Global Day of Conversation Part of Earth Day This Year

More than one billion people participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. For this year’s celebration—observed on April 22—the organization Earth Day Network (EDN) wants to get as many people talking about saving the planet as possible, starting with their Campaign for Communities, a platform for government leaders to hold a “Global Day of Conversation” event to promote community conversations on environmental challenges and opportunities.

At the third annual Climate Leadership Gala, hosted by Ed Begley, Jr. on March 27 in Washington, D.C., 400 of the world’s top green economy leaders will discuss their ideas for mobilizing for a cleaner planet and working toward a post-carbon future. And everyone is invited to join EDN’s A Billion Acts of Green campaign, the largest environmental service campaign in the world. A Billion Acts of Green inspires both small, individual acts and larger organizational initiatives by encouraging participants to install renewable energy technology, embrace energy efficient appliances, adopt lower impact electric and hybrid vehicles and participate in or host an Earth Day event. Campaign partner Native Energy (nativeenergy.com) provides the tools needed to calculate each participant’s reduction of carbon output and share their efforts with world leaders at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (aka “Earth Summit”) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this June.

And throughout the year, kids and over 30,000 teachers in EDN’ s ongoing Green Schools campaign and Educators’ Network are talking about sustainability and environmental education in the 21st century. Launched in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council and the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Green Schools campaign aims to ease tight education budgets by teaching schools how to better conserve energy and water use throughout facilities, and encouraging more nutritious food and nontoxic cleaning for better-performing, healthier students.