The Bay Area played host to a variety of Earth Day activities this weekend, including BART’s nature walks, the 2025 Climate Action Youth Summit, and the Green Business Expo and Earth Day Festival. Plus, a citywide cleanup with Refuse Refuse is coming up on Tuesday.
On Friday, more than 3,000 people gathered at Yerba Buena Gardens for San Francisco Environment’s second annual Climate Action Youth Summit, where students from across the city presented creative climate solutions through art, science, fashion, and performance. Centered around the theme “Climate Action Across Careers,” the event invited youth to explore how any profession can support environmental progress.
With twice as many student-led presentations as last year, the day was filled with inspiring ideas and innovations. A standout showcase came from Jefferson Elementary students, who collected 85 pounds of trash at school in just four days—an effort that helped them become the first plastic-free school in the district.
On Saturday, BART hosted two Nature Walks starting at 19th Street Station and circling Lake Merritt, led by conservationist Jeff Miller, author of Bay Area Wildlife: An Irreverent Guide.
Participants spotted local wildlife and discussed habitat loss, land-use history, and resilience. The nature walks were the first in a new series of free outdoor excursions aimed at encouraging Bay Area residents to use BART to explore the region’s natural landscape. Check out their upcoming events here.
Also on Saturday, San Francisco Environment hosted the Green Business Expo and Earth Day Festival, where attendees browsed booths from certified green businesses, played games, listened to live music by teen band Swami 3, and enjoyed activities like tree planting demos and biodiversity tours. The festival spotlighted eco-friendly innovations such as plant-based gel nail polish from local company Lilaque and hands-on learning with live snakes from Tree Frog Treks.
Other Earth Day events this weekend included the launch of the new season of Sunset Mercantile's Secondhand Saturdays vintage market, which runs every third Saturday through November, and the World Naked Bike Ride leading a climate protest.
Earth Day festivities continue through the week with a full roster of events as part of SF Climate Week. Additionally, grassroots volunteer group, Refuse Refuse, is hosting a day-long cleanup that covers all of downtown and SoMa on Tuesday, along with cleanups in various neighborhoods throughout the week. The group organizes weekly neighborhood cleanups year-round.
Image via Refuse Refuse in SoMa/Facebook
