EARTHDAY.ORG

STORIES OF THOSE CHANGING THE WORLD

EARTHDAY.ORG operates in over 190 countries to drive transformative change for our planet. Read a few of those stories here.

MY FUTURE

MY VOICE

OUR

PARTNERS

OUR

VOLUNTEERS

OUR

SCHOOLS

EARTH

SQUAD

Featured Stories

NETHERLANDS

Lilly’s Plastic Pickup

Lillith Electra Platt (Lilly)

My Future My Voice Ambassador
Lilly shares her commitment to ending plastic pollution.

Lilly is an international environmental champion who initially went viral on social media after posting litter of plastic she picked up — sorted accordingly. She started ‘Lilly’s Plastic Pickup’ at the age of seven and has picked up more than 150,000 pieces of plastic to date. She sorts the collected plastic waste meticulously and posts them on social media to raise awareness on the issue. In this way, she actively advocates for cleaning up plastic pollution, restricting plastic production, and finding alternatives to the material. 

Lilly is a dedicated youth ambassador for Plastic Pollution Coalition, Earth.org, World Ocean Day Italy, and YouthMundus. At just the age of 13, Lilly has achieved more than the average adult and is one of the world’s most aspiring environmentalists.

Lilly holding a sign that says, “There is no planet ‘B’.”

Inspired by Greta Thunberg, she started climate striking in 2018. In just a few weeks, Greta joined Platt’s strikes in the Netherlands, seeing as the Netherlands had been one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases in the European Union. Both were invited to Brussels where they attended a climate rally outside the European Parliament. 

Onalytica voted Lilly as number 28 on its prestigious environmental influencers list in 2018 alongside fellow activists, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Dianna Cohen, and the Mayor of London. In 2019, she was awarded an International Eco Hero Award and a Young Activist of the Year Award for her constant and unwavering climate strikes. Later that year, Lilly was honored by the President of Egypt at the World Youth Forum, where she was a panelist alongside Dr. Jane Goodall. Lastly, Lilly was featured as a Global Citizen in their coverage of UN World Oceans Day 2020, due to her being the youngest panelist alongside its Secretary General, Cara Delevingne, the Cousteaus, and others.

Changing the World one Piece of Plastic at the time | Lilly Platt | TEDxYouth@BSN

BRAZIL

Taking Care of Shared Space

Bruna Martins

My Future My Voice Ambassador
Bruna shows her spirit of leadership through the I Take Care Of My Space initiative.

“I’ve always had a spirit of leadership, and that is why I am often searching for volunteer work in NGOs that address causes that interest me, especially those related to the environment,” says Bruna Martins, an 18-year-old from Brazil.

Bruna works with Instituto Limpa Brasil on the #EuCuidoDoMeuQuadrado initiative (#ITakeCareOfMySpace). The initiative aims to raise awareness and mobilize and engage society for a sustainable future that helps preserve the environment. The activities of the initiative are aligned to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Bruna supports the project’s implementation in 10 countries. She helps train volunteers and synergizes with other NGO leaders to clean places with accumulated waste, map natural resources such as river springs, and assemble teams to showcase Brazil’s achievements internationally. Bruna is working to lead cleanups in 1,200 municipalities of Brazil. She supports training in schools for children of all ages to prepare future generations to be environmentally conscious adults.


CANADA

Work for the Earth

Aryan Gautam

My Future My Voice Ambassador
Aryan presents his work at Save the Planet – Open Doors and what governmental bodies can do to promote environmental action.

Aryan Gautam is the youngest founder/director of a non-profit organization in Canada, Save the Planet – Open Doors. Under his leadership, his NGO is working on several noteworthy projects, namely HEER (Housing Energy Efficiency Rating), the restoration of the endangered butternut tree, among others. Combined, these projects have a minimum social impact on 15 million people.

From the age of 9, he has dedicated 10,000 volunteer hours working with many organizations and people to trigger a change in his community, devoting his time to spreading awareness about climate change, philanthropy, and environmentalism. In 2021, 15-year-old Aryan was awarded with the prestigious Diana Award. His community work has been picked up by print media.

Aryan is recognized as one of the youngest members of several councils: Ontario Nature Youth Council, the Youth Director of Mississauga Climate Action, Cooperating Activist for Indigenous organizations, Eagle Spirits of the Great Waters and Eco-Spirits, among others.  

More News and Stories

Read More