What is Earth Day?
Celebrated on 22nd April, during Earth Month, Earth Day was first established in 1970 and sparked the modern environmental movement. This annual event aims to raise awareness about climate issues and inspire appreciation for our environment.
Earth Day 2023 has a theme of ‘Invest In Our Planet’, encouraging us to get inspired, take action and to be a part of the green revolution.
“For Earth Day 2023, we need to act (boldly), innovate (broadly) and implement (equitably). Business, governments and citizens – everyone accounted for and everyone accountable. A partnership for the plant.”
Earthday.org
Why is Earth Day Important?
A report in March 2023 from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has some stark warnings about climate change, making Earth Day more important than ever. The report details how more than a century of burning fossil fuels as well as unequal and unsustainable energy and land use has led to global warming of 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850–1900 in 2011–2020. Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, with unequal historical and ongoing contributions arising from unsustainable energy use, land use and land-use change, lifestyles and patterns of consumption and production across regions, between and within countries, and among individuals (high confidence).”
AR6 Synthesis Report
Climate Change 2023
The report does also go on to explain that if we act now, we can still secure a sustainable future, but swift action is needed. The report states “Emissions should be decreasing by now and will need to be cut by almost half by 2030 if warming is to be limited to 1.5 degrees."
Doing our part
As a business we feel that we have a huge role to play in the protection of our planet, not only us as a business, but all of our employees too. A statement that really stood out to us in the climate change press release was:
“Climate, ecosystems and society are all interconnected.”
Our environment is important to us all and we take a lot of steps to do our part not just on Earth Day, but every day. We are extremely proud to be ISO 14001:2015 accredited, which means that our environmental activities and objectives are audited.
What is ISO 14001:2015?
ISO 14001:2015 is a set of standards put forward by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). This policy specifies the requirements for an environmental management system (EMS) that an organisation can use to enhance its environmental performance.
We are very proud to say we have held this accreditation for over 10 years now and base a lot of our company activities around it. This policy covers many things within our business, including our energy usage, waste management and carbon footprint.
Did you know that only 17,378* companies in the UK have ISO 14001?
We’re proud to be one of them, especially as we are a small business. With just 30 employees in our organisation, we think we’re among the smallest businesses in the UK to hold this accreditation. We are also one of the very few organisations in our sector to hold the ISO standard.
* ISO-CASCO_1.ISO Survey 2021
What we do to help the environment:
As a business, we do lots of things to minimise our carbon footprint and we have developed an action plan as part of our ISO accreditation to define our priorities and set objectives we can measure. We are on target to be carbon neutral by 2050 and we’re already working on reducing our carbon footprint. For us this is an all year round part of who we are, not just for Earth Day.
Some of the things we do as a company include:
- Our packaging is made from 100% recycled materials
- We reuse old boxes where we can
- We have 2 beehives at our office in Sheffield, that are home to thousands of bees
- We are paperless where we can be, preferring to communicate electronically and do not print if we do not need to
- We recycle and adhere to all waste disposal protocols
- We don’t use plastics where possible
- We’re transitioning to electric company vehicles
- We liaise with our suppliers to ensure good environmental practices
- We continually improve and assess our environmental activities/policies
We aim to be a leading environmentally responsible company and have a positive impact on our local community and environment. We’re also on a mission to help to rewild the UK by planting wildflower meadows to support bees and other pollinators. We’re looking to work with other businesses in our local community to plant as many square metres as possible of wildflowers. It’s a big challenge, but we’re working hard on it, so watch this space for more updates in the near future…
What can you do to help the environment?
There are many small changes you can make to your everyday life that can have a big impact on the environment, not just for Earth Day. Here are some examples:
- Plant some wildflowers or a tree in your garden or outdoor space
- Recycle more
- Stop using single use plastics like water bottles and plastic bags
- Walk or ride a bicycle when you can instead of driving
- Shop locally (this supports local businesses, as well as saves on travel!)
- Turn off and unplug electricals not in use
- Switch to paperless billing and communications
Do you have other ideas? We’d love to hear them! You can contact us at hello@itsinterventional.com
