Earth Day is tomorrow, Friday, April 22.
It’s a day where you make efforts to remember our planet and focus on doing things to help curb the human footprint we’ve made on this planet.
In the past year, Mount Vernon has expanded their sustainability efforts, increasing the number of solar panels at the city, with two new additions at the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center and the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department.
That’s one worthwhile effort by both these communities to reduce the amount of electricity taken from the grid.
Mount Vernon also joined the Resilient Iowa Communities project, which is further evaluating the sustainability efforts for them as a city.
Those are major projects for these communities. Earth Day is a time for us as citizens to look at what we can do on a micro level to benefit these communities, too.
Are there things in our own consumption or wastes for products we could look at changing? Maybe it’s finding a new purpose for containers, looking into starting composting in our yard or ideas like starting a rain barrel to help with watering plants and outside items without pulling out the hose every time.
Maybe it’s starting a garden or getting more time to spend working on community gardens at Lisbon and Mount Vernon this season to benefit the community at large as well.
Maybe it’s evaluating if a car is necessary for every trip, and, if it isn’t, taking a few more minutes in your travel time to pull out a bike or your own two feet to get there.
These are just small starting points and suggestions. What you choose to do to take steps to making the world a better place, even if it’s just a few small steps this year, it’s always a good place to start on Earth Day.