World Earth Day

April 22 (22/4/22) is Earth Day! 

 

This year, the theme for Earth Day is Invest In Our Planet.

With every year that passes, the urgency to preserve and protect our livelihoods, families and health increases. We need to courageously make change happen.  

 

A green future is a prosperous future. Acting boldly and innovating broadly to implement actions equitably takes all of us; businesses, governments and citizens must be accountable and be counted in. We need to work with our planet while there is still time to solve the climate crisis. While there is still time to choose to build a healthy earth, restore nature and have a sustainable and prosperous life, time is short. 

 

What we can do falls under these 3 categories:

 

Investing in our planet to build a prosperous and equitable future.

 

Climate change is about to even more deeply damage economies, increase scarcity, drain profits and job prospects. This directly impacts us all unless businesses act now. 

 

Businesses can rapidly accelerate to the green changes we want and need, and studies show a direct correlation between sustainable business practices, share prices, and business performance. Developing a strong Environment Social Governance (ESG) standards have better profitability, stronger financials, happier employees, and more resilient stock performance.

 

Intelligent businesses are realising that it is no longer a choice between going green and growing long-term profits — sustainability is the path to prosperity. For both humanitarian and business reasons, it is crucial that businesses of all sizes take action and embrace the benefits of a green economy. Speak up and talk business leaders into getting on board with a sustainable future! 

 

Invest in our planet and build healthy cities, countries and economies. 

Through regulations, incentives, and public/private partnerships, governments hold the key to transforming and building the green economy. Similar to the industrial and information revolutions, governments must incentivize their citizens, businesses, and institutions to build a resilient future. Ultimately, governments will empower green business practices as not only the ethical option but also the lucrative one. 

 

For example, clean energy jobs can provide earnings +25% above the median wage, and outpace fossil fuel related jobs, employing more people than teachers, bankers, lawyers, or real estate agents. Globally, the fossil fuel industry benefits from subsidies of $11 million every single minute and over $5.9 trillion annually (and rising).

 

We can build a renewable economy through shifting to policies and partnerships. Speak up and show how important it is to you that your government leaders launch the sustainability revolution!

 

Invest in our planet because it is the only home we have. We need everyone while there is still time. 

As individuals, we have the simple yet effective power to make our voices heard through our choices, our civic actions, and our personal interactions. What each of us does, and how we do it, has a huge ripple effect on our ecosystems, and on the pace of corporate and government action.

 

Gen Z is providing inspiration, a large population of them having stopped purchasing brands that have ethical or sustainability concerns. We have the power to lobby for and support businesses that take active steps to protect our environment through their practices and climate-friendly investments and fight against those that don’t.

 

At a cleanup, with your vote, or your wallet, be heard however you are able. For all of us – today and for our future – let’s Invest In Our Planet!

 

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.” – Dolores Huerta

 

 

Sources

Earth Day.Org 2022 [Online] Available at: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2022/ [Accessed 15 Feb 2022]