No matter how much or little money you are able to save, if you use a bank, credit union or 401(k) plan, you can be a socially responsible investor.
There are different names for this approach to saving and investing, such as socially responsible investing (SRI); environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing; impact…
The country has experienced dramatic changes amidst the pandemic: the mainstream revival of the Black Lives Matter movement and amplified calls for intersectional environmentalism. Regardless of what prompted your decision to start or deepen your activism, it’s possible to advocate for change in a multitude of ways. Read more about how to protest…
The skin care industry is heavily greenwashed, with claims of natural, organic, and clean products to help you achieve a healthy glow. This is especially pertinent in the time of covid-19, in which frequent hand washing and sanitizing can lead to skin irritation without proper care.
Unfortunately, only 11 ingredients are restricted from personal…
Above: Liz Abunaw is the founder of Forty Acres Fresh Market, a pop-up market that brings produce to communities in Chicago’s West Side. Photo by Ofu Takor.
You may have heard of food deserts, which refer to areas void of fresh, affordable food, but the term “food desert” does not challenge systemic racism. This is why more people are using…
Taking care of yourself is more important than ever. Anxiety, a lack of sleep, and other stressors can weaken the immune system. Maintaining a well-balanced diet and eating foods which support your immune system can help strengthen your body’s natural protections.
Bring the Vitamin C
If you’ve ever had a cold, you’ve have probably been…
Whether it is on a patio, windowsill, or balcony, the Climate Victory Gardening movement is putting down roots across the country that are not confined to the traditional backyard garden. Every day, we are inspired by the creative ways people are growing food and giving back to the planet. If you’re interested in joining the fun but daunted by…
Grow your little ones’ love for literature with these eco-conscious, culturally rich reads.
The 2021 National Geographic Kids’ Infopedia
The 2021National Geographic Kids’ Infopedia ($13.18) is guaranteed to feed your child’s imagination. It’s packed with stories about animals, histo-ry-making explorers, and world-changing inventions, plus games…
Intentionally supporting Black-owned businesses is one way we can do our part to promote racial justice, support entrepreneurs, and foster an inclusive green economy. We hope you’ll start with these stellar body care Green Business Network members who are creating products in a market that often ignores the needs of Black women and women of color…
Worm composting is a great way to make use of your kitchen scraps and make your own free, nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden. Better yet, composting reduces your climate footprint by diverting organic waste from the landfill, where it rots and releases greenhouse gases.
An in-home worm compost setup is unassuming and friendly to both house…
Green America’s Cool It! campaign tackles the climate disaster hiding in our refrigerators by urging companies to eliminate the use of greenhouse gases called HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons).
HFCs are potent gases that leak out of refrigerators and air conditioners into the atmosphere and escalate the climate crisis. These refrigerant gases regularly…
Together with our members, we’re getting the largest companies on the planet to change the way they do business for the better—sourcing clean energy, engaging in agriculture that protects the soil and sequesters carbon, and ending practices that harm workers, communities, and consumers. This is the green economy.
Indeed, our successes come from…
Across the country, mutual aid networks have rapidly developed in response to the unique challenges posed by COVID-19.
What is Mutual Aid?
Although mutual aid takes many forms, it is defined by reciprocity. People support each other based on what others need and what they can provide, unlike charity and government assistance, which are one-sided…
At Green America, when we say “green,” we always mean both environmental sustainability and social justice. It especially means recognizing that systemic racism was a reality long before the Black Lives Matter era and that the climate emergency isn’t on hold because of COVID-19. History shows us that protesting has the power to pressure…
Making your home more energy-efficient saves you money and reduces your carbon footprint.
We are staying home more than ever and many workers want it to stay that way. According to a Gallup poll, 59 percent of Americans who have worked from home during the pandemic hope to continue once workplace restrictions are relaxed.
Telecommuting is also…
When we started working on this issue, it was with the November election in mind. In February, no one knew the Green American team would spend most of our spring days separated and working from home. The intent of developing this feature for our summer issue was to make sure that environmental justice issues was top-of-mind as people headed to…
By the time you read this, Americans will be only a few months away from electing their next president and the global community will have witnessed an unprecedented year. From a volatile and narrowly diffused nuclear conflict with Iran, to rampant fires in Australia, 2020 has delivered headline after headline that would be considered…
Fifty years after the moon landing, it’s easy to look back with awe on those days of great national will and collective use of our brightest minds. Some modern technologists think with similar combined brainpower and funding, we could use unprecedented “shoot-the-moon” technologies to solve climate change.
