KnowBe4 Sustainability Blog

Salty Soul Cleanup

Written by KnowBe4 HR | Mar 8, 2024 8:03:59 PM

At KnowBe4 we recognize there is only one planet Earth, and we all share the responsibility of caring for it. So what better way to start off the year, than with a Florida beach cleanup?

The first weekend in January, on a chilly Sunday morning, 11 KnowBe4 employees joined over 100 other volunteers and the Salty Soul Foundation for the Tampa Tech Beach Cleanup.  At the end of the day, a total of 621 pounds of trash was removed from our local beach. 

Every bottle, every wrapper tossed aside is an attack on our ecosystem. The offshore impact is profound: poisoned food chains, degraded habitats, and ailing marine populations that undermine the ocean's vital role in regulating our planet's climate and air. The debris that clutters the beaches is just the visible edge of an underwater crisis, a cascade of consequences that ripples through the entire oceanic web of life.

Ensuring our beaches are free of garbage means more than restoring their beauty; it’s about healing an ecosystem upon which we heavily depend. When we commit to removing trash from our beaches, we take a powerful step towards mending the ocean's vast, interconnected system—one that safeguards our weather patterns, food supply, and ultimately, the planetary home we all share. 

Each piece of trash removed is a potential life saved, the collective effort of community cleanups symbolizing a beacon of hope and change. Let's stand together, not just to remove the waste of today, but to inspire a future where beach cleanups are no longer needed—a future where the beaches remain untouched by the scars of pollution.

As Kellie Macpherson most eloquently put it at the recent WCS Talks event, “the biggest threat to our planet is thinking that someone else will take care of it.” At KnowBe4, our employees don’t leave it to someone else, we are out there taking care of it! We invite others to do the same, and champion those who do.

 

Kudos to Salty Soul for their leadership,  and to all of the volunteers who came out on a very cold morning, to do a very good thing.