Tomorrow is Earth Day, and we’ve got a few ideas on how you could celebrate and support our beautiful planet.

• Plant a tree or donate a tree.
• Join a local park, river or beach clean-up.
• Change your car’s air filter regularly.
• Keep your tyres properly inflated to get better petrol mileage.
• Carpool, ride your bike, use public transport or drive an electric or hybrid car and reduce your carbon footprint with every kilometre (not) driven.
• Switch to environmentally-friendly, non-toxic cosmetics and cleaning products.
• Replace inefficient incandescent light bulbs with efficient CFLs or LEDs.
• Teleconference instead of traveling. If you fly five times per year, those trips are likely to account for 75% of your personal carbon footprint.
• Donate your old clothes and home goods instead of throwing them out.
• When you need something, consider buying used items.
• For any new clothing, choose natural fabrics to avoid micro-plastic.
• Choose reusable items over disposable plastics, especially single-use plastics like bottles, bags and straws.
• Recycle paper, plastic and glass.
• Use cloth towels instead of paper ones.
• Change your paper bills to online billing. You’ll be saving trees and the fuel it takes to deliver your bills by road.
• Read documents online instead of printing them.
• When you need to use paper, make sure it’s 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
• Set your office printer to print two-sided.
• Collect used printer, fax, and copier cartridges to recycle
• Convince your school or office to choose reusable utensils, trays, and dishes
• Use reusable bottles for water, reusable mugs for coffee and pack your lunch in a reusable bag.
• Organise to have healthy, locally-sourced food served at your school.
• Buy local food to reduce the distance from farm to fork. Buy straight from the farm, frequent your local farmers’ market, or join a local food co-op.
• Buy organic food to keep your body and the environment free of toxic pesticides.
• Grow your own organic garden, or join a farm-share group.
• Try a foodprint calculator to find out exactly how your meals impact the planet.
• Reduce your meat consumption to curb carbon emissions from the livestock industry.
• Make your next meal plant-based.
• Compost kitchen scraps for use in your garden — turning waste into fertiliser.
• Take a shorter shower and use a water-saving shower head.
• Fix leaky taps and shower-heads.
• Run your dishwasher only when it’s full to save water and energy.
• Conserve water outdoors by only watering your lawn in the early morning or late at night. Use drought-resistant plants / native plants in dry areas.
• Use cold water to wash your clothes and line dry.
• Form a “green team” at your office to find cost-effective ways to conserve resources and promote sustainability.
• Volunteer for a local environmental group and/or make a donation.
• Pull out invasive plants in your yard or garden and replace them with native ones.
• Turn off lights and unplug electronics you’re not using. This includes turning off your computer at night.
• Install solar panels on your roof.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator to save energy (and get exercise!).
• Lower the temperature on your hot water system.
• Contact your electricity company and find out about renewable energy options.
• Use energy-efficient appliances and electronics.
• Recycle batteries from small appliances and your electronics. Use rechargeable batteries instead.
• Check out the Earth Day Action Toolkit on https://www.earthday.org/toolkit-earth-day-2021-restore-our-earth/