Recently nearly a dozen of my Rubicon colleagues and I took part in the annual one-day “Sweep the Hooch” volunteer activity organized by the non-profit Chattahoochee RiverKeeper.
During the event at Zonolite Park and Powers Island Park (I was personally volunteering at the former), both of which are just outside of Atlanta, GA, we picked up more than four tons of trash and other debris from in and around the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries, with the garbage being hauled away in two 20-yard open top containers by RainTree Waste, a metro-Atlanta waste and recycling collection company and our hauling partner for the effort.
For me, this was an example of how something like Earth Day can inspire people to get out of their everyday environments and get into nature to help preserve our environment. After all, it wasn’t just us. Businesses from up and down Atlanta came together for the cleanup, all in an effort to improve the natural health of the watershed, on which more than five million people depend for clean water.
Company-Wide Earth Day Activities
The Chattahoochee River cleanup was just one of many activities Rubicon® employees have signed up for to celebrate Earth Day this year.
Our Earth Day activities are lasting all week thanks to much excitement coming out of all of our offices as we look to continue our work in making the world a better place.
At our company headquarters in Atlanta, on the heels of “sweeping the Hooch,” we have additional Earth Day related activities planned, including a 5K run on Monday, April 22 (today); a full Rubicon on-site waste audit on Wednesday, April 24; a recycling and waste management diversion education and training session, as well as an on-site waste audit with Yardi Atlanta on Thursday, April 25; and a book discussion with Jane Mosbacher Morris on her latest book, Buy the Change You Want to See: Use Your Purchasing Power to Make the World a Better Place, on Friday, April 26.
Our New York City team is attending an Earth Day volunteer event at GrowNYC in Brooklyn, NY on Wednesday, April 24; our Tinton Falls, NJ team is putting on an educational Earth Day activity for the children of employees; our San Francisco, CA team is hosting a waste and recycling education program at a local school; and finally, our St. Louis, MO team is having an on-site office waste audit.
At Rubicon our mission is to end waste, in all its forms. We work with cities, small businesses, and large companies across the United States and around the world to help them to meet that mission head on through technology and sustainability solutions. Part of our goal is to make the principles surrounding Earth Day—caring for the environment and shifting the thinking from landfills and take-make-waste to a more circular economy—everyday thinking.
Whatever you’re doing for Earth Day this year, I hope you’re able to get out into nature and remember why we work so hard every day to preserve our environment for future generations.
Nick McCulloch is Senior Manager of Sustainability at Rubicon. To stay ahead of Rubicon’s announcements of new partnerships and collaborations around the world, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, or contact us today.
