VOTE BECAUSE YOU CAN! |
Here are ideas for celebrating and honouring Earth Day General & Community • Find out more about protecting the environment. • Wear a green ribbon. • Wear green clothing. • Organise a community or school clean-up (liaise with your local munici- pality in advance to arrange for collection if there are a lot of extra bags). • Make a donation to an environmental or conservation organisation. • Plant a tree or indigenous plants. • Take a walk in an environmentally friendly area and enjoy being outdoors • Organise a hike with friends. • Set green goals for yourself. • Pledge to make a greening difference in your home, school or office. • Commit to only eating seafood from the Green List • Create an email that you send to friends and colleagues informing them of your commitment and encourage them to do so to. • Clean out the storm water drain in your street (litter is a huge problem that gets into storm water drains). Home • Select a number of steps you can take in your home to save resources. • Commit for a week then a month and then long term. Changing habits always takes an initial adjustment but then they become a way of life. • Select ways to reduce your electricity consumption. - Explore the option of a solar water heater - Turn off plugs at the switch when not in use; - Replace your lightbulbs with energy efficient bulbs • Select ways to reduce your water consumption. - Explore putting a water tank in your garden or flow regulators in your taps; turn off the taps when brushing; put used water into the garden; use a low-flow shower head. • Be aware of your waste - How much stuff do you throw away; how much can be recycled - How much food is wasted (see food saving suggestions) - Commit to setting up a recycling programme at home or the office. • Prepare a vegetarian/vegan meal. • Prepare meals using organic foods. • Prepare only enough food so nothing goes to waste • Select products with less packaging, and buy local. • If you are planning on building or doing a renovation, then build an environmentally friendly house or kitchen or bathroom. Work • Educate your staff on the benefits of going green - both for the company and for each individual. More information. • Set up a green team within your office • Create a communal "pledge board" where people can write their environmental pledge for the year e.g."I will turn off the lights when I leave the room", "I will turn off the water while shaving or brushing my teeth". • Work out ways to save electricity - such as installing timers to auto- matically turn lights off. • Work out ways to save water. • Define office greening goals. • Set goals to save resources. • Ensure the goals are actualised. • Incentivise lift schemes to work - like reduced parking costs. • Take the environment, and not only price, into account when purchasing office supplies. • Commit to purchase from companies that have sound environmental policies and principles. • Offset your carbon footprint. • Avoid unnecessary printing of emails and other documents. • Add a message to your emails. Please feel free to copy the one below. |
Earth Day A Billion Acts of Green Pledge your commitment Ideas for recognising Earth Day Community Home Work School .................................................... Elections 2011 .................................................... Campaigns .................................................... Home .................................................... Reduce .................................................... Reuse .................................................... About Greenworks .................................................... Recycle .................................................... Respect & Responsibility .................................................... Global Warming .................................................... Green Tip of the Week .................................................... Watch Your Waste .................................................... Compost .................................................... Get SASSI .................................................... Litter .................................................... Products .................................................... Contact Us .................................................... Daily Checklist .................................................... Your Carbon Footprint .................................................... Environmental Calendar .................................................... Office Greening .................................................... Landfills .................................................... Plant a Tree for Life .................................................... Campaigns .................................................... Earth Hour .................................................... Earth Day .................................................... World Environment Day .................................................... World Ocean Day .................................................... Arbor Day .................................................... Christmas .................................................... |
PLEDGE YOUR COMMITMENT Follow the link to register your pledge DO AT LEAST ON ACT OF GREEN IN HONOUR OF EARTH DAY |
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TAKE A STEP IN THE GREEN DIRECTION BECAUSE GOING GREEN WORKS! |
Earth Day is held yearly on 22 April to promote awareness of and appreciation for Earth's environmental issues. It is an opportunity to celebrate Planet Earth. Earth Day is recognised around the world by people of all backgrounds regardless of race, gender, nationality or faith. It is an occasion for the world's citizens to commit to building a safer, healthier, cleaner, sustainable world. Earth Day is a global movement to highlight and address environmental issues. These are just some of the major environmental issues our Planet faces: • the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change; • destructive energy sources versus sustainable alternate energy sources; • toxic waste and ways of effective, efficient responsible waste management; • groundwater contamination, abuse of water resources, wetland destruction, and pollution of waterways and the oceans; • the impact of litter on our water resources and on ecosystems; • overfishing and unsustainable fishing of our seas and oceans; • destruction of rainforests; • expanding deserts. Because we humans caused the problems Earth now faces, it is our responsibility to find solutions. Earth Day is a platform to conscientise citizens on what we can do to make a difference and to encourage people to get involved and do something to make a difference. If we each do something the collective effort will make a big difference not only to South Africa but worldwide. The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. It is believed that this was the start of the modern environmental movement. More on the history of Earth Day. |
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MAKE EVERY DAY EARTH DAY |
General & Community |
Home |
School |
Work |
School • Create an Earth Day or environmental awareness poster with your class or your children. • Each learner can write down a way to protect Planet Earth. Give class lists of suggestions to the Principal to read a daily green thought at assembly going forward. • Bring a healthy lunch to school - in a reusable container. • Healthy snacks and food to be served from the tuckshop. • Paint a mural at a school or community centre to encourage environmental awareness. • Create Designer Grocery Bags - Ask your local grocery store for a bundle of bags for you to decorate with greening or Earth day messages. - Return these to the store a day or two before Earth Day (22 April 2009) - These can then be sold or given to customers when shopping on Earth Day. • Write an Earth Day article for your local newspaper, or for your business/community newsletter. • Create a school or community food garden. • Turn off computer monitors between uses. • Turn off computers at the end of the day. • Set up a green monitors to check that lights and computers are off when not in use/or end of day. • Change the lightbulbs to energy saving bulbs. • Arrange with your neighbours to walk or bike to school. • Set up a litter awareness campaign. • Start a Roots and Shoots Club at your school. • Teachers can include environmental topics and themes in their lessons. • Organise Earth Day events at the school. • Monitor the amount of waste created in one day, and how much can be recycled. • Launch a recycling programme at your school. • Find out if toxic chemicals and pesticides are used at the school. • Set up a school recycling programme. |
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