Cutting down wedding’s carbon footprint with sustainable options

22nd October, Petaling Jaya — A national campaign aimed at promoting sustainable wedding concepts and ideas to Malaysians was launched today by the Association of Wedding Professionals, or AWP. The campaign called #KnottheWaste is also part of AWP’s 10th Anniversary in association with local non-government organizations (NGOs) EcoKnights, and World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF-M).

Held at Nathalie’s Gourmet Food at Kota Damansara, the campaign was launched in a fancy mock-up wedding ceremony, complete with a mock bride and groom, and all the wedding frills and thrills. However this mock up wedding was entirely crafted using upcycled materials from the backdrop and wedding decor right up to the bride and groom’s attire and flowers.

#KnottheWaste is a year-long campaign that will be promoting public awareness among would-be wedding couples on the plights of how their wedding, effects the planet and the baby steps they can take to go green.

“We understand that Malaysians are aware of the term recycle, reusable, repurpose but may not know how to go about it, the more so in weddings. So we wanted to ask for couples’ hands in not marriage but commitment to tie the knot in eliminating wedding waste. Play an active role in being kind to our planet and make sustainable, green and eco-conscious decisions,” said Leticia Hsu, Founder and President of AWP at the launch.

Weddings are big affairs that begins with various events – engagements, ceremonies, reception, bridal shower and many more. The waste just piles up. As per the Environmental Performance Index study conducted by Yale University, Malaysia ranks 75 in the world on environmental practices which shows that Malaysians are aware of the environmental effects but does not actively practice eco-friendly solutions.

“With the support and cooperation with WWF-Malaysia and EcoKnights, #KnotTheWaste campaign will offer tips and solutions that couples can look into for sustainable/zero waste/green/ethical weddings.” “We realise that we have a long way to go, especially where in weddings, prospective couples look forward to all that are new, shiny and wonderful. But we wanted to advocate this agenda because couples can still have amazing and memorable weddings while being green conscious,” added Leticia.

Part of the #KnotTheWaste campaign is the awareness video that was put together with 15 celebrities such as Davina Goh, Bernie Chan, Shahrizan Borhan, Terrence Dass, to name a few, that was played during the event. The video will also be viralled via multiple social media channels during the year-long campaign. In fact, the #KnotTheWaste campaign video was just recently screened at the 12th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival (KLEFF).

The video can be viewed on both AWP’s and EcoKnight’s official Facebook account.

Founder and President EcoKnights Dr. Yasmin Rasyid said that the AWP’s campaign is very timely and show that wedding professionals are taking serious action towards climate change. “Every wedding as we know it uses a lot of resources. On behalf of EcoKnights, I’m proud to work with AWP and with an industry that’s walking the talk.” A few tips for wedding couples that allow them to start helping the environment are giving wedding favors that go back to the community like a donation to a home or a plant that guests can take home and watch it grow, repurposing wedding gowns by wearing vintage gowns or using your mother’s wedding gown and using reusable décor such as recycled jars that make excellent table centerpiece if repurposed nicely. AWP is a nonprofit membership service organisation, designed to increase awareness of the wedding business and improve the professionalism and credibility of members who are made up of wedding vendors from various fields. Various members of the organisation came together to make the event a successful one. About Association of Wedding Professionals (AWP)

The AWP, Malaysia is a nonprofit membership service organisation, designed to increase awareness of the wedding business and improve the professionalism and credibility of members. The association was set up to help protect the wedding industry partners and improve the quality of services to all wedding couples. AWP was established in 2009. AWP Malaysia – https://awpmalaysia.org