As we move into the month of April, Council of Companies is very excited that April 22 will be Earth Day! With this in mind, we wanted to highlight a few ways Young Professionals and their employers can celebrate this day and move towards being more environmentally conscious. For individuals, we want to make sure people are aware of the opportunities that Earth Day Omaha is offering. Their biggest event will take place on April 23 from 11am-6pm at Omaha’s Elmwood Park. This free event will include food and drink, live music, family-friendly activities, and a green expo. Earth Day Omaha is not limiting the festivities to just one day though as April 22 will mark the start of the month-long Omaha Earth Day Passport program. This Passport will provide new challenges everyday with an opportunity to gain points and win prizes – huge shout out to Earth Day Omaha for creating these opportunities!
But Earth Day isn’t just a time when individuals are able to participate in meaningful initiatives. There are also many ways to get a corporation or small business involved. An easy way to get involved at the workplace is to take part in the Bags to Benches program through Trex program, or ordering battery recycling and other zero waste boxes from Terracycle. Aside from programs within your organization, creating sustainability employee resource groups can be a great way to look at company environmental initiatives and align with employee values.
Starting a sustainability-focused employee resource group may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Verdis Group’s Kate Hamel and Grace Thomas recently participated in the Greater Omaha Chamber’s YP Summit and provided language and information for ‘Emerging Leaders’ to have climate-related conversations within their organizations. A central idea shared by them was to bring up what is going on right here in Nebraska – such as drought, floods, wildfire smoke, and other climate issues – and to utilize these events to discuss the possible changes your company may face due to climate change in the future. These conversations can spark an interest and change within your company.
We hope you’re interested in this sort of focus on sustainability and fortunately, there are many resources within the Omaha community that you can look into where you can engage and work to make our businesses greener – two we’d particularly like to highlight are Verdis Group and Hillside Solutions.
Thank you all!