Get involved in the Community Center’s Festival of Sustainability 2023 [Update]

[Quincy]

Hello everyone,

As the world grapples with issues of climate change, pollution, and other environmental challenges, the need for sustainability has never been more important.

One way of promoting sustainability is by bringing people together to celebrate the earth and learn ways to protect it. In celebration of Earth Day, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to organize the second annual Festival of Sustainability, from April 20th to April 27th.

The festival is entirely online, full of great topics and fun conversation. You can revisit our first Festival by having a look here: Festival of Sustainability 2022.

The goal is to raise awareness of sustainable practices and offer practical solutions that anyone can adopt in their daily lives.  We do need your help, though, so we would like to invite you to get involved.

Here are two ways:

1. Community Photo Collage:

Share a photo of yourself somewhere “green.” It could be at a park,  a forest, a beach cleanup,  a botanical garden or even your backyard. We will stitch all the images together to make our very own community collage that we will share as a featured post at the end of the festival. Your photo could inspire others to take action, reduce their carbon footprint, and live more sustainably. So, dust off your camera, grab your phone, and snap a photo of yourself in a green space.

 How this works: 

• Take a selfie of yourself somewhere “green”
• Landscape or portrait
• Clear, quality photos using your smartphone (or other device if you prefer)
• Ideal image formats: JPEG or PNG
• Send your submissions to airbnb-cc@airbnb.com to be included in the grand reveal at the end of the festival or post it below.

2. Create a detailed topic all sustainability:

If you would like to create a topic to be included in the week, please comment below or contact me directly to discuss this further. Some topics to consider are renewable energy sources, recycling, green products – we have other topics we can suggest as well so feel free to reach out if you’d like some ideas!

We are asking for a maximum of 750 words (if you can!), which we will translate into all the languages we support here on the CC to share during the Festival. 

Together, we can make a positive impact on our planet. Let's do this! Let’s all share and inspire each other during the Festival of Sustainability!

Thanks so much,

**Deadline for article submissions is Thursday, Apr 13, 2023 ❗Monday, 17 April, 2023❗

 **Deadline for photo submissions is Monday Apr 24, 2023

*Disclaimer 

By submitting your image to the email address above, you authorize Airbnb to use your media, your first name, profile photo, and city and country of residence in marketing materials to promote Airbnb.

[Jennifer3225]

Hi @Quincy 

Canadian Hosts have put out a challenge to Australian Hosts  to enter into a Commonwealth Community Clean Up  Challenge. Canada 🇨🇦 vs  Australia 🇦🇺.

[Jennifer3225]

Hi Quincy

@Felicity11 and I have challenged each other to a Commonwealth Community Clean up on Earth Day

The Clean up  is super easy and happens on Earth Day April 22, 2023.

The Challenge is to encourage all hosts in Canada 🇨🇦 and Australia 🇦🇺 on April 22 from 9:00 a.m to 11:00 a.m (in your own time zones) to visit their very own host listing and do a clean up around the property, perhaps on the road of their listing or even at a beach or a trail near their listing.

We would encourage Hosts to start small and impress those neighbours (who are watching us anyways) as they clean up within their own AirBnB community.

Hosts can post pictures here or within their own host clubs.  

Quick Rules

1. Canadians are to wearing Red  and Australia are to wear Green.
2. Pick up 'Trash' or 'Rubbish' as @Felicity11  calls it
3. Pick up what you can safely handle
4. Recycle where you can.
5. Dispose of your collection as you would waste in your own listing.
6. Take a photo, or a selfie and post it here. 
7. Go Green, (Or Red 🇨🇦) and join other hosts in this one day clean up. 

Challenge is on.. Any other countries want in?

[Laurelle3]

@Jennifer3225 thanks for the challenge. I will take you up but I don't see many Australian hosts on this CC Forum. But I will put it out on our local Airbnb FB forum. will have to wait and see as to what happens.

I participate in this every day when I go for my walk along the beach starting from the driveway, one street away to the beach. There is little rubbish as most of the people living in our small beach side village are conscious of their surroundings. Even the tourists that arrive every weekend, which swells in the school holidays and is brimming over Public holidays and long weekends (7 in total) try to keep our village clean.

The kids are taught in Australia about rubbish it begins in school where the kids do an "Emu Parade" where they start out in a line and are seen as an Emu bobbing up and down picking up rubbish in the playground or when out on activities. My son is 50 and I can recall him doing it then and we always used it in Scouting after a camp or an activity.

A little bit of history- in Australia Clean up Australia Day began with one mans vision Ian Kiernan in 1989 after sailing around the world he noticed the amount of rubbish on the seas. His first clean up was 1990 in his backyard Sydney Harbour Then the NSW state took up the mission challenged the other states. This has been continued over 33 years. 

