Q&A: Kathleen Rogers, The Leader Behind Earth Day

Earth Day, celebrated on April 22 every year, serves as a reminder of the importance of environmental protection and how everyone can do their part to safeguard the planet and its resources.

In 2026, the theme is Our Power, Our Planet, which highlights how people are the most important factor in environmental stewardship.

It is supported by EarthDay.Org, an organisation which works with more than 150,000 partners in more than 192 countries, with an aim to broaden, educate and activate the movement worldwide.

The President of EarthDay.Org, Kathleen Rogers, has been with the organisation for more than 20 years.

She came into the role as an environmental lawyer from an environmental group, where her role focused on policy and litigation.

Kathleen speaks with Sustainability Magazine to share insights on her role and the success of Earth Day.

What inspired you to join EarthDay.Org? What has shaped your career path?

I grew up knowing what Earth Day was and that it was really important. I was interested because of my background with my family and in diversifying the movement. It had gotten sort of old and white in the days past Earth Day, and so I was really interested in bringing new people in, new perspectives, trying to grow the movement.

It was a combination of wanting to do something that would build the environmental movement beyond what it was when I took the job. I also love the international piece of it, because one of my job description items was to build Earth Day worldwide, and I really liked that. 

I had an international background. I'd worked for the BBC, and traveled quite a bit, so I was intrigued with where the rest of the world was on environmentalism and learned the hard way about how difficult it is to build cultural ties, to build community, to build friendships, partnerships, mentorships around the world, in so many different countries. 

I think I've been in 106 countries and in a way, they all feel the same, because we're all human beings and together we're able to find so much common ground. It's been a remarkable experience of learning so much, but also being really proud of Earth Day's growth and accomplishments, along the way. 

What are the biggest challenges in your role?

The normal things in a not-for-profit, raising money, measuring our impact, I think that's one of the hardest things. When you're doing Earth Day, how do you measure how many people's minds we have changed? Are they going to do Earth Day and walk away, or are they going to become lifelong slightly green people, or are they going to devote their life to changing the world? 

And so, I think one of the most difficult things, besides raising money for a not-for-profit, is really making sure that we have a real impact on people's lives, on corporations, on mayors, on elected officials, on multilaterals. Our goal is to change their behavior, not just have them do something.

Where do you see the future of Earth Day? How do you plan to make this happen?

Environmental issues have fallen off the top 10 list of people's concerns. Now, maybe that's our own fault, because we constantly talked about climate change being catastrophic, and it is, but there are only so many things the human brain can take and run with before they become exhausted. 

I think what we're facing is environmental exhaustion and so people are much more concerned about what is happening in their day-to-day life and unless climate change or plastics present themselves, or toxic chemicals in their personal lives, they seem to sort of shove it off the top 10 list.

I think that's the hardest part of the job, is keeping environmental issues in the front of people's minds, not because it's scary, not just because it hurts your health, but because we can do something about it.

And it doesn't matter what country we're in, whether it's an autocracy or it's a democratic system, there are ways to act with your local officials, with your federal governments. If you're vocal about it, you'll finally get attention.

And so that's the point of Earth Day and all the programmes we work on year-round. It's tough to keep up that kind of pressure on people to make sure that they continue to make it part of their lives. 

I don't care if it's consumers buying products that have chemicals in them, or oil products, I don't know why people are buying lotion with oil as the basic component of it. 

But they are, and so we will always have a job to do to work with great companies and good governments, to educate people about these issues so they can make their own choices as well.

Whether they're eating healthy food or buying products that aren't full of chemicals, all of these things are part of the menu of conversations that we have with people every day.

What is your advice to sustainability leaders?

Well, I think they're the solution, honestly. I don't think governments are gonna rise to the occasion. 

I think corporations and inventions, innovations, entrepreneurship – those are all the key to solving these problems. I mean, necessity's the mother of invention, and where is that more apparent than incorporations, particularly those that have sustainability at their core?

And I don't care what kind of company they are, if that's sort of a centerpiece of what they care about, they're gonna end up making a lot more money, feeling better about themselves for what they do every day.

And also fight against companies that are doing the wrong thing. But at the end of the day, I have a lot of faith that corporations are going to solve many of our problems, not because they're necessarily the good guys, although many of them are, but because there's money to be made. 

There's money to be made in solar and wind and creating batteries that will store all the power that we can make with renewable energy.

There are products coming out that will change what we wear. Instead of wearing oil and synthetics, which are plastic, which are going into our bloodstream and in our brain, in our plaque, everywhere, we can come up with sustainable new fashion.

But I think that's the way the world's going. People are waking up and companies will respond. 

And many of them are going to do the right thing. We work with companies all the time and they've gone out on a limb. They went out on a limb on EVs, now there's blowback and they're retreating, but they'll come back.

It's those people that have the foresight and the creativity and the financial backing, which is key, that are gonna end up running the planet.

What have you achieved this year with Earth Day?

This year was a huge year for Earth Day. I think principally because people are sensing the world feels overwhelming right now. There's so much bad stuff going on. We're all overwhelmed with social media, we're overwhelmed with news, we're just getting bombarded. 

And there's something about Earth Day that drives people out. Whether it's to the streets to protest, or to do cleanups, or plant trees, or have town hall meetings, or register people to vote, do church services. 

We had thousands of sermons going on for Earth Day this week. It's just extraordinary.

The best part of my job is to see that in times that are tough, people turn to nature, they turn to their communities for support.

Because after all, the word environment means what surrounds you, and it's a perfect place to start in your community, in your family, in the grocery store.

And so I see that in people more and more these days.

So I have hope for the future, and I hope the future comes soon.