Earth Day and Women and the Green Economy
Earth Day Network is engaging women business, government and NGO leaders in its Women and the Green Economy (WAGE) Campaign to accelerate and provide the new thinking and creative power for a global post-carbon economy. The goal is to create a policy agenda for Rio+20 and generate relevant national initiatives that will promote the green economy, secure educational and job training opportunities for women and channel green investment to benefit women. Earth Day Network created WAGE in view of the following facts:
- Women constitute more than half of the world’s population
- Women make 85 percent of all consumer choices
- Women are rising to key positions of power
- Women can lead the way to a sustainable green economy
Women are leading key efforts in the climate and renewable energy discussion, from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who created a new office for women at the State Department, to Dr. Amina Benkhadra, Morocco’s Minister of Energy, Mines, Water and Environment, to Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Together, our most talented and successful women can fast-forward the green economy. Already, WAGE has attracted the following women sustainability leaders to its Global Advisory Committee:
Rev. Canon Sally Bingham, President and Founder, Interfaith Power and Light
Martha Delgado Peralta, Secretary, Mexico City Ministry of the Environment
Martha Duggan, President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, United Solar Ovonic LLC
Marina Grossi, Executive President, Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development
Dr. Pamela Hartigan, Director, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, University of Oxford
Jane Henley, CEO, World Green Building Council
Kristina Johnson, Former Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Energy
Donna Karan, Founder, DKNY
Rachel Kyte, Vice President, Business Advisory Services, International Finance Corporation
Elizabeth Littlefield, President and CEO, Overseas Private Investment Corporation
Mindy Lubber, President, CERES
Daniel B. Magraw, Jr., President Emeritus, Distinguished Scholar, Center for International Environmental Law
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon Ltd.
Charlotte Pera, Senior Vice President, Director of U.S. Operations, Energy Foundation
Sally Ranney, CEO, Stillwater Preservation, LLC
Stephanie, Rico, Head of External Communications and Marketing, Wells Fargo
Shannon Schuyler, U.S. Corporate Responsibility Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Dr. Lise Van Susteren, Forensic Psychiatrist and Environmental Activist
Mary Wenzel, Director of Environmental Affairs, Wells Fargo
Rebecca Wodder, President, American Rivers
Denice Zeck, Executive Director, American Forum
Jean Oelwang, CEO, Virgin Unite
Denise Bode, CEO, American Wind Energy Association
Katrina Landis, CEO, BP Alternative Energy
Vanessa E-H Stewart, COO, Co-Founder, Soltage
Aimee Christensen, Founder and CEO, Christensen Global Strategies
Maria Fernanda Garza, Vicepresidente, International Chamber of Commerce, Mexico
Earth Day and Green Schools
The Earth Day Network Green Schools Campaign, aims to green all of America’s K-12 schools within a generation. Green schools save money, conserve energy and water, and foster better-performing, healthier students. The program, used by over 30,000 teachers and administrators nationwide, provides innovative tools and resources to promote civic participation and to develop a sense of environmental responsibility among students of all ages.
Green schools provide an extremely cost-effective way to enhance student learning and health, reduce operational costs and environmental impacts, and increase a community’s overall quality and competitiveness. As a whole, multiple benefits accrue in economic, educational and environmental sectors to create a win-win situation for any green school project.
During the 2005-2006 school year, Earth Day Network was one of the first organizations to champion what has since become a national green schools movement. These schools are at the vanguard of the national education and environmental movements, combining traditional education approaches with 21st century innovations in building science, renewable energy, and green economy support.
The Green Schools Campaign helps communities save not only millions of dollars, but millions of pounds of pollution as well. With one-fifth of the American population working and learning in schools everyday, green schools are becoming the norm.
Earth Day and The Canopy Project
In 2010, Earth Day Network planted over 1 million trees in 16 countries under the Avatar Home Tree Initiative. In 2011, EDN will continue that effort with another 1 million trees in partnership with non‐profit organizations throughout the world. Locations where reforestation is most urgently needed include Haiti, Brazil, Mexico and urban areas of the US.
Every tree planted in 2011 as part of Earth Day Network’s Canopy Project will be counted in its Billion Acts of Green, the campaign to reward and inspire simple individual acts as well as larger corporate, governmental and organizational acts, with the goal of measurably reducing carbon emissions and supporting sustainability.
Below are some of the unique projects that Earth Day Network and the Avatar Home Tree Initiative supported in 2010.
New York City – MillionTreesNYC plants trees throughout New York City’s five boroughs, focusing on low- to middle-income communities to increase green spaces in the community and improve urban environmental health for area residents. MillionTreesNYC participated in the Initiative through their fall Reforestation Day’s city-wide tree plantings.
San Francisco – Since 1981, Friends of the Urban Forest has helped San Franciscans to plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens, thereby supporting the health and livability of the urban environment. The organization conducted plantings in low-income neighborhoods, resulting in increased community interaction and cooperation.
Los Angeles – TreePeople is a Los Angeles-based non-profit whose mission is to improve the urban environment of the city by planting trees. TreePeople’s Fruit Tree Program will provide low-income families, school children and community residents with a source of free fruit to help alleviate hunger, address childhood diabetes and obesity, improve nutrition, and provide shade, beauty and cleaner air now and for decades to come.
Australia – Landcare Australia worked with national parks and land care groups to help restore vulnerable areas of metropolitan New South Wales and Victoria, focusing on areas with unique and threatened animal species.
Belgium – Vereniging voor Bos in Vlaanderen, or Organization for Forests in Flanders, worked to combat the environmental effects of intensive livestock and agricultural production by working with private landowners in Flanders to reforest their properties.
