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…
Creating a budget and other financial tasks can be downright hard. Make them easier with these apps.
I love Mint’s budgeting feature and that it sends me reminders when I’m getting close or go over. It’s nice to have all my expenses and income in one place so I can see how much money I really have. And every month it updates me with an estimated…
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Shareholder activism is a powerful tool that gives shareholders the opportunity to initiate change within companies.
By dialoguing with companies and voting on proxy ballots, shareholders can influence corporate decisions. A “shareholder” is a person or institution that owns company stock, that is, a portion of a company’s capital. Any shareholder…
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Democrats in Congress worked with the Obama administration to pass the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and put several key financial protections on the legal books. The law aimed to prevent future financial crises and to protect vulnerable Americans from Wall…
Explosions of poppy flowers color the countryside of California in vibrant shades of gold and orange, signaling the end of long nights and the start of warmer days. Butterflies and people alike respond to the arrival of spring by visiting the blooming hills—but only one is trampling the sights.
This is the image of the 2019 California poppy…
This fall, many young people will be leaving home for the first time to begin the challenging and exciting experience that is college life. Some students will do well managing their own money for the first time, and some will struggle to manage their expenses.
“When I went to college, I was an idiot with my credit cards and money,” says…
At Green America, we get asked if a green economy could really provide good paying jobs and careers. The answer is that several million people nationwide are already working in green jobs. What we tell naysayers is that there are companies big and small that are making their green dreams work—and growing the green economy by hiring more folks to…
These Green Business Network members didn’t wait around for their industries to get greener—they took the plunge and did it themselves.
Small business owners are big thinkers. Entrepreneurs, and our very own Green Business Network® (GBN) members in particular, have pioneered many green economy trends of today—socially responsible investing,…
From Detroit to Baltimore, some old industrial cities are being revived by workers who are also getting a new lease on life.
When you think of American cities, what scenery comes to mind? For some, it’s towering buildings and congested traffic, while for others it may be vacant homes and slow-moving construction. Whether we’re talking…
In the past two years President Trump has been in office, he’s been rolling back environmental regulations he says will revive the coal industry and has bragged about putting coal miners back to work.
But in reality, coal jobs are at a record low—just over 80,000 people are currently employed across the industry, and overall coal production…
If anyone wanted to find Evan Delahanty in 2011, they would have had to fly to the country of Suriname, drive through the Amazon rainforest for several hours, and kayak down a river. There, in a small village, Delahanty was serving as a community economic specialist with the Peace Corps. When his term of service ended, he didn’t want to leave the…
If the world transitioned out of fossil fuels, could we generate the energy needed to power the world on 100 percent renewable energy?
According to a new report by LUT University in Finland and Energy Watch Group, a German nonprofit, the answer is yes. The nearly five-year-long study simulated a global transition to 100 percent renewable…
Humans have been making new things from old since the dawn of time, but it’s only been in the last 50 years that we’ve used recycling to make the most out of materials and to divert the mounting piles of material waste that come with our increasingly consumerist society.
The nonprofit recycling organization Eco-Cycle estimates that a US…
In Durham, North Carolina, chef Stephanie Terry is full of creative ideas. Without them, she never would have started Sweeties Southern & Vegan Catering, a business she owns with her husband Michael, who’s also a chef. Together, they cook up treats like vegan mac and cheese and “chicken” nuggets—comfort food that’s also healthier and better…
Residents and community health workers of Seattle’s Yesler Terrace development. Community health workers are trained in “Breathe Easy” air quality practices by the American Lung Association.
A new movement is creating affordable housing options with clean air, energy efficiency, and climate resilience in mind.
Whether you’re a young adult…
Next time you’re doing a home improvement project, look to green products to reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals. Find more at GreenPages.org.
A big part of what makes a house a home are the efforts made to create a space that’s nurturing and safe to everyone there. The products we buy for our home are part of those efforts, but we can…
Header photo caption: Beth Porter (left) and Kristin Brower, Green America’s development manager, pose in front of baled recycled materials at Prince George’s County Recycling Facility before they’re shipped off to processing plants.Photo courtesy of Beth Porter.
