How Can Businesses Celebrate Earth Day?

Earth Day is an annual worldwide event to raise environmental protection and sustainability awareness. As a business, participating in Earth Day is a fantastic way to show your commitment to these important causes and engage with employees and customers.

From hosting events and campaigns to offering eco-friendly merchandise and products, you can make a difference and celebrate Earth Day in meaningful and impactful ways. This article will explore various Earth Day ideas for 2023 that businesses can implement to celebrate this important day.

Why Should Companies Celebrate Earth Day?

According to Deloitte’s 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, climate change is the second most crucial societal concern for both generations. The organizations that represent their beliefs, have a beneficial influence on the environment and make them feel they can make a difference as individuals are more likely to grab both generations’ attention.

Further, given the broader discussion surrounding the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the impact of climate change, energy demand, food security, ocean equity, wildlife conservation and water scarcity, organizations that embrace the importance of corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) objectives are part of a global shift in which every company is socially responsible.

Companies that celebrate Earth Day can improve their sustainability, enhance their brand image, boost customer satisfaction and drive innovation. It’s a way for them to show their commitment to environmental issues and make a positive impact on the planet.

20 Things Businesses Can Do for Earth Day

Earth Day is an important event celebrated annually on April 22 to raise awareness about environmental issues and encourage individuals and organizations to take action to protect the planet. Businesses have a significant role in promoting sustainability and protecting the environment.

From organizing a cleanup event to reducing energy usage and using environmentally friendly products, there are many simple and effective ways for businesses to impact the environment positively. Here’s a list of 20 Earth Day activities for adults that businesses can do to engage their employees and customers in environmental initiatives.

1. Designate a Green Task Force

Your green team assists you in understanding how your business may become more environmentally friendly. Green teams can be volunteer-based or include positions that are formally appointed. Use Earth Day to work with your co-workers and create one for your office.

Corporate green teams are fantastic for improving workplace culture. Green teams motivate staff, encourage other sustainable businesses to work with you, and make your company greener through environmental research, plans and the roll-out of other sustainable responsibilities.

2. Host a Green Fundraiser

Your green team can pick an organization or cause to raise money for. Donate to environmental organizations to support their efforts, and have your employees or customers participate in this fundraiser.

There are numerous creative ways to host environmental fundraisers, from hosting marathons to leveraging social media. Wrap up the fundraiser on Earth Day so you can make the donation on the day and celebrate your efforts accordingly.

3. Establish an Incentives-Based Recycling Program

Consider setting up recycling stations in the workplace, assigning volunteers to monitor employee compliance, using apps that teach your staff, and setting general corporate goals, team goals and individual goals for employees who recycle the most. As a result, you can boost your workplace’s recycling efforts and minimize waste.

4. Organize a Cleanup Event

Gather your employees to do a community cleanup event. Your employees can go to a designated location, such as a local park or river, and they can pick up trash and debris to clean up the area. Make it a fun competition and see which group or individual can fill a certain number of garbage bags. The team or person with the most trash bags can win a prize.

5. Plant Trees

Planting a tree is a simple and effective way to celebrate Earth Day. Trees perform various critical environmental activities, including removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and aiding in air purification.

You set up an event to plant trees or flowers in a park, around the office or in other public spaces. Go a step further and work together to plant a company garden that produces its own fruits and vegetables, which you can donate or allow employees to take home. A beautiful company garden makes an excellent designated lunch space, too.

6. Take a Composting Class

Composting food leftovers such as coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable scraps instead of tossing them in the trash keeps organic elements out of landfills and allows them to return to the Earth. Composting has numerous benefits, such as reducing food waste, promoting plant development, decreasing methane emissions and enhancing water retention.

Bring in an environmentalist to the workplace to demonstrate how composting works. As a result, you and your team can discover what composting is and how you could possibly implement it in the office.

7. Opt for Environmentally-Friendly Options

Create an environmentally-friendly workplace by offering greener options. Use eco-friendly office supplies like recycled paper and biodegradable pens. Additionally, you can use greener cleaning products to reduce potentially harmful chemicals in the workplace, and you can opt to replace your products’ packaging with biodegradable materials to reduce waste.

You can also encourage employees and customers to use eco-friendly products, such as reusable water bottles, cloth shopping bags and biodegradable products.

8. Visit a Recycling Site

Do you or your employees know what happens to your recycling once it leaves the office or is picked up at a house? Organize a visit to a recycling site to help educate your employees on the recycling process and observe how it works.

9. Host a Green Workplace Happy Hour

To celebrate Earth Day, organize a different kind of workplace happy hour and motivate employees to go outside for fresh air and fun activities. Go for a post-work walk, jog or hike. You can also try yoga classes or other types of outside events.

