Save Gaia

Today is Earth Day. Happy 39th Birthday!

Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in way back in 1970. That nation-wide environmental protest movement in the US was first proposed by him to thrust the environment onto the national agenda.

April 22, 1970, the inaugural Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. That event had approximately 20 million Americans participating, all with a goal of a healthy and sustainable environment.

Today millions all over the globe, observe Earth Day, this as the dire consequences of our continued industrialization and modernization has put the environment onto the global agenda.

What can organizations do?

Here are some simple ideas that'll work for the 2-pax to the 20,000-pax organization

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore

Reduce
- electricity usage in the office – make sure all electrical appliances are turned off at the device and also the mains at the end of the work day.
- or eliminate the use of plastic / sytrofoam cups in the office (including plastic bottled water) – everyone to use their own cups.
- the amount of paper used for non-essential printing eg printing out emails to read.
- non-essential air-travel, do a tele-conference instead

Reuse
- the other side of unwanted/unimportant (non-confidential) paper print outs

Recycle
- copier or printer cartridges
- have recycling bins for paper, plastics, aluminium
- organize a recycling drive eg newspaper collection in your community

Restore
- offset your carbon footprint by organizing a tree-planting event with your local community partner http://www.gardencityfund.com.sg/pat/How_to_take_part.htm
- organize a beach / park / mangrove clean-up to rid them of litter and refuse
- use public transport or car-pool or even cycle to work

As Nike succinctly puts it - "Just Do It!"