Author: Caroline Dennis
When the first Earth Day was launched in 1970, the conversation surrounding environmentalism and sustainability looked vastly different than it does today. With paper straws, reusable totes, and accessible recycling, sustainable options are ingrained in the makeup of today’s culture. While having these options is spectacular, events like Earth Day are an incredible reminder of how we can work even harder to invest in our planet and celebrate sustainability.
Looking back on YourCause’s Moments that Matter resource, events and holidays like Earth Day can help catalyze employee engagement and demonstrate your company’s commitment to giving back and creating a more sustainable world for your employees and communities. To get started, our friends at EARTHDAY.ORG created a 6-item engagement tool to help your teams invest in our planet both in the office and in their everyday lives. To make sure your sustainable mission has a lasting effect, it’s important to engage your employees in tool number one: climate literacy.
This Earth Day, challenge your employees to further their sustainability knowledge. To gauge where your team stands with climate literacy, EARTHDAY.ORG put together a series of quizzes to test your employees’ knowledge and challenge them to expand their perception of the climate crisis. Though the climate crisis is daunting, communities around us are organizing every day to lessen plastic waste, find new ways to recycle, and even use trash to prepare for natural disasters. Climate literacy is just the first step in helping your employees to be one of these sustainable innovators.
Create room for a conversation
Encourage employees to share their quiz results through your team’s communication channels or message boards. Keep the conversation going by asking employees to share one thing they learned and one thing they are going to take action on in their everyday lives. Consider turning it into a challenge among teams or offices by setting a participation goal. Get creative with ways to display or highlight those employees that are committing to the challenge throughout the month of April.
CSRconnect Tip:
Use virtual groups to create an Earth Day group leading up to and for the month of April. This feature can create a space where all employees across teams, offices and around the world can join the group to share their Earth Day post. View employee members of the Earth Day group as a log for who has joined the challenge. Create events like ‘lunch and learns’ or volunteer opportunities for members of the group to participate in.
Partner with climate activists in your area.
Remote teams can learn to make Eco Bricks and give non-recyclable trash a new purpose. These bottle bricks are as sturdy as a building block and can be dropped off across the US and Globally. Support grassroots recycling programs like Glass Half Full NOLA, turning Louisiana’s glass “waste” into sand and glass cullet for disaster relief and prevention, coastal restoration, eco-construction, new glass products, and so much more! Use this database to look up local refill and bulk food shopping options in your area. Refill stores are a great way to lessen your plastic footprint and support local small businesses!
CSRconnect Tip:
Did you know you can use CSRconnect to have employees log activities other than traditional volunteer hours tied to a 501c3? We have seen companies create employee engagement initiatives that include logging activities in CSRconnect. There are so many ideas for Earth Day around getting outside, picking up trash in your neighborhood, or reducing plastic use in your home. Create a campaign where employees log that activity to reach a participation goal.
As Earth Day nears, we’re reminded once again of the importance of sustainability not only in our corporate mottos, but in the day to day events of our employees’ lives. To make sure your sustainable mission has a lasting effect, this Earth Day, take the opportunity to donate, volunteer, and partner with community programs to grow your climate literacy and give love back to our planet.