Why Santa Barbara Needs to Be on Your Radar for Earth Day

Santa Barbara should be on your radar for Earth Day 2024. Santa Barbara has put on its annual Earth Day Festival, with more than 22,000 visitors each year, since its founding in 1970 and has featured notable speakers like Jane Fonda.

The Earth Day Festival is one of the longest-running Earth Day celebrations in the country, even believed to be the largest of its kind on the West Coast. For this year’s event, the festival aligns with Earth Day Network’s theme of Planet vs. Plastics. The theme seeks to spread awareness on the health risks of plastics, the importance of rapidly phasing out single-use plastics and pushing for a strong UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution by the end of 2024.

© Courtesy of The Steward

While in town, stay at The Steward, Santa Barbara’s newest boutique hotel, deeply connected in horticulture and sustainability. Rooted in the land’s rich history, the hotel sits on 5 acres of lavish land originally purchased in the late 1860s by pioneer horticulturist, Joseph Sexton. With sustainability at its core, The Steward was inspired by Sexton’s desire to care for the land and become a part of the natural surroundings.

The hotel also has a number of green initiatives for guests and employees to follow, including no single-use plastics, staff uniforms made of sustainable and vegan materials, a partnership with a local farm for food composting, refillable water bottle stations around the property, and informational talks with local eco-friendly groups. Keep an eye out for the new Horticulture Hour, an experience offered to help guests learn about the hyper-local floriculture surrounding the property and how it continues to care for the land.