Every year on June 5th, World Environment Day is celebrated by over 100 countries around the world. The United Nations had one goal when creating this celebration in 1974: to encourage awareness and action to protect our environment across the globe. Now, 45 years later, World Environment Day is bringing awareness to air pollution. Imagine a world where summertime outdoor meetings or business lunches outside weren’t an option due to such poor air quality.
Although you can’t see it, air pollution is all around us. It comes from our homes, our cars, our offices, the manufacturers in our cities, and the waste that we send to landfills. Turns out that 40% of the waste we throw away each day is burned in landfills to create more space, which leads to a large amount of air pollution. What’s more is that 80% of that waste we send to landfills is actually recyclable.
Here are a few ways you can help reduce air pollution on World Environment Day.
On Your Commute
Almost 25% of the energy-related carbon dioxide emissions comes from the transportation we use every day. When commuting to work you can use public transportation, ride a bike or walk if you’re close enough. If you are driving, try to carpool instead. Also, make sure your tires are properly inflated and your windows are rolled up to prevent air pollution and to save yourself some gas money.
In Your Office
Go green in the office too! You can start by switching to LED lighting, which uses almost 15 times less energy than the average halogen light bulbs. You can swap out your desktop computer or monitor for a more energy efficient laptop to add to your green efforts. Believe it or not, laptops use 80% less power than a desktop.
This last one may seem a lot more daunting than it actually is: go paperless. An office that reduces paper waste helps keep trees standing to filter out the pollution in our air.
In Your Operations
Making one small change in your operations can make a big difference. The shipping boxes you use are a great example. Would you believe that 30% of the garbage in the U.S. is made up of packaging materials? That’s why purchasing recycled corrugated boxes is the smartest choice.
When your business buys 1,000 recycled boxes, it saves 19 trees, over 7,000 gallons of water, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 1 ton of CO2, and over 5,000 KWHS of electricity. Not only is this an opportunity to have a positive impact on the environment, but it’s an opportunity to show consumers that your brand wants to make a difference. Working hard to support of the environment can help boost your brand image and awareness.
Don’t hesitate to make a difference when it’s this easy. Make the switch to recycled packaging.
This article was written by our digital marketing intern, Redding Byrd.