Celebrating Earth Day 2026 with Everyday Actions and Meaningful Change

Jessica McRae

Happy Earth Day, Blackbaud Community! 

Earth Day is a global moment to come together in support of our environment and a reminder that meaningful change is built through everyday action. This year’s Earth Day theme, Our Power, Our Planet, highlights how individual choices, collective effort, and innovation all play a role in protecting the resources we depend on. 

At Blackbaud, sustainability is a year-round commitment—from the way we physically protect our planet to the way we approach emerging technology. So far we’ve: 

• Worked with cloud providers committed to renewable energy and carbon neutrality to develop Blackbaud AI responsibly. 
• Maintained 100% carbon neutrality over the past five years  
• Reduced global greenhouse gas emissions by 88% since 2019  
• Lowered water use by 31% since 2019  

As part of our Earth Day celebration, employees are taking part in a few simple but meaningful ways to make a difference every day including participating in a wellbeing challenge focused on reducing plastic use, virtually volunteering to support conservation efforts for the Great Barrier Reef, engaging in local and virtual give-back activities in honor of Global Volunteer Month, and making small, sustainable changes to their everyday habits.  

Join the conversation 

• Tell us: How is your organization observing Earth Day this year? 
• Share an idea: What’s one sustainability habit (big or small) that’s made the most impact for your team? Plus, when you post a comment on this blog, you’ll earn an Earth Day badge for your community profile page! 
• Keep it going: If you have an Earth Day resource or success story, start a post in the Community so others can learn from it. 
• Learn how nonprofit organizations are adopting AI in ways that align with their environmental commitments in our ENGAGE blog: How Can Your Nonprofit Stay Green While Using AI?

We’re proud to keep improving our practices and learn more about how our customers are too. Keep an eye out for more details about our sustainability efforts in our upcoming Blackbaud Impact Report releasing in May. 

Happy Earth Day! 

Sharon Sandberg

No specific plans for Earth Day, but we had solar panels installed last year that completely powers our busiest building and has already paid for itself and then some. We have compost bins in the dining hall and a few other places around campus (Austin, Texas has a huge composting site and anything that grows "goes"). We've been a "Green Seminary" for 10ish years now. Every summer we have a modified work schedule to allow more remote days to both reduce our carbon footprint and reduce electrical usage on campus. This year we're completely closing several buildings for all of June and July (no AC running) to have a bigger impact this year.

As so many organizations and businesses shift back to "in person" modalities, I highly encourage them looking at single remote days for all staff. Even one day has an impact on the carbon imprint.