(MB) MANILA, Philippines — Are you ready for Earth Hour?
What started out in Sydney, Australia in 2007, with a little over 2 million people and businesses turning their lights off for one hour as a stand against climate change, has now grown worldwide with more than 50 million participants.
Organized by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), this year’s Earth Hour is set for Saturday, March 26 from 8:30 to 9:30 pm.
Establishments all over the world are busy preparing for the event with parties, programs and information drives meant to help participants understand the effects of climate change.
The media is likewise inundated with ads and commercials meant to encourage people to participate in the event.
But if you’re not the social type, or at least you prefer your socialization done the techie way, this year, the WWF has also partnered with the Leo Burnett Group to come up with an iPhone app that’s meant to encourage the user to think about ways to help the environment, not just for that one hour, but for the rest of the year.
They call it 60+ and it is available for download at the iTunes store.
The app is meant to work in almost the same way as location-based apps; users are given certain eco-friendly tasks they have to accomplish (like using a fan instead of air-conditioning) and the more tasks they accomplish, the more merit badges they get.
Folks at Mashable believe that pretty soon the company will also add support for gaming to the app, giving users a chance to indulge in some friendly competition.
An organic feel
Those who download the app will also notice the home-grown, organic feel of the app.
And rightly so, says a rep for the Burnett Group as the app was hand-drawn from creation to development.
“The entire design of the app is also an act of going beyond the hour, as we created the entire interface out of discarded cardboard boxes and paper,” he noted. “Everything was drawn by hand — even the badges were hand-sewn.”
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