WWF-Australia today announced a research partnership with University of Western Sydney (UWS) that aims to discover the secrets of Earth Hour's success and monitor the campaign's effects on people's long-term behaviour.

This is the first time in Earth Hour's four year history that, annual polling aside, an official research partnership will determine the ongoing impact of the global event.

The research will be conducted over the next 12 months and will focus on understanding the motivations of households participating in Earth Hour and the effects the campaign has on individual's day-to-day behaviour such as changes in energy and water use.

"In line with the campaign's Earth Hour, Every Hour mantra, we've always wanted Earth Hour to be a springboard for long-term change," says WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

"What we want to find out in detail is whether the event inspires people to adopt more sustainable practices. Not just for one hour but for the whole year, helping to shape the delivery of Earth Hour into the future."

UWS is nationally recognised for its expertise in researching business, community and individual responses to sustainability messages and projects, including those relating to climate change, energy and water use.

In a recently completed preliminary study, Dr Abby Lopes from the UWS School of Communication Arts and Ms Tara Andrews from the UWS School of Engineering found Earth Hour, as an awareness raising strategy, plays a role in behavioural change.

"Earth Hour highlights the crucial links between everyday individual human behaviour and environmental impacts," says Dr Lopes.

"Unlike curb-side recycling and water conservation, energy consumption is largely private and invisible. Earth Hour has successfully brought an awareness of the environmental impact of energy consumption into the home."

However, Dr Lopes and Ms Andrews found in their review of previous academic studies there remains a significant gap between the will of people to reduce their energy consumption and their ability to do so.

"People still don't understand energy consumption very well. They aren't fully aware of the amount of energy appliances consume during standby or the energy required to make the products and deliver the services they use," says Dr Lopes.

"More research is needed to fully explore how Earth Hour can help bridge the gap in the community's knowledge and foster sustainable behaviour in the long term."

To encourage long term changes in people's habits, WWF is urging everyone who participates in Earth Hour 2010 to measure their environmental footprint at http://www.earthhour.org.au - giving them an understanding of their true impact on the planet.

"Your impact is bigger than just your energy bill," says Mr Bourne.

"Unfortunately the average Australian has an enormous environmental footprint.

"We want people to make a resolution to do something this year to reduce the size of their footprint. This could be as simple as using more public transport, sourcing locally produced food, reducing the amount of packaging and waste in your homes, or switching to renewable energy.

"Earth Hour's true power is in the millions of little things it encourages everyone to do."

For more information please contact:
Jonathon Larkin, Media Officer, WWF-Australia
0410 221 410, jlarkin@wwf.org.au
or
Paul Grocott, Senior Media Officer, University of Western Sydney
0406-429-304, p.grocott@uws.edu.au

For Earth Hour information and to measure your environmental footprint, visit www.earthhour.org.au

About Earth Hour
At 8.30 pm on Saturday 27 March, 2010 millions of people around the world will turn off their lights for one hour, Earth Hour, to show that we can all choose to make a difference. WWF-Australia is encouraging everyone to make one commitment for the year to reduce their impact on the environment.

About WWF
WWF-Australia is part of the WWF International Network, the world's largest and most experienced independent conservation organisation. It has close to five million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.