Bringing the Earth Day 50 chalenge to Earth Day Texas
Environmental Action traveled to Dallas, TX, to team up with allies at Earth Day Texas who have a bold plan to call on the 50 biggest companies on earth and make specific, systemic commitments to our oceans, forests and climate.
As you can see at the start, Earth Day Texas is a HUGE affair, with hundreds of booths and exhibitors showing off everything from solar cookers, to local wildlife (snakes!)
Our goal at the event was to raise awareness about what the top 50 companies on earth can do to protect our forests, oceans and climate. To do that, we were joined at the event by Jake and Varsha, two organizers with the Earth Day 50 Challenges who’ve been based in Texas for the last few weeks preparing, Bonnie Nixon from Matell, long-time Earth Day and activist leader Mark DuBois, and Eric Wohlgemuth of Future 500.
“I want to thank Tramell Crow and Earth Day Texas for being so welcoming to the business community,” said Bonnie Nixon. “I work with the large companies that are making commitments in sustainability, environmental protection, human rights, health and safety in their factories, farms and fields around the world. At the end of the day it’s all about ethics.”
About 20,000 Environmental Action and MoveOn.org members signed a petition backing the campaigns aims and asking big companies to meet with us at Earth Day Texas and make a plan to protect our oceans, forests and climate.
“We’re inviting companies to use this next five years to figure out how to live with this sacred earth,” Said Mark Dubois. “All around the world everyone knows we’re at an incredible choice point. All the things we’ve done we’ll be living with for 1,000 years or more.”
“Our theory of change is that if you bring key change agents across sectors and ideologies together to focus them on solutions, you’re going to achieve great things,” said Eric Wohlgemuth of Future 500. “and that’s what this Earth Day 50 challenge has really done.
In the next few weeks, 19 out of the 50 biggest corporations on earth including AT&T, Amazon, and Coca-Cola will sit down with Future 500 and other allies to discuss implementing more environmentally friendly policies.