Earth Hour co-founder and CEO steps down after eight years
Ridley
The co-founder of environmental campaign Earth Hour, Andy Ridley, is stepping down as CEO after eight years with the group, Mumbrella Asia has revealed.
Ridley, who launched Earth Hour in 2007 in collaboration with creative agency Leo Burnett Sydney and media agency Starcom for the World Wildlife Fund, is now considering his options. He was previously comunications manager for WWF Australia for five years until 2007.
“Getting the crowdsourcing element up and running, and encouraging people to go beyond the lights switch-off to get involved in environmental protection projects has been really tough. But now that is happening I feel I’m leaving Earth Hour in good shape,” he said.
Earth Hour , which encourages households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness about climate change, started in Sydney in 2007, and now 7,000 cities participate in the annual switch-off.
Ridley is now looking at other projects in the crowdsourcing space and the rebranding of sustainability.
“Earth Hour was really about taking an issue that is stuck in the green world and trying to push it into the mainstream. That’s a critical element of sustainability and I’ll be looking at other opportunities around that,” he said.
There is no immediate replacement for Ridley, but with the most recent Earth Hour event only last month, WWF has time to secure a new campaign CEO.
“Luckily that’s not my call, but I wish them all the best,” he said. “It’s like saying goodbye to my baby.”
Commenting on the other partnership involved in Earth Hour, Ridley said: “Leo Burnett has been key to Earth Hour’s success, but the one who has with us all the way through is Starcom. This year, they really started building the experiential side of the campaign. I learned a lot from those guys and the way they’re now looking at the world.”
Earth Hour is currently headquartered in Singapore.
Robin Hicks
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
Linkedin
I had the great pleasure of working with Andy on Earth Hour for a couple of years. His passion, energy and creativity knows no bounds, and I wish him all the best in his next eco-adventure.
Good luck mate, and thanks for all you have done.
User ID not verified.
Interesting to note that Mumbrella/Robin Hicks deleted the last lines of this story which earlier featured WWF defending Earth Hour’s reach and impact. Bad journalism or perhaps someone sold out to vested interests.
James.
User ID not verified.
Oh wait, this is just a spin off from a previously done story? Why confuse readers then?
User ID not verified.
Hi James,
There is a third option. I suspect that you actually read that line on our sister site Mumbrella Asia, which carried an interview with WWF Singapore’s Sourav Roy. The line you referred to never appeared here on Mumbrella Australia as it wasn’t relevant for our national audience.
The line is still on the Mumbrella Asia story here: http://mumbrella.asia/2014/04/.....ley-moves/
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
So Mumbrella has two different sites then? Wait this is so confusing.. why not simplify it?
User ID not verified.
Why did Earth Hour move away from Sydney? Can WWF or Earth Hour explain it as well?
User ID not verified.
Hi James,
To clarify, we have Mumbrella (www.mumbrella.com.au), which covers media and marketing in Australia and we have Mumbrella Asia (www.mumbrella.asia), which covers media and marketing in the Asia region.
We do share the occasional story where there is suitable cross-over, other than that they are separate.
Hope that clears it up,
Alex – editor, Mumbrella