What is Earth Day? Companies’ climate pledges and products criticised ahead of annual environment campaign

Volunteers in dozens of countries will plant trees, clean up rubbish and urge governments to do more to tackle climate change to mark Earth Day this Saturday (22 April).

This year will mark the 54th celebration of the environmental movement which began in 1970. It is now recognised as a day of action to change human behaviour and create global, national and local policy changes.

This year Earth Day will coincide with Extinction Rebellion’s biggest protest to date as over 30,000 activists are set to flood Westminster from Friday (21 April) to Monday (24 April).

The protest is named ‘the Big One’ and over 200 different organisations including GreenPeace, Keep Britain Tidy, and the PCS Union will be joining the protests and events.

The coalition of groups brought together by Extinction Rebellion said the protests will be “family friendly” and “engaging”.

The organisers of the climate action said people do not need to glue themselves to anything in order to protest about the climate crisis this weekend as the main focus is to create a welcoming space for people to come and protest about the climate crisis.

XR’s weekend of protest is one of a number of environmental activist campaigns kicking off globally around Earth Day.

In New York City, disruptive climate street protests are expected on Saturday under the banner Rave Revolution while big protests are also expected in France over the weekend.

When the time of Earth Day comes around many companies boast their climate and sustainability pledges, demonstrating how they are taking on the environmental crises the world faces.

Recently it was found that the world’s biggest multinational companies are failing to meet the bold climate change pledges they have made and are making “ambiguous commitments”.

According to the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2023, the net zero plans of 24 large corporations would only result in a 36% reduction in planet-warming emissions.

Apple has recently announced it wants to make its devices carbon neutral and says it has “decreased its comprehensive carbon footprint by over 45 percent since 2015”.

But companies might decrease the carbon footprint of a single device while actually creating more pollution overall by making more of those devices.

The most important thing a company can do to tackle climate change is to slash all of its emissions, from its supply chains, products to operations.

By 2025 Apple plans to use 100% recycled cobalt in the batteries it designs.

Josh Lepawsky, a professor who studies e-waste, told the Verge: “Using recycled materials in manufacturing is important ...  [but] it misses a really important thing, which is that recycling enables disposability.

“Recycling companies figured out that instead of just getting stuff into people’s homes or into their hands, they can move stuff through their homes or through their hands.”

Microsoft’s new “Ocean Plastic Mouse,” which has a shell made with 20%, could see no environmental benefits if the firm sells 20%, according to Lepawsky.

Products should be made with 100% recycled materials but that is nearly impossible with plastic and why many companies only use a small percentage of rehashed plastic in their products.

Microsoft’s mouse required the company to create a new plastic resin that’s only partly reclaimed plastic and combines those beads of recycled plastic with new plastic too.

Logitech has made a big push to sell items with post-consumer recycled plastic and Samsung is making watch bands with “recyclable” and supposedly eco-friendly materials, including apple peel.

Employees at firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and other tech giants have published letters pushing their companies to stop polluting and to stop working with fossil fuel companies altogether.