The Business of Earth Day
By BARNABY J. FEDER
Published: November 12, 1989
It began as a suggestion in 1969 by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin for college teach-ins on environmental problems, but by the time the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, it had erupted into a nationwide patchwork of demonstrations and community activities that attracted 20 million Americans.
Now, hundreds of environmental groups, most of which did not exist in 1970, are hoping to use the 20th anniversary of Earth Day for an even broader range of events and educational programs aimed at sharply stepping up pressure on businesses and governments worldwide for stricter environmental policies. Unlike the largely student-led groups that put together the first Earth Day, organizers for the anniversary are bringing much more than zeal to their campaign. The drive to exploit the anniversary is being waged with the sophistication and marketing tools of big business, ready access to television and radio coverage and multimillion-dollar budgets.
''You have the same type of public groundswell forming as in 1970, but this time there are engines behind it,'' said Barry Commoner, a Queens College professor and author who is on the advisory boards of both the Earth Day 20 Foundation and Earth Day 1990, two groups formed this year to sponsor Earth Day events and spur local groups to organize their own. Environmental Mandate
Instead of profits, these enterprises are looking for a variety of bottom-line results, starting with bringing hundreds of thousands of new activists into the environmental movement. They also want to steer millions of investors and consumers toward companies judged to be most sensitive to environmental concerns. They want the size and range of Earth Day activities to create a political mandate for tougher environmental laws. And they expect Earth Day programs to encourage farmers, industrialists and service-industry executives to accelerate investments in products and processes that are environmentally ''friendly.''
''The point is not an event, but launching a decade of environmental activism,'' said Christina Dresser, a 35-year-old lawyer who is executive director of Earth Day 1990, based in Palo Alto, Calif.
Earth Day organizers expect virtually everyone in environmentally related businesses, from health food stores to publishers of environmental books, to jump on the bandwagon with publicity, sales and events to stimulate participation. Campuses are expected to be a hotbed of activity. And more than 6,000 letters have been sent to overseas groups seeking their participation.
''It has to be international this time because of the nature of the issues,'' said Denis Hayes, chairman of Earth Day 1990, who recently returned from an organizing trip to Europe.
Earth Day 20 and Earth Day 1990 have overlapping aims and support - indeed, former Senator Nelson, now an adviser to the Wilderness Society, is honorary chairman of both. Both organizations are providing information to local groups planning their own activities, licensing their logos for fund raising and working on a calendar of media and entertainment events at home and overseas.
They have also talked of merging, but insiders say talks in that area have foundered. As is often the case in the corporate world, the groups have been unable to resolve disagreements over who would run the combined organization and over incompatible structures and strategies.
Mr. Hayes, a 45-year-old lawyer who dropped out of Harvard Law School to serve as national coordinator for Earth Day 1970, has assembled an Earth Day 1990 staff that includes many veterans of political campaigns. Edward W. Furia, the 47-year-old lawyer and lobbyist who is president of Earth Day 20, was hired by University of Pennsylvania students to organize a week of Earth Day events in the Philadelphia area in 1970 and later served as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Competing Groups
Earth Day 1990 is the larger organization. It has 20 employees - compared with Earth Day 20's three - and is hiring 18 field coordinators. It is backed by the broadest range of environmental groups ever assembled. Its 80-member board of directors is made up largely of environmental activists and politicians, but it also includes business executives and union leaders. John Young, president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, is a member, along with Ted Turner, chairman of Turner Broadcasting, Owen Bieber, president of the United Automobile Workers and George J. Kourpias, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
''We are building more out of the grass roots while Hayes is building from the Big 10 environmental groups and their mailing lists,'' said John O'Connor, an Earth Day 20 board member who is executive director of the National Toxics Campaign, a Boston-based coalition of 1,000 local groups concerned with industrial pollution. ''The grass roots tend to have a more combative relationship with industry. We don't like it that they have Hewlett Packard on their board since they are the second-biggest emitter of chloroflourocarbons in Silicon Valley and won't switch to alternative solvents. But there's less distinction than the two organizational heads would admit, and I predict you'll see them merge about a month before the big event.''