Bay Area Leaders Unite at Earth Day Festival to Advance Sustainability and Climate Action
By Jonathan Gu
On April 25 2026, B.E.E participated in the Love Our Earth Day festival in East Palo Alto,
joining local leaders and other organizations in promoting city sustainability and climate action.
Betsy Nash, the mayor of Menlo Park, said the Bay Area community has made a long-standing focus on environmental policy.
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“We are motivated to make a difference,” Nash said.“We’ve remained committed to doing whatever we can to make it [our cities] a better place to live.”
Nash pointed to Menlo Park’s recent work in environmental justice as evidence that policy surrounding the climate can contribute positively to directly improve the lives of residents.
“We are focused especially on some of our underserved communities and making sure that there’s trees there,” Nash said. “One of the things that I think is so important is that it actually makes an individual difference to families,” Nash said. “[Protecting the world] creates a much healthier environment for everyone.”
Similarly, Webster Lincoln, mayor of East Palo Alto, said his city’s environmental priorities stem from a need for more green spaces.“We definitely need more trees,” Lincoln said. “We need more green space available and more shade.”
Lincoln also said that addressing environmental injustice requires people to be active and raise awareness. “It’s about taking action,” Lincoln said. “It’s not sitting back and waiting. We all need to be actively involved in creating a better environment.”
For Lincoln, climate considerations now influence virtually every aspect of city planning. “Climate resilience has become a part of everything that we do,” he said. “The pipes you put in the ground, the engineering, everything.”
Beyond city government, local environmental activists such as Eileen McLaughlin, a volunteer at the Sierra Club, advocate for more public awareness in environmental issues.
“We can’t just sit back,” McLaughlin said. “Part of the problem is the carbon dioxide that’s in the atmosphere is not coming out anytime soon.”
During the event, local leaders agreed that while progress is being made, long-term change can only be made with continued efforts across the Bay Area.