Each year, towards the end of March, we mark Earth Hour – a worldwide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) that encourages households and institutions to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

Sorry to the Australians and people from New Zealand for being late, but for those who haven’t yet passed the hour, here’s the deal: Earth Hour 2013 will be held across the world on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time. Close all your lights – it’s just one hour. It doesn’t make a big impact, but we raise awareness on saving energy.

If this isn’t an important enough argument, then you should know that Jessica Alba is the Earth Hour 2013 global ambassador. Alba along with the other co-founders of eco-friendly family brand The Honest Company, Christopher Gavigan, Sean Kane and Brian Lee, are lending their support to the cause through a fun ‘I Will If You Will’ challenge, in line with the company’s focus on promoting health and sustainability.

We here at ZME have been marking Earth hour since 2009, year after year. We encourage you to do the same.