Earth Day: Fortune 500 firms marching on Capitol Hill

Leading Fortune 500 companies will march on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to mark Earth Day and demand U.S. Congress take action on climate change.

The group is organised by nonprofit Ceres and will include Kellogg Co., Unilever, PepsiCo, Starbucks, Nestle, Mars and Owens Corning.

Other firms joining the march are Eileen Fisher, Gap Inc., JLL, L’Oreal, Seventh Generation, Vulcan, Aspen Skiing Company, Ben & Jerry’s, Burton Snowboards and Dignity Health.

The companies travelling to Washington D.C.  will urge U.S. leaders to secure a strong global deal on climate change in Paris this December at the UN COP21 climate conference.

The group will highlight how a far reaching deal is critical for the long-term stability of their firms and the national economy.

Many are also backing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan aimed at cutting greenhouse gas pollution from U.S. power plants – the countries largest source of carbon emissions – by 30 per cent.

Most of the firms heading to Capitol Hill, as well more than 200 other companies, have signed a letter supporting the EPA’s plan, a centrepiece of U.S. efforts to reduce emissions.

More than one billion people participate in Earth Day initiatives every year and it is the largest civic event in the world, celebrated simultaneously around the globe.

First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is observed in more than 192 countries with festivals, rallies and various environmental activities.

In 1969, activist John McConnell proposed a day to celebrate the Earth and the environment at a Unesco Conference in San Francisco.

After being sanctioned in a Proclamation written by McConnell and signed by Secretary General U Thant at the United Nations, a separate Earth Day was founded by UN Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in on 22 April 1970.