This year I will be doing the continual clean up of cleaning my own backyard from falling gum leaves for fire prevention and decluttering (downsizing ) recycling to charities, friends or relatives or lastly the recycle tip. But I will get out with the local arranged group for the day. 

@Quincy I will get a photo or too for you. It would be great to see an Sustainable emblem for Hosts that qualify. This is my challenge for you please keep working on it.

Laurelle  

[Jennifer3225]

This is great news. We have just heard that one of our Canadian Host Leaders they will be arriving in Sydney the day prior so wearing Red, she will join someone in Australia  in and around Sydney to help with a  clean ups. We are encouraging Canadians to wear Red, and Australians to wear Green.  So excited about the friendships and the photo that will come of that!

Lots of feedback here in Canada in our community host groups. We are agreeing to clean around our listings. 

The main question to ask your hosts to do is this.

"On April 22, 2023 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.,  will you join fellow Airbnb Hosts as they choose to clean up around your listing? " Who's in. 

You can encourage hosts in your country to clean up around their listing, clean up around their street, perhaps a local trail, and also a beach or waterfront space.

Hosts should be encouraged to use their own supplies from their listing, pick up what they can handle and dispose of correctly, and recycle as much as possible. 

Way to go @Laurelle3 You have my support as you celebrate Earth Day!

Right @Stephanie @Quincy @Felicity11 

[Jennifer3225]

@Clara116@Elena487@Kitty-and-Creek0@Delphine348@Felicity11@Anna1403@Mauricio467@Katja202@Daniel1651@Felicity11@Denise583

Hello all.

We would love for you to be a part of the Earth Day Ask.

" As Hosts, would you commit to cleaning up at or around your listing on Earth Day April 22, 2023 9:00 a.m to 11:00 a.m. ? You can clean up around your house, on your street, a trail near you or at the beach." 

Snap a photo of your clean up and post it here in the Sustainability Festival. 

🌱💚

Jennifer

[Clara116]

@Jennifer3225 Hi, that's the perfect sign! Yes, so many of us are very poor guests & we can indeed have an impact in what we do and how we live. In my efforts as community leader, the most challenging of happenings to get hosts on board is unfortunately, neighborhood clean ups - crazy! My husband and I are part of a local organization called Ocean Hour and every week groups of folks go to different areas/beaches/parks/neighborhoods and  spend one hour doing trash pick up. It is mind blowing that each week there is more and more. We live just 3 houses from one of the busiest streets in Pensacola (beach town) and we pick up 20-30lbs of trash every 2 weeks....its crazy. I am always astounded that people just toss a cup/bottle/trash/baby diapers anything right out the window of their car. Seems many have been poorly educated(no t educated)  and think the world is their trash can/garbage can. It saddens me, that there are no consequences that could/would make an impact on that bad behavior. One slogan I think matters is: What we permit, We promote.  Thanks for caring, and making an impact! 

[Laurelle3]

@Clara116 it is said the that some people don't care and we have to wonder what their homes and surroundings are like. But a few people can make a change even if is on a small scale.

I have put a call for "Earth Day" out for my local host group and only one other hosts has taken interest in a beach area further down the coast and one other host has said she will join me.

I will put out a call each week. Maybe it will be like a stone gathering moss and we will find out on the day.

[Jennifer3225]

Woah.. who needs to work out when you are hauling 20-30 pounds of trash!!

Love your slogan

💚

Jennifer

[Stephanie]

We can invite our resident CC superstars from down under @Cathie19 and @Robin4 !

[Felicity11]

Hi @Laurelle3 

Great to see your comments I agree it would be great to get more Australian hosts involved in this - Promoting this in our host community groups is a great start! Like you I pick up the rubbish every time I am down at the beach and I do find that sometimes there are others helping - every bit counts! 

Clean up Australia Day is  a great event. This year I ran the clean up event for our local beach and park and we collected over 64kg of waste - incredible effort with our local  volunteers. 

[Quincy]

That's amazing! @Felicity11  

[Quincy]

Hi @Jennifer3225! I heard about this! What a lovely initiative 🤩 I would love to hear more about how this went after earth day! Please do submit an article and some photos if you can! 😍

[Felicity11]

Challenge accepted @Jennifer3225  The Australians are ready -  We look to have small events going off during the week around the country -  I think we will have some strong teams - with @Laurelle3  and @Cathy19  joining in - we will spread the news of the challenge within our hosting communities! 

[Felicity11]

- Team Sydney is just warming  up!