Earth Day 2020 and the Covid-19 Impact

Earth Day is this week. Experiencing it during this Covid-19 Quarantine makes it an interesting time to reflect on how each of us impacts the environment. As with every crisis there is an opportunity. The “shelter in place” in most countries and a ban on non-essential travel, has accidentally allowed us to see what happens to the Earth when we are not present.

We don’t mean to say that a global health crisis is the answer to a healthier environment. Our hearts go out to anyone sick with this terrible virus and to all of those on the frontlines of this crisis, nothing can outweigh the importance of what we are experiencing. 

At the very least, however, we can see the impact human activity has on the planet. You’ve probably seen the stories about satellite views showing the healing taking place. There’s reports of reduced smog in China and unpolluted canals in Italy. Yosemite’s animals are living their best life, free of all the tourists dominating their land. In most places, streets are empty, cities are silent, factories are closed and the skies are quiet. 

As a small company trying to build a business with the least eco footprint possible, this temporary healing makes us feel inspired to keep doing all that we can to minimize our impact. It’s not easy. Making JJs in and purchasing fabric from other countries like China would be so much cheaper. In fact, we are regularly told by consultants that we should be making JJs overseas. But, it’s our belief in doing the right thing that keeps us doing business at home where we can be aware first hand of the business practices used to make our goods. And, we aren’t contributing to sea or air pollution from importing.

We don’t talk about our environmental efforts very much. But this is a time where we like to remind our customers what we are doing. We hope it makes them feel a bit of comfort in these uncomfortable times. Take comfort in your JJs and how they are made and comfort in knowing the earth is doing little healing right now. 

But, this doesn’t mean complacency after this is all over. As we said, social isolation is not a sustainable way of cleaning up the world. We have read of other issues, such as halted recycling programs in Italy and an increase in single-use plastics due to the increase in online orders and delivery that can create issues. When this is over, remember to continue buying from companies working to lessen their carbon footprint and to do all that you can to keep healing the Earth. Both in finding our way through this Quarantine and in continuing to heal the earth, we’re all in this together.