Top 5 Highlights from Earth Day

Earth Day produces a number of notable and heart-warming highlights – too numerous to list individually. However, we can mention just a few recent examples to illustrate the fact that Earth Day are actually making a difference:

Individuals

How about '89,000 individual acts of green' from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, in Tamil Nadu, India? This University generated the most 'acts of green' by taking on a wide range of initiatives to make their campus more sustainable than ever.

One such initiative was called Water for Birds, a project started by the Eco Forum to help the indigenous birds on campus to sustain themselves during the summer heat wave.

Students at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering also developed an Eco-Quiz to show students how they can live greener every day. There was a Junk Art event where students were given the opportunity to turn garbage into art and a television show-based competition called Man vs. Wild, in which participants got down and dirty with nature.

The students at the Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering also worked on establishing major long-term initiatives - successfully creating Waste Free Food Weeks where the dining halls switched from paper products to reusable stainless steel dishes. Students also organized a water survey which increased water conservation knowledge across the campus. These events represent just a fraction of the hard work that the MobilizeU Team at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering put in and the students deserve the recognition for their efforts.

Organisations

Ocean Conservancy coordinated with Earth Day Network to collect 10.2 million pieces of trash along the United States coastline, for A Billion Acts of Green®. In their 2014 report they noted that over 648, 000 volunteers in 92 countries picked up a truly astounding 12.3 million pounds of trash in their International Coast pick-up. These figures serve to demonstrate the dedication of volunteers – as well as the scale of what they are up against.

Billions of crayons are produced in the United States each year, most of them ending up in landfills. These petroleum-derived crayons can take years or even decades to decompose.  The stated mission of Crayon Collection is simple: to collect as many crayons as possible and donate them to children in need. Crayon Collection relies on volunteers around the globe to help make this initiative possible and over 14 million crayons have been recycled and donated to students in need.

Corporations

In partnership with Twentieth Century Fox and Avatar, Earth Day network planted 1,006,639 trees in 16 countries around the world, in an effort involving over 31,000 volunteers. The Avatar Home Tree Initiative aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support sustainable development on six continents, while also increasing public recognition of the vital role that trees play in preserving life on Earth.

Governments

1,570,839 Acts of Green Contributed by Students in Oman. Earth Day Network works with the Ministry of Education in Oman to collect Acts of Green from the country’s students and in recent years every school in the country has hosted an environmental festival, where students learned about conservation and sustainability.

What can I do to help?

If you’d like to go green, have you thought about zero waste? Imagine if all of your waste for an entire year could fit inside a jar… Sounds interesting? Read all about this philosophy in: What is Zero Waste?