Next week is Earth Day, on Tuesday, April 22. There won't be a blog post all week because I'll be off the grid and hiking around rocks and ruins in northern Arizona. Earth Day might well have a different meaning in Tuba City or on the Hopi Reservation than it has in Seattle and on the West Coast. Out here, there'll be ample media coverage, many symbolic activities, and lots of ads with flowers, butterflies, green things... as if Earth Day was mostly an occasion for children or the chronically uninformed. In recent years, many companies and inviduals who take environmental challenges seriously have backed away from Earth Day as a special date; they understand that meaningful communications and actions need to take place at all times.
One way to restore meaning to Earth Day would be doing volunteer work; if not on the actual day, then on the weekend before or after. Some organizations are already doing that, but it's not as widespread and well coordinated as it could be. The model for this effort could be the Day of Caring, as facilitated by United Way in King County and elsewhere. United Way, in this case, serves as the clearinghouse for a large number of deserving agencies, usually not-for-profits, which need volunteer assistance in projects ranging from cleaning shelves to repairing housing stock to bagging emergency groceries. United Way connects these situations of need with volunteers in the business community, who spend a day working at whatever project can use them.
I don't know which would be the best agency to do for Earth Day what United Way accomplishes in the Day of Caring, but I'm sure that could be resolved. Maybe Earth Share, or EarthCorps, or the Northwest Environmental Education Council. These organizations are used to recruiting and managing volunteers, and already do a lot of good work. A special Earth Day outreach program would allow them to build new relationships with the greening business world, and it would be a great networking opportunity for environmentally focused businesses, service providers, investors, and analysts. Maybe more enjoyable than another day spent in a conference facility, or with e-mail and telephone calls.
And, after bonding with your new ecologically minded business associates during the day, you could come home and re-read Ecotopia, 
Ernest Callenbach's breakthrough book that was originally published in 1975. It might make you feel at home, especially with Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels mentioning secession this week.
Er ... not relevant to your post, but I just thought to mention that the blog name "Green Wombat" has been taken by someone on the CNNMoney staff: http://greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/
Posted by: Tyson | April 22, 2008 at 03:25 PM