Why do we celebrate World Oceans Day?
World Oceans Day is celebrated across the world on 8th June and is a reminder of the major role that the Ocean has in everyday life and the important ways people can help to protect it.
Did you know….?
Did you know that Oceans are the lungs of our planet and provide most of the oxygen that we breathe? The Ocean is also a major source of food and medicines and a critical part of the biosphere. Oceans also play a key role in regulating the weather and climate, for example water evaporates from the Ocean and falls inland as rain which is used to drink and grow crops.
For us at Rockley we love the water! It is our teaching environment, a great place to spend our leisure time, a place to reflect and to create memories. World Oceans day is an opportunity to celebrate together the beauty of the Ocean and think about ways that we can protect and restore our shared Ocean.
How can we protect our Oceans and why do we need to?
There are many threats to the Oceans which may not be immediately visible. These include pollution, overfishing, invasive species and rising ocean acidity due to the extensive use of fossil fuels. The more noticeable and well-known threat is plastic waste polluting our ocean and harming the species which live there.
These problems may seem daunting and large scale, however there are some small simple things we can all do to help protect the Ocean, such as:
- Using a refillable water bottle and avoiding single use plastics to reduce plastic waste
- Taking our rubbish home with us and recycling any plastic waste correctly so that it doesn’t end up in the Ocean
- Taking our own reusable bag to the shops
- Turning off lights and appliances when not in use to reduce our carbon footprint
- Making sustainable seafood choices to protect marine life, sustainable seafood guides are available for advice
What have we been doing at Rockley?
At Rockley our aim is to go single use plastic free! As a company we are doing a number of things, and have more planned to help us be more environmentally sustainable. Examples of this are:
- Introduced refillable water bottles and coffee cups. All of our centres now have refill points and we encourage people to use them- no plastic bottles sold on site!
- Cut out as much plastic as we can in our café and catering. For example, our sandwiches are no longer wrapped in cling film, we don’t use single use serving trays, plastic cups, plates and cutlery. These have been replaced with more environmentally friendly alternatives.
- Changed our marketing material to reduce single use plastic (no more plastic pens!) We now print on environmentally friendly paper.
- Provided more recycling bins to make it easier to recycle waste
- Organised beach cleans to clean up our local coastline
Individually we have all being trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use in everyday life. To do this each staff member made a ‘Plastic Free Pledge’ to cut out an item of single use plastic. This has included cutting out plastic in children’s lunchboxes, switching to soap and shampoo bars and no longer buying bottled drinks. To remind us to do this we check on how others are getting on and set a monthly reminder in our calendars.
Over time we are learning more about our environment and ways we can help protect our valuable oceans. We are constantly monitoring and changing the way we work to come up with more sustainable ideas and have plans in place to keep up the momentum.
"The ocean is the planets life support, by generating oxygen and holding 97% of the worlds water, we couldn’t live without it! So next time you reach for that single use plastic, think about our beautiful planet, just a small action will help save the ocean for all of us and future generations. "