The concept for Earth Hour was born in 2006 from a collaboration between WWF Australia and advertising agency Leo Burnett Sydney, who started discussing ideas for engaging Australians on the issue of climate change in 2004. Last year, Earth Hour was observed by millions of people in 7,000 towns and cities across 187 countries, driven by a common goal: to save energy and increase awareness about environmental issues.

In 2013, WWF Uganda has created the world’s first Earth Hour Forest, as a means of fighting against the country’s harrowing deforestation rate, which results in the clearing of 6,000 hectares of woodland every month. The organization has secured more than 2,700 hectares of degraded land, and set a goal to fill it with at least 500,000 indigenous trees. Other successful initiatives include pushing a bill through the Russian State Duma focusing on protecting the country’s seas from oil pollution, and raising the marine areas under Argentina’s protection from 1 to 4 %.

To spread awareness about the movement, participating cities usually turn off the lights for their most renowned monuments, letting their silent darkness stand as a symbol of sustainable energy use. Famous landmarks associated with the event include the Colosseum, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, Moscow’s St. Basil Cathedral, the Acropolis in Athens, and St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

5 Simple Steps For a More Sustainable Life

1. Switch to energy-efficient CFL or LED lights instead of traditional incandescent bulbs.
2. If you’re not using it – unplug it! Your computer, television, cell-phone charger, microwave oven, and other appliances and electrical devices consume energy even when on standby.
3. Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
4. Only heat the rooms you use regularly and adjust the thermostat to keep your home a little cooler in winter and a little warmer in summer.
5. Use less hot water. This will not only save you water, it will also reduce the amount of electricity (or natural gas) you use to keep water hot, thus cutting down on your energy bills.

#1 Always have reusable bottles and tote bags with you. Cut the use of plastic water bottles, paper coffee cups, and plastic bags.

#2 Reduce your carbon footprint by eliminating your meat consumption.

#3 Bring your reusable lunch box to work! Fill it with homemade food or take it to your favourite take-out restaurant, and cut the use of plastic packaging.

#4 Buy nothing new. Renew your old clothes, or purchase second-hand items.

#5 Waste less water. Have shorter showers, turn the tap off while brushing your teeth, and do only full loads of laundry and dishes.

#6 Cut the time you spend online. Stay offline as long as you can. Start with a social media ban until noon.

#7 Clean out your clothes, and donate the ones you don’t need.

#8 Instead of watching TV in the evenings, read a book.

#9 Say no to straws.

#10 Avoid using the tumble-dryer, line-dry instead.

#11 Walk or bike everywhere you can.

#12 Change paper napkins for cloth ones.

#13 Recycle glass and aluminium.

#14 Drink tap water.

#15 Buy local products. Visit farmers market as much as possible.

#16 Use energy efficient light bulbs, and turn off lights when you’re not in the room.

#17 Use e-ticket when travelling by train or aeroplane.

#18 Pay household bills online.

Funzine Favourite: Bowls made from coconuts

Coconut Home offers coconut bowls – regarded as “nature’s gifts” – handcrafted from coconut shells that are otherwise discarded as waste. Besides its practical functions and eco-friendly production, eating from a coconut bowl is pure mindfulness, an experience that highlights a better way of conscious living. The cherry on top is the natural look of coconut bowls that bring tropical vibes to your home.

Get yours at www.rawcoconuthome.com

Rákóczi Oasis – 27 October – Rákóczi téri Market Hall

Rákóczi Oasis refers to a weekly community plant market where plant lovers can exchange, sell or just simply show their greenery to the wider public. 27 October is your last chance to attend the fair this year, you don’t have to worry though, it returns in spring 2019.

Green Globe (Zöldgömb) Festival 2018 – 28 October – Akvárium Klub

The popular urban hangout, Akvárium Klub gives home to the Green Globe Festival that boasts several lectures and film screenings on sustainability, recycling, environment protection and climate change, as well as various stalls of eco-conscious producers.

Food Waste and How to Fight It – 31 October – HuMuSz

The Food Not Bombs Budapest team hosts a roundtable discussion on the impact our eating habits have on the environment, as part of their ‘Green Adventures’ program series.

Greeners’ Market (Zöldülők vására) – 11 November – BB’z Bar & Grill

The aim of the Greeners’ Market is to connect those who are interested in eco-friendly lifestyles with the Hungarian producers and advocates of green household products and clothing.

Slow Gastro Market by Kiskertpiac – 18 November – Anker’t

Plants, gastronomy and design at one place! Visit Anker’t for the perfect (eco-friendly) Sunday filled with artisan delicacies, natural cosmetics, seasonal flowers and plants, and sustainable design.

In 2007, the lights were turned off in Sidney, Australia for the first time, symbolizing that despite of all the horrible mistakes mankind has made to harm Mother Nature, people do care about the planet. Since then, Earth Hour became a worldwide movement, encouraging all of us to turn off the non-essential lights for 60 minutes, saluting that beautiful globe of ours.

Earth Hour is organized by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and this year, the annual event will take place between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM on 25 March with more than 178 countries taking action all around the world. The new “60+” logo represents that we shall not only care for the planet on that exact day for just about 60 minutes, but try our best to live much more consciously when it comes to the level of energy consumption in our everyday lives and our general attitude towards environmental protection.

As the lights go out on that one particular spring day in March, having more than 6500 cities embrace the dark night sky, we might understand that the message of the movement has become increasingly important during the times when we face the effect of climate change, pollution and harmful human activities more often than ever. It really is more than just a gesture: it should urge us to take the necessary precautions in our own micro environment because however small a step it may seem, that’s where the real change begins: switch off the light if you leave the room, don’t leave them on in the kitchen or the bathroom while you run out to do some quick shopping, don’t use three lamps in the same room if one is enough. These all seem so ridiculously simple, almost meaningless actions, but trust the fact, that if we all pay attention to such tiny details, we could easily save tons and tons of energy, lengthening our children’s and grandchildren’s lives on this planet.

Join the movement at www.earthhour.org!

Year by year, more and more fashion brands decide to side with the always topical matter of supporting environmental protection. H&M is one of the handful of global names that have been using organic cotton, but this time, they applied an even newer technique: some pieces of this year’s Conscious Exclusive collection were made of the so called BIONIC material that is basically recycled plastic from shorelines and waterways.

The astonishingly beautiful dresses are not just a marketing ploy – they can actually be another step towards a more environment-friendly life.

In 2006 deCaires installed his first sculptures near Grenada, in the ocean. Three years later he founded the Museo Subacuático de Arte by the coast of Cancún, Mexico, which covers around 1000 sq meters of seabed. The underwater park can only be visited by the ones who dare going deep, but earned a big name in the diving community. Since the creations picture everyday situations, like a man reading on the sofa, or a group taking selfies, the park can be interpreted as “a kind of literal anchor by which we can navigate the mysteries of the ocean deep”- writes art critic Carlo McCormick.

The coral reefs are amongst the most endangered creatures: over the past few decades, we have lost over 40% of them, and by 2030 the 90% of all coral reefs will be in danger. However, in this case the sculptures are built of the pH-neutral cement, which not only makes them environmental friendly, but they can also house tiny sea-dwellers. This way, it is impossible to see the installations the same way more than one time, since the ocean, the sand and the underwater creatures are constantly shaping their surface.

“My objects are moments in passing. As the graffiti is washed off the trains, so too are my sculptures covered by algae. Details and forms are lost forever, to be remembered only in photographic prints. But now the roles of defacing surfaces have been reversed. Instead of leaving my mark on the environment with my work, the environment is leaving its mark on my work.”- Jason comments on his work.