Celebrate Earth Week with the Upper Valley Earth Week Open House
Photo by Judy Payne
Next Wednesday, April 22nd marks the 56th annual Earth Day celebration. Over 1 billion people worldwide are expected to participate in Earth Day events and community actions. The theme of the year is “Our Power, Our Planet,” to reflect that progress to protect the earth is sustained by local communities taking action, and is not dependent on any single administration or election.
To celebrate Earth Week locally, several organizations and energy committees in the Upper Valley have worked together to put on the Upper Valley Earth Week Open House. 31 homes, businesses, nonprofits, and one church in the Upper Valley will be opening their doors to neighbors to share their sustainable systems and answer all of your questions. This is a great opportunity to see systems in action, learn about what projects might be right for your home and gardens, and be inspired by all of the amazing work that is being done in our community to protect the earth.
The open house portion of the event is scheduled for April 25th – 26th. You choose which site(s) you’d like to visit and go there between 10 AM and 2 PM. There are a wide variety of sustainable systems available to view during the open house weekend, including battery backup systems, heat pumps/heat pump water heaters, compost systems, sustainable gardens, electric tools and vehicles, rainwater collection, and much more.
There will also be several scheduled tours at locations that may require separate registration during the week of April 20th-26th. The following locations will not be part of the open house, but have set times for guided tours.
There are two tours on Monday, April 20th. The Lebanon Co-op will share their waste-reduction, composting, and other sustainable strategies during an 11 AM tour. Willing Hands will open their doors at 4 PM to share more about their climate action goal of avoiding more than 2 million pounds of CO2e per year. The tour will cover food recovery programs, their fully electric refrigerated van, solar power, and the climate impact of partnering with livestock farms to manage food waste.
On Friday, April 24th, Advance Transit will host a tour of their electric buses at 10 AM or 2 PM. They also have a rainwater harvest system that they use to wash the buses.
On Saturday, April 25th at 10:30 AM, Vermont Law and Graduate School will give a presentation on their sustainable practices and their plans for the future, followed by a campus tour. Dartmouth College will also be giving a tour on Saturday at 11 AM that will focus on their geoexchange wells (aka ground source heat pumps) and plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Sunrise Farm in White River Junction will be sharing their regenerative farming practices during a tour on Sunday, April 26th at 3 PM. They have a photovoltaic system and use on-farm composting to reduce their fossil fuel consumption.
Registration is required to attend the open house and scheduled tours. Once you register, you will be sent a guide with details on all of the sites included in the open house, as well as details for the scheduled tours.
The Upper Valley Earth Week Open House 2026 is sponsored by Sustainable Lebanon, Sustainable Hanover, Sustainable Woodstock, the Norwich Energy Committee, Vital Communities, and the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee. We hope that you will join us to celebrate the Earth and all of the good that is happening in our community!
What you can do:
- Attend the Upper Valley Earth Week Open House by registering here: https://UpperValleyEarthWeek.eventbrite.com
- Host your own Earth Day event with friends and neighbors! Plant a native tree or remove some invasive plants. You can find inspiration here: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2026/
- Mark your calendar for Green Up Day on May 2nd
- Looking for more Earth-focused events beyond Earth Week? Sustainable Woodstock will host our annual electronic waste recycling and document shredding event on May 16th. We will also be partnering up with Farm and Wilderness for an invasive plant pull on June 6th. Details for both these events can be found at sustainablewoodstock.org