Saving the Planet series had its global premiere during an international gathering of environmental educators in Tokyo, Japan, on 22 August 2009.

The series was launched at the ACCU Asia-Pacific Forum for ESD Educators and Facilitators. The Forum brought together nearly 200 educators, facilitators, policy makers and researchers from 16 countries across the Asia Pacific region.

To launch the series, a compilation of extracts from the 6 films was screened on the first day of the three-day Tokyo Forum.

"These offered a glimpse of the potential of the series to communicate a message of hope about communities and organisations carrying out learning activities for a sustainable future. This set the tone for the entire Forum," says TVEAP's Regional Programme Manager Manori Wijesekera, who represented the organisation at the Forum.

In launching the series in Tokyo, Manori – who was also its series producer – said: “We have enough stories of doom and gloom, and everyone is aware of the peril our planet is in. What we need are ideas that can change this tide, lessons from those who have tried something new and different. This is what we present to you in Saving the Planet.”

The recurring themes of the Tokyo Forum were learning from each other and how educators and facilitators can begin the process of change needed for sustainable lifestyles and development.

This was a useful regional forum following the UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development held in Bonn, Germany, in March 2009. This forum spotlighted ESD within the vibrant Asia-Pacific context. Several lessons learnt, successful stories and brilliant ideas were shared by the participants from different backgrounds and cultures.

The forum yielded the Tokyo Declaration underlining the main challenges of ESD in the region, i.e. evaluation and methodologies of ESD, and synergies between ESD and the universal goal of Education for All.