Earth Day Guide

Ebook

10 ideas to engage employees this Earth Day

Table of Contents Why Earth Day?

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What is Earth Day?

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How to make an impact with your organisation on Earth Day?

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Organise a virtual cleanup & other team activities

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Sustainable Challenges: Create environmental challenges for your team

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Start the conversation: Share films/podcasts/books around Sustainability

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Raise money for an earth caring nonprofit

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Make your office eco-friendly

12

Volunteer with an earth loving nonprofit

13

Invite an Environmentalist or Sustainability expert to speak

14

Calculate and offset your carbon footprint

14

Encourage peer-to-peer learning

15

Encourage creativity with a spoken word or art competition

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Get started

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Table of Contents

Why Earth Day? Conversation around climate change and the environmental movement has been growing over the last 20 years, but in recent years it has been gaining more and more relevance.

In 2019, Greta Thunberg did a speech in the UN that stirred thousands of young people around the world to demand a future without the threat of global warming.

One year later, in 2020, when many were inside their homes due to lockdowns, we saw wildlife retaking the streets, as well as a reduction in pollution in many countries due to a decrease in emissions.

‘Our world needs transformational change. It’s time for the world to hold sectors accountable for their role in our environmental crisis while also calling for bold, creative, and innovative solutions.

This will require action at all levels, from business and investment to city and national government.’

EarthDay.org

Why Earth Day?

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What is Earth Day? On April 22, we celebrate International

It is a day to pay homage to our planet

Earth Day, a global day to show support for environmental protection. It has been celebrated since 1970, where people all around the world unite to create a common awareness of the problems of overpopulation, pollution production, biodiversity conservation and other environmental concerns to

and to recognise the Earth as our home and our mother, as expressed by different cultures throughout history, demonstrating the interdependence between its many ecosystems and the living beings that inhabit it.

protect the Earth.

What is Earth Day?

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How to make an impact with your organisation on Earth Day? Earth Day is not only about using less plastic or reducing our carbon footprint, as some people could think. There are so many different fields where we can take action and do our part:

Science - supporting researchers on alternative resources, and less environmentally harmful products.

Education - increase awareness and build environmental and climate literacy.

People - taking action to make changes within ourselves such as fighting climate change with diet change and using our voting power to protect the environment.

How to make an impact with your organisation on Earth Day?

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Conservation - protecting our planet's resources and wildlife, for example the many animal species that are in risk of existing extinction

Restoration - supporting the restoration of the world's ecosystems, like reforestation.

Plastic & pollution- reducing our harmful impact on the planet by reducing plastic consumption and our carbon footprint

Thinking about engaging your employees around Earth Day? We’ve put together 10 ways that you can support this cause at your organisation - from raising awareness, to raising funds, to taking concrete action to celebrate through small actions. We hope you find some inspiration!

How to make an impact with your organisation on Earth Day?

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10 ideas to engage employees this Earth Day

10 ideas to engage employees this Earth Day

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1. Organise a virtual cleanup & other team activities Possibly one of the most satisfying volunteering projects for instant results. These cleanups can also shift to online and socially distanced or household efforts. This doesn’t mean they need to be a lonely affair.

For example, Drains to Ocean provides clean up kits you can have sent to your employees to focus on their micro-communities. Barrel Bag hosted a digital event, educating people on plastic pollution and how people can become environmental advocates in their daily lives at home. Cleanups will not stop, they’ll adapt.

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Organise a virtual cleanup & other team activities

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Another great example of virtual cleanups is pick-up trash bingo. It’s a way to gamify your teams’ efforts while uniting people if they cannot do the clean-up side by side, or participate in breakout groups rather than full teams. The bingo challenge acts like real-life bingo but with certain items of trash instead of numbers, take a look at the example below. BINGO!

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There are many other types of team activities you could organise to bring the team together all centred around creating a more sustainable world. Whether your employees are on site, or working remotely, encourage them to organise team level activities and encourage people to share their photos to inspire others!

Organise a virtual cleanup & other team activities

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For example: Start a company garden - If you have a bit of outside space, why not plant some seeds and create a small company garden. Plants are good for the environment, but can also be stress relievers. The food that comes from the garden could then be donated to a soup kitchen or a food bank.

Host a green potluck - Host an Earth Day themed potluck that is plastic-free and energy-free. The idea is that everyone brings reusable plates and silverware, and food that doesn’t need to be microwaved.

Go for a company walk - Going for a walk together can help your team building as well as being a great way to be aware of nature and help your employees get moving during the day.

Organise a virtual cleanup & other team activities

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2. Sustainable Challenges: Create environmental challenges for your team Challenges are a great way to motivate your employees and peers to engage in any cause. It also creates a sense of friendly team competition, and you could even include a prize for those who complete the challenges (an online platform like Alaya can facilitate this type of tracking).

Examples of Sustainable Challenges you could offer to your employees this Earth Day and beyond: Create your own cleaning products Travel to work by bike or foot for 1 week Bring your own shopping bags when going to the grocery store, and reusable bags for loose for fruit and vegetables for 1 month Buy groceries with zero waste by buying in bulk for 1 week Replace tuna fish with bonito fish for 1 month Don’t eat products with palm oil for 1 month Reduce your meat consumption - eat veggie for 7 days!

