I first learned about Earth Day in high school and found it kind of interesting. It’s a great reminder that we are all here on this planet and must take care of it for the next generation. Since then, I have committed to recycling paper, plastic, and aluminum each week for the last 30 years. Today, we are discussing Earth Day activities you can do with your employees or staff.
In honor of Earth Day, which occurs on April 22nd every year, entrepreneurs can do activities to help the environment and reduce their footprint. While we may not all be able to significantly reduce our footprint, we can chip away at the different areas of our business to make it more environmentally friendly. Below are various Earth Day activities for your business to help the environment. Get your employees/subcontractors involved in the process, too, to see an impact.
Topics and Events You Can Do
Create a Recycle paper event with the members of your office.
Schedule time in the workday (1 or 2 hours) for employees to go through their non-personal paperwork and recycle it.
Have a Shredder event with employees.
Contact a shredder truck to come to your location and have employees get their OLD private work-related papers and have them shredded. As a benefit, have your staff bring one box of their personal paper to shred as an incentive.
Create a get-rid-of-old electronics event
Have everyone gather their old electronics and give them to a nearby location. Make sure you have rules on what you can take and what you can’t take. Have everyone gathers their old glasses and donate them to a retirement home if they need them.
Have a change light bulbs event
Another Earth Day activity you can do is Send out an email asking how many light bulbs are in their space and what type of light bulbs they are using. Then, have them email back how many they would need. Order enough low-energy light bulbs and make Friday afternoon “Change the light bulbs” Day.
Have a Clean up a nearby park event
If you work near a park, get lots of bags and plastic gloves, have a lunch hour clean-up at the park event. It’s a great opportunity to do some good for the environment and do some teambuilding exercises.
Have a Clean Out Your Desk Drawer event
On a Friday afternoon, line up recycling paper bins, recycling electronic bins, recycling plastic containers, etc… and have people go through their desk (affiliate) drawers and get rid of the items they don’t want and recycle them. Make a list of articles that can go in each bin to help them know where the things need to go.
Have a Clean-up nearby park event.
While these activities are wonderful and easy to set up, you may want more ideas. Here are some additional posts about environmentally-friendly activities for Earth Day and every day:
10 Ways to Mark Earth Day at Your Company
Repurposing & Upcycling – Professional Organizers Blog Carnival
Spring Cleaning Digital Files Like a Rockstar
What is Earth Day?
It was first held on April 22, 1970. Today, Earth Day includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by Earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network), which includes 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
I hope this gives you some ideas on how to make this and every Earth Day special. Better yet, pick a day each season to do one or more of these events to help your office be more organized and clear the clutter more regularly. Make an event a quarterly or yearly activity to truly make an impact. It doesn’t just have to be near Earth Day. Happy Earth Day!
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In my first office job (back in the 1980s), at one point the company told us that money was tight so we had to cut back on our office supplies. Instead of throwing away old paperwork, we started cutting it in quarters and using it instead of buying message pads. I don’t know how much difference it made to the company’s bottom line, but it’s a practice I still follow to this day.
Great tip, Janet. I find that paper is the easiest to recycle in an office. I have been in many offices that used the other side of already used printer paper for reuse for draft documents. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.