Communities around the world this weekend will be turning out their lights and going about business without the use of electricity for Earth Hour this Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 p.m.

The first Earth Hour was held in Sydney, Australia in 2007 in an effort to turn off non-essential lights and electrical appliances in homes and businesses for one hour. The event grew the following year to become one of the largest environmental movements in history.

Hundreds of cities and communities in Canada have participated in Earth Hour. Last year students at École Desrochers participated in Earth Hour in their own ways, while this year, Jasper Elementary School will find ways to work without the lights or non-essential electricity Friday morning, as the actual Earth Hour falls on a Saturday.

Because Earth Hour falls on a Saturday, many of the offices and machines of the Town of Jasper won’t be in use anyways.

Ken Quackenbush, director of environmental services with the municipality, said that there is very little opportunity for the town to practise energy saving at that time because most employees won’t be at work.

“We’ve let the staff know that it’s happening,” he said. “We’re not operating, except for a few dumpster trucks, so we have very little opportunity, but I want to encourage people to do something,” he said.

Quackenbush said the town already pumps their water during ‘off peak hours’ after midnight, but that is an everyday practice.

He did say they do call Atco post Earth Hour to see how much of a decrease in electricity the town used compared to a regular day.

A survey by Direct Energy showed only 33 per cent of Albertans were aware of Earth Hour last year.

For more information on what Canadians are doing for Earth Hour, visit http://wwf.ca/earthhour/.