Public Relationship Plan For Conducting Earth Hour – Communication Problem & Opportunity

Situation Analysis

As the degradation in the environment is increasing in a rapid manner, it has become the matter of utmost importance to take prompt action in order to control the same. There lies the significance of earth hour. Olexsak & Meier (2014) commented that this is the process of spreading awareness regarding the environmental issues among both local and global community. This is the way of encouraging the corporates, households, individual along with the community.

Through this manner, commitment for making a better planet can be generated among them. The aim of this paper is to prepare a public relationship plan in order to conduct earth hour effectively. In-depth analysis of the situation will be carried. According to McIlvenny (2016) the communication problem that can arise while conducting earth hour will be discussed. The underlying goal will be identified. This paper will also cover the strategies that need to be implemented for conducting the earth hour.   

Due to the rapid changes in climate, it is highly significant to conduct an earth hour. This is the key of protecting the environment from drastic degradation. Reports are showing that, the world heritage forests in Australia is suffering from devastation due to the climate changes. As discussed by Edensor (2015) it is worth to mention that, Australia is being considered as the hub of breathtaking landscapes along with wildlife. In this case also, climate change is acting as a major threat towards biodiversity of the nation. Due to the land clearing crisis, the wildlife are encountering with massive challenges in the way of ensuring their existence. Researchers are showing that, by 2030, more than 2m hectares of the forest of eastern Australia will be bulldozed. This will be utterly a great threat for wildlife and thus maintain biodiversity (The Guardian. 2018).

In order to protect the environment from such threats, it is imperative to arrange an earth hour. This is the key of generating awareness among the people in national level to perceive the environmental issues and take prompt action to mitigate the same. Kondawar & Deshmukh (2018) counter argued by saying that it is true that, earth hour is being conducted in Australia for the past ten years. Still, the aim of current earth hour is to increase the degree of participation up to 80%.

As earth hour is a collaborative approach, it is imperative to build strong relationship among all the participants. However, there are certain problems, which the organizers of the campaign might face in the way of communicating with the participants. McCormick et al., (2016) stressed on the ground that lack of awareness among the people is the greatest communication problem in the way of arranging earth hour. Such lacking may create barrier for the people to understand the benefits of earth hour. Lack of social media coverage is also a great communication problem in the conduction of earth hour.

In the era of social media, such lacking can make it difficult for organizers of the campaign to generate awareness among people, which is a greatest barrier towards increasing the rate of participation. Albrecht et al., (2016) observed that privation of any kind of social campaign is another major threat towards maintaining healthy communication.  This can make it problematic for the community to gain a knowledge regarding the reasons, for which the earth hour is going to be executed. This is also a major treat towards increasing the rate of participation. As highlighted by Richards et al., (2015) no coverage of digital media is being considered as one of the greatest threats towards generating awareness among the participants regarding the necessity of arranging earth hour.    

Communication Problem and Consequences

Conduction of earth hour is the key of sporting both individuals and community to make a lovey planet by controlling rapidly increasing environmental degradation. The fundamental aim of conducting earth hour is to control climate change and protect the natural resources. Olexsak & Meier (2014) said that this is the way of generating awareness among the people to behave in an environmentally committed way. It is all about taking green actions by executing comprehensive legislative changes. One of the major matters, to be considered in this context is that, with the assistance of this earth hour also intends to attain sustainable agriculture, as it is the most emerging sector across Australia. As showed by Letcher (2015) the basic purpose of proposed earth hour is to take prompt action in order to deal with the climate change.   

Due to the collaborative nature of Earth hour, it is imperative to attract wide range of participants in order to make the campaign worthy. Thus, it is important to select a certain target audience, which is the key of carrying the campaign in a comprehensive manner. Lyons & Westoby (2014) shaded light on the fact that the audience must be selected in accordance with their demographics. Psychographic characteristic of people will also be assessed before selecting them for the earth hour campaign. Researchers are showing that, in Australia, people aged from 18 to 65 are extremely committed towards controlling climate change and thereby promoting environmental wellbeing. Such people must be targeted for the sake of conducting the earth hour campaign. Kagan, R. A., Thornton & Cunningham (2017) stressed on the fact that with the rapid development of technology, the knowledge about accessing internet plays a pivotal role in generating awareness among the people regarding any kind of issue. Based on the discussion, it can be said that, people aged from 18 to 65 and digitally sound must be selected for the earth hour campaign. The key message that will be served to the audience is that, “To take prompt action to protect the prevent climate change nd thus support environmental degradation”.

