Taking place annually on 22 April, Earth Day is widely recognised as the largest secular observance in the world, marked by more than a billion people every year, as a day of action to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes.

The theme for this year’s Earth Day is sustainable fashion, referring to a clothing supply chain that is ecologically and socially responsible. It aims to reorient the industry and consumers away from the fast fashion model and toward sustainable practices in sourcing, production, distribution, marketing, and consumption.

ALG and RenewableNI — an official Earth Day partner — marked the occasion this week at a seminar held in ALG’s Belfast city centre offices by asking attendees to bring an item or items of clothing to swap or donate.

Mark Stockdale, partner at ALG, said: “Tackling climate change is one of the key societal issues we believe our firm has the greatest ability to influence. We are doing this by reducing ALG’s environmental impact through how we run our business and the services we deliver.

“As part of this strategy, we were proud to partner with RenewableNI to support the ambitions of Earth Day 2023 to build a healthy economy, build an equitable future and build our ‘only home’.

“We were grateful to guests attending our offices from across the energy and renewables sector in Northern Ireland, and members of our 120-strong team at ALG in Belfast, who participated in our clothes swap initiative – helping to shine a light on the wide-ranging environmental benefits of swapping or donating clothes as an alternative to throwing them away.”

Steven Agnew, director at RenewableNI, said: “Impacts of the climate emergency and biodiversity crises are already beginning to be felt in Northern Ireland, so it is vital that we work together to mitigate the worst impacts.

“Today’s seminar at ALG focused on the need to meet the Climate Bill target of 80 per cent renewable electricity by 2030 and the actions the industry is taking. But we also promoted the smaller steps that individuals can make. As an official partner of Earth Day 2023, we used our in-person event to give away wildflower seeds and to raise awareness of fast fashion.

“While switching to renewable electricity can help apparel companies reduce their carbon emissions, limiting the textiles going to landfill in Northern Ireland saves waste and energy required to make new clothing.”

Earth Day is run by EARTHDAY.ORG, whose mission is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.

Growing out of the first Earth Day in 1970, EARTHDAY.ORG is the world’s largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with more than 150,000 partners in over 192 countries to drive positive action for our planet.