World Environment Day & Celebrating Pride

Wednesday 5 June is World Environment Day.

Did you know that it is World Environment Day next week? World Environment Day began in 1974, set up by the United Nations to encourage awareness and action, to protect our environment. It’s such an important issue and one that I feel should form a part of everyone’s lives, not just for the one day, but every day.

As part of the AGM programme, I wanted to show all of our members and Colleagues, why sustainability is at the heart of what we do at the Society. Tackling single-use plastic is high on the agenda for many organisations and people right across the world, and there is no better time to start acting, than now. Plastic pollution is a huge problem for our oceans, with 8 million pieces of plastic entering the seas every day. It is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean, by weight, than fish. You may have seen me at the AGM, compressing ‘unrecyclable’ plastic, such as clingfilm, crisp packets, chocolate bar wrapping and plastic netting into plastic bottles, to create Eco Bricks. Eco Bricking is such a simple way to make a difference to our environment; what’s more is, it’s easy and fun, doesn’t cost a thing, so everyone should have a go.

To celebrate here within the Society, all our Regional Communities are carrying out volunteering to help tidy their local communities, and I am delighted to say that already over 400 people have signed up. Each activity forms a significant part of the Society’s 1 Change Campaign to help reduce single-use plastics and is an important date in our calendar to mobilise action across our 20 Regional Communities. I would strongly encourage all of you to get involved in the events and to volunteer please click here.

You can also help by spreading the word to your, friends and family, so please go to our Twitter feed @Midcountiescoop and retweet any local events near to you and your followers. We will also be running a competition on Twitter for those tweeting about their volunteering experience on the day, please use the ‘hashtag’ #1Change. You could be in with a chance to win an eco-friendly hamper, so make sure to get involved.

Many of you will be fans of the fantastic BBC programme Springwatch which has nearly 4 million viewers. This year it is being broadcast live from the Cairngorms National Park, an area twice the size of the Lake District! Hosted by Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo William, the programme is another brilliant way to understand how you can adapt your outdoor spaces to help the environment and the wildlife around you to flourish. The watches are being broadcast at 7.30pm or 8.00pm on weekday evenings on BBC2 until Thursday 13 June. If you've missed any of the broadcasts so far you can catch up on BBC iPlayer.

Next week, Springwatch will feature our Environmental Ambassador, Cal Major. I had the pleasure of meeting Cal at our AGM and I was inspired by her passion for change. Cal has made strides in environmentalism and is empowering others to make a positive step, by doing what they can to find sustainable alternatives and reducing plastic consumption. So, it is great news to hear that Cal will be recording pieces for Springwatch each day next week and will then be recording live with them on Thursday 6th June! It is great to see how she is being recognised in this way and being given an exciting opportunity to feature on such a popular TV show. So please tune in and show your support for Cal – if one person can make this kind of impact, imagine what a collective of passionate people can achieve! The recordings are wildlife focussed but we are hoping that Cal will also have the chance to mention our 1 Change campaign. You can help by tweeting about Cal and our 1 Change campaign using the hashtag #1Change and copying in her Twitter @PaddleVsPlastic or liking and commenting on her Facebook page here.

I also enjoyed reading about what our Colleagues got up to last weekend. On Saturday, a number of Colleagues from across the Society took part in the Birmingham Pride parade. The parade was attended by over 75,000 people from the LGBTQ+ community and started at Victoria square through Birmingham into the Gay village. It was great to see the wonderful, colourful photographs of the day on our Colleague Connect page and as a Society, we are really proud to support this event which falls part of the wider Diversity and Inclusion strategy at Midcounties. Well Done to the Gender working group for organising our part in this fantastic, inclusive event.