Overjoyed by your commitment to take action

For Earth Day we encouraged our community to take action to protect our earth. In return, we promised to mail a Medication PocketCard and a plantable Wildflower Postcard to say thanks.

We couldn’t believe the response.

To date, 936 of you chose one or more action to take from our list of ten and hundreds of you added dozens of fantastic additional ideas. See the list below.

Originally, we had planned to stop when we reached 500 promises, but we couldn’t help but expand our vision. We decided to honor each person who is willing to commit to taking action with a PocketCard. We even hired additional staff to help us stuff, stamp, and seal the 900 plus envelopes.

It’s worth it. As a company, we are taking action to decrease our footprint on the earth. We went paperless over 5 years ago, we turn off our computers and A/C at the end of the day, we work remotely to decrease driving and we work to share information that promotes social justice and environmental conservation.

As an individual, Coach Beverly is committing to actualizing these 10 Actions in her life and will share her stories as she stumbles, moves forward, and incorporates these changes. It’s not going to be pretty or perfect, but behavior change never is.

Today is the Last Day to Take the Pledge!

We have decided that we will keep this offer on the table for one more week. Although we might run out of plantable Wildflower Postcards, we will send you a PocketCard in exchange for your commitment. We believe in our ability to contribute to positive change. We are proud of our community of diabetes educators and advocates. You rock.

• 

Your Planet Saving Ideas

• Bike, walk or take public transit instead of driving (7 of you made this commitment)
• Compost food scraps (2 of you made this commitment)
• Convert to solar energy (3 of you made this commitment)
• Drive eco-friendly car (2 of you made this commitment)
• Eat less meat and animal products (5 of you made this commitment)
• Encourage others to take the pledge (7 of you made this commitment)
• Grow a native garden or your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs (20 of you made this commitment)
• Participate in earth day festival
• Pick up litter (4 of you made this commitment)
• Plant trees (5 of you made this commitment)
• Preserve foods for longer storage
• Reduce energy usage and insulate the house for energy efficiency (7 of you made this commitment)
• Reduce paper usage or use natural brown and recycled paper when needed (5 of you made this commitment)
• Reduce plastic usage by doing things like bringing your own Tupperware for leftovers at a restaurant or reusable bags to stores (4 of you made this commitment)
• Recycle, reuse items instead of replacing them, only buying necessities, and donating used items (25 of you made this commitment)
• Shop at local farmer’s markets
• Spread kindness to all living creatures
• Start apiary for honey bees (2 of you made this commitment)
• Unplug and go outdoors more
• Use gray or rainwater for garden (3 of you made this commitment)

---

10 Ways to Help the Planet

Change isn’t easy. We aren’t going for perfect, we are starting with intention and slowly moving to action, giving ourselves lots of grace along the way. I am excited to share my successes and wrong turns with you on this journey and we would love to hear from you too!

1. Grow plants native to your area.
2. Compost kitchen scraps and cut down on waste
3. Eat more sustainable veggies, fruits, grains and less meat, processed foods.
4. Drive less and walk more, especially in nature
5. Think of 3 ways to use less water
6. Use cold water to wash, hang clothes to dry.
7. Turn appliances, lights and computers off when not in use.
8. Purchase used items and re-use everything you can. Swap and trade instead of buying new.
9. Try to use less plastics
10. Trade out filament light bulbs for new LED bulbs.

Read more on our blog, Earth Day Secrets to Improving Planet Health

Stay tuned and we share details and resources on each of these 10 Steps over the next few months. And, please send us your stories too at [email protected]. We want to hear from you!

---

How to Protect the Planet Resources Page

---

Sign up for Diabetes Blog Bytes – we post one daily Blog Byte from Monday to Friday. And of course, Tuesday is our Question of the Week. It’s Informative and FREE!  Sign up below!

The use of DES products does not guarantee the successful passage of the CDCES exam. CBDCE does not endorse any preparatory or review materials for the CDCES exam, except for those published by CBDCE.