Earth Day 2025: Enabling a sustainable future while supporting today’s infrastructure in an evolving energy landscape

Published: 22 April 2025

Earth Day offers an opportunity for businesses and individuals alike to reflect on their environmental impact and the role they play in shaping a more sustainable future. The theme for Earth Day 2025 is OUR POWER, OUR PLANET, supporting the transition to renewable energy sources to build a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future.

What is Earth Day?

Earth Day began in 1970, sparked by growing concern about the deteriorating environment and increasingly common pollution events such as the Santa Barbara Oil Spill in 1969. This saw 11 million litres of oil spill out over an 800 square mile area in the Santa Barbara Channel.

In response, former Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson recruited Denis Hayes, a young activist and Harvard graduate, to organise nationwide rallies, teach-ins and speeches to show political leadership that there was broad and deep support for the environmental movement. There was an overwhelming response, with 20 million Americans participating, including 2,000 universities, 10,000 high schools, and thousands of communities – making it the largest organised demonstration in human history at the time.

The movement led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and crucial legislation such as the Clean Air Act, and the Endangered Species Act, showing how the collective voice of citizens can push governments and corporations to make bold commitments and take decisive actions. The movement was brought to the global stage in 1990, helping pave the way for the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Today, the initiative reaches 1 billion people in more than 190 countries, driving efforts from community clean-ups to educational forums.

OUR POWER, OUR PLANET

The theme OUR POWER, OUR PLANET shines a spotlight on the need to scale up renewable energy generation. Global energy consumption is rising, and meeting this demand with fossil fuels is unsustainable.

Fossil fuels are finite and release dangerous greenhouse gas emissions which contribute directly to global warming and environmental degradation, while also causing severe human health problems.

On the other hand, renewable energy sources generate energy without releasing carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. Specific to the UK, increasing the deployment of renewables will protect households from energy spikes and create thousands of skilled jobs.

Enabling a sustainable future while supporting today’s infrastructure

This year’s Earth Day theme aligns closely with our work: using our technical expertise to enable a more sustainable future, while supporting the infrastructure that keeps our world running today.

We are actively supporting the energy transition through:

EV charging installation, helping reduce transport emissions.
Hydrogen storage solutions, paving the way for cleaner fuel options.
Continuing to maintain and manage ageing hydrocarbon fuel infrastructure as the energy landscape evolves, ensuring safety, reliability, and environmental protection; because until renewable sources can consistently meet demand, this infrastructure remains critical.

Fifty-five years on from the first Earth Day in 1970, our progress is mixed. The awareness of environmental problems is at an all-time high, but the urgency of the climate crisis continues to grow and meaningful change isn’t happening fast enough.

Earth Day remains as a reminder that we all have a role to play, whether as individuals making conscious choices, or organisations driving larger-scale impact.