Journey to a Greener Future: A Guide to World Environment Day 2024

The world we live in is ever-changing. Unfortunately, in terms of the environment, the situation is usually worsening. We need to take the necessary steps to improve this situation. Environmental protection is of the utmost importance but with that said we also need to take the opportunity to take meaningful action for a greener future. This is what World Environment Day is all about. It occurs every year on the fifth of June. The theme for this year is ‘Journey to a Greener Future’, this further emphasises that we should be on a shared path towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly world. In this blog post we’ll be going through the theme for World Environment Day, its key focus areas and lastly actions we can carry out for a greener future.

Understanding the Theme

The theme of journeying towards a greener future is there to encourage us to reflect on the progress we’ve made in environmental conservation. Reflection alone isn’t enough, we need to take further steps to have a brighter, more sustainable future. This serves as a reminder for us to take care of the planet as the actions we do today will directly affect future generations. We need to take a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability. This involves various aspects of our lives, not just personal choices but even global polices. The theme forces us to acknowledge that there is a link between environmental, social and economic well-being.

Key Focus Areas

Aside from the theme, we also need to look at the key focus areas that World Environment Day prioritises. The most crucial aspect to this is our own personal responsibility. Everyone has a role to play in protecting the planet. There are steps we all need to take to reduce our carbon footprint. This is mainly done through reducing, reusing and recycling, conserving energy and adopting eco-friendly practices. This includes adopting renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind energy.

We must also make an effort to protect and preserve the planet’s biodiversity. This is an important part of our journey towards a greener future. These efforts have to include restoration of ecosystems, providing protection for endangered species and combating major issues like deforestation and other habitat destruction.

We can’t possibly make this journey without food! Believe it or not, agriculture actually contributes significantly to environmental degradation. We must start adopting sustainable agricultural practices, use more local and organic produce and reduce food waste.

Education is another key focus area. This is crucial to create a greener future. We need to constantly educate ourselves on the best sustainable and eco-friendly practices. There also needs to be education in schools and communities to promote environmental awareness and knowledge.

Actions for a Greener Future

We’ve already discussed the theme and pointed out the key focus areas, now it’s time to properly go through actions we can take to have a greener future. As previously mentioned we need to actively be reducing, reusing and recycling the waste we generate whenever possible. We also need to conserve energy, this can be done by switching to energy-efficient appliances and using public transport instead of personal vehicles. If possible we could also try and find ways to add more trees to our surroundings. Planting trees gives us a way of removing carbon dioxide and instead providing vital oxygen. This is also good for combatting deforestation. We could also consider reducing our meat consumption given that a plant-based diet has a much lower environmental impact than a meat-based diet. This is because meat production contributes heavily to environmental degradation. Lastly, we can all be advocates for change. This would include getting involved with local and global environmental movements and volunteering with NGOs to advocate for policies that promote sustainability and conservation.

World Environment Day comes only once a year but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take meaningful action all year round. This journey towards a greener future does not lead to any particular destination but instead is a continuous path we must all walk together. It’s a commitment for us to leave the planet in a better state than how we found it for the next generations to enjoy. To properly celebrate World Environment Day, let’s take that first step on our journey towards a greener future!

Our GO Green Initiative

At GO plc, we’re not just a telecommunications company, we’re a group of people who connect people all over Malta and Gozo. We strive to maintain this connectivity, not just digitally, but also physically. It’s important that we take care of our physical environment so that future generations can also enjoy the same connectivity. That’s why we’ve set up GO Green, an extension of GO primarily focusing on helping sustain and improve the environment whenever possible.

This blog post was written by Benjamin Thomas Scerri – Sustainability Associate, GO Green.

Benjamin is a member of the GO Green team. His main focus is keeping track of new ways in which to make GO more sustainable wherever and whenever possible.