Ask Not What Your Planet Can Do For You, But What You Can Do For Your Planet

#EarthDay is an annual call to arms for the public – and more recently companies – to learn more about the beauty of the world and the dangers threatening the natural order. The celebration falls each year on April 22 with hundreds of millions of people around the globe, across 192 countries at last count, participating together.

This year’s event marks the 49th Earth Day since its inception in 1970. A date that for many marks the birth of the modern environmentalism movement. Organised and promoted by the Earth Day Network (EDN), the movement has helped act as a catalyst to pass the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.

While hundreds of millions of participants is an impressive figure, it will still take many more voices to persuade the larger part of the world’s diverse citizens and corporations to collaborate on solving what is today the world’s biggest threat to the Earth and its species – climate change.

Some sections of society believe that climate change will be solved by advanced new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, or the Internet of Things. But on this year’s Earth Day it is important that we look a little closer to home when considering the challenge presented to our planet by climate change.

Ghandi once said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This frames the approach we must all take to reverse climate change and, ultimately, save our planet. Increasing global awareness of the subject is certainly important, but the key on Earth Day 2019 is to educate people all over the globe about the role they can play as individuals.

If one person buys an electric car, stops using products with micro-beads or cuts down their plastic consumption, that is a good start. But imagine if six billion people actively started to make these kind of changes, too.

It’s one thing to change your behaviour at home, but what about corporate behaviour too? It’s not just up to individuals. At Commvault we recognise the role big business has to play in the movement toward more sustainable, greener behavioural practices. That is one of the reasons we supported (storing and managing all the SPEC mission and 2041 Foundation data), Robert Swan’s South Pole Energy Challenge last year. It was the first South Polar expedition to rely entirely on “clean energy,” and championed a greener approach to Commvault GO 2018 in Tennessee last October.

If you can power an expedition to one of (if not the) harshest environments on the planet through sustainable and greener energy sources, it clearly shows that organisations, especially those in the technology sector, can (and should) be doing much more to lower their own carbon footprints.

Ultimately, there is no “silver bullet” in addressing climate change, but the more organisations and individuals can band together around the messages of organisations like EDN and Swan’s 2041 Foundation, the more positive the future of our diverse, rich, beautiful and remarkable planet will surely be.