The Next 55 Earth Days
Earth Day, and its long history of civic action, has been a catalyst for much of the environmental progress we see today. (The passage of the Clean Water Act, the reduction in pollution across North America, the spread of ecology programs across state universities, the return of Humpback Whales and Bald Eagles from the brink of extinction—to name a few.) This April 22 marks 55 years of community resilience and resistance, and, with momentum across the globe, is poised to kickstart the next 55 years to come.
April 22, 1970: 20 million Americans gather in their neighborhoods, city centers, waterways, and dumping grounds to protest the destructive health and environmental effects of pollution, and is followed shortly by the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by President Nixon.
April 22, 1990: 200 million people across 141 countries mobilize to push back against species extinction and global deforestation, which helps launch the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro two years later.
April 22, 2016: In Paris, France, leaders from 195 countries sign the Paris Agreement, the largest environmental cooperation agreement in history, committing to build an international framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
April 22, 2019: Climate change activists, joined by Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, flood the streets of London, significantly raising public awareness and pressure on global governance to address the impacts of climate change.
April 22, 2025: Today, we at EPIC remain as resilient and committed to driving change as these courageous pioneers of the environmental movement. We, as diehard conservationists and public health servants, continue to push back against the slow pace of progress in our field. We equip communities and governmental agencies with data, policy solutions, and technical assistance to improve environmental restoration and human wellbeing. We aim to ensure this progress is permanent by accelerating the speed, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility of environmental and public health progress. We are dedicated to sustaining the efforts of every activist and advocate of the last 55 years for the next 55 and beyond.
On this Earth Day, we are sharing how.
Making Government Work Better
We believe the government has a critical role to play in stewarding environmental and public health. We work with federal, state, local, and tribal leaders to drive more efficient policies and practices, expedite conservation processes and projects, and build bridges to get resources on the ground where they’re needed now.
Supporting Communities
Our communities and ecosystems need healthy, resilient, and safe environments to thrive. We support local municipalities, water utilities, tribes, and community advocates to advance local public health projects, environmental stewardship, and sustainable economic development. We make data easier to understand and offer direct technical assistance to communities who’ve been historically neglected. In this, we help navigate funding and partnerships to secure and implement habitat restoration, clean drinking water, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, and water resource protection projects, developed by and for the communities who need them.
Investing in Nature
Nature deserves outcomes-driven policy and financial investment to ensure sustainable protection and preservation. We drive policy innovation, such as pay-for-success procurement, that promotes scalable private-sector investment in public health and environmental projects. We help tribes and governments implement conservation finance models for protecting biodiversity, restoring clean water, and building resilient infrastructure.
Leveraging Data and Technology
Leveraging technological resources is key to modernizing and advancing environmental progress; by dramatically improving our ability to make meaningful insights from more reliable data, we can make better informed decisions faster. The adoption of innovative technology in federal and civic projects lags behind what is possible and what is needed. We demonstrate collaborative data and tech futures by reimagining how to build, manage, and procure data and technology for a healthy, sustainable future.
Collaborating across these four approaches, we are accelerating state-of-the-art environmental and public health outcomes, building upon and sustaining the last 55 years of progress.
Your support is crucial to helping us combat environmental and public health crises at their most critical junctures, allowing us to deliver efficient, impactful outcomes when and where they’re needed most. At EPIC, we strive to make an outsized impact through shaping what’s next for biodiversity, water infrastructure, conservation finance, and innovative technology.
Please join us in our efforts to restore special natural places, accelerate wildlife conservation, and ensure better access to clean and safe water for all. Thank you for standing with us on this Earth Day and the days to come.