Author Beth Porter on the challenges and opportunities of the US recycling…
In 2008, we published our “Heal Your Home” issue on avoiding toxins and the case for precaution, which went on to become one of our most popular issues. In the following decade, the main chemicals likely to be lurking in your home are still there—and not just because you haven’t renovated.
In an ideal world, we would not be reporting on home-…
These widely-used, toxic chemicals may hide anywhere from skin cream to a frying pan. Let's explore what they are and where you can find them in your home.
Asbestos
A mineral that is resistant to heat and chemical corrosion and can be mixed with other materials to strengthen them. Though asbestos use has declined, it has not been banned in…
Marie Kondo’s show "Tidying Up" inspired people across the country to identify what brings them joy and help them tidy up. If you’re not a Netflix user, her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (Ten Speed Press, 2014) is a guide to the same. The show made me think hard about consumption habits, but also it came out right when the team…
Plants aren’t just pretty to look at—they can actually purify the air in and around your home, and clean toxic soil, too.
Whether moving into a new building or just bringing a product home for the first time, you might smell some of that “new mattress/rug/clothes smell.” That smell might be a marker of something new and exciting, but…
Composting is no longer just a way to reduce the amount of organic waste headed for the landfill—although that’s a great benefit. Farmers and gardeners who use regenerative agricultural practices know that composting is key to building healthy soil, as it provides food to soil microorganisms that improve plant health and sequester carbon. The…
In October, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a historic report estimating that governments only have 12 years to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. While government action is critical to meet this goal, citizens…
above: Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures ranch in Bluffton, GA, has been farming regeneratively since 1995. See the inspiring video about his ranch, 100,000 Beating Hearts. Photo by Angie Mosier.
Back when I first started at Green America, in 2000, I remember our president/CEO Alisa Gravitz often cautioning those of us on…
What is regenerative agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture is a holistic land-management practice that uses the power of photosynthesis in plants to sequester carbon in the soil while improving soil health, crop yields, water resilience, and nutrient density.
Why is regenerative agriculture important?
Regenerative agriculture draws down…
Dr. Kofi Boa, 63, lives in the town of Toase in Ghana, a country on West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea. When he was a kid, his mother’s cocoa farm burned to the ground because of a poorly managed slash-and-burn on neighboring land. From then on, Boa was interested in fighting the slash-and-burn tactics that many farmers in the region used, and in…
Ron Finley is an urban gardener and fashion designer using regenerative agriculture to increase access to healthy food and bring neighbors together in his South-Central Los Angeles community. He has traveled to Denmark, England, Greece, New Zealand, and Brazil; spoken at conferences including the American Public Gardens Association; and delivered…
Even if you’re not a farmer or a corporate CEO, you can take part in the effort to regenerate our soil and reverse climate change. All you have to do is garden.
Americans planted Victory Gardens during WWI and WWII to feed their communities and families at home, as part of supporting the war effort. (That way, more food from farms went…
In a greenhouse in Santa Cruz, CA, tomatoes are bright red, lemons look a little orange, and green basil has a definite pink glow. This isn’t a genetic modification project, but it is a science experiment. These plants are growing in the tinted light of a greenhouse made of magenta solar panels. The techniques the gardeners use to grow their…
For years, scientists have tested how carbon dioxide (CO2) levels affect crops, including whether CO2 affects how fast and tall plants grow, and what the nutritional value is of the harvested crops under study.
It’s not hard to imagine that a warming climate will affect the food supply. Hotter weather and more humidity means more insects.…
Like the Standing Rock Sioux before them, the Menominee Nation has taken up the mantle of “water protectors” in the Midwest. They’re also trying to safeguard their Tribal history.
As the Green American reported in our Fall 2017 issue, Aquila Resources, a Toronto-based mining company, wants to site an open-pit sulfide mine, called…
Students from across the country participated in the March for Our Lives in Washington, DC, on March 24, 2018, to call for common-sense gun safety laws. The march was organized by survivors of the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. Photo by Scott Serio via AP Images.
