NR - WWF and Microsoft; Live Green beyond Earth Hour with mobile application

(L-R) Peter Tam, Director of Local Software Innovations, Microsoft Malaysia; Suan Tan, Brand Activation Manager, WWF-Malaysia; TC Pun, Microsoft Student Partner

WWF-Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia encourage Malaysians to “Live Green” beyond Earth Hour with mobile application

Built on Windows Phone platform, the app known as “Earth Hour Malaysia” was created to continuously cultivate an eco-friendly lifestyle among Malaysians

Kuala Lumpur, 17 April, 2012 –Fresh from the success of Earth Hour 2012, WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia), in collaboration with Microsoft Malaysia (“Microsoft”) and Microsoft Student Partner, Pun Soong Teck (also known as TC Pun), have developed an environmental mobile phone application called “Earth Hour Malaysia” on Windows Phone as an effort to continuously encourage Malaysians to adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle. The app not only creates environmental awareness but also serves as a platform for Malaysians to pledge their support towards WWF-Malaysia’s initiatives in sustaining environmental conservation.

“WWF-Malaysia commends Microsoft for bringing ICT closer to peoples’ lives. This mobile app creates and engages a community of environmental advocates through this platform,” said WWF-Malaysia Executive Director/CEO Dato’ Dr Dionysius Sharma, who hopes that the Earth Hour Malaysia app will boost support for Malaysians to “Live Green”.

“Since Earth Hour 2011, WWF-Malaysia has been urging everyone across the nation to take Earth Hour beyond the hour by signing up at wwf.org.my and pledging to “Live Green: One switch at a time” towards living in a more sustainable manner. Since then until Earth Hour 2012, 20,000 people have pledged to “Live Green” and we hope that even more will do so between now and Earth Hour 2013. With the Earth Hour mobile app on Windows Phone, we now have another platform for more people to voice their pledge and strengthen our efforts to protect our living planet,” he continued.

This effort also coincides with Dato’ Dr Sharma’s personal Earth Hour 2012 “I Will if You Will” pledge to upload a video of himself singing a green-themed song onto YouTube if 10,000 people sign up to “Live Green” at wwf.org.my from Earth Hour 2012 to World Oceans Day on 8th June.

“Platforms such as this make people and organisations more aware of the importance of environmental conservation, enabling them to take the first step towards a more energy efficient and sustainable lifestyle in the longer term,” concluded Dato’ Dr Sharma.

In addition to creating environmental awareness, the Earth Hour Malaysia app allows Malaysians to pledge their support to “Live Green” and adopt a sustainable lifestyle. To keep the momentum towards Earth Hour 2013, the Earth Hour app will encourage people to adopt daily conservation practices that help the planet every day beyond just the initial one hour – through habits such as switching off lights that are not in use or shutting down their computers instead of allowing it to just go into “sleep mode”. Windows Phone users will also be able conveniently track other Malaysian environmental enthusiasts who have committed to “Live Green” through a visual diagram powered by Bing Maps.

“At Microsoft, we are constantly looking for ways to share our expertise and do our part to address important social issues such as environmental conservation. Information technology (IT) is a key tool that can help address these issues and we believe that it is our responsibility to use our capabilities and solutions to help make this world a better place,” said Peter Tam, Director of Local Software Innovations, Microsoft Malaysia.

He added, “We are delighted to work with WWF-Malaysia to educate, spread the message and educate Malaysians about environmental conservation through the power of social networks and mediums such as smartphones which are now integral to the lifestyle of consumers. Through our Windows Phone platform, we can leverage this trend to drive awareness and participation for this initiative. It displays how technology can contribute to environmental conservation and we are confident that our collaboration will encourage Malaysians to contribute to a more sustainable planet.”

The Earth Hour Malaysia mobile phone app was built and developed on a system powered by Windows Azure, an open and flexible cloud platform that enables developers to quickly build, deploy and manage apps across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacentres using any language, tool or framework. Windows Azure, which is Microsoft’s Cloud computing Platform-As-A-Service, allows developers to scale up their systems according to the number of users in real time, and this inevitably supports effort to sustain and preserve the environment, by reducing digital footprint.

Those who aren’t using a Windows Phone device can still be a part of this pledge, through an interactive Earth Hour web application running on Windows Azure at http://MyEarthHourws.cloudapp.net. This application was developed by another Microsoft Student Partner named Ooi Keng Siang from Penang.

The Earth Hour Malaysia app can be downloaded from the Windows Phone Marketplace, which now features more than 70,000 applications.

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About WWF-Malaysia

WWF-Malaysia (World Wide Fund for Nature-Malaysia), the national conservation trust, currently runs more than 75 projects covering a diverse range of environmental protection work. Since 1972, WWF-Malaysia has worked on important conservation projects, from saving endangered species such as tigers and turtles, to protecting our highland forests, rivers and seas. We also undertake environmental education and advocacy work to achieve conservation goals. By conserving our natural resources, WWF-Malaysia is helping to protect our livelihoods, food and water supply, thus securing our good quality of life and our children’s bright future. We thank our supporters whose donations enable our conservation work. If you would like to donate to WWF-Malaysia or learn more about our projects, please visit: wwf.org.my.