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OUR
MISSION
Earth Day is more than a one-day event or annual environmental wake-up
call. It is a catalyst for ongoing education, action and change. It
simultaneously broadens the base of support and rekindles old commitments
through highly participatory strategies.
Earth
Day is uniquely positioned to effectively implement public participation
and education programs. Broadly recognized and under-stood,
it is a powerful and positive image for the environmental movement.
Earth Day New York is a low-overhead, broadly educational non-profit
501(c)(3) organization that promotes environmental awareness and solutions
through a three-pronged program: 1) involving schools, teachers and
students through the Earth Day Education Program; 2) educating public
and private policymakers through conferences and publications; and,
3) involving the general public in annual Earth Day events.
THE EARTH DAY EDUCATION PROGRAM
Earth Day New York was founded in late 1989 by a broad coalition of
environmental groups to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Earth Day
in New York City. Its initial geographic focus was city-wide. In 1991,
it established the Earth Day Education Program to create an independent
and effective mechanism for distributing environmental teaching materials
directly into local public, private, and parochial schools. Its success
literally demanded expansion nationwide.
In our first year (1991-1992), we achieved an extraordinary 60% response
in the New York City schools we contacted. In the second year (1992-1993),
we expanded the program statewide and reached over 40% of all schools
in New York State. The next year (1993-1994), we piloted a thirteen-state
national expansion (37%) and a resolicitation of New York schools
achieving a 57% response.
In 1995, we expanded the program to all fifty states and signed up
over 50,000 coordinators from 48,000 schools. In the fall of 1996,
the network was expanded again reaching over 61,000 coordinators representing
57,000 different schools. Now, following our most recent expansion,
we reach 87,000 coordinators in over 74,000 unique schools representing
67% of all schools in the United States.
The objectives of the Earth Day Education Program are to make top-quality
environmental teaching materials more widely available, to enhance
students' ability to analyze and solve environmental problems, and
to make environmental studies interesting and relevant to everyday
life. One important goal of the Earth Day Education Program is to
distribute to every school in America without regard to ability to
pay -- our materials are free.
THE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMY PROJECT
The Sustainable Economy Project supports and encourages local, regional,
national and international initiatives and partnerships that are
economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Our mission
is inspired by the belief that an emerging sustainable economy already
exists--it is growing and vital, developing on many different levels
in most sectors of the economy. Our role is to locate and present
to a wider audience the best examples of this new economy; to help
identify and link the best leaders, organizations and projects;
and to encourage new initiatives, programs and ideas.
In 1995, EDNY hosted the first international Building the Sustainable
Economy Conference in New York City, attended by some of the most
prominent theoreticians and practitioners in the field of sustainability.
Since 1996, we have organized three successful conferences that
focused on green buildings and sustainable real estate development.
On May 1-2, 2002, we held our latest conference, Re-thinking the
Built Environment.
PUBLICATIONS
In 1998, EDNY published Lessons Learned: Four Times Square –
An Environmental Information and Resource Guide for the Commercial
Real Estate Industry. It was distributed free-of-charge to the entire
membership of the Real Estate Board of New York, BOMA, and New York
Building Congress. A companion volume, Lessons Learned: High Performance
Buildings, was published in 2000 in response to the extraordinary
demand for the first publication and to the positive feedback it
received. Through these publications Earth Day New York hopes to
contribute to the quickening pace of change in an industry that
is experiencing an explosion of new development and renovation.
EDNY also plans to publish a third book in 2004.
ANNUAL EARTH DAY CELEBRATIONS
Earth Day New York mobilized 2 million people to attend Earth Day's
20th Anniversary events in 1990 - the Earth Rising Ceremony in Times
Square, the Environmental Exposition and Cultural Festival on Sixth
Avenue and a major concert in Central Park. For the 25th Anniversary
in 1995, we organized diverse arts and educational events including
The Parade for the Planet, The Giant Earth Projections, The International
Poster Exhibition and The New York Team Clean and Green. For Earth
Day 2000 we engaged millions of New Yorkers in the 30th Anniversary
of Earth Day with an environmental awareness festival in lower Manhattan
including representatives from over 100 local, national and global
environmental organizations; a wide array of educational and interactive
children’s activities; three stages with New York’s
finest musicians and performance artists; and a natural foods court
focused on organic agriculture and vegetarianism.
For Earth Day 2002 and 2003, Earth Day New York with the Metropolitan
Transit Authority held an Earth Week celebration in Grand Central
Terminal. Earth related images were projected continually onto two
sandstone columns in the Grand Concourse. The event culminated with
Earth Fair, two days of exhibits, musical performances, and children’s
activities in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall to
raise environmental awareness.
STAFF DIRECTORY:
Executive Director: Pamela Lippe
Deputy Director: Elizabeth Broad
Program Director: Erin East
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©2003
Earth Day New York site design: Ryan
Germick