Brazil – To combat agricultural expansion and urban sprawl, SOS Mata Atlântica Foundation worked with local communities to plant native trees as a means to restore the Atlantic Forest, one of the most biologically diverse and severely threatened forest ecosystems in the world.
Canada – Tree Canada joined the Avatar Home Tree Initiative to restore 800 hectares (1,976 acres) of pine forest of southeastern Manitoba on land that was devastated by hurricane-force winds in 2005.
France – With its bi-cultural mission, Kinomé’s Trees & Life program helped 9- and 10-year-old children in southern France plant their own trees. For every tree the children planted in France, kids of the same age in Senegal planted two trees, thus advancing global reforestation and intercultural awareness.
Germany – The Berlin Energy Agency’s environmental youth organization, Club-E, planted trees in southern Berlin as part of its mission to raise awareness among young people about sustainable development and lifestyles and to promote job opportunities for young people in the green economy.
Haiti – Trees for the Future, a U.S.-based organization that works with Haitian farmers to bring degraded lands back to productivity through the planting of beneficial trees, worked with communities to plant fruit and other native trees using sustainable agroforestry practices. Their work helped combat centuries of environmental degradation and natural disasters, including the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake.
Italy – The community and Municipality of San Giovanni in Persiceto took on the Cassa Budrie reforestation project. They worked to restore and preserve a local wetland and forest located on a major flood plain, helping to promote local water security and prevent soil erosion. Other objectives of the project are biodiversity recovery and the creation of a local carbon sink to combat global climate change.
Japan – To create a sustainable future, a tailored tree-planting at a Japanese school gave students and teachers the opportunity to plant trees on their campus and engage in related environmental education and school greening activities.
Mexico – Sierra Gorda Ecological Group (SGEG) has been working since 1987 to protect the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, the most ecologically diverse protected area of Mexico. The SGEG worked with local communities and farmers to reforest both agricultural land and pristine forests, directly benefiting local communities as local watersheds are restored.
The Netherlands – Stichting wAarde, or the Earth Value Foundation, worked with local youth to plant trees in areas around Amsterdam and Utrecht. The planted trees not only engage youth and communities in learning about their local environment, but improve air quality, create healthier outdoor spaces and restore urban habitats for wildlife.
Spain – Plantemos Para el Planeta ambitiously aims to reforest Spain by planting one tree for every Spaniard. The group worked to reforest the southeastern Costa del Sol, which was ravaged by wildfire in 2009, and to create recreation spaces for individuals to appreciate the beauty of nature.
Sweden – Under Sweden’s Skogen i Skolan, or Forest in School program, children and their teachers go on excursions to plant spruce, pine, birch and beech trees in northeast Sweden with professional guidance and intensive environmental and reforestation education.
United Kingdom – The UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe, with only four percent native woodland cover. Leading woodland conservation charity, The Woodland Trust is encouraging community groups across the UK to transform their local area by planting more native trees for the benefit of local people, wildlife and the environment as part of the Trust’s ‘More Trees, More Good’ campaign. Communities can apply for free tree packs and receive support via an online advice centre.
Earth Day and Athletes for the Earth
In observance of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Earth Day Network created multiple global initiatives including Athletes for the Earth Campaign that brings Olympic, professional, and every day athletes’ voices to help promote a solution to climate change.
Athletes are role models, especially for young people, and have a truly unique relationship with the environment, particularly for many outdoor Olympic events. Earth Day Network’s Athletes for the Earth campaign brings Olympic and professional athletes to the environmental movement as spokespeople for Earth Day and for increased environmental awareness and activism. At global athletic events leading up to Earth Day, Athletes for the Earth has a proven track record of illustrating the interaction of athletes with their environment and connecting popular athletic activities with environmental stewardship.
Participating athletes/celebs include Olympic Nordic Combined Gold Medalist Billy Demong, Olympic Alpine Skiing Bronze Medalist Andrew Weibrecht, World Champion Freeskier and founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation Alison Gannett, Boston Bruins Defenseman Andrew Ference, Olympic Gold Medal Swimmer Aaron Peirsol, and NFL Linebacker Dhani Jones.
Earth Day and A Billion Acts of Green
The Earth Day Network was founded to promote environmental activism and year-round progressive action, domestically and internationally. Earth Day Network members focus on environmental education, global policies, public environmental campaigns, and organizing national and local earth day events to promote activism and environmental protection. The international network reaches over 19,000 organizations in 192 countries, while the domestic program engages 10,000 groups and over 100,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental-protection activities throughout the year.
In recognition of the power of millions of individual actions, Earth Day 2011 will be organized around A Billion Acts of Green: Personal, organizational and corporate pledges to live and act sustainably. With over 45 million actions to date, A Billion Acts of Green campaign is the largest environmental service campaign in the world, and is steadily building commitments by individuals, corporations, and governments in honor of Earth Day.
A Billion Acts of Green inspires and rewards both simple individual acts and larger organizational initiatives that further the goal of measurably reducing carbon emissions and supporting sustainability. The goal is to register one billion actions in advance of the Earth Summit in Rio in 2012. A Billion Acts of Green website quantifies acts of green through an easy-to-use online registration tool, and demonstrates the kind of environmental impact that can be made when millions of people make commitments to better their environment.
The First Earth Day
The first Earth Day had participants and celebrants in thousands of colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. It brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform.
How the First Earth Day Came About
by Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day
What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.
Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political “limelight” once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.
I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation’s political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.
After President Kennedy’s tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called “teach-ins,” had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me – why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?
I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.
At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air – and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.
Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:
“Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam…a national day of observance of environmental problems…is being planned for next spring…when a nationwide environmental ‘teach-in’…coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned….”
It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.
Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.
