Community members took part in multiple events over the weekend, including cleanups and fundraisers, in observance of Earth Day, which fell on Monday, and Earth Month, which is celebrated in April.
Cleanups put on by SPUR took place in Lynn, Marblehead, and Swampscott over the weekend at local beaches and parks. Despite the gloomy weather, more than 250 volunteers across the communities helped pick up litter at 32 parks and beaches across those communities.
“A little rain couldn’t stop SPUR volunteers from celebrating your home planet on Earth Day!” read a post on the SPUR Facebook page. “Thank you to everyone who came out to go green and help SPUR clean!”
At Devereux Beach in Marblehead, dozens of joggers came out to participate in an Earth Day 5k, put on by the High School’s National Green School Society. Profits from the race were split between supporting the club and donating to environmental organizations.
Though Earth Day has come and gone, events focusing on becoming eco-friendly are still taking place in town.
On Saturday, May 4, Sustainable Marblehead will be hosting its second annual Green Homes Tour. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and features 12 upgraded, energy efficient homes. Attendees will have a chance to see the upgrades in action and talk with the homeowners of the houses.
“The greenhouse gas inventory in Marblehead’s Net Zero Roadmap shows that our community should focus emissions-reduction efforts on the sectors from which the majority of our emissions come: transportation and buildings- specifically residential buildings,” a statement from Sustainable Marblehead read.
The statement also referred to six core transitions that the Roadmap says the community needs to work toward, the first being to “make our homes and buildings super efficient.”
Tickets for the tour are $10. To register, visit sustainablemarblehead.org.