With more than 1 billion people now celebrating Earth Day, it's become one of the largest international events on the planet. Students and institutions around the world make room for Earth Day events to help promote conservation and environmentalism. If you're wondering some ways you can celebrate Earth Day, check all the ways you can get involved.
As students grow into adulthood, they begin to see their place in the broader scope of the world. Learning about injustices or problems on the planet can inspire young people to take action and get involved. Earth Day is a great way to invite people to get active for the first time or use their activism for an important cause.
If you want to find a way to make a real change in the world as a student, you're not alone. Here are 6 effective ways you can celebrate Earth Day whether home for the summer or staying in Waterloo.
1. Sow The Seeds of Change
If you have a green thumb or know other students who do, you can celebrate Earth Day with a gardening project. Get in touch with campus facility managers at school and see what they can offer for equipment and guidance.
Find a way to not only ask people to help you build the garden, but also teach them about the benefits of a rooftop garden. A short primer on green building design could get designers, architects, and science students interested. If you have time, research about the local region and which plants are most useful for local birds and bees.
2. Share The Light
If you want to help people and the planet at the same time, why not provide help to people in need in the form of low-energy bulbs. Call up a local hardware store and see if they can donate CFL light bulbs to your cause. Get in touch with a low-income housing development or assisted living facility. Ask if you can provide bulbs to their facility.
Bring students out to help install the new bulbs and you can connect your student community with the rest of your region. The best way to celebrate Earth Day involves bringing people together for a common cause.
3. Run A Trash Audit
There are lots of ways to help in Rez-One buildings, you could go through your trash to find which items weren't recycled or could be reused. Put together a chart or a presentation with some examples and share this with your roommates. Everyone can use a refresher from time-to-time.
Most bad behaviour in the world of trash production comes less from maliciousness than ignorance. People may have grown up with less recycling available in their town. They also may have never realized that they could be reusing things. It could take years of using and discarding old yogurt containers before someone realizes they could be used to store leftovers.
4. Teach Good Habits
Celebrate Earth Day for an entire month with a campaign to help lower your buildings energy consumption. Make it a contest between competing buildings or floors. We're always looking for new ideas to get students involved!
Work with us to get a meter reading to see how much energy is being used on the first of the month. Educate everyone about turning off lights, unplugging electronics, and finding lower-wattage lighting alternatives. Get to know the different kinds of energy conservation and you can make contests for each one. You could even weigh trash bags to try to lower the amount of waste people use. You'll find fewer people ordering takeout and more people with reusable water bottles if a big pizza party or gift card is on the line.
5. Talk Farm To Table
Get together with the dining services on your campus to talk about ways to celebrate Earth Day. You could host a food festival where you get to share recipes with students. If there's one thing every student could stand to learn, it's a few recipes.
If you have lots of nearby farms, you could invite them to bring their products and give out simple recipes and samples. Encourage your fellow students to buy local. Educate them on the number of resources used to transport food and the difference in quality you get when you buy locally.
Also, give a chart to break down how much more beneficial for the local economy it is to buy locally. Often, four times the amount of money you spend in a local shop will be recirculated locally versus the money given to a big chain store or market. A well-advertised festival with a broad range of activities could be a fantastic way to celebrate Earth Day on campus. Get some of your most talented musically-inclined students to provide entertainment, have some speakers during the lunch hour, and run the event all day. You might meet some cool new people or inspire other students to get ecologically active.
Celebrate Earth Day Your Way
The most important way to celebrate Earth Day is a way that fits your busy schedule and the scale of what you can do. While a big campus-wide trash pickup competition could be fun, you might not have the tie to get everyone together. Your celebration should be something that you can complete from start to finish, so if you can't get help, scale it to something that's doable.
If you're looking to live with us this summer, and learn more ways improve life on campus or in Rez-One visit us here.