How will you celebrate World Environment Day?

Today is World Environment Day. How will you celebrate it? On June 5 1972, the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was born.  That conference was established by the United Nations General Assembly and ran from June 5-16.

The first World Environment Day was then celebrated in 1973, and this yearly commemoration is intended to stimulate awareness of the environment and to focus political and public action.

Each year it is hosted by a different city with a different theme, commemorated with an international exposition in that city that lasts a week.  In recent years it has been held in San Francisco, in Algeria, in Tromso, Norway, in Wellington, New Zealand, and last year it was in Mexico.

This year the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) chose Pittsburgh to be the North American host city.  This year's theme is "Many Species: One Planet, One Future." In addition, they chose Rwanda as this year's global host city, due to its amazing biodiversity and great strides in environmental protection, despite all of their difficulties.

Even though the official celebration will not be in your city, there are things you can do.  There are activities organized worldwide, including clean-ups, concerts, exhibits, film festivals, community events, and more neighborhood-oriented functions that are less formally organized.

How about getting together with some of your friends and neighbors to finally get rid of some of the items you've been meaning to lose.  Hold a neighborhood yard sale to let others recycle some things you no longer need, donate what doesn't sell to the Salvation Army or other charity, do a neighborhood yard cleanup and use the proceeds from everyone's yard sale to rent a truck and pay dump fees for the debris generated by your work. 

In Sacramento County, we can call and make an appointment for the county's neighborhood clean-up truck to come out, and they will haul away whatever we leave at the curb at no cost, as long as the piles at each home are no more than 6 feet in diameter and 3 feet high.  They will pick up from one house or many, and it is a free service.  If you live here, you can keep your yard sale proceeds, as the truck rental and dump fees aren't required.

Another great thing about Sacramento County is our great electricity provider, SMUD (Sacramento Municipal Utility District).  You can call them for an appointment to have an arborist come out to your home and help you decide where trees could be planted to provide shade and help you to reduce your heating and cooling costs.  Then, they will provide the shade trees and teach you how to plant and care for them.  Once again - all free!  And their electricity rates are lower than other providers in the area because they are owned and operated by the City of Sacramento.

SMUD also gives great free seminars on how to do other things to reduce your energy use, and they provide low-interest loans to area residents to replace windows, HVAC systems, and make other energy improvements to their homes.  At the time our own HVAC system was dying, I got a loan from SMUD to have a whole new system installed.  The monthly payments on the system were $75 and we saved about $125 per month  electric bills - a no brainer!

SMUS provides all different sizes, wattages and shapes of energy-saving CFL lightbulbs to the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR), which SAR sells to Realtors to offer to their clients.  The price is lower than at regular retail outlets, and the proceeds go to a scholarship fund sponsored by the members of SAR.  I regularly give my listing clients a new supply of these lightbulbs to keep their homes bright for showings and to my buyer clients for their new homes, in addition to any other closing gift.

How will you celebrate World Environment Day?  Is there a beach or park in your area that could use a family to come out and pick up some trash, or an elderly neighbor whose lawn needs to be mowed?  Maybe in the spirit of biodiversity, you could share some cuttings from your plants with others, along with a little card that gives them planting and care instructions.   The whole neighborhood could participate in  trading cuttings, and beautify and whole block at no cost. 

Perhaps you could call your favorite local Realtor and ask how you can get some CFL lightbulbs for yourself or to help another family.  In our area, you can probably get some for free from your Realtor, or at least at a nominal cost.  Many Realtors are community-minded and would want to help.

I'd love to hear what kinds of things you will be doing, and remember:  it's not too late if you can't get it done this week.  There are another 51 weeks in the year in which our environment still needs attention, and planning and carrying out such projects can be a lot of fun.

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience.

I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction.

"Happy clients make me happy."