The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

But Earth Day Network does not stop there.

All of EDN’s activities, whether greening schools or promoting green economic policies at home and abroad, inform and energize populations so they will act to secure a healthy future for themselves and their children. With its partner organizations, EDN provides civic engagement opportunities at the local, state, national and global levels. At every turn, EDN works to broaden the definition of "environment" to include all issues that affect our health, our communities and our environment, such as greening deteriorated schools, creating green jobs and investment, and promoting activism to stop air and water pollution.

Over the last 40 years, EDN has executed successful environmental campaigns on issues ranging climate change and drinking water to voter registration and saving the whale. EDN is a recognized leader in creating civically–oriented innovative programs with partners outside of the environmental movement to tackle new challenges. Our core programs today focus on:

Greening Schools and Promoting Environmental Education

In partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council and The Clinton Foundation, EDN’s 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.  EDN’s Educator’s Network, 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. Together, EDN’s Education and Policy Teams organize federal and state legislative campaigns to green school facilities, improve school food, and enhance environmental education and civic engagement.  These include the Healthy Schools Act, No Child Left Inside, the National Civic Education Project, No Idling and the Climate Change Educators’ Grant.  EDN is also working internationally to promote green schools and improve environmental education.

Accelerating the Global Green Economy

For years, EDN has created dialogues and conferences engaging civil society, corporate, and government leaders on how to transition from a traditional, fossil fuel-based economy to one based on renewable energy, energy efficiency and other sustainable development principles. Our Global Day of Conversation provides local government leaders with an opportunity to engage with their constituents in a dialogue about renewable energy, sustainability and the green economy. The Creating Climate Wealth Conference co-hosted in 2010 with Sir Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room and now planned as an annual event, convenes the world’s most successful green business leaders. EDN’s newest initiative, Women and the Green Economy (WAGE™), is promoting the unique leadership role women bring to advancing green economic and investment policies at the international, national and local levels.

A Billion Acts of Green®

From greening schools to hosting town hall discussions on clean energy investment and green jobs, Earth Day Network leads its network in thousands of Earth Day events and actions worldwide each year.  To catalyze global environmental activism, Earth Day Network has chosen A Billion Acts of Green® as the theme for Earth Day 2011. At over 40 million actions to date, A Billion Acts of Green®–the largest environmental service campaign in the world–inspires and rewards 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 global Earth Summit in Rio in 2012.