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’…
On websites from H&M to Gap to Gucci, you’ll find phrases like “innovative materials,” “sustainably sourced,” and “enhancing transparency.” But when it comes to finding out whether companies actually walk their sustainable talk, there may still be problems behind their promises. In short, consumers still need to do research when shopping for…
Impact investors and responsible banking institutions across the country have made a big difference this past year, advancing causes ranging from climate change to board diversity to immigration justice. Green America celebrates these 2017 victories and identifies how you can keep the economy moving in a greener direction.
Shareholders Win…
If you’re part of the movement for a just and sustainable future, or you're interested in solutions to reverse the climate crisis, chances are you’ve heard of Paul Hawken. To say that Hawken has an interesting background is a bit of an understatement.
You might know him as a green entrepreneur. Starting in the 1960s, he founded several…
Paul Hawken and the Project Drawdown experts thought they knew what to expect when they modeled and ranked 80 solutions that could reverse climate change. But the data had some surprises in store.
Most prominently was that even when the solutions are modeled in terms of what they call a “Plausible Scenario”—a conservative measure of…
As we work toward Drawdown, it’s critical to address the impacts of climate change in communities of color, which are often hit “first and worst.” Jacqui Patterson, director of the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice program, says we all need to work toward energy justice for everyone in our communities.
People often ask why the NAACP…
The border lands between the North Woods of northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan historically haven't been a hotbed of environmental activism. The region, populated largely by farming and middle- or working-class families, trends staunchly conservative in states that toggle between red and blue from election to election.…
If you’re read our article from the Fall 2017 Green American, “The Back Forty Mine: Is It the Next Standing Rock?”, you’re likely familiar with what’s going on in Upper Michigan. Briefly, Aquila Resources, a Toronto-based company, is trying to site a sulfide mine 150 feet from the banks of the Menominee River.
While Aquila…
Photo caption: The board of We the People of Detroit, from left to right: Debra Taylor, Chris Griffith, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Aurora Harris, and Cecily McClellan. Courtesy of We the People of Detroit and the KIND Foundation.
They were a group of women who didn’t start out together as community organizers. In 2009, the state proposed that…
When I was teaching English in a low-income rural community in southern Louisiana over 20 years ago, I had a short conversation with a mentor teacher that would stay with me. I was lamenting how a particular teenage boy in my class had a real knack for writing but was prone to rather shocking outbursts of temper, prompting random refusals to do…
Since before he went on the presidential campaign trail, Trump has touted what he sees as the benefits of natural gas hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. In July 2012, shortly after the Obama administration issued rules limiting fracking on federal lands, Trump needled the then-President on Twitter, saying: “Fracking will lead to American energy…
The Delaware River isn’t the most glamorous river. There aren’t songs written about it, like the Shenandoah or the Mississippi. It’s named for one of the smallest and least populous states. Yet, the watershed provides drinking water to 13-19 million people every day and is fed by water in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. In fact,…
You wouldn’t think that here in America, there would be entire swaths of the population without proper sewer systems, resulting in raw sewage seeping into their yards and water tables. You would be wrong.
You would also probably hope that the substandard living conditions caused by the lack of affordable and failsafe sewage systems wouldn’t…
On April 1, 2016, Native Americans from across the country gathered at Sacred Stone Camp in Cannonball, ND, to protect the Missouri River.
They ran to draw attention to their opposition of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a proposed crude oil pipeline that would stretch 1,172 miles from North Dakota to Illinois. Activists worry that a spill…
There are “more than 2.5 million miles of pipelines across the US and 18,000 places where they cross under rivers, streams, and lakes,” according to American Rivers. That’s a big concern because accidents happen, and when they do, they often leak poison into US drinking water. In 2015, the Poplar oil pipeline spilled nearly 50,000 gallons of oil…
About one percent of all water on Earth is drinkable. Drinkable water plays a huge role in our daily lives, from brushing our teeth to cooking our food. The US Geological Survey reports that the average American uses between 80-100 gallons of water per day at home. However, saving drinkable water is imperative to ensure clean, accessible water…
Although Flint, MI, has become the poster city for America’s issue with contaminated water, it is only one of many communities experiencing threats to its water supply. Perhaps because they don’t completely trust their tap water, Americans are buying bottled water now more than ever. According to the Beverage Marketing Corp., Americans drink more…
Using the fictional Fizzy Cola Company, we walk you through a shareholder proxy ballot. If you'd prefer to view this image as a PDF, click here to open.
