Earth Week: Take Steps to Save the Earth with your Colleagues

Be the first among your colleagues to initiate green practices and encourage environmental conservation!

Earth Week is upon us!
 
Earth week is celebrated annually from April 20 to 24, and is dedicated to raising awareness and encouraging environmental conservation. While there is no need to shun all material wants and sing songs around a campfire on this day – although the thought of roasted marshmallows does sound appetising – individuals can rope in their colleagues to concertedly contribute to saving the earth!
 
The Three R’s
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. This age-old slogan has stood the test of time because it actually works to cut down waste and encourage green practices. Organisations can adopt these simple office habits do their part for mother earth:
 
·         Reduce – Need to print documents for a meeting? Try setting the printer to print on both sides by default. Not only does this method help save paper, it also helps to cut down on clutter and keep your bag that much lighter.
 
·         Reuse – The F&B industry is one of the biggest contributors to global waste, generating tonnes of unwanted plastic bags and food containers. To cut down on this unnecessary waste, reuse plastic bags or use your own woven bags to carry food from the food court back to the office.
 
 
·         Recycle – During meetings, note-taking, doodling funny cartoons and brainstorming require the use of paper. Rather than using fresh paper, you can encourage the office to keep old documents in a separate bin to be re-used as rough paper during meetings and ideation sessions. Your company can also work with waste management organisations like Sembcorp to recycle used paper and other waste products.  
 
Salt of the earth
For organisations to appreciate and adopt green practices, they first need to understand how industrial and human actions affect the environment. Starting from the ground up, staff can work with HR departments to initiate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) tie-ups with local farms or conservation groups. This will allow staff to learn how industrialisation affects the environment and come to appreciate our earth.
 
Who knows, you may be the reason why your company starts taking an interest in green technology.  
 
Bonding through trash
Furthermore, in the spirit of conservation, companies can work with organisations such as the International Coastal Cleanup to arrange yearly sessions where employees work towards achieving a cleaner and greener Singapore. We’re sure that picking up trash side by side with your CEO would make for great candid pictures!
 
These are just some of the ways organisations and employees can pitch in for the good of the environment. At the end of the day, we must remember that our earth is the only home we have.
 
In order to ensure the survival of this beautiful planet and keep it sustainable for many generations to come, individuals and organisations need to play their part by pro-actively seeking out green practices and actually performing them.
 
As Captain Planet would say “The Power Is Yours!”