makeithappen

It’s World Environment Day tomorrow, and our home base Wellington, New Zealand is this years host country and city. You’d hope this was an everyday thing really in our lives, but for now having a day marked for it is a chance to have a wakeup call and remind ourselves and the people around us that the environment is the base of all we have.

So while you’re thinking about what the environment might mean to you and what you are and could do about where its heading, why not:

• walk or bike to work
• buy some fresh food without plastic packaging
• open the window and turn the AC off

And take some time to enjoy how much less of many things you need.

Citylife, City based decision making

In many modern cities, with airtight, air conditioned buildings many of us spend so much time living in, even fresh air and water is a precious commodity. Almost everyone loves ‘getting away from it all’, and hitting nature, the beach, the forest, parks, mountains… and there’s a very simple reason for this (besides just letting go of fast pace), we’re all natural, and a healthy natural environment makes for healthy happy people. So don’t think doom and gloom, just remember how good the natural environment feels and be inspired to do something about the fact that its taking a bit of a beating from modern day living.

So whatever you’re doing in the city, in the busyness of the day and building your business, remember that its the actions of ourselves, our cities and the people in them making decisions about the wider world everyday that make or break the wider environment around the world. There’s so much beautiful natural world out there, but there’s also a lot of pollution and destruction. There are reasons you can’t just go swimming in the water so close to so many cities, or drink the water from the tap, why greenbelts are shrinking on large land masses, oceans emptying of life, and while in a ‘modern’ world this may just seem like the way it has to be, there is most certainly another way. It will take time to transform from what has been done and continues to happen, but if we keep our heads up, stay switched on, and make the environment part of our small daily lives and big decisions and plans, we will keep coming up with smarter ways to live cool lives that mother nature will smile at us for.