Earth Day 2026: Our Power, Our Planet 

On 22 April 2026, Earth Day marks its 56th year. What started as a series of campus teach-ins in the United States in 1970 has grown into the world’s largest civic environmental event, mobilising over a billion people each year across more than 190 countries – and it continues to shape policy, spark innovation, and push businesses to raise their standards.

This year’s theme is Our Power, Our Planet. The idea behind it is straightforward: that communities, workplaces, and individuals already have real influence over environmental outcomes, and that exerting that influence, collectively and consistently, can lead to meaningful change.

In this article, we look at what Our Power, Our Planet means in practice, why it matters for businesses in particular, and how you can get involved in ways that extend well beyond 22 April.

What are the origins of Earth Day?

Earth Day was born out of growing public alarm in the late 1960s – a period marked by oil spills, toxic dumping, smog-choked cities, and the visible destruction of natural habitats. In 1970, student activist Denis Hayes channelled that concern into action, organising a series of campus teach-ins across the United States to raise awareness and demand political accountability.

On 22 April 1970, over 20 million Americans took to the streets. They brought national attention to issues that had been largely ignored by policymakers, including air and water pollution, pesticide use, deforestation, and the unchecked destruction of ecosystems. It was a moment of collective awakening, and it worked: the first Earth Day directly contributed to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency and laid the groundwork for landmark legislation, including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.

More than five decades later, Earth Day has grown into the world’s largest civic environmental event, mobilising over a billion people each year across more than 190 countries.

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What does ‘Our Power, Our Planet’ mean?

Our Power, Our Planet positions this year’s Earth Day around a straightforward idea: that the power to drive environmental change is already distributed across communities, workplaces, and everyday decisions, and that harnessing it collectively is how progress actually happens.

The theme is closely related to clean energy. As Kathleen Rogers, President of earthday.org, has said, communities worldwide are having vital conversations about renewable energy – both as a response to climate change and as a straightforward means to building resilient, prosperous local economies. After all, clean energy creates jobs, improves air quality, and reduces the health burden that falls disproportionately on communities closest to pollution sources.

The World Health Organisation estimates that combined outdoor and household air pollution is linked to around 7 million premature deaths annually. Burning fossil fuels drives both greenhouse gas emissions and the air pollutants (such as particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone) associated with heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory illness. The transition to cleaner energy is, in that sense, a public health issue as much as a climate one.

Why does Earth Day matter for business owners?

Businesses with strong environmental commitments are increasingly finding that sustainability and commercial performance move in the same direction. Here are four reasons why Earth Day 2026 is worth taking seriously as a business owner.

1. Consumers are making sustainability-driven choices

PwC’s 2024 Voice of the Consumer survey found that 80% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for sustainably produced or sourced goods, with an average premium of around 9.7%. That was underscored in a 2025 report by the World Economic Forum, which reported that 60% of industrial SMEs and mid-sized companies cite customer demand as the primary factor in their sustainability drives.

Consumers assess sustainability through concrete signals, such as production methods, packaging, and evidence of positive environmental impact.

2. Employees – particularly younger workers – are paying close attention

According to Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, around 54% of Gen Z and 48% of millennials say they and their colleagues are actively putting pressure on employers to act on climate change. One in five Gen Z workers and nearly as many millennials have already changed jobs or industries due to environmental concerns, and another quarter plan to do so. For businesses competing for talent, in other words, a credible sustainability position has become a meaningful differentiator.

3. Regulatory direction is clear

Governments across the world are tightening environmental requirements – from emissions reporting and carbon taxation to supply chain transparency. Getting ahead of those changes tends to be considerably less painful than catching up with them – and businesses that can demonstrate genuine environmental credentials are increasingly attractive to investors and partners who apply their own ESG criteria.

4. The efficiency case is real

Energy-saving technologies, waste reduction programmes, and smarter resource use can reduce operating costs in ways that compound over time. FedEx’s electrification of its UK delivery fleet is a large-scale example: by switching diesel vans to eSprinters at its Bermondsey and Hornsey stations, the company is building towards its target of carbon-neutral operations by 2040.

How to take action for Earth Day 2026

Earth Day is a useful focal point, but the most valuable thing businesses and communities can do is use it as a starting point for ongoing action rather than a one-off gesture. Here are some practical ways to get involved.

