Ever heard of Zeday? If not, maybe you are more familiar with the term Zero Emission Day! The Zero Emission Day, also known as the Zeday, is an initiative started in 2008 in Nova Scotia, Canada with the aim of giving the world a break from fossil fuel, minimize the use of electricity generated by fossil fuels, and raising public awareness on the harm caused by Carbon Emissions. 

Are you aware of your consumption of fossil fuels?

Before that, let’s have a look at fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are formed by a natural process known as the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials such as plants or animals. These fuels contain carbon and hydrogen, which can be burned for energy. Coal and petroleum are the most famous examples of fossil fuels.

In the developed and developing countries, the biggest contribution to emissions is done through burning fossil fuel for transportation needs and deriving electricity, which causes climate change, acid rains, smog, and even more adverse effects to the environment such as droughts and disease breakouts.

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) states that emissions from fossil fuels can be known as the most dominant cause for global warming. Therefore, these emissions not only affect the environment but also our health by causing heart attacks and respiratory problems such as asthma.

But aren’t transportation and electricity important to our day-to-day lives? Do we have a solution or an alternative? Yes, we do! Minimizing the unwanted usage of energy & electricity and using renewable energy sources such as water, biomass, wind, and solar are two simple but major solutions we have. 

Zero Emission Day is a simple request to take the aforementioned collective action to show what a day without fossil fuel usage can be like. RACUSJ would like to give you four simple tips to help planet Earth this ZeDay and every day (because why stop at one day?);

• Reduce – Can you switch off unnecessary lights and unplug electronic devices when you are not using them? Can you go car-free and walk or cycle?
• Reuse – Can you avoid products which can only be used once such as paper or plastic and try to repair & reuse existing items?
• Recycle – Don’t you want to collect all the recyclable products and take a trip to a recycling center?
• Remove – Calculate your daily emissions and take required actions to remove your print!

Don’t know how to calculate? Team Growing Green 3.0 is there to help you! Fill the survey below and get to know about your Carbon Footprint; https://forms.gle/xrgDZFHX83Zyo8Ad9

The world is counting on you! Your step on ZeDay will make a great impact tomorrow.

Let’s all make better choices and give our planet a day off!

Written by Rtr. Oshani Samarakkody