September is all about cozy sweaters, a good book with a hot chai, under a blanket, scented candles and those warm snuggles. But there’s also a lot happening this month regarding our planet’s well-being. We listed here the main events raising awareness of climate change and its possible solutions. So if you’re into making a change in your own way, check out what’s going on in your local area:

10 September – 10 October – Low Car Diet

You heard it right. We are shifting from diet trends towards those that are not only good for our health, but better for the planet too. This one month long Dutch initiative nudges people to ditch the car and use alternatives modes of transportation for commuting. We teamed up with Low Car Diet to offer free Donkey Bike rides.

16-22 September European Mobility Week

European Mobility Week came to life in 2002 to promote sustainable ways of urban transportation in order to improve the life quality of citizens. Cities and towns across Europe offer a wide variety of events. Check out what is happening in the major Donkey cities during Mobility Week: Budapest, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Berlin, Vienna.

20 – 27 September – Global Climate Strike

It all started on a Friday in 2018, when the 15 year old Swedish student, Greta Thunberg decided that the future of her generation is way more important than sitting in school learning facts about climate change. Greta wanted to do something, so she sat alone in front of the Swedish parliament with a “School strike for climate” transparent. Up until this day she continues to protest, with a little bit of difference: now she speaks up in the EU Parliament, and in Ted talks, meanwhile millions of students and adults joined the movement organising protests globally demanding immediate climate action from politicians.

Between 20 – 27 of September there is going to be a global climate strike by School Strike 4 Climate and they are calling all schools and adults to join the marches. So, keep an eye on the official Facebook page of SS4C, where you can see the upcoming marches worldwide, including your local area.

21 September – Zero Emission Day

The Global 24 hour moratorium on the use of fossil fuels encourages people to minimise the use of anything sourced from fossil-fuels. The main principles of the day are simple:

Minimise (or eliminate) your use of electricity generated by fossil fuels.
Don’t use or burn oil, gas or coal.

We’d add an additional Donkey point:
Take a bike instead of riding a car when commuting in the city to keep the air clean and to make space for a carrot cake.ss

21 September – World cleanup day

World Cleanup Day, a civic movement uniting 157 countries across the world for a cleaner planet. This year, on the 21st of September, people are coming together across the globe to clean up litter from beaches, rivers and streets. Check out their official Facebook page and see the closest cleanup event to you!

22 September – World Car Free Day

The very first car free day – not surprisingly- was organised ad hoc in 1973 during the big oil crisis. Since then, September 22 is the official day when cities around the World celebrate Car-free Day. Since then many cities take part in it and go car free for a day, globally. So ditch the car, hop on a bike and enjoy the many benefits of cycling, or go back to basics and just walk your way towards a brighter future with less cars and more clean air.

In 1991, a photographer commissioned by the City of Münster’s planning department took a series of photographs for this three-panelled poster that showed the space required to transport 72 people by either car, bus or bicycle. Taken on Prinzipalmarkt, Münster’s High Street, the transportation triptych has since become iconic and is often wheeled out as the main representation of how single-occupancy cars take up a disproportionate amount of road space.

27 September – World Tourism Day

The UN World Tourism Organisation celebrates World Tourism Day since 1980 to raise awareness of the social, cultural, economic and political importance of tourism. Since we’re living in an age of climate change sustainable tourism in under the spotlight. So, don’t forget that you can always do tourism in a more environmentally friendly way. Think how you could reduce the emissions of your transportation, discover your own country first or even if you have to take a flight, consider walking or biking instead of driving cars when you go on local adventures. If we could, we would call this day the World Slow Tourism Day.

Hop on a Donkey for free and visit one of the events near you!

We’d love to see more people engaging in events promoting sustainability and less car usage. With the code CARFREE19 get a 30 minutes free ride throughout the whole month of September!