Sustainability Spotlight - April 2023 - Earth Day 2023
Every year on April 22nd, we celebrate Earth Day to demonstrate support for the environmental protection movement. First held in 1970, Earth Day inspired 20 million Americans to take to the streets, parks, and campuses to demonstrate against the health and environmental impacts that 150 years of industrial development had brought. By 1990, Earth Day had gone global, mobilizing some 200 million people in 141 countries, and bringing environmental issues to the world stage. Thus, paving the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit.
Over the decades Earth Day and EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly known as Earth Day Network) has brought hundreds of millions of people into the environmental movement, engaging with more than 1 billion world citizens every year. Earth Day has come to provide a voice for emerging environmental consciousness and putting environmental concerns at the forefront of society. It has become one of the largest secular observances in the world, marked as a day of action or change our behaviors and to create global, national, and local policy changes.
This year’s Earth Day theme is “Invest In Our Planet,” which highlights the importance of dedicating out time, resources, and energy to solving climate change and other environmental issues. By engaging governments, institutions, business, and more than the 1 billion world citizens who participate annually in Earth Day to do their part. As an individual, you yield real power for change through your influence as a consumer, a voter, and a community member. When your voice and actions are united with millions of others around the world, we can create an inclusive and impactful movement that is impossible to ignore.
But where to start?
- Find an Earth Day event near you
- Take action and make your voice heard
- Donate to the Canopy Project to plant a forest in your family’s name for as little as $1 per tree.
- Call your local and state representatives and tell them to support healthy communities by Investing in Our Planet.
- Hold a conversation with your family on the importance of sustainability and climate action.
- Or, check out this guide on 52 WAYS TO INVEST IN OUR PLANET
How will you make an impact this Earth Day? Check out some opportunities below.
Tree Sale April 15th & 16th - The Wheat Ridge Forestry Division will be hosting a tree sale at Anderson Park on Saturday April 15 from 8am-4pm and Sunday April 16 from 8am-12pm. There will be 17 different species available at wholesale prices ($75-$80). Trees are 1 inch caliper/diameter in #7 pots. Trees will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.
National Mayor's Challenge for Water Conservation April 1-30 - Wheat Ridge is excited to participate in the challenge for the first time and encourages residents to take a brief pledge to conserve water. The pledge will be open from April 1-30, and residents can participate by visiting https://mywaterpledge.com/ and searching for Wheat Ridge. Water conservation is a key component of creating a sustainable, healthy future for our residents, and conservation is a goal we can all work towards together to protect this scarce and valuable resource.
Wheat Ridge Searching for New Sustainable Neighborhoods - Wheat Ridge is looking for two new neighborhoods to join Applewood Villages, Fruitdale, Panorama Park, and Paramount Heights in the Sustainable Neighborhoods program! This program is a great way to meet your neighbors and get involved with the community. Sustainable Neighborhoods provides neighbors with support and resources to develop sustainability focused events in their neighborhood. Applications are open and will remain open until Friday, May 12. Apply today on the Sustainable Neighborhoods page: https://bit.ly/WRSNprogram.
