Saturday marked International Coastal Clean Up Day. This day is so important, as it reminds us all to pay attention to our environmental footprint and due to its relevance for the globe, we dedicated our most recent Random Day Surprise to it. This time you might have been surprised a little more, as we celebrated a global holiday that fell on a weekend. We also value your engagement over the weekend and want to Thank You all for stopping by and engaging with your fellow community members.

The International Coastal Cleanup began more than 35 years ago. The movement was initiated by the passion of Linda Maraniss and Kathy O’Hara who have both been working for Ocean Conservancy. Kathy O’Hara was working on a groundbreaking report called Plastics in the Ocean: More than a Litter Problem that inspired Linda and Kathy to initiate the first Ocean Conservancy’s cleanup. The idea was simple: Go to a local beach with a garbage bag and start picking up trash in order to reduce the amount that would be swept into the ocean by water or wind. Additionally, they asked volunteers to record each item collected on a standardized data card to identify ways to eliminate ocean trash in the future. Their documentation included studying the trash’s material (where it could have come from, how long it would take to disintegrate, what impact it would have on the ocean and the species living in it) in order to inform the governments about the findings to think about ways how to prevent further damage on the environment going forward.

Today, volunteers from states and territories throughout the United States and more than 150 countries all over the world come together each year and participate in a cleanup event near them. The original idea expanded and nowadays, it is no longer solely about coastal areas, but also about lakes, and land areas.

That’s why we celebrated this day, as one of our Random Day Surprises in SAP Community.

Those of you who were active on International Coastal Clean Up Day in SAP Community find the above badge in their profile’s reputation snapshot.

I personally find the awareness of this day very crucial, as I believe we can do more. I once visited the “Secret Gili Islands” in Indonesia and found it sad to see a lot of trash from the city Mataram coming down to the tiny island beaches. The people from the island clean up the beaches regularly (and also visitors help out a lot), but the fight seems to be endlessly. This is just one example why it is so important to take care of our coasts and beaches.

A great story to share is that of my own colleagues from Ireland: The SAP Ireland Green Team is a small group of volunteers in both the Galway and Dublin offices that engage in sustainable initiatives, drive green & sustainable awareness, events and campaigns at SAP Ireland on a voluntary basis. They aim to execute local activities, in line with the SAP global vision and purpose, to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. They support SAP’s sustainable strategy. All actions and initiatives are in support of the SAP and UN Global Sustainable Development Goals.”
(For SAP employees; in case you are interested in what the team does and what events are planned, check out their respective SAP internal Jam group and watch out for their upcoming clean-up event).

One other reason, I am publishing this blog post today is our Coastal Photography Competition 2022 that we ran from August 19 (World Photography Day) until today. SAP Community Fans amongst you might remember that we also once had a Random Day Surprise dedicated to World Photography Day, back in 2020 (go have a quick look into the reputation section of my profile if you’re curious what our badge back then looked like).

The competition ran for four weeks and we received so many great shots from coasts. You all seem to be great hobby photographers. I am more than excited and happy to share the winner with you. Shout-out to Peter Monaghan for his submission with the most kudos on his coastal photo. Congrats to the SAP Merchandise Store voucher worth 100€. We will reach out to you directly with further details on your prize.

Peter Monaghan (18 Kudos)

As we had so many great submissions,
I also wanted to share the second highest number of kudos:

John Astill (16 Kudos)

Vivek Prabhu (15 Kudos)

Another great coastal picture (and my favourite one) was this one:

Olga Varicheva (8 Kudos)

There’s been so many lovely submissions, that I want to share all of them with you:

Huge Thank You and Kudos to everyone who participated! And for those who missed it – don’t hesitate to have a look into our Coffee Corner to view all images that have been submitted!

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Sources: Ocean Conservancy official website & NationalToday Holiday Calendar