9 Earth Day Activities for Work

Hands-on environmental work offers the chance for teams to get outside, bond, and contribute to their communities and their local green spaces. Whether it's planting trees, picking up litter, removing invasive species so that native ones can grow and thrive, installing a community garden, or another restoration activity available in your area, working together to restore your local environment is a rewarding and worthwhile way to celebrate Earth Day! 

Fundraising for an environmental cause is a great way to get your employees engaged with sustainability. You can do this in a number of ways, including with matching gifts that double employee donations to a selected nonprofit, or by creating a Raisley fundraiser page to help your brand reach your fundraising goal. Plus, if your business raises the most money during Earth Month, you’ll be the recipient of our Green Guardian Award. The winner will receive a social media shoutout, a Q&A Partner Spotlight on our blog, and a trophy.

If your company doesn't already have a green team or sustainability committee, Earth Month is a great time to establish one! Corporate green teams can work on a range of projects that improve corporate sustainability. This might include investigating ways to green up your supply chain, reducing your overall environmental footprint, educating fellow employees about ways to be sustainable, or rolling out internal sustainability initiatives. Joining or forming a green team is a great way to engage employees in projects that can improve your business sustainability!

Working together with an environmental auditing organization can help you identify areas where you could improve, reduce your carbon footprint, shrink utility bills and improve your overall business performance. There are also utility incentives that can make energy efficiency more affordable for your business. The right organization can help you navigate available incentives, determine what opportunities will serve your organization best (ie. opting for renewable energy sources) and create a plan to implement their suggestions.

The average office employee generates a lotof waste, which is bad for the environment and your bottom line. You can reduce your office footprint by creating or improving recycling stations near communal or dining areas, tasking your green team with (gently) enforcing recycling rules, offering exciting incentives for top recyclers, and more. By setting business-wide or team-wide goals and following up on them, you can motivate your employees to significantly reduce their waste footprint!

One of the best ways to celebrate Earth Month is by engaging an environmental expert or nonprofit representative to speak with your team about the environment and sustainability. You can do this in a number of ways, including booking someone for an in-person workshop, traveling offsite to learn in the field, or booking a virtual presentation that your employees can attend from anywhere.

Start a Meatless Monday program to see if your entire workplace can go a whole day without meat! Why go meatless? Accounting for 80% of deforestation, agriculture-driven land use change is one of the leading causes of forest loss. And 75% of our planet's agricultural land is used for livestock, which produces more carbon dioxide in a year than all of the planes, trains and automobiles in the world. That means that skipping meat for even just one day every week can add up to a pretty significant impact over time. 

You know who we're talking about: the one that walks or bikes to work, brings their lunch from home in the same reusable container every day, fills their water bottle from the tap and recycles religiously. These are the employees that have, on their own initiative, moved their environmental commitment forward from talk into action — and they've got the green "street cred" to prove it. By recognizing their commitment to the planet, you can demonstrate your appreciation, and encourage other employees to follow suit! 

Aside from planting trees or participating in sustainability initiatives, we believe that one of the best ways to celebrate Earth Month is by getting outside and enjoying nature. Because after all, we protect what we care about — and a strong connection to nature is great for our physical and mental health.  So round up the team for a walk at a nearby park, or a hike through a local forest, and enjoy some bonding time in the great outdoors! You can either take a self-guided hike or engage a local nature guide to enrich the experience.