This week marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, so to celebrate I’ll be spending the week highlighting different brands who are doing their part, exploring some of the environmental issues I’m passionate about and talking to a couple experts.

Earth Day started on April 22, 1970, and has since been credited with launching the modern environmental movement worldwide. The first Earth Day was “a unified response to an environment in crisis — oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they literally caught fire.” 20 million Americans took to the streets across the country to “protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet.” The first Earth Day also led to landmark environmental laws in the U.S., such as The Clean Air, Water and Endangered Species Acts, as well as the birth of the EPA.

This year’s theme for Earth Day is climate action. According to the Earth Day Network, “The enormous challenge — but also the vast opportunities — of action on climate change have distinguished the issue as the most pressing topic for the 50th anniversary.” I’ll be spending the week thinking about my ecological footprint, creating better solutions and working through a few of the challenges in the Earth Day Network’s “Earth Day Daily Challenge.” Re-thinking the way we walk the earth is no overnight task, but small steps in unison can make for big change.

“Climate change represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make our world habitable.”