With many of our properties holding LEED certification, sustainability is practiced every day. What better time than Earth Day to show off building initiatives by bringing tenants together for awareness events and activities. Many of our concierge celebrated with property-hosted events and some took to the streets on their own to do their part this Earth Day.
The most effortless way to chip in to Earth Day efforts is with recycling and shredding. Several locations hosted week long building-wide electronics drives and on-site shredding events. In total, our clients recycled 13,912 lbs of electronics materials—one property single handedly contributing 3,765 lbs of that! To tie into the e-cycling efforts, Charm City Concierge’s Community Outreach Committee coordinated an ink and toner recycling drive, collecting close to 125 used ink and toner cartridges. A simple, but impactful effort for our Earth!
A few locations hosted Earth Day Vendor Fairs where the environmentally friendly vendors that service the building and help it maintain the standards of LEED certification came to showcase their business—landscapers, green cleaners, Business Improvement Districts, bike share programs, and La Prima green catering to name a few.
Some tenants had the opportunity to get their hands dirty with make your own biodegradable bamboo flower kits, succulent terrariums, and pudding dirt cups complete with earth gummy worms. Planet Earth episodes were on loop with green and blue popcorn and blue punch to make it a mini movie event. Other elements to enhance the events ranged from reusable lunch totes and plant giveaways, Earth Day trivia, and other interactive elements to support green initiatives in each building.
One of our concierge teams at a business park in Maryland invited tenants to make a difference in just 20 minutes or less by putting their lunch break to a good cause and spending some time cleaning up an area outside their office. The business park is benefiting from a litter free environment thanks to this creative and collective initiative by a few concierges.
With Earth Day and Take Your Child to Work Day falling within the same week, one property coined their event as “Bring Your Child to Earth Day,” which other locations have also joined in on this fun and unique twist to celebrating both occasions. Children were occupied with learning experiences from a naturalist who brought creek macro-invertebrates, like crayfish and dragonfly larvae, to have on display and a craft activity where participants created their own “creek critter” out of recycled and natural items. A “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” Scavenger Hunt geared towards putting environmentally friendly practices in place and activity books that taught the importance and impact of recycling were a few more fun-filled educational activities provided to children. Tenants who brought their kid workers in for the day appreciated the sustainability spin.
Though we won’t have globe decorated cake pops or reusable water bottle giveaways every day to celebrate, we can keep environmentally friendly efforts going year-round with these simple ways to care for our Mother Earth:
- Reduce energy waste by turning lights off
- Fill your office and your home with plants – there are many benefits, including reducing carbon dioxide levels and reducing airborne dust levels
- Reuse and upcycle
- Spend a few minutes each week cleaning up outside
