Fashion PR gets down to Earth

MELBOURNE: Fashion PR doyenne Ann Morrison has been charged with the task of luring industry into a major environmental awareness campaign.

The founder of Melbourne fashion publicity company AMPR is set to make an appearance as fashion industry ambassador at the media launch of Melbourne "Earth Hour" on December 14.

A green initiative sponsored by Fairfax and the World Wildlife Fund, Melbourne Earth Hour will take place at 8pm on March 29 2008, for 60 minutes, during which Melbourne citizens and businesses will be encouraged to turn off their lights and electrical appliances.

Morrison confirmed the objectives of the Earth Hour launch were: to educate the community on the threat of global warming and what individuals could do to reduce emissions; to get corporate participants to communicate Earth Hour through internal and external channels and commit to turn off their lights on the night; and to measure the change in Melbourne’s greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for a five per cent reduction in the year following Earth Hour.

More specifically her role was to encourage the Australian fashion industry – which had "a significant way to go" to become fully environmentally conscious – to join the initiative, she said.

"I am really hoping that the textile and fashion industry will be persuaded to take part in this campaign, as well as much broader and pro-active activities. There are so many ways in which they can contribute as a group as well as individually. The combined contribution that our industry could make to the initiative is substantial," she said.

Melbourne Earth Hour follows a Sydney version last March in which two million residents participated.