Earth Day
Action vs Education

Published: 2010-04-16

Action vs Education which comes first? What is Innate doing?
April 22 is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day; the focus is helping individuals, corporations and governments to join together and create a global green economy. http://earthday.org/node/418 Earth Day Network has an award-winning Educators' Network...! Here, you will find over 300 standard-based lessons, school greening tips, grants for teachers and more! http://earthday.org/education.

So what is Innate doing that merits a post around Earth Day education tools? We strive to work with our colleagues and suppliers to reduce our collective ecological footprint; we believe encouraging discussion and education on these tough issues can lead to effective action. In this spirit in 2009 we sponsored two events at the Recycling Council of British Columbia annual conference. Innate provided the 2009 funding for an educators award that was given to Bench Elementary School for their "Make a Difference Club" and facilitated a panel on the challenges and opportunities of creating a closed loop manufacturing process for food and drink containers. http://rcbc.bc.ca/events/annual-conference/2009-pres.

The Make a Difference Club at Bench elementary is a great example of how students can show community leadership. The club developed an action plan and campaigned in their school, community and with their local government to reduce the use of plastic grocery bags in the Cowichan Valley. The grades five through seven students decorated and sold re-usable cloth bags, the proceeds of which went to help the See Again Eye Program in Myanmar and the homeless in Duncan, B.C. The Make a Difference Club has raised over $30,000 in the past three years for these causes.

Moving from the inspiration of the education award, the panel discussion focused on the aspiration to create a closed-loop manufacturing process for food and drink containers in Vancouver Canada. The discussion showed that we've got a long way to go, but the building blocks are there. Panel members Clint Mahlman, senior vice president of London Drugs, detailed recycling programs for packaging and products at the end of their useful life http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/en-US/Content/CorporateInfo/NewsEvents/Recycling+at+London+Drugs.htm while Esther Speck, senior manager of sustainability at MountainEquipment Coop, gave an overview of the challenges faced in their long-underwear recycling project http://www.mec.ca/Main/content_text.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302884171.

We've got a range of initiatives underway with the common theme of steady progress toward reducing the ecological footprint of Innate products; stay tuned for further details. Let us know on our facebook page what you, your school or business did to commemorate Earth Day; view it as a variation on the Innate mantra, yOUR PLANET,yOUR CHOICES, yOUR GEAR