Earth Hour, organised by Becky and Helle, was hosted by The Loft in Kota Kinabalu’s Waterfront and was the venue for KK’s first ever event of such kind.

Earth Hour was first held in Sydney last year to make a bold statement about Earth’s fast deteriorating environment. The event involved more than 2.2 million people and 2,100 business. It was so far reaching that even Sydney’s most famous landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney’s Opera House, also switched off their lights.

And although the effort involved was tiny, simply turning off the lights for one hour between 8pm and 9pm, the impact was huge. It was calculated that if that small effort could be sustained every day for a year, it would reduce carbon-monoxide emissions equal to removing 49,000 cars from our roads for a year.

This year the event went global and The Loft, an English Pub in the Waterfront, is KK’s pioneer. Packed to the brim with no lights shining, The Loft hosted acoustic guitar players, a quiz and an awareness campaign by WWF members.

Not only did the event bring the plight of the environment to the fore through curiosity raised by the lack of lights and the presence of a multitude of candles, but the sheer volume of the crowd made many a passer-by stop and wonder what it was all about.

Earth Hour illustrates that if everyday, every one of us just does something small, together we can make a huge difference to our environment. What did you do today to preserve our planet for tomorrow?