For a full hour, on Saturday March 23 at 8:30 p.m., IKEA stores in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran will switch off their non-essential lights in support of Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is a global World Wildlife Fund (WWF) climate change initiative.

Individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn their lights off for one hour, all at the same time, to show their support for global action on climate change.

The event began in Sydney in 2007, when 2 million people switched off their lights.

Last year more than 1.8 billion people around the globe from more than 7000 cities and towns across 152 countries participated by switching off their lights for one hour, and the campaign experienced its biggest growth since 2009.

I Will If You Will campaign also launched in 2012, a platform to incentivize and inspire individuals to share their commitment to the planet with their friends, colleagues, leaders and networks. It’s about daring your network to commit to recycle, switch to energy efficient light bulbs or something much bigger to take action beyond the hour.

IKEA and the WWF have co-operated on a global level since 2002 toward a decreased ecological footprint by promoting responsible and sustainable use of resources.

Today, the partnership include projects on forestry, climate and sustainable cotton production in three continents.