Earth Day 2020 Website Archived in the Library of Congress

In 2018, I was hired as a fresh graduate to work on a regional campaign for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. From the beginning, the campaign was about bringing people together to take action for environmental and social justice. My contribution was to develop branding strategies, build the website and digital assets, and coordinate campaign events including the Navigating Sustainability and Washington Sustainable Aviation Fuels conferences.

But at the end of the day, environmental movements are all about timing— and the 50th anniversary of Earth Day came at a pivotal time for us as a country. It was a new kind of catalyst none of us could have predicted, one that changed our plans, but also illuminated the urgency of our work.

Instead of the big in-person event we envisioned, we wrapped up the campaign with the Navigating Sustainability conference— an online seminar about the future of the region that included keynotes by Governor Jay Inslee and Microsoft President Brad Smith. At this point I had resumed work with the campaign as a freelance consultant, and I was able to witness the final culmination of my design, branding, marketing and coordination work. In 2020 it all came full circle— from the conception of the Earth Day Northwest 2020 website to the final “Thank You” video that we released to all the partners and sponsors of the campaign.

My final task was to memorialize the Earth Day Northwest 2020 website so it could be archived in the Library of Congress. The original website I created was a cornerstone of the campaign from the beginning— it housed event details, action guides, toolkits and interviews with influential leaders around the region. Now, the website has been pared down to the essentials. It is a record of all we accomplished; a collection of stories and commitments to the ongoing work of the next five decades.

It has been a privilege to be a part of the project from beginning to end, first as a wide-eyed college graduate and later as a (somewhat) seasoned freelance consultant. The Earth Day Northwest 2020 website, a record of all our work will live on as a small piece of history— a tribute to this moment in time— where we were, what we valued and what we were working towards.