Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the modern environmental movement which started in 1970, with rallies led by universities nationwide. Today, this principle is still upheld, and Sonoma State had its own Earth Day event which celebrated environmental activism.

This Earth Day, Associated Student Productions (ASP) brought Isaias Hernandez, better known as @queerbrownvegan on Instagram. Hernandez is an environmental educator who uses social media as a platform to spread awareness about environmentalism, the zero-waste movement, veganism, and environmental justice. Hernandez received a B.S. in Environmental Science at the University of California, Berkeley and has since been involved in creative work and academic research.

Dubbed as an “environmental influencer” by Tim Wilbur, a fourth-year student at SSU, Hernandez spreads awareness of these issues by promoting eco-friendly brands and products. Hernandez also has spent his time blogging about educational resources on environmental justice and how it affects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and most importantly, using their own background to explain why everyone can help the environment with a little bit of effort.

These concepts are near to Hernandez’s mission. This ASP event also had a Q&A format, in which Hernandez answered questions from ASP, as well as questions submitted by students. Hernandez was more than happy to talk about his reasons for becoming a social media environmental educator. He says, “In order to democratize [environmentalism] and try to make it accessible, I thought about using social media as a way to get involved in that,” and added, “You do not need to be an environmental science major to be an environmentalist, it shouldn’t matter where you come from.”

Isaias spoke during the event, as well as on his blog, about how important it is to make sustainability accessible to everyone. On Hernandez’ blog, he wrote, “As someone who didn’t have support when navigating the environmental field, I asked myself who I wanted to be for others, and that’s an educator.” Hernandez focuses on an environmental justice oriented approach to sustainability, which prioritizes dismantling white supremacy in the environmental academic field, and community-driven approaches to environmental activism, which benefit BIPOC.

One of the main topics brought up to students in this event was the zero-waste movement. A zero-waste, or low-waste, lifestyle is one in which sustainable choices are made by an individual in order to produce less waste entering landfills. One example of this is refillable products, as many companies are switching from single-use plastics to products which can be refilled more than once, in order to be more sustainable.

Many of the products on Hernandez’s blog and social media are zero-waste, or low-waste products, like toothpaste tablets that come in a glass refillable bottle. Another way that Hernandez suggests to reduce waste besides buying sustainable products, which is not necessarily economically feasible for everyone. However, by reusing things that you already have, students are encouraged to do their part to create less waste.

Hernandez’s role as a queer person of color in the environmental science sector has been described by influencers as a way to “decolonize climate action.” He talks about making sustainable, yet economically feasible choices, for your lifestyle. They discussed unique choices that you can make to reduce waste, like recycling plastic, reusing items in your household, or turning them into something else. When it comes to making sustainable choices, they said “No low-income individual should ever feel ashamed for buying [conventional] products.”

The event ended with a give-away of sustainable products that Hernandez has featured on his Instagram account, including: sustainable toothpaste tablets, shampoo and conditioner bars, and other sustainable alternatives to traditional products.