WWF plays on locals' love of 'Kopi O Kosong' to push SG in reducing carbon emissions

Following Earth Day last month, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Singapore has launched an initiative titled "Singapore Kosong Plan", aimed to bring together businesses, organisations and individuals to achieve a low carbon, climate-resilient Singapore, with the end goal of having net-zero emissions by 2050. 

Playing on the words "Kosong", a colloquial word used to describe local favourite beverage such as Kopi O Kosong (coffee without sugar and milk), WWF Singapore looks to get businesses and individual in the country to customise their personalised sustainability plans to do their part in reducing carbon emissions. According to its dedicated website, the initiative is inspired by the concept of living with less, and aims to encourage climate actions that businesses and individuals can partake in every day.

To promote the campaign, WWF Singapore has created an ad featuring a hawker brewing a cup of "Kopi O Kosong", while summarising for the viewers the different ways they can "go Kosong" and help reduce carbon emission. These ways include eating consciously, shopping responsibly, travelling sustainably, choosing renewable energy, as well as restoring nature. 

Besides the 30-second ad, the initiative also see WWF Singapore creating a series of videos titled "My Kosong Plan". The series follows the journey of Eileen Chong, a filmmaker, as she meets up with different people to find out more about climate change and what consumers in Singapore can do as individuals to help the cause. 

The three-part series also covers individuals who share more on how they are helping the environment in their own ways. The respective themes of the videos are: eat consciously and travel sustainably, shop responsibly and choose renewable energy, as well as efforts to restore nature. The series is made available on YouTube and Viddsee. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out for additional information.

The "Singapore Kosong Plan" initiative revolves around different ways that businesses and consumers can contribute to the sustainable cause: "Eat Kosong", where consumers are encouraged to move towards a more planet-based diet and choose locally-produced food with a low environmental impact; "Shop Kosong", where consumers are encouraged to opt for second-hand products; "Travel Kosong", where taking public transport or walking whenever possible is recommended to reduce carbon footprint, as well as "Go Kosong", which called consumers to make the switch to renewable energy and help phase out the use of fossil fuels.

WWF Singapore also provided information about how these actions can help reduce carbon emission, as well as ways to take said actions on its official website.

Additionally, the organisation created an interactive map tracking the businesses and individuals in Singapore that have taken the first step to create their own personalised Kosong plan. A quick check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE showed that 16 businesses have done so, including Conrad Centennial Singapore, Nespresso, The Green Collective Singapore, and VeganBurg. Overall, 1435 personalised plans have been made, according to WWF Singapore.

Earlier in November, Watsons Singapore also partnered with WWF to launch its first sustainability campaign “#SayNoToPlasticBags”, which aims to minimise plastic bag waste and maximise resource use from back to front-end operations. As part of the partnership, Wastons introduced “Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB)” Tuesdays across all its 100 stores islandwide, and said it will include more BYOB days moving forward. During BYOB days, Watsons will be charging customers with a fee of SG$0.10 for each request for plastic bags. All proceeds from the bag charge will then be donated to support WWF Singapore’s conservation efforts, including projects related to reducing plastic in nature.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Content 360 Week is back from 6 to 8 April this year! Super charge your content production, distribution and monetisation strategies by learning from brands such as NBA Asia, P&G, Malaysia Airlines, and Marriott International, among others. Sign up today!

Related Articles:
Watsons SG to charge consumers for plastic bags as part of WWF campaign
Deliveroo and foodpanda join WWF's single-use plastic reduction initiative
WWF: Tesco ranked most sustainable retailer in MY, local firms lag behind