What is Earth Day?
Earth Day is a time to appreciate our planet and reflect on what we are doing as a citizens to look after it, or what we could be doing better.
As individuals, we all have a responsibility to look after our planet and this is so important, now more than ever. We yield real power for change through our influence as consumers, voters, and community members.
The theme of Earth Day this year is 'Invest In Our Planet', which highlights the importance of dedicating our time, resources, and energy to solving climate change and other environmental issues. Investing in our planet is necessary to protect it and the best way to pave a path towards a prosperous future.
What do EC Student's Association do to invest in our planet?
Here at ECSA, we try to do everything we can, through our Go Green projects, to play our part in making the college more sustainable. Here are some statistics on what we have achieved since the start of this academic year to help protect our beautiful planet - which also helps our students through the cost of living crisis.
Since October 2022 we have:
Saved over 7 tonnes (7000kgs) of clothing, books and toys from ending up in landfill by taking donations in our swapshops and allowing other students to take these items for free - one person's trash is another person's treasure!
Saved around 6.5 tonnes (6,500kgs) of food from ending up in ladfill by using our partnership with Fareshare to supply food (that would otherwise be wasted) to our community fridge, for students to take for free - this also helps students in need throughout a national financial crisis. In the past we have also created and shared a zero waste cooking series, to cut food waste when cooking.
At Christmas time, a time of year with very high amounts of wastage, we shared some key tips for a more sustainable Christmas period. These tips can also be revelant all year round. For example - sustainable Christmas wrapping tips can be used for birthdays too!
Our student officers regularly attend climate change protests and strikes to represent our Student's Association and Edinburgh College. Our VP Welfare, Skye, wrote a blog about one of these events - check it out here!
We are hoping to keep introducing more initiatives to our Go Green Project and are continuously thinking of ways we, as a team and as individuals, can be more environmentally friendly in our day to day lives, personally and professionally.
What improvements could you make to help save our planet?
👉 Take the WWF Carbon Footprint Calculator Quiz
To find out more information about Earth Day, visit the official Earth Day website.