Earth Day Inspiration for the Office

When Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson started the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, he insisted that individuals and community groups create activities instead of organizers in Washington. 

Nelson’s call for a grassroots environmental movement worked.  About 20 million people, or one in 10 Americans, participated in the first Earth Day to send a message to Washington that public opinion supported a political agenda on environmental problems.

Some in Congress dubbed the following decade “The Environmental Decade.”  Voters booted out several officials with poor environmental records in the fall’s midterm election and in the succeeding years, 28 pieces of legislation were passed — the bulk of today’s environmental regulatory authority, including the Occupational Health and Safety Act, The Safe Drinking Water Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Today, it’s integral to continue the environmental movement of the 1970s.  Carbon emissions rose by 5.9 percent in 2010 — the largest percentage on record — and millions of Americans are still drinking contaminated water, among many environmental issues that degrade human and environmental health.

Being part of the environmental movement doesn’t mean we have to go back to the past, i.e. give up the computer for pen-and-paper, or forgo the modern day way-of-life.  Rather, we can envision a new sustainable and carbon-free future by supporting the right policies, technology and making those sustainable choices where we can make them in our everyday lives.

Check our blog over the week.  EcoGreenOffice will be offering tips for increasing sustainability in the office and how you can support larger environmental movements from your office chair.

Get started today by reading articles from the EcoGreenOffice Green Education section that include information on how to revamp your office’s paper recycling efforts, energy use in the office, connecting with other ecofriendly businesses and more. 

From 1971 - 1977, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hired freelance photographers for the "Docuamerica Project" to photograph images related to environmental problems, EPA activities and everyday life in the 1970s.  The photograph pictured above captures students picking up trash along the roadside in 1972.