Earth Day Initiative

Overview

Earth Day Initiative is the organizing body behind the official NYC Earth Day fair in Union Square, Manhattan. Each year the fair welcomes tens of thousands of people and an additional 100,000+ digital reach. It has also had celebrity guest speakers such as Robert Downey Jr, Bill Nye The Science Guy, and Al Gore.

The Future Meets Present x Earth Day Initiative partnership dates back to September 2017 when we collaborated on the first ever Marketplace of the Future and continues to this day. In light of the pandemic in 2021, Earth Day Initiative needed a digital solution for their annual Earth Day. That's where we stepped in.

Role

Design an easy, accessible, fun, Earth Day themed "metaverse" to replicate the annual fair.

Challenge

Our challenge was to capture both the inspiration and accessibility that the Earth Day fair provides - virtually.

Solution

We leveraged our partnership with Gather.Town, a metaverse web app that feels like a marriage between Super Mario Bros and Zoom. Through this platform we designed an "enchanting farmers' market of the future" that had more than 50 virtual exhibitors and welcomed more than 3,000 attendees from around the world - something that was not previously accessible to anyone living outside NYC.