MANILA, PHILIPPINES — SM Mall of Asia hosts the largest hand-built solar light SDG artworks for United Nations Environment Day held last June 5, 2021 with Liter of Light, a Filipino-born global grassroots solar lighting movement. Through its “Light It Forward” campaign, launched in July 2020, Liter of Light has unveiled the largest solar tributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals through hand-built solar lights built by thousands of participants from the safety of home. This latest solar tribute coincides with the UN Decade of Action: “a global push to halt and reverse the degradation of our precious ecosystems so that they can continue to support humanity’s survival.”
The installation is being done in partnership with the SM Mall of Asia, Philippine Italian Association, Rotary Club of Makati Business District, Pasay City Police Station Force Multipliers – Barangay Peace Keeping Action Team (BPATs) and SALAAM Force Multiplier, Pasay City Substation 10, First Gen Corporation, Philippines AirAsia, Kyani Philippines, and Walk the Talk with Mache.
The United Nations has designated June 5 to be celebrated as World Environment Day to highlight the significance of its protection. In 1972, the General Assembly adopted a resolution to mark June 5 as the World Environment Day, following the Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference), the first major conference based on environmental issues.
The adopted resolution urges the “Governments and the organizations in the United Nations system to undertake on that day every year world-wide activities reaffirming their concern for the preservation and enhancement of the environment, with a view to deepening environmental awareness.”
The theme of World Environment Day 2021 is ‘Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.’ as this year marks the beginning of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Four large-scale solar artworks have been built at the bayside property to honor the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goals
GOAL 16: Making Peace with Nature
The culminating artwork, World Environment Day, to be unveiled on June 5, will be displayed at the MOA Globe. It includes this year’s message and social media hashtags for a generation that can make peace with nature and join #GenerationRestoration.
About the Light It Forward Challenge:
Everyone who participates in the LIGHT IT FORWARD campaign receives a kit that they will use to build a solar light, which takes less than 30 minutes to assemble. Liter of Light has created online videos to guide participants on how to assemble the devices. Challenge participants are asked to dedicate their light to an essential worker or frontline that has impacted them during the COVID-19 pandemic. After recording their solar light building, each participant must challenge their friends to build a light.
The campaign is part of a broader strategy for Liter of Light, the official Philippine private sector representative to the upcoming World EXPO, which will take place in Dubai from October 2021 to March 2022. [https://tinyurl.com/yxfv2e7b] The organization will use its platform to shine a light on how Filipino malasakit is paving a way for a brighter future in a tangible, measurable way.
To learn more about Liter of Light and its Light It Forward campaign, visit:
www.lightitforward.ph
Instagram: @literoflight
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aliteroflight
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmkj2sShWG4O5xGdq15gB7A/
About Liter of Light: Working in 32 countries with over 2,700 youth ambassadors, Liter of Light is one of the largest organizations that works with youth to engage companies in Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa on building simple and repairable solar lights, mobile charging systems, and street lights. Using materials from within each community, the organization has empowered the lives of over one million people a year, while creating opportunities for green micro business, and lowering carbon emissions by 1000kg per hand-built solar lamp.
