17 Apr IMR Celebrates Earth Day 22nd April 2020
The role of the Circular Economy in Climate Action
As we count down to Earth Day’s 50th anniversary on April 22, its history shows that when individuals come together, they can affect change, something we are currently witnessing as people collectively embrace lockdowns around the world to flatten the curve in our fight against COVID-19.
“None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” – Mother Teresa
Earth Day is a time to reflect and appreciate the benefits that natural ecosystems generate for societies. During this COVID-19 period, it is also an ideal time to strengthen our relationship with nature and to think of ways we can work to better support the Earth for future generations.
The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action, the single biggest challenge facing humanity.
The last four years were the four hottest on record, glaciers and ice sheets in polar and mountain regions are already melting faster than ever. We are hitting up against planetary boundaries and the urgency to scale up action has never been greater. We have a narrowing window of just over a decade (by 2030) to implement radical reductions (45-50%) in global greenhouse gas emissions in order to stay below 1.5°C.
We only have one Planet Earth – so how can we take positive steps towards reconfiguring our economies and scale solutions for sustainable production and consumption? The European Commission’s European Green Deal and recently launched Circular Economy Action Plan are causes for optimism.
“We propose a green and inclusive transition to help improve people’s well-being and secure a healthy planet for generations to come” Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission on the launch of the European Green Deal.
In addition to the call to action for industry to embrace new ways of working and new business models there are also simple actions we can all take every day:
- Connect with nature. Get outside! Now is the perfect time to discover your garden, plant a tree, vegetables, and flowers to increase local biodiversity. Go for walks within your 2km radius and enjoy nature all around you and reflect how it contributes to your wellbeing. Continue this habit when COVID-19 lockdown is lifted!
- Alter your consumption habits. Practice conscious consumption – become mindful that the resources you are consuming. Embrace ideas like the circular economy – seek to keep your existing products in use for as long as possible and if you need new products to seek out companies seek to keep materials in use for as long as possible by design and facilitated repair and reuse.
Around the world communities and nations are working together in the fight against the coronavirus – during this time we are also presented with an opportunity to reflect. As we walk the path to recovery from COVID-19, returning to business as usual from a climate perspective is not an option…
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is a success.” – Henry Ford
Join Us:
Irish Manufacturing Research is hosting an information sharing webinar and a Quiz on Wednesday 22nd April from 10:00 to 10:45 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The webinar will give an overview of the current state of the environment and provide information on sustainable development goals (SDGs), changing climate, air quality, water quality, biodiversity, soil health, and the Circular economy.
We are hosting a live webinar on Wednesday 22nd April at 10.00 – 10.30, following on attendees have an opportunity to join our Earth Day quiz. The winner of the Quiz will receive;
- A Sustainable Manufacturing Strategic Workshop for his organisation, which involves key stakeholders/decision-makers and aims to help inform the developments of the company’s sustainability roadmap
- For their own efforts, we have a Sustainability Hamper with a Home Electrical Meter supplied by (IMR) and Home Water savings devices sponsored by Renergise.
Official Earth Day website https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2020/
NASA Earth Day toolkit plenty of resources for all age groups https://www.nasa.gov/content/earth-day-2020-50th-anniversary-toolkit
Free daily webinars for earth week with the Circular Economy session on Tuesday 21st https://www.wedonthavetime.org/event/earthdayweek
Understand the state of resource extraction: https://www.resourcepanel.org/
Find out about biodiversity with the IPBES, the equivalent to the IPCC in terms of fauna and flora: https://ipbes.net/
EU Circular economy action plan available: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/pdf/new_circular_economy_action_plan.pdf