It’s Time For Nature! Waste Or Create Hub Calls For A Collaborative Effort To Build Back Better

World Environment Day is the most renowned day for environmental action. Since 1974, it has been celebrated every year on 5 June; engaging governments, businesses, celebrities, and citizens to focus their efforts on a pressing environmental issue.

Waste or Create Hub an inclusive, technical and practical space for sustainable innovations in collaboration with Global Shaper Accra Hub, Greenway International, European Union In Ghana , Creativity Express, Mister Wyets, and One Billion Trees For Africa came together for a virtual celebration and discussion, highlighting the complex environmental issues our planet faces. Looking at the world around us, it's apparent that now, more than ever, we need to act #ForNature.

The COVID-19 outbreak is a global tragedy. Hundreds of thousands have died, healthcare systems are buckling, and the future is uncertain for millions of people whose livelihoods are collapsing. It is right that the focus today is on saving lives here and now. In the same spirit of doing what we can to safeguard people’s wellbeing, we must not content ourselves with containing the acute crisis. We must also look ahead to what we can learn from this crisis to prevent future risks. COVID-19 is a reminder of how vulnerable even our modern, technologically advanced societies are.

The biggest lesson is that COVID-19 is more than an illness. It is a symptom of the ailing health of our planet. Humanity’s dysfunctional relationship with nature has caused this wider disease. Understanding this root cause is critical, Waste or Create Hub and partners started a clarion call for this year's world environment day. Typically, it is an occasion to plant a tree, organize a clean-up with friends or commit to environmental action, but sadly most population around the globe is staying at home to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The organization believes that though we may be physically apart, we can still raise our voices together for nature and push to accelerate ambition to protect biodiversity.

The action process started from a virtual pledge commitment and tree planning via social media, Citizens, Organizations, Businesses, and Government were encouraged to share what they are doing as part of showing a collective drive to protect and sustain nature.

The organization in partnership with Lukdem Consult donated trees to people to plant as well as carried out a community sensitization on the benefits of planting trees for our communities.

To rap up the celebration, On the 6th of June 2020, Waste Or Create Hub-hosted top thought leaders across different industries from Ghana to Jamaica, Brazil, Nigeria, and Malaysia on a virtual event on how we can build back better for the planet. The event had The Vice President of Liberia, Her Excellency Jewel Howard Taylor as its Guest Speaker to share the role of government in ensuring we can build back better for the planet.

Other main contributors to the virtual event include Desmond Wyetey Founder and CEO of Mister Wyets, Obiritete Singer, Songwriter and Instrumentalist, Hilde Opoko SDGs Advisor To The Minister Of Finance Ghana and Founder Center For Sustainable Transformation, Camila Batista Leader At UN MGCY Brazil and Deputy Director At Migraflix, Micheal Ogunsuya President Green Way International, Ahmed Alex Omah President Africa Packaging Organization, Tabi Joda Executive Director Greenaid One Billion Trees For Africa, Kofi Gyamfi Sustainability Lead (Plastics) Unilever West Africa, Melanie V. Wynter Global Shaper - Kingston Hub And Founder Of Jamaica Rural Youth The Foundation, Rashvin Pal Singh Co-Founder And CEO Biji Biji Initiative Malaysia. Orimolade Oluwamuyemi A Philanthropies Lead the Middle East And Africa -MCC, Sampson Kofi Adotey Knowledge Broker, Edem Kojo Doe - Co-Founder And Executive Secretary Lukdem Consult.

Speaking to the Founder And Managing Director Miss Chineyenwa Okoro Onu the team leader for these initiatives, she said and I quote “All the contributors to this virtual event had one resolution in common and that is the fact we cannot just develop a vaccine for COVID-19, call it “job is done” and rev the economic engines back into the red. We need to use the reboot to incentivize sustainable innovation and green investment, the credits and subsidies that many governments are handing out so generously at this moment are not just a necessity—they are also a chance to direct economic progress towards sustainable development. This is an important insurance policy to avoid future pandemics.