Join Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful in Commemorating Earth Hour on March 29

First launched in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour is a grass-roots global environmental movement that has grown to become the world’s largest mass participation event – including more than 150 countries and hundreds of millions of people from all over the planet. Since its inception, the concept at the heart of Earth Hour has been a simple one – to motivate as many individuals, businesses, organizations and governments to show their commitment to the environment by turning off the lights for one hour.

According to Earth Hour’s website, its mission today is three-fold: To bring people together through a symbolic hour-long event; To galvanize people into taking action beyond the hour; and To create an interconnected global community sharing the mutual goal of creating a sustainable future for the planet. Just last year, iconic landmarks like United States’ Las Vegas Strip and Times Square, Great Britain’s Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, Moscow’s Kremlin and the entire Red Square Complex, Italy’s Tower of Pisa and Greece’s Acropolis all took part in Earth Hour.

This year, Earth Hour will be commemorated at 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. local time on Saturday, March 26. Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful invites YOU to join the movement and commit to switching off your lights, television sets, and electronic devices for one hour that will unite us with millions of others all around the globe. Take that time to play board games by candlelight, share memories around the glow of a fire pit, and/or develop a list of ways that you can become an advocate for the environment right here at home by Taking the Pledge and taking part in the Great American Cleanup – Gwinnett Challenge.

Statistics from Enerdata – an independent Information & Consulting firm specializing in the global energy industry and carbon market – indicate that although energy consumption grew by 1.4% worldwide in 2012, it has fallen below the annual growth rate of 2.3% that was the average a decade ago. Still, China and the United States are the top 2 energy consumers on the planet. Ask yourself “What can I do at home and at work to reduce my personal energy consumption?”