Penn's Earth Week 2025, themed "Our Power, Our Planet," built on more than a half-century of Earth Day celebrations at the University. Since Penn’s first and high-profile role in organizing Philadelphia’s original Earth Day gathering in 1970, the University has been encouraging action and raising public awareness of environmental issues. Much has evolved over the 55 years since the first Earth Day, with this year’s week of events showcasing how Penn community members are addressing climate change, one of the defining challenges of our time. Here are the top takeaways from Earth Week 2025.

Individual Actions Are Powerful

Penn’s Earth Week planning committee chose the theme of "Our Power, Our Planet" in unity with the originator of the theme and global organizer of Earth Day, EARTHDAY.ORG. “The theme resonated deeply with Penn's drive to lead in sustainability,” says Noah Swistak, Sustainability Manager. “Feeling like you have the power to do something meaningful is important to people, even if a problem is much bigger than any one person can solve alone. Earth Week is a perfect time to remind our community that individual, daily actions can complement each other and result in a much larger impact.” Events that focused on individual action included:

• Your Vote, Your Future! – The Office of Government and Community Affairs assisted voters with registration, voting by mail, and learning about what's on the ballot for the Pennsylvania Primary Election on May 20.
   
• Clothing Swap at the LGBT Center – The Environmental Innovations Initiative partnered with the LGBT Center to remind students that in addition to saving students money, clothing swaps help reduce the 92 million tons of clothing garments that enter landfills every year.
   
• The Wheelhouse: Earth Week Free Bike Repair Night – Biking results in zero emissions during use and helps reduce Philadelphia’s carbon footprint. For students interested in commuting by bike this spring and summer, this student-led group provided free tune-ups.

Organizational Decisions Multiply Impact

The University’s “In Principle and Practice” strategic framework identifies climate change as an existential challenge requiring an “all-in University effort” to do more. Leaders and departments across Penn used Earth Week to demonstrate how their decisions can drive positive outcomes on a broader scale. “To have a collective impact, people matter,” says Nina Morris, Director, Penn Sustainability. “It’s not just the individual choices that people make at a personal level, but also when they are in positions to make decisions for organizations, or collaborate with communities and regional partners, or build advocacy efforts that influence leaders across borders.” Earth Week events celebrated institutional and governmental actions, including:

• Earth Week Dinner at Quaker Kitchen – Executive Chef Lucio Palazzo, inspired by seasonal ingredients from Penn Farm, highlighted campus-wide efforts at Penn toward a more sustainable food system.
   
• Shut the Sash – Chemical fume hoods use up to 3.5 times the amount of energy as a single-family house each day, providing a potentially large opportunity to lower energy consumption on a campus with more than 1,000 fume hoods. Penn Engineering seniors presented end-of-semester research results on a project to measure energy savings potential in lab spaces from chemical fume hoods left open. 
   
• 20th Annual Urban Leadership Forum – Top leaders from across the globe shared approaches to solving urban issues. A 2025 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize winner Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone) spoke, saying “The job of mayors is to stand strong, to bring development, and to fight climate change.”

Joy, Creativity, and Curiosity Can Spur Action 

Climate action conversations often emphasize the gravity of environmental harm caused by human activity, as highlighted by extensive research. Infusing climate action with curiosity, creativity, and a light-hearted spirit can help foster long-term commitment because it allows for positive engagement. “We don’t want to sugarcoat the severity of climate-related issues, but it is so important to inculcate the emotional competencies that allow you to work on solutions over a long period of time,” says Morris. Several event organizers designed experiences to be fun or creative and to elicit curiosity:

• Penn Vet Semi-Annual BioBlitz – The event overlapped with Take Our Children to Work Day and allowed Penn and neighborhood community members as well as children of faculty and staff to learn about the wildlife that inhabits our campus and how to build a more sustainable urban ecosystem.
   
• Origami with Bioplastics – Bioplastics are derived from biological substances rather than from petroleum. Participants were invited to learn about bioplastics and fold origami with sheets of the material at the Fisher Fine Arts Materials Library.
   
• Penn Chinese Dance Club Presents 'Transience' – The Penn Chinese Dance Club is a student-run nonprofit dance group dedicated to classical and folk Chinese dance. It presented a performance reflecting on “the fleeting wonders of the natural world,” including the blossoming of flowers, rainfall, migrating birds, and human laughter and joy.

Collaboration is Key

As a borderless challenge, climate change demands boundaryless solutions from those committed to sustainability. Earth Week reflects this by enabling members of the Penn community to collaborate with Penn Sustainability in promoting their independently organized events. This participant-led approach provides a launchpad for groups to learn about each other, create useful connections, and demonstrate how issues intersect and benefit from multiple viewpoints and strategies. “Penn Sustainability believes that the more we can harmonize our collective efforts toward sustainability, the greater the impact we can have overall,” says Morris. Groups that joined forces and set a collaborative example included:

• Penn Wellness and College of Liberal and Professional Studies organized “Volunteer @Penn Farm and Discover: Our Power, Our Planet.”
   
• GreenFest brought together Penn clubs such as WasteWise and the Penn Beekeeping Club, as well as organizations and departments such as the Environmental Innovations Initiative that are involved in sustainability and environmentalism.
   
• Penn & Philly and Friends of Clark Park teamed up with Penn Sustainability and Penn students to beautify a favorite West Philly green space through a Volunteer Day.

Earth Week is one of several weeks that Penn devotes to action, learning, community, and collaboration on sustainability and the climate. In addition to Earth Week, there’s Energy Week and Climate Week. Together, these efforts reflect not only Penn’s institutional commitment to sustainability, but also the initiative of individuals across the community—students, staff, and faculty—who are driving action every day, in many ways.