10. Do Fun Challenges

There are various fun Earth Day challenges you can do with your co-workers. Some examples include the following:

• Plastic usage: See how little plastic employees can use in the week leading up to Earth Day. Whoever has the least amount of wasted plastic wins a prize.
• Water usage: Encourage employees to use less water, both at home and in the office. Encourage employees to explain how they’ve approached this to motivate others to do the same.
• Electricity usage: Encourage employees to use less electricity. This can include using less air conditioning when it’s hot and less heat when it’s chilly. Turn off lights when not in use and install energy-saving lights that turn off after a specific length of time around the office.

11. Commit to Green Habits

Organize challenges to encourage everyone to make at least one significant commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. Maybe some employees will opt to carpool to work together, and others will commit to using less paper during the workday.

12. Support Local Business

Encourage employees and customers to support locally run businesses. One idea is to organize a work happy hour at a local brewery instead of going to a chain restaurant. Another example would be signing up for a community-supported agriculture program for your office, which involves receiving an assortment of products from local farmers every week or month.

13. Donate Food

If you notice that food from your vegetable garden or company cafeteria goes to waste, try donating leftover food to local organizations instead of throwing it away. This Earth Day, you could also consider creating a zero-waste kitchen for your employees, which minimizes waste as much as possible.

14. Promote Sustainable Transportation

Encourage employees to carpool, use public transportation or bike to work and other destinations during Earth Day to reduce emissions and save money on transportation costs.

15. Send an Email Chain

Motivate each of your employees to deliver an environmentally friendly tip through email to everyone in the office. They may teach their co-worker a low-water dishwashing approach, an alternative to plastic sandwich bags or other eco hacks.

16. Raise Awareness

Create themed days during the week and reward employees for posting about them on social media. Mention the workplace challenges and a fact about Earth Day and conservation that connects to the day’s topic. Let them call for climate change by posting on social media and letting friends, family and acquaintances know this is a concern.

17. Distribute Reusable Shopping Bags

To help reduce the use of plastic bags during shopping, distribute reusable shopping bags to your employees. Encourage them to decorate these bags to add a creative touch to the initiative.

18. Reward Customers With Giveaways

If it’s a good match for your company, you might arrange to give away some items or services in the days leading up to Earth Day. An Earth Day giveaway may be a simple approach to increase brand interaction and raise awareness for Earth Day. Set up some requirements for the giveaway and determine various eco-friendly rewards that customers can win.

19. Have a Community Earth Day Party

Why not arrange a unique community event and ask your business network, employees and customers to join you in celebrating the big day? Earth Day events for businesses can be affordable and fun, and a party is no exception. Here are some party ideas:

• Everyone makes a piece of apparel out of recyclable materials and dresses up according to a theme.
• Everyone in the community contributes a plastic bottle and works together to create a sculpture.
• Everyone brings old clothes or unwanted stuff to trade or donate.
• Everyone plays games about sustainability such as trivia, scavenger hunts and team-building.

20. Set Future Conservation Goals

Hold your business responsible for the future. Even after Earth Day, you should make it a point to keep your new practices going and make them corporate policy where possible. Consider which programs and initiatives have made the most impact and work with your team to implement the best ones.

Sustainable Swag Ideas for Earth Day

Earth Day is an excellent opportunity for businesses to show their commitment to the environment. One fun way to do this is by offering eco-friendly merchandise and gifts to employees and customers. Sustainable swag promotes environmental awareness and serves as a practical and memorable reminder of a company’s values.

From reusable straws to eco-friendly apparel, these items support environmental causes and provide a lasting impact on your brand:

1. Reusable straws: These are excellent swag ideas because they encourage individuals to reduce their usage of single-use plastic. Reusable straws are eco-friendly, practical items that people can use daily. Reusable straws help limit the use of disposable plastic items and are a fantastic marketing opportunity.
2. Promotional drinkware: This option can include reusable water bottles and coffee mugs. These are great swag items because they’re highly functional and recipients can use them daily. They serve as a constant reminder of a company’s commitment to sustainability.
3. Eco-friendly apparel: Eco-friendly apparel, such as organic cotton T-shirts, is a great option because it promotes environmental awareness and provides a practical item people can wear. Wearing environmentally friendly clothing can help raise awareness and start conversations about sustainability.
4. Eco-friendly journals: Eco-friendly journals provide a practical and sustainable alternative to traditional paper products.
5. Promotional pens: Promotional pens are highly functional, and recipients can use them in various settings. By using eco-friendly bamboo promotional pens, businesses can reduce waste.
6. Promotional bags: Promotional bags, such as reusable tote bags, encourage individuals to reduce their use of single-use plastic bags. Reusable bags are eco-friendly, practical items people can use daily.

Celebrate Earth Day With Sustainable Gifts From ePromos

Investing in environmentally-friendly promotional items is a terrific way to associate your company with sustainability. ePromos has a large selection of merchandise for your Earth Day giveaways or events. Our straightforward buying process and low rates can help make your next Earth Day campaign successful. Shop our selection now!