Earth Month | Investing in Our planet

April is Earth Month. Throughout the next 30 days, Broadway Stages will feature and celebrate exceptional people, businesses, and organizations who have chosen to invest their time, effort, and money in our planet. We invite you to join us in recognizing what they are doing to nurture our earth and help ensure a better world and future for us all!

Two hundred million participants from 141 countries joined together in April 1990 to recognize April as Earth Month. But the seed for the idea was planted way back in April 1968. It was in Fredonia, New York, that Brad Follet, a junior high school student, started a project to clean up a small portion of Canadaway Creek.

Follet was energized by the project but daunted by the idea of cleaning up on a global scale. He thought there should be a “global clean-up month.” He noted to friends that Earth Day was great, but wouldn’t it be better to have an Earth Month?

Broadway STages green corridor - brooklyn, ny

The theme of Earth Month 2023 is “Invest in Our Planet,” and Broadway Stages has actively been doing just that for years. Broadway Stages is proud of it’s more than 100,000 square feet of green rooftop infrastructure that includes our first urban garden - Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a 6,000 square foot green roof organic vegetable farm located atop a warehouse rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Also, spanning across five of our rooftops, are solar panels producing 1.2 million kilowatts of clean energy annually. Kingsland Wildflowers is a 24,000+ square foot green roof and community engagement center offering educational and cultural programs. We round out our Green Corridor with an additional 30,000 square feet of oxygen producing green rooftops.

New York City is rapidly redefining itself as a center for eco-minded people and businesses. From Forest Hills and North Astoria in Queens, through Park Slope and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and countless neighborhoods in between, New Yorkers are embracing eco-friendly lifestyles.

The United States Green Building Council estimates that 3,000 new green apartments have been built in New York City since 2001. In addition, commercial buildings like 7 World Trade Center, NYC’s first LEED Gold Certified Office Building, recycle rainwater and use computer-controlled heating and lighting. In 2020, the citywide greenhouse gas emission inventory was 48.4 million metric tons, down 12% from the year before and 25% from 2005. And we can’t forget the Javits Center. Their state-of-the-art, nearly 7-acre green roof can absorb up to seven million gallons of storm water run-off annually, while reducing heat gain throughout the building.

This month you can look forward to learning more about the people, businesses, and organizations that are Investing in Our Planet! In addition, we hope we can inspire you to celebrate our planet’s health and consider howyou can make your own investment.