Whether they want to fight the grime on the kitchen floor, take out the toxins in the shower or pummel the bad stuff floating in the world, they are people against dirty®.

world environment day

by UK 4. June 2009 11:59


Tomorrow is World Environment Day and is celebrated each year on June 5. World Environment Day came together for the first time by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to commemorate the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. The purpose of World Environment Day according to their website is to:

 

1. Give a human face to environmental issues.

2. Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development.

3. Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues.

4. Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

 

This year's theme is "Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change." And to help celebrate World Environment Day, we're spreading the news on two helpful tips below to help stop our planets climate change.

 

Dirty little secret #1: leaving your stuff plugged in sucks - literally. It wastes energy continuously and costs you money you could be using for something you'll actually use. This "phantom energy" use not only costs gazillions of dollars a year, it also sends tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when this energy is produced. Be sure to unplug your electronics when not in use. You'll help save the planet and your wallet will be much happier, too.

 

Dirty little secret #2: bottled water is nasty, nasty stuff for a whole lot of reasons; it's sometimes not as clean as the free-flowing tap stuff; it's in plastic containers that may leak heavy metals into the water; and it's shipped all over the planet to get to you (which elevates the amount of carbon dioxide we're throwing back in our environment, too). Switch to tap or buy a home filtration system and halt the bottle water addiction.

 

To learn more tips and find out how you can get involved, visit their site for more details.


saving the bay

by USA 13. April 2009 12:38

 

This past Wednesday, 26 of us embarked on our first 2009 Eco-Maniacs volunteer event.  

 

If you don’t know, in order to encourage volunteerism in our local community, we’re given 3 days per year that we can use volunteering at one of the company-sponsored volunteer events or for an organization of our personal choice.

 

For this event, we partnered up with Save the Bay for a wetlands restoration project at Bair Island down in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay.  Save The Bay is the oldest and largest organization working exclusively to protect, restore and celebrate San Francisco Bay.  

 

 



Here are some of the highlights from our trip:
 
-       We learned about the ecosystem of our SF Bay and the importance of the wetlands.

-       We canoed out to Bair Island.

-       We planted 1,000 seedlings of native alkali heath.

-       We removed the non-native and highly invasive “pepper weed” plant.

-       We removed trash.

-       We tested the water’s phosphate levels.

-       Unearthed a dead jackrabbit.

-       Made a communal lunch of sandwiches, organic fruit, and cheez-its….yum!  Then composted the food remains.


All in all the day was a great combination of San Francisco Bay education, outdoor recreation, teamwork, and wetlands restoration. 

 
For pictures of the day check out our Flickr and Facebook pages. Feel free to comment!


If you are interested in learning more about Save the Bay and the advocacy work they do to protect our local treasure you can click here.