Chemists Celebrate Earth Week 2020: ‘Protecting our planet through chemistry’ digital campaign

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2020 — The American Chemical Society (ACS) invites all to take part in a digital Chemists Celebrate Earth Week (CCEW) campaign from Sunday, April 19, to Saturday, April 25, with the theme “Protecting Our Planet through Chemistry.”

Chemistry helps promote a more sustainable world through recyclable plastics, cleaner-burning fuels, environmental monitoring, green chemistry initiatives and other advances. Each year, the CCEW environmental awareness campaign provides an opportunity to cherish the Earth and recognize how we can reduce our impact on it every day.

This year, the virtual CCEW campaign will be celebrated along with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. ACS and Earth Day Network have a three-year agreement to work together to advance their shared goals.

Given current federal, state and local governmental and world health authority directives and guidelines on social distance and limitations on gatherings, ACS and Earth Day Network encourage celebrating the campaign by sharing digital resources and planning virtual events. Here are some simple ways to get involved:

• Coordinate – Contact the nearest CCEW coordinator to help plan exciting virtual activities. Organize a virtual teach-in.
• Discover – Use digital educational resources from CCEW. Check out the web version of Celebrating Chemistry, ACS’ kids publication. Download the “CCEW 2020 Celebrating Chemistry Coloring Book.”
• Illustrate – Encourage participation in a digital illustrated poem contest, in which winners advance to a national contest to win cash prizes.
• Advocate – Take action by writing to your local leaders to ask them to support strong science and STEM education.
• Share – Join the online celebration with the CCEW design toolkit. Post using #CCEW, #GreenChemistry and #EarthDay2020 to help spread the word about the campaign. RSVP for and share the CCEW event on Facebook.

Since 2003, CCEW has united ACS members with schools, businesses and individuals in communicating the importance of green chemistry in everyday life. CCEW occurs annually during the week of Earth Day, April 22. Learn more at www.acs.org/ccew.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people. The Society is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a specialist in scientific information solutions (including SciFinder^® and STN^®), its CAS division powers global research, discovery and innovation. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.