Today is California Clean Air Day, a unified day of action across the state to increase awareness and encourage everyone to take simple steps such as turning off lights, not idling your car, or planting a tree to improve air quality. As a partner of the Coalition for Clean Air and advocating for cleaner air, our company encourages employees to hop on board this week by pledging their support to reduce air pollution.
Need some inspiration for your Clean Air Day pledge? Read on to hear what our employees are doing on the job and off to help improve our region's air quality every day of the year!
Walk for cleaner air – Del Moore Houston
For Electric Engineering Project Specialist Del Moore Houston, no action is too small for Clean Air Day. Motivated to have cleaner air quality for her family and community, Del has taken the Clean Air Pledge year after year and continues to honor those commitments in her everyday life. One major step Del has taken to be more environmentally conscious resides in her transportation methods.
Meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction requires a significant move away from motorized transport. Knowing this, Del has made the conscious effort to shift to active transport like walking. This change is saving as much as a quarter of her contribution to carbon emissions. When she's out and about, Del also makes sure to carry around reusable bags and containers everywhere she goes.
Del doesn't take these actions alone. She makes sure that her husband and kids are in on the fun and educated on the importance of clean air quality.
"People always think you have to do all these big things. That it is going to take a lot, but it's not. It is about making a part of your everyday life focused on these little changes. Over time these little changes will grow into big ones. Everything from using reusable bags to unplugging home devices can make a difference."
Grow better air with trees – Wesley Ilano
Engineer Wesley Ilano is passionate about taking action to improve our region's air quality. With ten years at the company, he is always looking for ways to do the right thing while operating our systems. Ilano is also an environmentalist at home, often gardening and planting trees, shrubs, and succulents.
He is also the proud owner of an electric vehicle, making him one of the more than 700 other employees who have ditched tailpipe emissions and gone electric! With this car, he can run errands with zero emissions, including shopping at his local Farmers' Market.
For this year's Clean Air Day, Ilano plans to focus his attention on three environmentally conscious actions:
- Avoiding idling his internal combustion engine car
- Planting more trees
- Switching to natural all-purpose cleaners at his home
Through these efforts, he hopes to help create a wave of change.
"I would like to think that my actions are making a positive impact not only by reducing air pollution but also by supporting local farmers and small businesses. By planting trees and shrubs we are also providing our local fauna with food and shelter." ,
Improve air quality by gardening – Sam Worley
Another employee committed to doing his part is Environmental Services Data Analyst, Sam Worley. Worley has always been a sustainability enthusiast both in and outside of the workplace. Whether that's through driving a hybrid car or placing an emphasis on walking, Sam's actions show his dedication to limiting his emissions. Working to limit his emissions isn't the only thing that Sam does.
Every day, he is sequestering carbon by tending to his home garden. Through gardening, Sam is fighting noise pollution, reducing his carbon footprint and helping to maintain a more natural ecosystem.
In addition to Worley's current actions, he likes to think big about what our communities can do collectively to make a difference.
"If you want to change your perspective, take this pledge. It will open up Pandora's box for you and force you to start thinking about the topic of clean air a little bit more every day," he said. "It makes you start to think about actions like sitting next to a window for lighting instead of flipping your light switch. And once you start to change your perspective, you will see how your actions can have a broader effect on our community, region, state and even world."
What is your Clean Air Day pledge?
Our company encourages our employees, customers, and the San Diego Community to pledge their support and take action to reduce air pollution. Everyone is encouraged to do their part and commit to one or more Clean Air Day sustainability actions. You can even make up your own!