Eating lunch - the green way

(Monkey Business Images/shutterstock.com)

People around the world are encouraged to change their regular lunch time habits for greener ones during Earth Lunch Hour on October 6.

Organized by electronics manufacturer Panasonic the event will begin in Japan at 11am and then following global date lines cross into Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Central America, Southern America and Oceania before finishing in Japan at 11am the following day. The event is designed to show participants how small actions, such as eating seasonal produce, or buying goods with minimal packaging, can have a big impact on the environment.

Participants are invited to upload ideas for an 'earth friendly' lunch to the events website; Earth Lunch Hour is also supported by a Twitter stream and select events will be broadcast on Ustream.

Earth Lunch Hour is the latest in a series of widespread events including World Green Building Week (September 20-26) and World Carfree Day (September 22), designed to draw attention to environmental issues.

On October 10, the Global Work Party encourages people around the world to undertake a project which could be beneficial to the environment. In Auckland, New Zealand residents are planning a 'giant bike fix-up' to encourage people to cycle, in the Maldives members of the public are fixing solar panels toa public building and in the UK people in Cambridge are having a low carbon meal and conducting household energy surveys.

For more information about Earth Lunch Hour see: http://www.earthlunchhour.net/

Earth Lunch Hour Twitter feed: @earthlunchhour

For more information about The Global Work Party see: http://www.350.org/en/map