myEARTH, which launched just over a year ago as Northern Ireland’s dedicated digital platform for environmental action, has today revealed that it has encouraged 6000 more trees to be planted, and 1427 more habitats to be created for wildlife, thus far.

Developed by Live Here Love Here in partnership with Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL), myEARTH is free to use and connects environmental charities, education providers, and community groups to schools and households. Organisations upload ‘Action Cards’ such as litter picking, nature walks, bird watching, planting, and recycling, allowing users to choose and complete a range of environmental activities in exchange for points.

According to the data submitted by users, myEARTH has encouraged more than 10 tonnes of litter to be collected – the equivalent of a double decker bus.100,000 pieces of litter have also been recycled, people have reported that they have spent over 170,000 hours in the great outdoors.

Alex Hall, Project Manager at myEARTH, said, “We were aware that people care about the environment, but they didn’t know how to help it. This is a platform that bridges that gap. It makes it easy to get outside, engage with the world around us, and learn how to appreciate it and protect it. As the data shows, we have sustained an engaged in our first year and are looking forward to developing the action cards even further to continue to incentivise schools, families, community groups. Everyone is welcome.”

The myEARTH platform can become a useful resource for parents when planning affordable, family-friendly activities this summer with it now fully loaded with free events and activities from various organisations such as The Conservation Volunteers, Ulster Wildlife and RSPB.

Butterfly Conservation’s Action Cards include the Big Butterfly Count encouraging little minds to keep their eyes peeled for various native species of butterflies. RSPB is providing myEARTH users with advice on planting wildlife friendly flowers to welcome garden birds, as well as offering points for attending one of its many nature reserves across the region. Children aged 11

and above can also use the summer holiday period to enter Ulster Wildlife’s Wild Youth Awards through the myEARTH platform.

Parents can also visit myEARTH to download from a comprehensive collection of kid-friendly educational resources, with each pack designed to empower people to be a part of creating a sustainable future.

myEARTH is funded through a £488,557 grant from Dormant Assets NI, delivered by The National Lottery Community Fund. To register an activity or sign-up to log participation visit www.myearth.org.uk