But others are looking to established…
My entire life I’ve watched as Washington politicians abandoned Appalachia and rural communities, sacrificing their wellbeing for cheap resources. I’ve watched as fossil fuel billionaires and the politicians they’ve bought out, a pack led by Kentucky’s own Senator Mitch McConnell, kept millions of Americans in poverty, enriching themselves at the…
In Durham, North Carolina, a young man rakes a dirt path in between rows of leafy soybeans. In Alabama’s Black Belt, a woman rolls a feathery ball of cotton between in her fingers, inspecting it for pests. In eastern Mississippi, an older woman, scissors in hand, kneels into a nest of leaves and uses a spade to harvest a sweet potato.
The…
Socially responsible investing is a way your money can change the world. You can do it by moving your money from Wall Street banks to community development banks, screening the worst companies out of your portfolio, or using shareholder advocacy to push corporate management to change.
Direct investing or impact investing is another socially…
In the Los Angeles neighborhood of University Park, west of downtown and east of the University of Southern California campus, people felt ill. Residents and those who spent time at the schools, libraries, and shops in the area were getting nosebleeds, headaches, and feeling shortness of breath.
This neighborhood of South-Central Los Angeles was…
Climate change has wide implications for both coastal and landlocked cities across the globe. But building resiliency and adapting to climate change can have disastrous effects for low-income and minority communities in the form of climate gentrification.
What Is Climate Gentrification?
In a classic example of gentrification, developers see an…
The climate crisis is not an immovable object. It is a battle with many fronts and people around the globe looking for solutions for the problems that they see, working within their own expertise and communities. These four climate warriors who come from different walks of life but share the same goals of mobilizing citizen and government action…
One calorie of food grown on a conventional farm takes 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce. That’s because industrial agriculture relies on energy-intensive chemical inputs and results in difficult-to-manage waste. This linear system is wreaking havoc on our planet and it just doesn’t make sense.
Conventional agriculture depends on the…
HOPE Credit Union is a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) serving the Mississippi Delta region of the United States, which encompasses Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. With a mission to strengthen economically under-served communities, HOPE provides financial services and engages in policy analysis.
In…
Over the last decade, podcasts have skyrocketed in popularity—over 100 million people listened to a podcast every week in 2019. Compared to conventional radio stations that have limited airtime and contracts, podcasts offer in-depth storytelling on topics ranging from the daily news to comedy, and true crime to sci-fi stories. Here are a few picks…
One person's trash is another person’s treasure, but with a little creativity, some of your waste may never have to make a trip to the landfill. Many items lying around the house can be repurposed into something new without needing to buy anything. Here is a short list of free zero-waste swaps that are kind to your wallet and to the planet.…
When you're on Amazon, you can accomplish in a few clicks what it might take hours, days or weeks to find elsewhere. But its convenience comes at a high cost. Amazon continues to struggle with worker rights, clean energy, and a market monopoly that harms small businesses.
Green America launched our “Build a Cleaner Cloud” campaign in 2014 to…
As the calendar shifted from 2019 to 2020, it felt like other shifts occurred too—with the US elections on the horizon and Australia on fire for the last few months, many are waking up to the reality of climate change and the growing need to act on it. Trying times are times for trying, right?
This is a moment when we can all look at our habits…
Turning bike tires into bags, sugar cane waste into to-go boxes, and reclaimed wood to new flooring is what the circular economy looks like.
Each of these trash-to-treasure concepts are real practices by real businesses: Green Guru, which makes outdoor gear out of busted bike tubes and old climbing rope; Greenline Paper Company, which offers…
Balled-up paper towels, plastic food containers and crumpled stationery: when Anamarie Shreeves did her first trash analysis back in 2013, these were some of the most common culprits she found in the pile, and it probably isn’t far off from what many of us would find if we perused our own.
The average American produces roughly 1,700 lbs of…
When Cory Chow’s sister got married, Cory bought a bridesmaid’s dress. After the wedding, she put it in her closet, where it hung there for more than three years. Then, someone on her local Washington, DC, “Buy Nothing” Facebook group posted in search of a formal dress in her size.
“Being able to pass it along to a neighbor who would otherwise…
Look around your home and think about all the ways you use this place where you spend much of your time. You’ve heard about the circular economy and zero waste, but have you considered how your space itself could be contributing to your environmental footprint?