Sustainable Challenges: Create environmental challenges for your team

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3. Start the conversation: Share films/podcasts/books around Sustainability One of the best ways to create awareness is education. There are many films, TED talks, podcasts and books about the environment to share with your employees/peers so they can inform themselves and be more aware about the issue. You could even organise a book club or film night for employees to watch/discuss these resources collectively. Here are some great resources to share with your employees:

Movies

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Books

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Talks

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The disarming case to act right now on

TEDTalks with Kristen Bell and Giant Ant

climate change by Greta Thunberg

like ‘Why is the world warming up?’

Start the conversation: Share films/podcasts/books around Sustainability

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4. Raise money for an earth caring nonprofit There are many nonprofits out there whose mission is to help our planet, and Earth Day is a great opportunity to encourage raising money for these causes. Start a fundraising campaign for a nonprofit of your choice - maybe local to each of your office locations - and encourage making a real impact this Earth Day. Here are some nonprofits that support sustainability in different ways: Little citizens for climate Good food matters Making oceans plastic free Rescuing leftover cuisine On a mission Ecomar Foundation

Raise money for an earth caring nonprofit

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5. Make your office eco-friendly

Whether your team is working on site, or remotely, there are plenty of small and easy changes that can be made in the office to be more environmentally friendly. For example: 1. Set up new recycling stations. If you don’t want rubbish in our oceans, rivers full of waste, and cities where the air is unbreathable, recycling is an easy way to help avoid it!

2. Start green initiatives. Try to go paperless and change to more eco-friendly light bulbs.

3. Give people a plant budget or send a plant as a gift to your employees - plants can reduce stress and anxiety, as well as increase concentration, and improve the quality of the air.

Make your office eco-friendly

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6. Volunteer with an earth loving nonprofit Whether it’s virtually or physically, find a nonprofit that you and your employees can support this Earth Day. Volunteers can offer their support in different ways, as some of our partners and our own team members at Alaya have done: For example, our partner SCOR organised a ‘Keen to clean’ activity where they volunteered and collected trash in their local area to help preserve the natural habitat and keep it clean for their local communities.

Another partner, Frontiers organised and helped farmers in mountain regions to maintain their pastures and help preserve this cultural tradition in a challenging terrain, as well as volunteered in urban gardening for sustainability.

On the other hand, our team in Barcelona volunteered with a local nonprofit (Espigoladors) to help harvest unwanted fruits and vegetables, and distribute them to underprivileged communities.

Volunteer with an earth loving nonprofit

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7. Invite an Environmentalist or Sustainability expert to speak A great way to start (or continue) the conversation around the environment is by inviting a speaker. This could be an expert or even a representative from a nonprofit organisation.

Here’s a list of some well-known environmentalists: Pen Hadow Kate Brandt Andy Pag Ugwem Eneyo Kevin J. Surace Josephine Fairley Suzanne Lee Liz Bonnin

8. Calculate and offset your carbon footprint Our carbon footprint shows our contribution to climate change, based on the CO2 emissions generated by our daily activities. For emissions that can’t be reduced, offsetting these emissions offers a way to compensate for them. For example, when we consume energy when we turn on the lights, drive a car or even send an email.

Carbon footprint calculators are available online for individuals, and some other platforms can centralise it all-in-one at an organisational level. Once your emissions have been calculated, you can offset it by contributing to environmental projects, for example, planting a tree to support reforestation, supporting alternative lower carbon energy sources, supporting sustainable projects in disadvantaged areas to enable their inhabitants to improve their quality of life, as well as to protect and conserve biodiversity, among many others!

Invite an Environmentalist or Sustainability expert to speak & Calculate and offset your carbon footprint

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9. Encourage peer-to-peer learning Leverage your employees’ knowledge and passion with peer-to-peer learning activities. A good initiative can be to create short sessions where peers can share tips and knowledge they have about sustainability and more eco-friendly habits. For example, tips to use less plastic, or how to recycle correctly.

To make it a little fun, share (or test) them with quizzes!

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Encourage peer-to-peer learning

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10. Encourage creativity with a spoken word or art competition Launch a visual or spoken arts competition about climate change. It’s an opportunity for employees to showcase their talents, illustrate an aspect of climate change and learn more about this pressing issue affecting our planet.

For example, you can designate 3 prizes to recognise them, such as 2 hours of volunteering time off, or sharing their creation on social media.

Encourage creativity with a spoken word or art competition

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Get started There are plenty of opportunities to activate and engage your employees this Earth Day. It can be a great jumping point for your organisation to start engaging employees in important causes like this on a regular basis - all it takes is some ideas (which you’ve got here!) and a little planning.

You can also link it in with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and show how you’re taking action on different causes and moving society forward. The earlier you start the better, to get as much buzz and participation within the company.

Here are a couple more pointers to help you: Ask your employees Try to keep it fun Consider whether it’s available for remote work and office

How to make it even easier? A platform and a partner Having a partner like Alaya can help you to manage these campaigns. Here’s how we supporting Earth Day through Alaya, with our corporate partners by running a company wide campaign, incorporating nonprofits, Challenges, team events and more.

Track how many people participate and contribute to the campaign, to build your case for future campaigns and measure your impact.

Give your employees a choice of different nonprofits they could support around the cause on a single platform

Get started

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Have questions?

We’re here to help. www.alayagood.com GET A DEMO

10 ideas to engage employees this Earth Day

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