Every day can be ‘environment day’

What have you done to save the world lately?

It’s an apt question as people across the globe celebrate World Environment Day.

Established by the United Nations in 1972 and this year marking the 50th year observed on June 5, the day is intended to raise environmental awareness across the globe.

Each year, World Environment Day focuses on a particularly pressing environmental issue. This year the focus is “land restoration, desertification and drought resilience.”

Here at home, groups like the Ventura County Community Foundation make every day an environment day. Through its “Environmental Listening Tour,” the foundation determined that 76 percent of donors from a focus group identified the environment as one of their top two areas of interest for their giving.

The County of Ventura offers ongoing seminars on issues related to the environment. On Tuesday, June 11, the county and Tri-County Regional Energy Network will host a panel for builders dealing with zero net energy—that is, generating more on-site renewable energy than is consumed—in residential and small commercial development.

In Camarillo, efforts are underway to provide cost-effective, efficient services to the public while minimizing harm to the environment. This includes water conservation, renewable energy generation and reducing greenhouse gasses by transitioning city-use vehicles to electric or hybrid models.

The second Saturday of the month, Surfrider Foundation of Ventura County hosts “Respect the Rincon Parkway” beach cleanups along a 14-mile stretch of State Route 1 wildlife corridor. More information is available at ventura. by searching Rincon.

The Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council holds an annual Trail Days, where participants camp free in exchange for a little elbow grease to clean up local trails. Go to or more.

Find your rhythm while helping the environment at Ventura Land Trust’s Summer Solstice Drum Circle, 6 p.m. Friday, June 21, at Harmon Canyon Preserve, 7511 Foothill Road in Ventura.

The City of Moorpark offers its residents discounted Earth Machine home compost bins. Composting turns organic materials back into a useful soil product, which can save money while reducing garden watering and weeding. For more, search composting at .

Starting Jan. 1, 2026, it’s likely that a trip to the grocery store will be as much an environmental endeavor as a way to fill the larder after the state Senate and Assembly passed bills aimed at banning reusable plastic bags.

The thin, single-use kind were disposed of years ago in California, replaced with the option of reusable plastic bags at 10 cents each. But those reusable bags are being tossed at a rate higher than lawmakers expected, so Sacramento is taking steps to ban them, too.

Sure to be signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the legislation would allow only the sale of reusable bags made from 50% post-consumer recycled materials—also for a minimum 10 cents each. Paper bags would still be available.

Whether you tend to it one day a year or every day, we have just one environment and it’s up to us all to make the best of it.

This article was originally published by the Moorpark Acorn.