To give back to the entire planet, we offer a single hour — a day at most? What is this Earth Hour, and why does it matter?

Earth Hour is an international movement started by the World Wildlife Fund, encouraging you to switch off non-essential lights for one hour, and perhaps more critically, to inspire a trend toward engagement with energy efficiency and environmental awareness.

This year, Bulbs.com will be participating in Earth Hour, a World Wildlife Fund sponsored world-wide event happening this Saturday March 28th from 8:30-9:30 PM.During Earth Hour, we will be turning off non-essential building lighting and encouraging our employees to do the same in support of a broad range of environmental issues. Additionally, Bulbs.com supports the transition to energy efficient LED lighting and its positive environmental impacts.

Turning off the lights from 8:30pm to 9:30pm (local time) on the last Saturday of March doesn’t sound like too much of a tax, but let’s not take lightly (see what I did there) what happens when a mass movement sweeps across 162 countries.

Let’s think of the philosophers, those detractors of Earth Hour who note, to their respective vacuums, that electricity brought us out of the Dark Ages, and so our movement here is inherently anti-technology. Such sentiments can’t be helped; here they spring from the woodwork. But more to the point is the hard math of the situation, as first pointed out by Andrew Bolt, Australian Columnist.

He informs us that Earth Hour’s power savings in Sydney’s central business district, estimated by The Herald Sun (the Earth Hour tradition originated in Australia), ends up being something like taking six cars off the road for a year.

And it’s true — this isn’t the grand revolution of dreamer environmentalists. It’s important to recognize that Earth Hour is more about awareness than the actual energy savings realized by turning off some lights.

Earth Hour is as much a symbol of solidarity as it is an effort to encourage discussion about energy efficiency and environmental change. Look at the unbelievable success of last year’s ALS Ice Bucket challenge, which so vibrantly demonstrated the effect of a good cause expanding through the world at high speed. The ALS Association received more than $100 million in donations!

Viral success doesn’t happen without a major pop-cultural impact, and so Earth Hour is a starting point, it’s meant to get the conversation started. Everyone can do their part. Even Philips Lighting has donated 10,000 LEDs in various Asian countries to support the movement, purely for awareness and education on what this technology can do. This isn’t about the huge returns, but building something gradually, and it begins at the individual level. It begins with you!

So don’t forget to hit the lights at 8:30 PM this Saturday, and if you want to continue the adventure, support the World Wildlife Fund or Create Your Own Earth Hour Event!

Bonus Challenge: While you’re sitting in the dark this weekend and if you’re still using older lighting technology such as an incandescent light bulb…let it cool down for the hour. And when you’re ready to turn your lights back on again, consider replacing that bulb with energy efficient LED.

LED lighting has been a green solution for years. They use significantly less electricity to achieve the same output as incandescent and halogen bulbs (which means less emissions from power plants), contain no mercury (unlike CFLs), and have extensive lifespans. Many of these bulbs could be left on for twelve hours a day and last more than eleven years!