Earth Hour, Dark Skies and Sustainability at work

Earth Hour 2024 is held between 20:30 and 21:30 on Saturday 23^rd March. Millions of people across the globe unite to show that they care about the future of our planet by switching off for one hour. It all started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when more than 2.2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses switched off their lights for one hour. Now more than 190 countries participate in switch-off events and activities. Today, Earth Hour is one of the world’s largest grassroots environmental movements (Earth Hour: small actions can make a big difference | WWF).

How to spend Earth Hour:

• Put your phone on do not disturb, and enjoy some down time to yourself.
• Have a veg-heavy meal by candlelight with your friends and family. View these simple swaps and sample recipe ideas to plan your meal.
• Raise money for WWF with our Facebook Challenge and give an hour for Earth.
• Connect and share on social media #EarthHourUK and encourage friends and family to join in.

Dark Skies and protecting the night

In addition to switching off for Earth Hour, by participating in activities such as The Countryside Charity (CPRE) annual Star Count and International Dark Sky Week (2^nd - 8^th April), we can increase our understanding of the harmful effects of light pollution and embrace the dark in order to save the night. From last year’s Star Count, where almost 4000 people took part, results showed only 5% of people can enjoy the wonder of a truly dark starry sky. Artificial light is known to cause confusion to migrating birds, often with fatal outcomes. It interrupts natural rhythms, including the reproduction, feeding and sleeping patterns of pollinating insects, bats and other nocturnal animals. In humans, studies show that exposure to light at night interrupts sleep and can disrupt the body’s production of melatonin, a brain hormone best known for its daily role in resetting the body’s biological clock (Only one in 20 of us can enjoy a starry sky, Star Count results find - CPRE).

This guide provides basic principles and steps we can take to switch off unnecessary lights and adopt environmentally responsible and neighbour-friendly outdoor lighting and reclaim our starlit skies. CPRE is calling for stronger local and national planning policy to combat light pollution. You can also Tell your MP that you want to see new planning policies to rewild our night sky and how they can help.

Explore the light pollution dark skies map England’s Light Pollution and Dark Skies and see the results including in your area from the Star Count 2023 (arcgis.com).

Sustainability at work

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have shared twenty tips to encourage businesses and organisations, no matter how big or small, to start embedding sustainability into business as usual (Lets make our workplaces sustainable | WWF).

1. Switch to Renewable Energy - to see how much you could save, for your organisation and the environment, try the Big Clean Switch
2. Check your Suppliers - research a company’s ethics and environmental practices. Ethical Consumer Magazinerates companies on their ‘ethiscore’.
3. Develop a sustainable purchasing policy - for typical business purchases (i.e. electronics, textiles, food, metals, chemicals), with details about what staff can and cannot purchase, and what they should look for, or avoid, when purchasing sustainable options.
4. Use recycled paper - we can all take steps to protect forests globally by ensuring that the paper we use is 100% recycled or FSC certified.
5. Measure your carbon footprint - Emissions are grouped into Scopes(Scope 1 are directly produced by your organisation such as fleet vehicles or on-site energy production, Scope 2 are emissions from purchased energy, and Scope 3 are indirect emissions you are responsible for such as staff travel). Making sure you account for Scopes 1 and 2 is essential and covering significant Scope 3 emissions is a great step to tackling climate change. You can seek advice from emissions reporting organisations such as CDP, use online calculators such as Climate Care, or calculate your own emissions using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and DEFRA’s carbon conversion factors.
6. Set Reduction targets – review your average annual footprint and set targets to reduce it. You could start small with a goal of reducing travel emissions by 5% over the next 3 years.
7. Remember the waste hierarchy – Refuse (stop purchasing or accepting items), reduce (buying in bulk, reducing quantities, reducing packaging), reuse (reusable options, reusing containers and packaging), recycle (recycle as much as possible), rot (composting food waste, anaerobic digestion), and energy recovery (incineration of general waste rather than sending it to landfill).
8. Reduce disposable plastics – check for disposables on offer in your workplace (plastic cutlery, disposable cups, Sellotape, bubble wrap, plastic packaging, etc.) and make reusable, sustainable swaps.
9. Planet-friendly travel – promote lower carbon options for travelling. Consider video conference instead of travelling, take public transport over taxis and driving, choose the train over a plane.
10. Take part in Earth Hour– join the fight for our world and showing solidarity.
11. Become a certified environmentally conscious organisation – sign up to the international standard on Environmental Management (ISO 14001).
12. Check your finances – some pensions and other investments are supporting harmful industries such as fossil fuels, deforestation, weapons and tobacco. Check where your money is invested and switch providers.
13. Think about food – when catering meetings or events, consider more vegan options, serve less meat but better quality (i.e. free range, organic, high-welfare) etc.
14. Life cycle thinking – choose products built to last, choose repairable, choose recycled.
15. Print less, go digital – make use of digital tools and software that reduces the need for print, such as Adobe Signor digital proofing tools.
16. Tell your stakeholders – reducing your environmental footprint and telling others why you’re doing it helps the planet, makes you more attractive for prospective employees and sets a standard for other organisations in your industry.
17. Give back to your local environment and community – attend volunteering days with a local charity (such as a Wildlife Trust, a foodbank or area litter-picking group) and benefit biodiversity by planting a wildflower meadow and installing bird boxes and insect hotels.
18. Office greenery – investing in a few office plants can create a calm and happier environment which boosts productivity.
19. Offset your carbon carefully – use Gold Standardcertified projects. These provide long-term carbon reduction solutions, demonstrate environmental integrity and contribute to sustainable development. A useful guide to offsetting can be found here.
20. Watch and share this free short film Our Planet: Our Business – drastic changes are needed to avoid catastrophic changes to our planet, and to achieve this we must reimagine ‘business as usual’.

We all have our part to play at home, in our local communities and in the workplace to tackle climate change and save our planet.

Lizzy Turek

Client Research Associate