On Friday 20th Septmber, inspired by climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, people all over the world will take action to demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.
As a firm, Thomson Cooper have been considering how we can be more ‘green’. Partner Elaine Cromwell discusses her concerns about climate change and shares her plans to encourage the rest of the Thomson Cooper team to make changes to benefit the environment.
“At a personal level, I’m concerned about climate change, I think many of us are. My children and the young people I know from the volunteering I do at Young Church, are really worried about climate change and that further alarms me. When I was a child, the threat to our future was from the Cold War, nowadays children fear melting ice caps, extreme weather, destruction of the rain forests and plastic poisoning the oceans. I find it hard to know where to start. But there are things we can do, even small actions can make a difference.
I am sure many, if not all of you will have heard of Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 16 year old who has been ‘striking’ by not attending school, protesting and lobbying governments about climate change. At the end of August Greta completed her Atlantic Ocean crossing in an eco- yacht. On 20th September, ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September, a global day of activism is planned where young people are asking adults too to join them in action against climate change. We are planning to mark the day with a few initiatives, which if successful, we may be able to do more regularly.
The first plan is for as many of us as possible to get to the offices on that day by zero carbon means i.e. walking, cycling, scooter or roller skates! For some staff this won’t be possible but you could think about taking public transport or car sharing. We would like to see empty car parks that day! Some exciting news for Edinburgh staff is that the Edinburgh Bike Scheme has offered us as many free trials of their scheme as we need on the 20th.
The next plan is to hold a ‘swap shop’ event. The idea will be to bring one item which you no longer want but still has lots of life left in it. They will need to be clean and in good condition. We will either silent auction them or you will put a value on the item and others can buy the item for that value, the money being donated to The Ecology Centre, a Fife based environmental charity. Any unsold items will be donated to local charity shops.
On the day, we will circulate information about climate change and small things we can all do at work and home to help reduce our carbon footprint and help the environment. In the meantime, you might want to take this climate change quiz – some of the responses might surprise you.
You may also want to consider pledging to have a plastic free Friday.
For the modest sum of £2 you can dress down for the day – why not wear something green?
Lastly, the Ecology Centre runs a tool recycling scheme. If you have any tools you would like to donate, please bring them in and we will see that they get to the Centre.”
Sounds like great fun and plenty of ideas that other businesses can use with their teams. We hope you feel inspired. Check out our facebook and twitter pages to see how we all got on.