The Greener Earth Project challenge: Live Net-Zero Day
A reforestation charity, The Greener Earth Project, is marking its first birthday, by challenging people to spend a full day without contributing to carbon emissions, in their Live Net Zero Day on Saturday 22nd May.
The day invites individuals, households and even businesses to try out different approaches to living that could potentially become loved new habits - and consider implementing these ideas in the long-term.
By challenging people to live ‘net zero’ for one day The Greener Earth Project aims to help people not just understand what contributes to their personal and household emissions but actually try out different approaches to living that can become daily habits. The ultimate goal is to help people find different ways of going about their day that directly reduce individual contributions to carbon emissions.
Why Net-Zero?
Every year, human activity adds 46 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to the earth’s atmosphere. This is mostly carbon dioxide and this is the primary cause of the heating of the earth’s atmosphere that causes climate change.
Net-Zero balances the amount of carbon humans add to the atmosphere, with what is removed. The simplest option is to minimise what is added, however, carbon-removal companies, such as Climeworks, have solutions which will help decrease the level of CO2 in the air.
Trees can also be planted with The Greener Earth Project to sequester carbon. A mature tree removes 22kg (0.022 tonnes) of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. So, a carbon footprint of 12 tonnes a year, equates to 545 trees planted a year.
To get started, challengers can calculate their annual carbon footprint using the Footprint Calculator provided by the WWF, which breaks down different sources of emissions. This will give a clear picture of where to have the greatest impact.
“The race to Net Zero is on, and while government and businesses are responsible for setting the pace of change for the rest of the nation, we all have a role to play in making the world a safer and more sustainable place”, said Jorden Summers, Co-Founder and Chair of The Greener Earth Project. “There are countless changes, both small and large, that we can make as individuals to contribute to this collective mission, which is why we’re challenging people to spend this Saturday living a carbon free life.”
A Net-Zero day
Many businesses have net-zero goals for the future. Facebook has already reached net-zero.
Sustainability will report back on which businesses took up the challenge.