As the aim of earth hour is to protect sustainability, it is vital to target such group of people, who can behave in an environmentally responsible way. Neumayer, E. (2017) showed that according to various societal research in Australia, it is evident that, Australia aged in between 18 to 65 are extremely sound towards environmental issues and always ready to take prompt action in terms of protecting the environment. At the same time, digital sound people must be selected as they will gather significant information regarding environmental issues and suggest innovative ideas for the sake of mitigating those predetermined issues.

The people with in-depth knowledge regarding the environmental issues can play a major role in terms of convincing the policy makers and thereby implement effective sustainable polices. Gunningham & Sinclair (2017) commented that as the campaign is all about changing behavior of the people, it is imperative to target the knowledgeable people, which is the key of influencing others and thus lead them to take prompt action to protect the environment from rapid degradation.       

Campaign Goal

Earth hour is one of the major movements that promotes climate action by generating awareness among the people. Thus, a comprehensive process need to be followed in order to conduct earth hour with utmost proficiency. As the rate of climate change is increasing in a drastic manner, strong action needs be taken to lower the same. Based on the observation of Good (2018) it can be said that in Australia, the rate of carbon footprint is increasing in a rapid manner. This is acting as a greatest threat towards environment. Thus, this carbon footprint needs to be reduced to ensure environmental sustainability. It is imperative to tackle public transport. It is imperative to deal with energy related carbon emission, which is the key of celebrating earth hour. The rate of phantom energy consumption must also be reduced. As the electrical appliances consume he energy, it is imperative to turn off them when they are not in use. As the electronic appliances accounts to more than 10% of energy of an entire household, the rate of phantom energy must be lowered (Kilminster et al., 2015). Successful implementation of this strategy will help in consuming less electrical energy, which is the key of keeping the environment sustainable.

In the school level also, earth hour must be arranges in order to pave the way for the school students to be a responsible citizen. ‘Go dark’ is one of the major strategies, which needs to be implemented. Through this strategy, the lights in class rooms needs to be turned off during off period. ‘Old skool’ is another vital strategy of promoting earth hour within a school. According to the strategy, it is the prime responsibility of the teachers to use white board instead of projectors, which is the key of protecting renewable energy.

Earth hour is being considered as the landmark movement, which support in protecting the environment from the devastation. As the fundamental aim of this campaign is to make necessary changes in policy by encouraging the council, it is important to communicate with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). They are the pioneer to conduct earth hour during 2007 in Australia. Kristensen (2015) observed that this non-profit organization plays a very important role in enabling the Australians to address rapidly increasing climate change and thereby promote environmental sustainability (Earthhour.org.au. 2018). This is the reason, for which healthy relationship with WWF is to be maintained to make necessary changes in policy related to environment. Reducing paper wastage is one of the greatest strategies for celebrating earth hour. It is important to generate awareness among both the individual and community to use recycled papers, which is the key of protecting renewable energy resources.

As per the assessment of Schaltegger & Burritt (2017) controlling climate change is one of the major ways of protecting biodiversity. Thus, it is important to generate urgency among both the citizens and corporates to protecting the carbon rich peatlands and take strong action in order to protect illegal burning. This is the way, through which the forests can be protected.  One of the greatest strategies of promoting earth hour is to switch off the non-essential lights and stop any kind of transportation, which is the key of preventing pollution. As the community plays a very important role in the way of protecting the environment, it is imperative to aware society to invest certain amount of time by switching off lights along with electronic appliances (McIlvenny, 2016). It is important to keep the community regarding all the information related to environmental degradation along with the actions that are needed to be taken to prevent the same.  

Audience Identification and Key Messages

As earth hour is an international event, it is imperative to carry out the campaign in a collaborative manner. As there are wide range of issues, which might arise in the way of coordinating with the participants, comprehensive communication strategy needs to be followed. Kondawar & Deshmukh (2018) put stress on the fact that an “Earth Hour Global Team of Commentator” needs to be set in order to communicate with all the targeted audiences. Implementation of a strong network is one of the major communication strategy, which is to be followed in order to communicate the earth hour strategy with the targeted audiences.

Due to the prompt emergence of internet, social media has become one of the greatest platforms of promoting. This is the way of gathering wide range of people, as millions are people across the globe are extremely inclined towards social media. Among all the social media channels, face book is the most popular platform. Thus, it is important to create a face book page and keep the page updated by integrating all the relevant information related to earth. This is the way of leading the people towards earth hour and thereby increasing the rate of participation (Olexsak & Meier (2014). Face book campaign can also be arranged within community to keep them informed.

