the campaign began to involve a growing global community. Through its YouTube platform, the "This is my action! Where's your action?" campaign challenged the digital community to inspire a wider audience to do more than just turn off the power for an hour, but to show the real actions they have taken and share them through social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email). This is a way to share their green lifestyle commitment with their friends, colleagues, leaders and networks, and promote more energy-saving initiatives that are already in place.

The Earth Hour campaign in Indonesia has now become an independent public movement. Each participating city is encouraged to form its own Earth Hour community and design and shape actions according to local needs. Since 2008, more than 1 million Indonesians have become part of the Earth Hour Indonesia campaign.

Regional and city leaders have also become supporters. Among them, the Governor of DKI Jakarta, the Governor of DI Yogyakarta, the Governor of West Java, the Governor of East Kalimantan, the Governor of South Sulawesi, the Police Chief of NAD, the Mayor of 5 Regions in Jakarta, the Mayor/Regent from Banda Aceh, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Solo, Surabaya, Malang, Pontianak, Samarinda, and Sidoarjo.

crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. Both provide an opportunity for individuals to support nature conservation-related initiatives around the world selected by the Earth Hour Global Team. Through crowdsourcing, individuals can provide non-financial support, such as petitions, being part of activities, and the like. Meanwhile, crowdfunding provides a platform for financial support through an online platform. Andy Ridley, initiator and CEO of Earth Hour Global, explained the concept of this platform himself at the Media Briefing forum held this afternoon (13/02) in Jakarta.

Earth Hour encourages individuals, communities, business practitioners, and governments to be part of the change for a sustainable Earth. Starting with a simple first step of turning off lights and unused electronic devices as an energy-saving commitment for the Earth, and also a momentum to show the world about energy-saving behaviors that have been done. Small behaviors such as turning off lights or unused electronic equipment are the easiest things for anyone to do. By participating in turning off the lights together at Earth Hour, we have proven that no matter how small the action we do, it will have a big impact if done together.

So, what are you waiting for? Register your green actions and harness the power of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding at earthhour.org. All the actions listed are proof that our 'small actions' can have a big impact because they are done together with many people across Indonesia, even around the world.