What is World Environment Day?
World Environment Day is celebrated on the 5th June each year, and is the United Nations' initiative to encourage awareness and action for the protection of our environment. The theme for the 2020 World Environment Day is biodiversity. This means protecting and caring about all the living things that make up life on earth. This includes plants, animals and the eco systems that house them such as oceans, forests, mountain environments and coral reefs. Healthy ecosystems are fundamental to human existence as they clean our air, purify our water, ensure the availability of nutritious foods and raw materials. However, humans have not taken care of nature meaning one million plant and animal species risk extinction, largely due to human activities. Human prosperity need not cost the earth.
World Environment Day aims to inspire people to rethink their relationship with nature, to put nature at the heart of our decision making and find ways to live well in harmony with each other but also with nature.
What are we doing at Rockley?
As a business Rockley has a role to play in preserving natural resources. We rely on the ocean, forests and mountains as our playground and working environment and it is important that we do what we can to protect them. Over the past year we have been developing our environmental practices and changing and developing the way we work, purchase our equipment and deliver our products to be more sustainable.
Looking to the future Rockley has made a pledge to continue this work, and have plans in place to decrease fuel consumption, reduce energy, save water and organise and participate in local beach cleans and environmental projects. These initiatives are very important to us and we also plan to educate people through our work and share the knowledge that we have learnt.
How can you make a difference too?
Everyone should feel a responsibly to protect and preserve our planet for future generations. Only by us doing our small part can we allow nature to heal and ensure a better and healthier future for everyone. Here’s some things you can do:
- Learn more about wild species and habitats which we share our planet with
- Reflect on the role of nature in our lives and ways we can make positive changes to protect it
- Think about what you buy and try to purchase more environmentally friendly products and less single use plastics
- Recycle as much as you can
- Create a compost in your garden or windowsill and grow some of your own produce
- Travel less and cycle and walk where you can
- Share with your friends and family why you love our natural world and what you are doing to protect it
To live happy and enjoyable lives shouldn’t need to put our planet in danger, we should work with our natural environment to protect it. The World Health Organisation summarise well with this quote:
"Living sustainably is about doing more and better with less. It is about knowing that rising rates of natural resource use and the environmental impacts that occur are not a necessary by-product of economic growth. WED (World Environment Day) is the opportunity for everyone to realize the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change."