World Environment Day 2017

This year, there is just one word for what we want to make World Environment Day: epic. The aim is for celebrations to be bigger and better than ever and to call on people to show their love and affection for our shared natural world.

About World Environment Day

World Environment Day is the United Nations’ flagship day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be one of the largest global platforms for public outreach celebrated by over a million people in well over 100 countries.

It is the ‘People’s Day’ for doing something positive for the environment. Its aim is to harness individual actions and transform them into a collective power that has a legacy of real and lasting impact on the planet. From Bahrain to Bangkok,
the day is celebrated in countless ways with everything from beach clean-ups and tree planting to petitions and photo competitions, with thousands of children getting involved through their schools. The beauty of the day is in this diversity. It’s when people across the world collectively act, care, and show their love for the planet.

Why celebrate World Environment Day?

This year we want to see if we can beat the highest number of activities celebrating the day with over 4,000 events taking place, over 20 million people hearing about the day online, and over 1.5 million people getting involved. So, here are three reasons why you should celebrate World Environment Day:

Inform: It’s a great moment to demonstrate what your business/organization is doing to act in support of the environment.

Inspire: It’s a way to inspire staff within your organization and partners/suppliers about how to get involved and be more environmentally friendly at work and at home.

Have Impact: For businesses and organizations, World Environment Day is a great moment to reflect on the progress that has been made and what more could be done to further the environmental objectives of the organization/business.

2017 Host Country and Theme

Hosted by Canada, this year’s World Environment Day has the theme Connecting People to Nature, and the slogan, “I’m With Nature.” The idea that underpins this is that in our modern world, few of us take enough time away from our daily lives to appreciate and engage with our magnificent natural world.

By celebrating World Environment Day surrounded by this beauty, we can rediscover the importance of caring for the environment so that it can care for us. With this in mind, Canada will ask its citizens to celebrate the day in a number of amazing ways:

Find your nature: Canada is issuing passes giving anyone free entry to all its National Parks for the whole of 2017.

Get adventurous: Canada is inviting families and school children to get together in parks to record as many different forms of wildlife as possible as part of a “Nature Blitz”.

Learn to love the natural world: Learn to love the natural world: Schools across the country will prioritize the environment in their lessons to deepen their students’ understanding of why nature is so important to human well-being.

We hope that you will participate in World Environment Day, and will spread the word that our world needs our help. How are you participating? Share what you’re doing using the hashtags #WorldEnvironmentDay and #WithNature and let the world know that we all make a difference when it comes to the environment!

Courtesy of World Environment Day. For more info, please visit https://worldenvironmentday.global/en.

World Environment Day 2016

Our world is an amazing place and since 1973, we have dedicated June 5th to celebrate and acknowledge our beautiful planet. The main focus of this day is to raise awareness of the importance of a healthy and green environment. Air pollution, poor water quality, and unsustainable practices with farming and consumption are just some of the issues we see everyday in the news and other media. As individuals who call Earth home, it is up to us to solve the environmental issues which we hear about all too often. Through simple and effective actions, we can all join the race to make the world a better place. Below are some unique and efficient ways to make our lives eco-friendly as we prepare to celebrate World Environment Day.

690c6b23-ba8e-42d5-828b-1cd4c10858f3-large-6-225x300Get Involved!

As World Environment Day approaches, it is important to get outside and participate in saving our planet. Tata & Howard took initiative in the 17th annual Charles River Earth Day Cleanup in Dedham, Massachusetts. Volunteers from the company, along with 3,000 others, picked up trash along the Charles River and made a positive impact on our local environment. Everyone is encouraged to volunteer and get involved in their local communities. Visit https://www.volunteercleanup.org for local volunteering opportunities and meet some great people along the way.

Say Bye to the Bottled Water

Keeping ourselves hydrated is one of the healthiest things we can do for ourselves, but choosing bottled water may cost the environment far more than it does our wallets. Each year, 17 million gallons of oil are used in the production of bottled water. With a gallon of bottled water costing four times more than a gallon of gasoline, it is worth the thought to give tap water a chance. Here at Tata & Howard, we recognize that carrying and refilling our own water bottles with tap water is an important step in saving the environment. Drinking tap water keeps our water dollars local so that our communities can fund water improvement projects and other important water initiatives. Only one percent of Earth’s freshwater is safe for human consumption so its up to us to keep it clean and use it efficiently. For more information on reasons to choose tap water over bottled water, see the downloadable infographic below.

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Be Mindful of Food Waste

The annual amount of food waste in the US is enough to feed one billion hungry people in the world. This food waste often ends up in landfills packed tight and covered in trash. Although most food is biodegradable, it does not biodegrade when it is piled with trash and other non biodegradable substances. Therefore, if biodegradable material is sent to a landfill, it becomes part of the problem. The best way to avoid this is to be mindful of the food we buy and consume, and to try to change our buying habits so that we waste less food. When we do need to dispose of food, the best way to do so is by composting. Composting is an excellent way to recycle unused food scraps back into a healthy environment in a controlled way. Some communities have local composting programs but it can also be done at home, even indoors.

Lack of understanding about expiration dates is also a large contributing factor to food waste in the US. Expiration dates refer to a product’s quality, not safety. We can help extend the life of perishables by keeping them at the proper storage temperature, and  extra food should be donated to food banks BEFORE it reaches expiration, as food banks cannot accept expired food. Tata & Howard practices strong philanthrogreen-waste-513609_960_720-300x200py by donating both food and money to local food banks to help feed everyone efficiently. On June 5th, Tata & Howard encourages everyone to go through their pantries and donate to a local organization for people who need it. Not only will it help save our environment, but will also help the local people in our own communities.

Come Together and Travel Smart

For many people, riding a bicycle or walking to work may be impossible, but there are other excellent ways we can reduce our negative impact on the environment and get where we need to go. Carpooling is a great option. Coworkers who ride to work or lunch together not only help the environment, they also enjoy quality time which leads to team building and a more positive work environment. On our off time, it makes sense to combine all of our necessary errands into one trip. Taking one big trip to get groceries, dry cleaning, and drugstore items can greatly decrease our gas emissions that pollute the air and water in the environment. Americans in recent years have begun to drive less and use other means of public transportation or physical exercise. This trend is exactly what we need to better our planet. On World Environment Day, Tata & Howard encourages everyone to practice eco-friendly transportation. Even if it is only for one day, it will make a difference.

What to Take Away

Our world is awesome but it is not perfect. Our actions of pollution and unsustainable practices are the main contributors to the very real problems that we are currently facing. Actions taken today do make a difference and the more people we can get on board to help hqdefault-300x225the better. On this World Environment Day, let’s all take time to lend a helping hand to our planet. It is up to us as individuals to take action and better our environment. Taking small steps and making an effort to improve the world in which we live is important not only on World Environment Day, but every day.  Even if it is a small step, it is still a step in the right direction.

Happy World Environment Day!