Celebrate Earth Day 2016 this Sunday, April 17. Pick up a few tips and use them to make a difference in our environment’s health all year long. Photo: Courtesy San Diego Earth Fair

It’s hard to believe Earth Day was a brand new idea well within my lifetime. The first Earth Day took place in 1970. It is now an annual event celebrated on or near April 22, coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. It reaches more than 192 countries each year including hundreds of communities in the United States.

Every day is Earth Day at Good Earth Plant Company! We love it when the rest of the world pauses to focus on environment issues and finding good solutions we can adopt on the official Earth Day, which is April 22.

San Diego can brag about its Earth Day Fair, which is the largest free, all-volunteer Earth Day event in the world. This year’s 27th annual Earth Fair takes place in Balboa Park on Sunday, April 17. The Earth Fair features 300 exhibitors, the Children’s Earth Parade from 9:30 to 11 a.m., the eARTh Gallery arts and crafts show, a kids’ activity area, the Cleaner Car Concourse and plenty more than we have room to list. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit the website for the details here.

We are big fans of the Earth Fair’s eHome exhibit area. It showcases products and technologies that can make your home more environmentally sustainable. If you are building a new structure, or adding to an existing home, alternative home-building technologies might be of interest. All of us can benefit from learning about new energy and resource-saving products and materials, like energy-efficient appliances and low-E windows. If you haven’t gone solar yet, there will be a wide variety of solar electric systems shown that can help you get off the grid. And solar panels become even MORE efficient when you combine them with a green roof.

See more for yourself in this Earth Day Fair video.

Earth Day and Earth Week have made a tremendous impact educating people about reducing their negative impact on our environment. Here are a few things you can do on Earth Day and every day:

• Fifty percent of all the plastic we use is used just once. Make good choices to reduce the use of plastic in packaging.
• The average person uses 700 pounds of paper a year. Do what you can to reduce this amount by only printing documents you really need and using paper a second time before recycling.
• In just one year, 14.4 BILLION cups of coffee are served in paper cups in the United States. This would wrap around the planet 55 times. Bring a reusable cup when getting your next caffeine fix.
• A properly inflated set of tire can improve gas mileage enough to prevent 250 pounds of CO2 every year from polluting the atmosphere.
• Raising your thermostat two degrees in summer and lowering it two degree in winter can save 2,000 pounds of CO2 emissions – and save you money.
• Recycling one aluminum can saves energy enough for three hours of TV viewing.
• It takes less energy to recycle cans than to produce new ones.
• Each individual produces an average of four pounds of garbage every day.
• Eighty-four percent of all household waste can be recycled.
• Fourteen billion pounds of trash ends up in our oceans every year. Out of those billions, the plastic alone will kill a million creatures that call the ocean their home.

Be nice to your Mother (Earth) this Earth Day, because Good Earth Plant Company told you so!

Doing what we can to create a cleaner, healthier environment is an every day mission at Good Earth Plant Company. We hope you’ll do your part to help improve our ecosystem. Adopting even one new tip from this list will make a difference. Each of us doing a little adds up to a lot. If you’re motivated to do a little more, contact us about adding indoor plants to your workplace environment, maybe even a living wall or a green roof. We’ve got lots of great ideas for you.