3 Days 'Til International Cleanup Weekend

“Think globally, clean locally”. That’s the idea behind International Cleanup Weekend, a new campaign from Google and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). People around the globe are planning cleanup efforts in their neighborhood and sharing the plans and results on the internet with the help of Google Maps.

During International Cleanup Weekend (October 13 & 14, 2007) community groups and individuals on every continent will be heading out in small groups with friends and family to clean up their local parks, beaches, streets and neighborhoods.

Google Maps will help activists post photos, videos, map and more so even the smallest local initiative can have a global audience. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP’s Executive Director, said:

The power of local community action is being matched by the power of the World Wide Web. This should make a formidable partnership uniting and empowering groups from Bangalore to Bermuda and Berlin to Beijing in common cause. Let us hope this global Google community’s effort may go further and persist beyond the International Cleanup Weekend. It may evolve into a new forum and network for ideas sharing on a wide range of challenges from local cleanups to community-based solutions to such pressing issues as climate change.

UNEP and Google encourage everyone to plan their own cleanup close to home, wherever they think there is the biggest need for it. This project is one of many joint efforts between UNEP and Google Inc. You can learn more about the United Nations Environment Programme at their website or get started with your International Cleanup Weekend project here at Google Maps.