Shareholders Press for Change…
I n the fields of America’s breadbasket and beyond, from California to Florida, Wisconsin to Louisiana, farmworkers rise with the sun to pick the fruits and vegetables you see in stores, or to pull weeds on organic farms. It’s hard work, but someone has to do it to keep food on America’s tables. And usually, that someone is an immigrant worker—…
Lucrecia Camacho comes from Oaxaca and speaks Mixteco, one of the Indigenous languages and cultures of Mexico that were hundreds of years old before the arrival of the Spaniards. Today she lives in Oxnard, CA. Because of her age and bad health, she no longer works as a farmworker, but she spent her life in Oxnard’s strawberry fields, and…
Every day, incarcerated and detained people in both US government and private prisons perform labor during their sentences, with few exceptions. Many provide services for the prison itself, such as cooking, laundry, and maintenance tasks, while others make goods or provide services for the government or private companies. The prisoners…
Amazon continues to grow in popularity for its low prices and fast delivery. But warehouse workers behind the scenes are paying for it all with bottom-level salaries and back-breaking work.
In cities across the country, people are waiting with bated breath to see where online retail giant Amazon will build its planned second headquarters, because…
Big, rechargeable batteries are key to a green future. They’re required for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which are a huge part of how the world plans to combat climate change. Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, India, and France have all set timelines for bans on the sales of new cars with fossil-fuel-powered engines. China has…
Your cell phone and other favorite electronics may have been made in an abusive sweatshop—and poisoned the workers who made them.
The nonprofit China Labor Watch (CLW), a longtime ally of Green America’s, has a history of exposing what life has been like in Chinese supplier factories, which make many of the electronics on US store shelves.…
Your computerized car can pinpoint where you are as you drive. Your wireless computer and phone have microphones and cameras that hackers could access. Your smart TV collects data on your viewing habits to better target you with ads. Smart home devices promise convenience, but they also carry the danger of whittling away at our privacy.
In…
During WWI and WWII, Europe’s ravaged farmlands were no longer capable of producing large amounts of food, which led to a famine that affected Allied soldiers. In 1917, under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson and then head of the US Food Administration, Herbert Hoover, the US government asked its citizens to support the war effort by…
The nonprofit Color Of Change (COC) calls itself “the country’s largest online racial justice organization.” Formed in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina by activist James Rucker and current progressive CNN host Van Jones, COC aims “to respond to injustice and move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and…
From the front, Bill Hutchins’ small bungalow looks much like the rest on his street in Takoma Park, MD. But the 2,100 sq.-foot house Hutchins shares with his wife and their three children (with an apartment that they rent in the basement) is a green home, built with eco-friendly features and with environmentally low-impact practices that limit…
It’s called the “Internet of Things,” a term coined by Procter & Gamble exec Kevin Ashton in 1999. It means an interconnected web of appliances, devices, cars, and other technology that are able to “talk” to each other and share data. Considering the vast reach and scope of the internet, adding a bunch of “things” to it may not sound all that…
Smart Roads
Roads. To an environmentally minded person, they’re something of a menace. Too often, they require bulldozing through natural habitat and laying down black asphalt that absorbs sunlight and further warms the planet. But smart highways of the future might make roads a bit better.
They could harness solar power:
In late December…
The popularity of smart thermostats is on the rise. Devices like Google’s Nest use a feature called “geo-fencing” to use sensors in your home and the signal on your mobile phone to turn themselves to an eco-friendly lower setting while you’re away. Some take a few days to learn your heating and cooling habits, then adjust your thermostat…
Solar is booming. Solar power is now cheaper than coal in some parts of the world, and generating power from the sun is likely to be the lowest-cost energy option globally in less than ten years, according to Bloomberg. In many places around the world, solar is already the lowest-cost option.
Even the big utilities are moving…
Buildings that simply mitigate environmental damage aim too low, says the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). People shouldn’t have to settle for buildings that don’t improve their lives and the environment around them. Now, they don’t have to thanks to the ILFI’s Living Building Challenge (LBC), which the nonprofit touts as the world’s…
Refrigerant management is the most impactful step to solve the climate crisis, as many people on our staff were surprised to learn when we featured Paul Hawken’s new book Drawdown in our winter issue.
We thought the top solution would be something environmentalists talked about more—like increasing wind and solar power or protecting…
Smart devices can help us stay connected, but if you’ve been at a family gathering where everyone has their nose in a smartphone, you know that they can also contribute to isolation.
Sometimes, old-fashioned analog solutions can be the best way to strengthen relationships and form new ones in your community. Here are a few of our editors’…
