The intersection of crises we experienced over the past year or so show as clearly as we have ever seen it the overlap between climate, health, economy, and social justice: a global health pandemic; obvious climate change impacts like forest fires burning longer and larger, extreme heat-related deaths, flooding and serious weather events; and racial and socioeconomic inequities being made even more visible through state-sanctioned violence and COVID-19 related disparities.

2020 clearly demanded self-reflection from environmental non-profits like ours.

It is in this larger context that I am excited to announce that after a year-long process of Strategic Planning, earthday365 has a newly updated Mission, Vision, and Values statement. There was a strong feeling among Staff and Board members that because some of the most significant environmental problems both globally and in our region are located in communities of color, we wanted to use earthday365’s platform within the environmental movement to help address these environmental injustices. So while we will continue our role as a convener of the region’s environmental movement through the St. Louis Earth Day Festival, and still seek to move the region’s event and restaurant industry towards sustainability through our Recycling on the Go and Green Dining Alliance Programs, we want to accomplish those goals in partnership with Black-led environmental organizations and through a lens of benefit for historically marginalized communities. We commit to raise up the voices of those already working to address these problems – such as illegal dumping, vacancy, and food apartheid – within affected communities right here in our region. There is amazing Black-led community organizing work already happening, and we want to use our privilege and resources to support those efforts.  

In service of our newly updated Mission, we have undertaken a series of racial equity trainings and “courageous conversations” among our Staff, Young Friends, and Board members. We have been collaborating on a series of Environmental Justice Days of Action in partnership with several Black-led organizations and community groups, including clean-ups in O’Fallon Park and Dutchtown addressing illegal dumping, among many others. We are viewing our existing programs through a lens of equity: How can we partner to benefit communities that have struggled with environmental injustices for years? How can we use our platform to shine light on regional disparities? How can we highlight community leaders? We invite you to join us in this important work to make the region not just more sustainable, but more equitable and more just. We at earthday365 believe there cannot be sustainability without justice.