Earth Day – Will you care ?

It’s Earth Day today and this won’t be my usual post on Compensation & Benefits related topics.

Caring for the environment – a family affair

You see, I believe that we should all look for sustainability- the world population is now more than 7 billions, and we need to ensure that we can all live on the planet properly.

On a daily basis, I do a few things already, such as taking showers not baths, never leaving the AC on when I’m out of the house during the day, switching lights off when I leave a room, and most importantly making donations to offset my carbon footprint whenever I travel by plane (some airlines even offer to offset directly while you book your ticket). And from time to time I enrol in local actions such as cleaning a beach in Abu Dhabi, or participating to Earth Hour.

Reading them, it may sound like a lot but really this is easy as most of it is based on good habits – I have to thank my parents for that. As a child being raised in post oil-shock Europe in the 70s, I learned to save electricity. And my aunt Nanou and uncle Domi have always been very eco-oriented and in the past few years, have had a growing influence on my eco-consciousness.

Even though they are not that well-off, they drive a hybrid car, they eat only organic food, mostly locally produced (and almost no meat) and they also look to buy fair trade whenever they can. It costs them more money than buying the cheap chinese, indian or vietnamese imports, but for them every action counts and they have made their beliefs part of their daily lives. For that, I really respect and honour them.

So – what did I do this year for Earth Day ?

  1. I signed the Global Energy Petition which demands the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency targets, universal renewable energy access – and is going to be delivered to world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (RIO+20) in June, 2012.
  2. I participated to One Billion Acts of Green and pledged to be more active in recycling.
  3. And I made a donation to save Yusani National Park in the Amazon. The government of Ecuador has pledged to not exploit the oil field underneath this unique and rich biosphere, of the rest of the world help them receive half of the profit the government would make if they were to export the oil.

These 3 acts took me only a few minutes and made me feel a sense of renewed energy in my beliefs that we can lead a good life on earth, if we all take some steps towards sustainability. I would like to encourage you to think about it.

You can help too

You don’t need to make public commitments or even to spend money. Simple things like using less water (I heard recently that the UAE is the country with the most water consumption per capita in the world) or switching off or reducing the air conditioning add up.

So if you decided to do something for Earth Day, or if you already do some “green stuff”, share it with us in the comments and give us some inspiration !

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Comments

  1. Great initiatives Sandrine, very thought provoking, I’ll surely use some ideas in my community awareness campaign. Being the CSR rep in my organization, I’ve initiated a few activities and an enviromental awareness campaign. Last week we did a beach clean up in Asry Beach, Bahrain where staff and families volunteered and we had a few games for the fun of the crowd. In addition I invited an enviromental speaker who has specific interest in E-waste disposal and re-cycling and we’re currently investigating methods of e-waste re-cycling. We’ve displayed various collaterals around the company as part of the enviromental awareness campaign. I’ve organized a walk-a-thon this week end for staff, families and other members of community, where we’ll distribute leaflets and T-shirts with our motto enviromental campaign “Go Green”, “Reduce, Recycle, Re-use”, with a drawing competition for kids “Save the Earth”. Finally, I managed to get a grant from the regional CSR team to “Go Green” and have some green space in company premises, where all staff will contribute and volunteer to mplant trees and green space (which I’m really looking forward to). Thanks for your ideas, we’ll use some for our campaign.

    • Dear Yosr,
      Thanks a lot for sharing all the initiatives that you and your organisation have put in place. I am truly impressed and will share them with colleagues in charge of the green initiatives.
      My company has put some solar panels on the roof of the car park and also implemented some electricity and water saving as well as some recycling initiatives.
      One thing I like : near the staff entrance, we display every day how much water and electricity were consumed, and saved. The displays are easy to understand graphics so that anyone can glance at them when passing (no need to stop unless you want to) and translated into easy comparisons /equivalents such as light bulbs, books and trees watered.
      It’s simple, non-intrusive, and fosters continued awareness.

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