Despite the fact that census surveys show that American families are shrinking, the…
Green America has long called for a large-scale transition from conventional agriculture to a regenerative model that sequesters carbon as we work to reverse the climate crisis. Through our green economy campaigns like Soil SuperHeroes and Climate Victory Gardens, and our Center for Sustainability Solutions’ Soil Carbon Index—the world’s first…
Finally, it’s not hard to find green and ethical clothing in mainstream stores any more. While it’s a great thing that fair trade and sustainable fabrics are in front of millions of shoppers, green claims are worth checking out. Green America looked into popular brands with “green” offerings, Madewell, Target, Everland, and H&M to see if they…
As I began research for the Unraveling Fashion issue, I was able to get the first copy of Elizabeth L. Cline’s new book, The Conscious Closet (Plume, 2019), from my public library. The book is a practical guide to making your closet more ethical and sustainable, by giving tips on looking for quality when shopping, mending instructions, and how to…
In South India, one garment manufacturer is busy changing the narrative around offshore factories. What started in 1994 as a nonprofit rehabilitation program by Franciscan nuns has grown into a thriving social enterprise. Assisi Garments uses local organic cotton and provides training and employment for deaf, mute, and economically disadvantaged…
When we clean out our closets, we often use three piles for clothing: keep, donate, and toss (or, landfill). Even though many Americans donate clothes, textiles still make up a shocking amount of the US waste stream. The EPA reports that Americans generate 16 million tons of textile waste a year, equaling just over six percent of total municipal…
If you go to a Forever 21 location two months in a row, odds are that practically nothing about the clothing selection will look the same. Forever 21 played a massive role in popularizing fast fashion, and as Green America’s Toxic Textiles report recently found, workers and the Earth pay a massive price for these seasonal looks, exposing workers…
For many of us, fashion is fun. It’s a chance to show the world who we are. For others, getting dressed might be a chore. However you look at your closet, it’s affecting the Earth—the fashion industry has a bigger climate impact than air travel and maritime shipping combined.
According to Elizabeth Cline (author of Overdressed, a book that helped…
The fashion industry's relationship with marginalized groups is complicated. For decades, people from communities often subjected to inequality and stigma have found fellowship in an industry where art, creativity, and individuality reign. The careers of designers and influencers like Jason Wu, Carolina Herrera, Andre Leon Talley, Vera Wang, and…
Sixteen Million. That’s how many people globally are trapped in forced labor in the private sector, according to a 2016 report from the International Labour Organization. Besides these 16 million, untold others are subjected to labor abuses in global supply chains daily, such as forced overtime, harassment, withheld wages, exposure to toxic…
At the US’ Southern border, immigrant families are held for unknown amounts of time in facilities that are often grossly overcrowded and understaffed. Across the country, citizens in prison face similar conditions. What these facilities have in common is that they’re both private prisons. Private prisons hold about nine percent of the nation’s…
From minimalists to ethically-made-or-nothing-at-all, environmentalists can be hard to buy for. But our resident outdoor expert and editorial fellow Mary Meade collected a list of eco-friendly gifts and sustainable products from our Green Business Network members that’ll be sure to get your friends and family stoked for their next adventures— or…
Green America brings together consumers to pressure major polluters to take the climate crisis seriously. We also help individuals tackle climate change in their own homes and communities. Here are ten ways you can fight climate change and even contribute to an equitable, green economy!
1. Eliminate Food Waste
Food waste in the US occurs…
Plastics have been in the news lately for being a major source of pollution. You might have questions, and you’re not alone. Here, we answer some of the questions we get asked most about plastics and recycling.
1. Does banning single-use plastic even make a dent in the bigger problem of climate change?
Yes! Plastic is derived from crude oil.…
The European Union and other countries have banned over 1,600 chemicals from use in cosmetics. The US has banned 9. EU laws require that manufacturers prove chemicals are safe before they can be used in a product. In the US, chemicals are not always banned even if they potentially cause cancer; contain neuro- and immunotoxins; or contain hormone…
Sweat Stylishly
Exercise isn’t part of everyone’s daily routine, but men and women who do try to fit in a workout can find casual 100 percent organic T-shirts at Natural Clothing Company for $19.
You can find a similar t-shirt style at EConscious for $18.
Blue Canoe also offers a variety of camisoles and tanks made from a mixture of organic…
In December 2018, Green America’s membership, marketing, and operations director Dana Christianson welcomed her first child, Eustace, to the world. Naturally, she had put together a baby registry out of products that came from Green Business Network members. Now that she’s tried the products for herself, here’s her favorite mama must-haves,…
Corporate agriculture is driving the climate crisis and flooding the market with processed foods that are making us sick. Instead, opt for regenerative, organic, and local foods to protect the planet and your health.
A good place to find these foods? Your local farmers market, which is also a great place to meet the people who grew your food and…
