Harnessing IoT for Social Impact: Earth Hour Case Study

Earth Hour, a global grassroots movement initiated in 2007, aimed to unite people and deliver a strong message about the importance of climate change. Over the years, the symbolic action of switching off lights for one hour has grown awareness about the issue. However, the challenge was to transform this awareness into tangible action beyond the symbolic hour. The goal was to demonstrate to people how their individual actions could ripple into larger, collective impacts for the future. The challenge was to encourage people to donate one of the most powerful communication tools they have – their social media feed.

The customer in this case is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international non-governmental organization working in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. WWF was the client for the Earth Hour campaign, which aimed to raise awareness about climate change and encourage individuals to take action. WWF's mission aligns with the goals of Earth Hour, making it a fitting customer for this campaign. The organization's global reach and influence were instrumental in amplifying the impact of the Earth Hour campaign.

To address this challenge, Earth Hour 2016 began with an awareness film titled 'The Future Starts Today', demonstrating how actions taken in the present can spark change that will be felt for decades to come. This film was disseminated across Facebook and Twitter, directing the public to the Earth Hour website, where they could pledge to donate their Facebook feed leading up to Earth Hour on 19 March 2016. The Earth Hour team took over participants' feeds by posting relevant content and encouraging them to apply a special #ChangeClimateChange filter to their profile pictures. The Earth Hour website displayed a live counter, demonstrating how many people had signed up to the cause and pledged to take climate action.

• The Earth Hour campaign was successful in turning awareness into action. By leveraging the power of social media, the campaign was able to reach millions of people across the globe, activating 178 countries. The campaign not only raised awareness but also encouraged individuals to take tangible actions to combat climate change, with 2 million actions taken to help #ChangeClimateChange. The campaign also received significant media attention, with over 14,000 media mentions. This widespread reach and engagement demonstrate the effectiveness of the campaign in mobilizing individuals and communities to take action against climate change.

• 18M+ people reached
• 178 countries activated
• 2M actions taken to help #ChangeClimateChange