Luscious mountains, majestic deserts, serene beaches — our planet gives us a lot to be thankful for. Every April, Earth Month is an awesome opportunity to celebrate our glorious planet. It’s also a good time to join forces with our local communities through volunteer work, reevaluate our actions and their impact on the planet, and make small changes in our everyday lives.
Earth Day 2021 falls on Thursday, April 22nd, but we’re celebrating planet Earth all month long! Here are six (super easy) ways to get involved and make an impact this Earth Month.
1. Join Or Host A Local Clean-Up
Giving back to your local community is one of the best ways you can make an impact this Earth Month. Protecting plants and animals from excessive waste and single-use plastic pollution is essential to keeping local communities clean and safe, especially in marine areas. It is estimated that around two thirds of the world’s fish population is suffering from plastic ingestion and that 100,000 marine mammals die because of plastic pollution each year. Plastic food wrappers, cigarette butts, and plastic bottles are among the most commonly found items in cleanups.
There are hundreds of local cleanups throughout the U.S. already scheduled for Earth Month 2021, but if you don’t see a cleanup close to you, or you have another location you’d like to tackle, you can host your own cleanup - it's easy! All you need is a few helping hands.
2. Download an Eco-Focused App
Believe it or not, there are several apps available that can make living more sustainably a much easier task. Check out these earth-focused lifestyle apps.
The fashion industry is responsible for around 10 percent of global carbon emissions. When we think about what we wear, it’s equally important to consider how and where it was made. The Good on You app helps you support fashion brands that are earth-focused and giving back to the environment. Good on You gives users sustainable news, brand ratings and guides to ethical fashion. The app claims to have over 2,000 brands in its database and ranks each one based on its sustainable and ethical practices.
GreenChoice
Who wants to sift through products and read the labels of every item on their grocery list? Instead, download GreenChoice and let the free app do the hard work for you. Research shows that around 34 percent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions are generated by food systems. Buying products that are healthy for you and the environment is a great way to make small, but impactful change! The GreenChoice team says they’ve evaluated more than 340,000 products’ impact on your wellbeing and the planet. Compare prices across local stores and online and build your shopping list with the most cost-effective, sustainable products.
This app makes it easy to challenge yourself to live a little greener everyday. The LiveGreen app is free, and allows you to easily track your daily carbon emissions from food, transport, utilities bills and more! It’s very similar to how fitness apps let users log calorie intake and calories burned and is a great way to jump in if you’re just starting out. The app also provides daily and weekly challenges to give you new ways to live more sustainably.
3. Participate in Meatless Mondays this April
Did you know that Meatless Monday is a tradition that over 40 countries participate in? It’s a movement that’s been gaining momentum since 2003. The production of meat has a terribly harmful impact on our environment and consumers have started to take note. Large areas of forests are destroyed in order to clear land for animal grazing and feed production and enormous amounts of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming, during this process. According to the Human Society, if everyone in the U.S. gave up meat for just one night every week of the year, we’d save billions of animals annually. New to plant-based cuisine? Try tackling Meatless Mondays for the month of April and see if you’re up for continuing the challenge after a month. Check out this website for more plant-based inspiration.
4. Earth Day Live Webinar
Earth Day is April 22nd and Earthday.org will be hosting a live online series debating planet Earth’s urgent issues. Join in on April 22nd right here. Earthday.org is on a mission to educate people worldwide on climate action. The organization works with more than 75,000 partners in over 190 countries to drive positive action for our planet.
Earthday.org will bring together thousands of organizations for three days of climate action, beginning April 20th. Follow EarthDayNetwork on Instagram for more information on how you can get involved!
5. Participate in the UnSplash Stigmatize Plastic Photo Challenge.
Get creative this month in how you share your reasons for ditching the single-use plastic. UnSplash is building a collection of photos highlighting the negative impact of single-use plastic bottles. Your image could be featured! Here’s how to participate: Remix images provided by adding copy, creating a collage, or using it to tell a story stigmatizing single-use plastic bottles and share on social with the hashtag #BetterPlanet. As an added bonus, Boxed Water will plant 2 trees in National Forests with your post when you tag the remixed image with #BetterPlanet. Learn more and get started by clicking here.
6. Plant Trees with Boxed Water
Last year we celebrated having planted one million trees in national forests across the country. This Earth Month, we’re hoping to plant 50,000 trees as part of our larger goal to plant one million more trees.
We work with the National Forest Foundation to repopulate forests affected by wildfire and natural causes. It couldn’t be simpler for you to join us. Post a photo of any of our plant-based cartons online with the hashtag #BetterPlanet and we’ll plant two trees in a National Forest. You can also have two trees planted by sharing this post to your Instagram story anytime during Earth Month 2021! And if you're on TikTok, make sure to check out our #BetterPlanetChallenge.
Happy Earth Month!