World Environment Day – It’s Time You Pay Heed to the Warning Signals
World Environment Day may not get the prestige or recognition seen with more popular holidays and festivities. Nonetheless, it’s rapidly becoming one of the most important days of the year for people and businesses worldwide to come together. The day aims to create awareness regarding our environment and encourage actions for its protection. Since 1974, the UN-recognized themed day has become a global platform for public outreach every year on June 5th, with over a hundred countries participating in the celebrations.
From an organization’s perspective, it’s not a new idea that environmental degradation and climate change impact business as usual and other aspects of our professional lives. Simply put, it’s rapidly increasing the systematic financial risk for companies around the world due to their growing carbon footprint.
The industrial revolution has undoubtedly been nothing short of a miracle in the last century. However, it may have started a deceivingly slow countdown for our planet’s probable demise in the future.
The good news is that there is no shortage of warning signs for businesses to pay heed to, and COVID-19 has certainly started a hopeful transformation that might undo some of the damage. However, understanding why World Environment Day is celebrated isn’t enough.
If you’re looking to get on board the change wagon, check out the top three environmental concerns for business and what you can do to address them.
Top 3 Environmental Concerns for Businesses
1. Loss of Biodiversity
Biodiversity can be described as the equal distribution of sustenance to the entire food chain. For instance, copepods feed on plankton to survive. Bigger fish and other sea creatures feed on copepods. And finally, a huge population of humans feeds on seafood as one of their main protein sources.
Biodiversity loss due to environmental degradation disrupts the food chain, causing a domino effect that raises food security concerns. The important thing to understand here is that businesses aren’t just consumers but also providers contributing $8.77 trillion to the global economy.
As the concerns grow stronger following COVID-19 and the global economic crisis, businesses need to step forward and participate in more initiatives that can correct the impact on biodiversity.
2. Rising Sea Levels
Due to global warming, sea levels are rapidly rising. As a result, businesses must drastically cut down their carbon dioxide emissions to stop glacial melting and thermal expansion. Otherwise, coastal regions will continue to drown, affecting businesses in the vicinity and the entire real estate market.
With the demand for inland properties on the rise, businesses could be faced with paying more rent and property taxes. Moreover, nearly 60,000 miles of roadways in the US are susceptible to flooding, disrupting the supply chain process of businesses operating in the area.
3. Waste Production and Pollution
Finally, businesses of all scales and niches produce tons of paper and electronic waste while running their operations. Although thousands of companies have digitalized many of their processes, the rapid influx of data has forced them to upgrade their IT infrastructure, most noticeably, their storage. As a result, old hard drives, servers, and network equipment are typically mismanaged, resulting in pollution.
Today, thousands of landfills are running out of space to accommodate more waste. With the number of electronic devices increasing every year, the problem will only get worse. Therefore, a key aspect of acknowledging the importance of International Environment Day is taking the necessary steps to dispose of e-waste, such as hiring an HDD shredding service.
Moreover, you need to pay attention to the amount of waste you’re producing and either switch to more reliable or durable products or adopt more sustainable processes and policies.
Final Thoughts
For decades, World Environmental Day has reminded the world that our planet is getting weaker, and the signs are becoming more obvious each year. Whether it’s rising oceans, mountains of electronic waste, or disruptions in the food chain, businesses need to play a bigger role in protecting the environment and minimizing the excessive collateral damage caused to the natural habitats and ecosystem.
CompuCycle is a secure, reliable, and R2 certified ITAD recycler and hard drive destruction service based in Texas. They can help you safely dispose of electronic waste, such as HDD hard drives, from your facility through on-site shredding. CompuCycle is an environmentally responsible company looking to help businesses in the Lone Star State do what they can to reduce their carbon footprint.
Safely disposing of electronics you don’t need while ensuring data security, is a smart way to get started and pay heed to the warning signals. Contact CompuCycle Today to learn more about our secure data destruction services.
