The Return of The Earth Hour

Every year as part of the WWF’s Earth Hour journey, the ESIROM Foundation team joins in on the efforts to mobilise people around the world to ‘Give an Hour for Earth’ as part of efforts to create presence and awareness. As landmarks and homes take part in Earth Hour’s iconic switch off moment, individuals across the world and Jamaica via this concert, are urged to ‘switch off’ themselves, before spending 60 minutes doing something – anything – positive for our planet. WWF is warning that the next seven years are crucial for halting irreversible nature loss and climate change. Globally, citizens are urged to ‘switch off’ themselves by taking a break from their routine and everyday distractions, before deciding what they themselves can do to restore our one home. Whether that’s by cleaning up the beach, planting trees, cooking dinner with sustainable ingredients, or getting friends together for an Earth Hour event, anyone, anywhere is invited to join the Biggest Hour For Earth.

Supporters in over 190 countries, and territories, including Jamaica, will thereby create the Biggest Hour for Earth, part of WWF’s efforts to turn a single Earth Hour into thousands and millions of hours of action and awareness. In doing so, the world’s largest grassroots environmental campaign will shine an unmissable global spotlight on the twin perils of nature loss and climate change.

Dr Kirsten Schuijt, Director General, WWF International: “Earth Hour is a fantastic celebration of people, planet and nature, and this year we want as many people as possible to feel inspired and empowered to play a part, no matter how small. By “switching off” your lights or switching off from daily habits and distractions and doing something positive for the planet, we can turn a single Earth Hour into thousands and millions of hours of action, making this the Biggest Hour for Earth yet. Together, through one incredible moment of global unity, let’s ensure that 2023 is a year of change in order to reach our 2030 nature positive goal.”

In 2013, the Earth Hour organisers reached out to www.jamaicansmusic.com (managed by Alex Morrissey) to join their world movement against climate change. At the time, Jamaica was revered (and still is) as the land of wood and water and so this tiny island is actually highly susceptible to climate change. Using music as the universal language, 2013 saw the execution of the first Earth Hour Acoustic Concert on March 23rd, a first of its kind. The concerts held since then, marked the initiation of Jamaica’s participation in the global movement, with support of over 5,000 physical patrons, enjoying an evening packed with the natural mystic of live acoustic music and education about the greater cause. The environmental concert has shown the likes of varying artistes has been hosted by Terri-Karelle, who has graciously donated again her hosting services this year. Earth Hour is needed more than ever, to inspire millions more to act, and make millions more take notice.

Khalia Hall, Sustainability Coordinator at ESIROM Limited & ESIROM Foundation: This year’s Earth Hour will also serve as a powerful reminder of the importance of our planet, the need to protect it, and how little time we have to do so. The ESIROM team has always championed this and now via the ESIROM Foundation as a bigger push, and we’re extremely happy to be back this year. For the first time in 3 years, this year’s Jamaica leg of the Earth Hour 2023 comes in hot on the heels of countries opening up and so we’ll be back in person.

Alex Morrissey, Director at ESIROM Limited & Jamaicans Music: Over the last 3 years of the pandemic, we hosted the show virtually, keeping in tune with our mantra of spreading continued awareness. For this year’s show, Tickets are free and available at https://www.earthhourja.com/events/. There’s a limit of 5 persons per ticket. UBER is also on board, when patrons Uber to Earth Hour, they get $6 USD off their ride. This is to encourage carpooling and minimise overparking.

This year’s line up of artistes are:

5 Star Celestial
Jamila Falak
Ras-I
Joby Jay
Fantan Mojah
Headliner: Queen Ifrica

Sustainability Efforts

Tickets are distributed electronically and barcodes scanned upon entry
All vendors are in compliance with the prohibition of certain single use plastics in the food and drink area (plastic utensils, plates, and cups)
Patrons are encouraged to BYOC (Bring Your Own Cup) to cut back on the usage of paper cups when purchasing drinks from vendors
Sustainability is taken into consideration at all stages of planning and execution. Elements of the layout and decor are made with reusable and/or biodegradable materials and the experience will be curated to raise awareness on environmental issues.

Sponsors

Reggae Sumfest (Gold Sponsor)
Esirom Limited (Silver Sponsor)
Salada Foods (Silver Sponsor)
Jamaicans Music
Supligen (Virtual Sponsor + booth)
VM Foundation (Virtual Sponsor)
JPS (Virtual Sponsor)
Grab N Go (Virtual Sponsor)
UBER
Solid Agency

Endorsements

Ministry of Tourism
Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB)
Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF)
Nuh Dutty Up Jamaica, Jamaica Environment Trust (JET)

Vendors / Booths

CB Pan Chicken
Bad Dawg Hotdogs
Mr Ellis (Soup, Saltfish fritters and more)
Benjie’s Yatties (Vegan patties/yatties, Ital stews/soups, Natural juices)
Coconut Jelly
Jamaica Mountain Peak Tea & Coffee
Supligen
AC Hotel

Interactive Games

Plastic Bowling: Try out our exciting interactive bowling alley lane made with 100% plastic pins and balls! For only $500, throw 10 balls and show off your bowling skills while supporting a great cause.
Plastic Bottle Ring Toss: The rings are crafted from plastic bottle caps and the targets from up-cycled plastic bottles. Each person can play up to 5 rounds, so bring your friends and see who can get the most tosses on the bottle!

Supporting Global & Jamaican EARTH HOUR assets:

Earth Hour 2022 RECAP video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SisHL__rr-BGjmjiiFsp2i19BAxbhctw/view?usp=sharing
Earth Hour Jamaica Website
Earth Hour Jamaica – Social Media Pages: Instagram Youtube
Official Earth Hour 2023 Website

About WWF: WWF is an independent conservation organisation, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in over 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth’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. Visit www.panda.org/news for the latest global news.