...and breathe!
It’s International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, and oh wow, aren’t Irish skies a very beautiful blue this week. But as for clean air over Ireland? Maybe not so much!
The 7th September 2023 marks the 4th annual International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. A UN designated call to action, it aims to get people talking about and taking steps to mitigate the ever-growing problem of Air Pollution.
Air Pollution is one of the biggest threats facing human kind today, and if we don’t start quickly putting countermeasures in place, it will continue to haunt us, and our children, into the future. Caused by liquid and solid particles being emitted into the air, Air Pollution is responsible for millions of premature deaths annually.
Think about it … millions of unnecessary deaths … every year … as a result of our day-to-day actions!
The biggest culprits of these pollutant emissions into the atmosphere are:
In addition, naturally occurring ‘disaster’ events such as the wildfires currently rampaging through Canada, combined with the microbial decaying process, also contribute significantly to air pollution levels.
However, it is man-made emissions that are the main cause of the staggeringly high air pollution levels of today.
Cue the UN stepping in with its worldwide awareness day, with the aim of driving awareness of the causes of and steps we should be taking to limit and eventually eradicate Air Pollution.
The theme of this year’s International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies is ‘Together for Clean Air’.
If, like Sir Macca’s frog chorus, we don’t ALL STAND TOGETHER against Air Pollution, then the future might not be very ‘clean air, blue skies’ for us or future generations.
If human kind is to stand any chance of defeating the scourge that is Air Pollution, we will need to both forge strong alliances, create partnerships for change, and increase investment of time, energy and money to resource the changes that urgently need to be made.
We also need to own our complicity in causing health and environment-damaging air pollutants that impact our breathing, allergies, physical and mental health, and pets and animals, as well as the very beautiful natural world in which we live.
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UN studies have found that a whopping 99% of the world’s population breathes polluted air on a daily basis.
We’ll just give you some space to digest that.
All of us, minus a lucky 1%, breathe dirty air every day.
Air Pollution doesn’t distinguish between social classes and international borders, it effects everyone the same way - negatively - which is why we all need to come ‘together for clean air’. It is only by putting on a united front, collaborating as a collective and working to the same goals that we will be able to restore our air to the levels of purity once enjoyed by our predecessors. Think of it - our grandparents were able to breathe air of the levels of cleanliness most of us have never known!
Only by bringing governments, businesses and civil society together do we stand a chance of achieving ‘clean air for blue skies’. By universally putting measures in place to counter carbon emission production, we can ensure a cleaner, brighter, healthier and safer future for ourselves, our children and the environment.
Eradicating Air Pollution isn’t going to be a simple 1,2,3 step process. It is going to take time, money, a lot of effort and a huge amount of education and persuasion to get everyone onto the same ‘clean air’ page.
Dairy herds will need to be reduced, pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as well as farmers will need to come up with new ways of dealing with run off and effluence.
We, the people, will need to move to fossil-free energy choices when it comes to heating our homes and fuelling our cars. Even better, we can choose public over private transport options if and when possible.
Each one of us can play our part in the drive for change to cleaner air. After all, it is to our advantage to breath clean air!
As business leaders we can implement many measures to act as counterweights to the often unintended consequences of our business actions, not least of which is implementing an EMS - an Environment Management System powered by the stringent requisites of the best-practice framework, ISO 14001.
And while ISO 14001 itself does not directly contribute to the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, organisations that implement and adhere to this standard can play a significant role in supporting its objectives by dramatically reducing their...
...thereby lowering if not negating their impact on air quality whilst simultaneously demonstrating a commitment to environmental sustainability.
The international standard for Environmental Management, ISO 14001 will ensure your organisation will adopt and adhere to environmental best practices across activities such as Waste & Water Management, Chemical production and run-off management, Ventilation management, use of sprays/aerosols/detergents, use of SO2 producing Fossil-fuel energy consumption and transport/transportation.
By implementing an ISO EMS, organisation will automatically not just achieve regulatory compliance, they will set themselves up to be well placed to significantly reduce their carbon footprint, dramatically cut emissions, and contribute towards Ireland’s clean air policy, all the while reducing costs and increasing both productivity and profitability.
ISO 14001 and its associated Management Systems has many benefits to offer businesses of all shapes and sectors - see our recent World Environment Day blog to read just some of the ways in which ISO 14001 can benefit your organisation.
ISO 14001 Consultancy
We all know that smell of fresh air; the smell you get when you walk onto a clean beach on a windswept coast.
That “aaagh” feeling you get when the salty air hits your nostrils. We genuinely think that in that moment we are inhaling clean air. WE AREN’T.
Wouldn’t it be nice if at some point in the not too distant future, we were able to actually inhale clean air?
Time to make the change. Step up and lean in to International Clean Air for Blue Skies Day. Start making the move away from dead air space into a world of clean air for blue skies!