Setting a budget before conducting any kind of event is very much needed to complete the same in a cost effective manner. Proposed budget of the campaign is $500,000. A time frame plays a very important role in the completion of the event in a timely way. As earth hour campaign is a systematic process, it is important to design a comprehensive plan. A 20 days plan for the earth hour campaign is as follows:

Table 1: Plan for arranging earth hour campaign

(Source: As created by author)

After completing the event, it is important to measure its success. The rate of participation must be assessed, through which the organizers of earth hour event can have an idea regarding its success. Measuring the rate of media coverage is also a greatest way of evaluating the success rate of the event.

Conclusion: 

Based on the discussion, it can be concluded by saying that in order to protect drastically expanding environmental degradation, it is vital to take strong action. Biodiversity is needed to be maintained in terms of promoting environmental wellbeing. There lies the importance of earth hour, which is one of the greatest way of keeping both the individual and community regarding the environment and introducing innovative ideas to solve the same. In order to arrange the earth hour in a collaborative manner, wide range of people must be gathered. Media coverage and social media campaign need to be conducted in order to gather wide range of people.  

Reference List:

Albrecht, R. I., Goodman, S. J., Buechler, D. E., Blakeslee, R. J., & Christian, H. J. (2016). Where are the lightning hotspots on Earth?. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 97(11), 2051-2068.

Earthhour.org.au. (2018). Earth Hour 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.earthhour.org.au/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2018].

Edensor, T. (2015). The gloomy city: Rethinking the relationship between light and dark. Urban Studies, 52(3), 422-438.

Good, M. (2018). Should Australia recognise the human right to a healthy environment? CRC Press.

Gunningham, N., & Sinclair, D. (2017). Leaders and laggards: next-generation environmental regulation. Routledge.

Hall, T. (2015). Darwin 1942: Australia’s Darkest Hour. Routledge.

Kagan, R. A., Thornton, D., & Cunningham, N. A. (2017). Motivating management: Corporate compliance in environmental protection. In Crime and Regulation, 8(3), 203-230.

Kilminster, K., McMahon, K., Waycott, M., Kendrick, G. A., Scanes, P., McKenzie, L. & Glasby, T. (2015). Unravelling complexity in seagrass systems for management: Australia as a microcosm. Science of the Total Environment, 534, 97-109.

Kondawar, D. G., & Deshmukh, A. K. (2018). Green Products-A Need of Hour. RGate’s International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 1(1), 16-26.

Kristensen, L. J. (2015). Quantification of atmospheric lead emissions from 70 years of leaded petrol consumption in Australia. Atmospheric Environment, 111, 195-201.

Letcher, T. M. (Ed.). (2015). Climate change: observed impacts on planet Earth. Elsevier.

Lyons, K., & Westoby, P. (2014). Carbon colonialism and the new land grab: Plantation forestry in Uganda and its livelihood impacts. Journal of Rural Studies, 36, 13-21.

McCormick, K., Neij, L., Mont, O., Ryan, C., Rodhe, H., & Orsato, R. (2016). Advancing sustainable solutions: an interdisciplinary and collaborative research agenda. CRC Press.

McIlvenny, P. (2016). Communicating the Political Act of Switching off the Light: Mediating Citizen Action through ‘Boundary Acts’ in the Earth Hour and Vote Earth Global Media Events. Rethinking Climate Change Research: Clean Technology, Culture and Communication, 9(7), 263-280.

Neumayer, E. (2017). Greening trade and investment: environmental protection without protectionism. Routledge.

Olexsak, S. J., & Meier, A. (2014). The electricity impacts of Earth Hour: An international comparative analysis of energy-saving behavior. Energy Research & Social Science, 2, 159-182.

Olexsak, S. J., & Meier, A. (2014). The electricity impacts of Earth Hour: An international comparative analysis of energy-saving behavior. Energy Research & Social Science, 2, 159-182.

Richards, Z., Thomas, S. L., Randle, M., & Pettigrew, S. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility programs of Big Food in Australia: a content analysis of industry documents. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 39(6), 550-556.

Schaltegger, S., & Burritt, R. (2017). Contemporary environmental accounting: issues, concepts and practice. Routledge.

The Guardian. (2018). Rate of environmental degradation puts life on Earth at risk, say scientists. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/15/rate-of-environmental-degradation-puts-life-on-earth-at-risk-say-scientists [Accessed 17 Nov. 2018].

Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:

Turnitin Report

Formatting

Title Page

Citation

Outline

Place an Order