#earthday2012

I have taken the pledge to make the earth a better place for me & the future.

With hundreds of millions of actions to date, Earth Day Network's A Billion Acts of Green® campaign – the largest environmental service campaign in the world – is steadily building commitments by individuals, organizations, businesses and governments in honor of Earth Day.

A Billion Acts of Green® inspires and rewards both simple individual acts and larger organizational initiatives that reduce carbon emissions and support sustainability.

The goal is to register one billion actions in advance of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) happening in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

The A Billion Acts of Green® website quantifies acts of green through an easy-to-use online registration tool. Communities and organizers can register Earth Day events such as community environmental meetings, tree plantings, large-scale light bulb changes and workplace renewable energy retrofits.* And individuals can register the actions they’re taking to protect the environment – from riding a bike instead of driving and washing laundry in cold water to planting a garden and volunteering with a community clean-up.

Together, these actions add up to something big.

* The best time to organize a commitment for A Billion Acts of Green® is during Earth Day 2012!  This year’s Earth Day theme is Mobilize the Earth™. This theme is designed to provide people with the opportunity to unite their voices in a call for a sustainable future. When organizing your Earth Day event, make sure to register all of the Acts of Green.

Some notable contributions to A Billion Acts of Green®:

School Greenings: Earth Day Network has worked to retrofit 40 schools across the globe with green technologies and resources. From installing solar panels to planting school gardens, Earth Day Network helped these schools to significantly reduce their carbon footprints.

Ocean Conservancy: More than 10 million green acts came from the Ocean Conservancy, following their annual International Costal Clean-Up Day, which has seen nearly 9 million volunteers from 152 countries work to clean shores, streams, rivers and the ocean.

Siemens: As part of their 2010 corporate sponsorship, employees of Siemens completed 789,041 Acts of Green through the donation of thousands of generators, flashlights and skyhydrants to victims of the earthquake in Haiti

Earth Hour: Millions participate in Earth Hour every year on March 26. Each person who turned off their lights is counted as an Act of Green. 

200 Catholic Congregations contributed 100,000 Acts of Green through local service projects.

Earth Day Philippines: Through massive tree plantings, water projects, river clean-ups, recycling drives and school greenings, Earth Day Philippines contributed over 12 million Acts of Green.

Avatar Home Tree Initiative: Through a partnership with Twentieth Century Fox and the Avatar Blu Ray and DVD, Earth Day Network and 16 partners planted 1,006,639 trees in 16 countries, directly involving over 31,000 individuals. 

Peace Corps: In partnership with the Peace Corps, Earth Day Network worked with local volunteers to implement environmental and civic education programs, tree-plantings, village clean-ups and recycling seminars in rural areas of Ukraine, Georgia, Albania and Paraguay, helping to build environmental awareness in some of the world’s most underserved communities.

P&G Future Friendly collected thousands of green acts at Earth Day on the National Mall and through support of Earth Day Network’s iPhone and Facebook apps.

Kolkata, India: Plans for a small series of sponsored events evolved into a nationwide presence, 17 cities large.  Earth Day Network partnered with global and local NGOs and local government officials to coordinate city and village clean-ups, environmental rallies and educational programs for underprivileged children.  Earth Day Network has now established an office in Kolkata. 

In China, Roots and Shoots Shanghai planted 600,000 trees across inner Mongolia to preserve depleted rainforests. Educators hosted eco-fairs where students learned about the importance of sustainability.

In Louisiana, Green Light New Orleans worked to assist residents with the installation of free, energy-efficient light bulbs.  They worked house by house and installed over 300,000 new bulbs across the city.

In Afghanistan, Earth Day Network worked with more than 40 government and village leaders across the country in environmental sustainability practices including recycling programs and the need for clean water and alternative energy.

In Kenya, Guatemala, and Haiti, Earth Day Network partner The Paradigm Project has committed to installing 5 million new fuel efficient stoves that fight off deforestation, respiratory disease, poverty and hunger. 

In Mozambique, the president led a tree-planting initiative in schools across Maputo.

Promoting Sustainability and Solutions to Climate Change

To accelerate and provide the new thinking and creative power for a global post-carbon economy, Earth Day Network is engaging women business, government and NGO leaders in its “Women and the Green Economy” (WAGE®) Campaign. WAGE® is working today 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.

Launched at the UNFCCC 16th Conference of the Parties in Cancun, Mexico in December, 2010, the WAGE® Campaign is actively creating a road map for women to aggregate their power and promote their leadership in creating a sustainable green economy and mitigating climate change.

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

ONE DAY ON EARTH: Global Screening on Earth Day (April 22) 2012 announced! Go here for info on how to participate.