Act green: the Earth Day is coming soon!

by Silvia Musso

Have you ever thought about your green action for the Earth Day? Don’t you have any clue of what I’m talking about?

The Earth Day is the name of the big event promoted by the Earth Day Network, association of about 22.000 partners located everywhere in the world.

This event, at its eleventh edition, will be celebrated on April, 22th in 200 Countries and it aims to raise awareness of people about the most urgent environmental questions.

This year, the main topic is the Billion Acts of Green, the set of all actions of individuals, associations and governments to improve the sustainability of life on our planet. Main goal is to collect one billion of action before the Rio de Janeiro Earth summit.

In this moment the registred actions on the official website, http://act.earthday.org, are more than 96 milions.

To be among those people who adhere to the Earth Day is necessary to act in an environmentally sustainable manner with practical actions or to participate to the numerous events around the world.

In San Francisco, for example, there is a free public event focused on helping our community take action steps toward creating eco-sustainable solutions to our local and global ecological challenges.

This robust new educational festival and multi-cultural entertainment event will keynote pressing environmental issues & promote solution oriented community action. Music, performance and well-known speakers & activists will grace our three stages, Earth Day Main Stage, Speaker's Stage and Earth Mama Stage. Exhibitions, hands on workshops and solution-based talks on eco-green topics are major components of the event in our Permaculture Zone, Alternative Energy Zone, Holistic Wellness Zone and Youth Zone.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, the Hotel Monteleone will kick off Earth Day with Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne by announcing a new foundation to assist in environmental disasters and unveiling an ecological quilt,Beyond the Horizon, commissioned by civic activist and wife of Marion Edwards, Penny Edwards. The event will include a presentation and exhibition of various environmental organizations making efforts to care for and preserve the environment.

In Italy this event will be celebrated today April, 20th with a concert in Rome, with the participation, among the others, of Patti Smith and Italian singer Carmen Consoli. The manifestation adheres to the project Impatto Zero by LifeGate: the CO2 emissions created by the concert, more than 330.000 kg di CO2, will be compansated with the creation and saveguarding of more than 70.000 square meters of forests in Costa Rica, the Countro with the highest biodiversity density in the world. The Earth Day will continue on Friday when at 8,10 p.m. Sky Uno broadcasts the best of the concert, while National Geographic Channel will propose «Plastiki», the adventure of David De Rothschild on a boat made by 12.000 recycled plastic bottles.

This event is a real global campaign whose goal is to form what is called the green generation. We can speak of green generation campaign, a campaign that will mobilize millions of people, especially young people.

Not only single citizens are invited to participate. To highlight is the proposal of WWF that has made available to companies a calculator to measure the carbon footprint of their employees through simple questions about lighting, PC and paper uses, card, corporate travels and transfers between home/office . The calculator will be accessible to employees for about 30 days after they first log in.

Attached to the calculator, WWF’s eco-tips and four thematic studies treated by WWF experts will be available, which will be sent weekly to employees through the company newsletter. The carbon footprint calculator, eco-tips and thematic analysis will form a path of awareness for the employees of companies on issues of environmental sustainability.

For a sustainable development of the planet is essential that companies do their part. Why not get started on this occasion? But be careful: it must not be just a simple green marketing strategy limited to one or a few days, but it must become an ongoing practice that identifies the company.

The same for the citizens who participate to the Earth Day: they must transform every of the 365 days of the year in an earth day.

So, have you decided what is your green action for April 22th and for the rest of the year?