Join or organise a community cleanup

The Great Global Cleanup is Earth Day’s worldwide campaign to remove litter and plastic pollution from neighbourhoods, beaches, rivers, parks, and trails. You can list a cleanup on the Earth Day global map, invite local participation, and connect with a worldwide network of organisers. If you’re setting one up:

• Define your area and purpose, then set a date and gather a team
• Advertise through your organisation, local community groups, and social media
• Gather supplies (including bags, gloves, litter-pickers, hand sanitiser, and a first aid kit
• Plan waste disposal in advance by sorting it into general waste, recyclables, and hazardous materials.
• Document and share your efforts, tagging Earth Day to connect with the wider global campaign

Set up a workplace Green Team

If you want sustainability to take root inside your business, have a dedicated group of people driving it from within. A staff-led Green Team gives employees a direct stake in your business’s environmental performance – and tends to generate ideas and energy that top-down initiatives don’t. In practice, that might include:

• Running internal campaigns around energy use and waste
• Coordinating volunteer days in the local community
• Identifying quick operational wins, such as switching to LED lighting, enabling auto-sleep on devices, and reducing paper use
• Assessing supplier and courier environmental policies, and factoring them into purchasing decisions
• Building momentum for longer-term changes to how the business operates

Earth Day’s own business guidance suggests donating a percentage of employee time to community environmental projects, and creating recognition and incentive structures for staff contributions. (And remember, these don’t need to be elaborate to be effective.)

Report environmental problems in your area

Grassroots activism includes staying alert to local environmental issues and reporting them through the proper channels. In the UK, the Environment Agency’s 24-hour incident hotline (0800 80 70 60) covers pollution incidents, dead fish, changes in water quality, and illegal waste activity. Local councils handle fly-tipping, litter, and related neighbourhood concerns.

Make a public sustainability commitment

The SME Climate Hub offers a framework for businesses that are making a public commitment to:

• Halve emissions before 2030
• Reach net zero before 2050
• Report progress annually

It provides a reporting tool and a badge to display your commitment. Making the pledge public creates accountability and signals to customers, employees, and fellow businesses exactly where your business stands.

How can businesses promote long-term sustainability?

The businesses that make the most of Earth Day are the ones that use it to accelerate changes already in motion or to start changes they’ve been planning for a while. Here are a few areas worth focusing on for the year ahead.

1. Energy

An energy audit is a good place to start. It shows you where consumption is actually highest, which makes it much easier to prioritise where to act first. From there, relatively small changes (switching to LED lighting, installing smart controls, reviewing your HVAC setup) can add up to meaningful reductions in both energy use and running costs. Switching to a renewable energy tariff is worth considering, and it’s often more straightforward than businesses expect.

2. Waste

Waste is another area where incremental progress compounds over time. Composting food waste, cutting single-use plastics, and working with suppliers on packaging are all practical starting points. Recycling stations, food-waste bins, and paper-free days cost little to introduce and tend to stick once they’re in place.

3. Accreditation

Environmental certifications like B Corp and ISO 14001 provide external verification of your commitments. They can make a real difference in tender processes, investor conversations, and customer relationships. The B Impact Assessment is a free tool used by over 150,000 businesses to measure and track environmental performance – a useful starting point if certification feels like a distant ambition for now, but you want to understand where you stand.

4. Policy

A written environmental policy pulls everything together. It doesn’t need to be long – for most small businesses, a page or two is enough. But it should be specific about what you’re aiming for, clear about who’s responsible, and reviewed at least once a year.

How 1st Formations is marking Earth Day 2026

At 1st Formations, Earth Day is a moment to take stock of progress and reaffirm what we’re working towards. We’re proud to be a certified carbon-neutral business. This is a milestone that reflects our commitment to measuring, managing, and offsetting our carbon footprint across our operations.

We’re also a certified B Corp – a standard that requires businesses to meet rigorous criteria across environmental performance, social impact, governance, and transparency. Certification isn’t a one-time achievement, either. B Corps are reassessed every three years, which means the commitment to continuous improvement is built into the process.

Start your sustainability journey today

The theme of Our Power, Our Planet holds for businesses just as much as it does for communities. A company’s choices about energy, waste, supply chains, and employment increasingly impact customers, employees, and regulators.

To build a sustainable business, start with the right company structure. At 1st Formations, we help with company formation, registered office addresses, and compliance. Focus on your venture while we handle the admin.