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Choose your new bank or credit union. While picking a local bank is a good option, and a local credit union an even better option, moving your accounts to a community development bank or credit union is your best bet to matching your banking with your values. Find hundreds of options at Green…
In this new Trump era of deregulation, it’s clear the government isn’t going to look out for the common good or for future generations when it deals with corporations. So responsible shareholders are picking up the slack, standing up to Corporate America on behalf of people and the planet.
In fact, they’ve been using their economic clout to…
Since 2012, investor activists and college students have been advocating for divestment from fossil fuels, to send a market signal to the industry that investors and the public want it to stop warming the climate and start putting its resources into clean energy and other sustainable sectors.
The success of the fossil-fuel divestment…
If you ask multiple financial advisors for generalized advice on money matters, they’ll likely tell you that every person’s finances are different and ever-changing based on goals and plans. If they’re advisors who specialize in socially responsible investing (SRI), they’ll also agree that no matter how much money you have, you can use your money…
In the 1990s, socially responsible investors played a key role in bringing down South Africa’s brutal and racist apartheid regime. Since then, they’ve made a difference on a wide range of issues, pressing companies around the world to move in a more socially and environmentally responsible direction.
Thanks to engaged shareholders:
In…
Wondering how you can make a real difference in the world? Move your money.
People who bank and invest in a socially responsible manner arguably have never been more important to the health of humanity and the Earth. As Donald Trump’s administration doubles down on anti-environment, anti-science, and anti-immigrant policies, it’s clear that…
You know by now that socially responsible investing (SRI) does make a difference in the world, but perhaps you’re wondering what kind of difference it will make in your portfolio. Will you sacrifice financial returns if you align your investments with your values?
The evidence, amassed through hundreds of studies, shows that historically,…
Karen Bearden compares greening her money to a waterfall: one act of socially responsible investing (SRI) was like a drop of water that led to a cascade.
She became a Green America member back in 2005. After reading about SRI in our publications, she and her husband Joe moved some of their investments into a Pax World socially responsible…
Are you expecting a delivery? Mail-order meal kits are popping up everywhere, maybe even on your doorstep. Blue Apron and Hello Fresh might be the ones you’ve heard of, but there are dozens of similar plans out there.
The insulated boxes they deliver include enough goodies to quickly whip up a meal for two or four, and there’s no denying the…
Doug Rauch doesn’t care about food waste. Food waste to him is the scraps on your plate that get pushed into the trash. It’s the crumbs at the bottom of a box of cereal. What Rauch does care about is wasted food: Perfectly good tubs of yogurt, cans of beans, speckled peaches, and wilting veggies. Food that is going into a dumpster instead of…
Those “expiration dates” printed on your food? In most cases, they’re not really expiration dates. The stamped “use by,” “sell by,” and “best by” dates on food most often do not indicate safety*.
Manufacturers establish and print the dates, in general, to indicate when an item is at peak freshness and optimal taste. In other words, they have…
If you want to know the ins and outs of wasting less food, you don’t have to look much farther than Dana Gunders’ book, Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook (Chronicle Books, 2016). In it, Gunders examines how and why we throw away food in America — then provides step-by-step instructions on how to generate less food waste, from reorganizing your fridge to…
At the close of 2015, the nation was reeling from news that residents of Flint, Michigan, had been drinking and bathing in water contaminated with lead, a potent neurotoxicant. Though the mostly Black community had long been voicing concerns about the troubling quality of their drinking water, government officials assured them time and again it…
On December 10th, 2015, a delegation of 50 members, most from 15 historically Black colleges and universities held a rally. The familiar, and frequently polarizing, chant of “Black Lives Matter” echoed in the hallways of the Le Bourget Conference Centre. This was Paris, France; this was the United Nations’ 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21).…
Longtime activist on environmental issues and how they affect Native communities, Tom Goldtooth (Mdewakanton Dakota and Diné) became passionate about climate justice in 1991, when he was appointed spokesperson of the Native Peoples Caucus at the first annual National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in Washington, DC.…
Early in 2015, a national poll revealed that 54 percent of Latinos in the US say that global warming is extremely or very important to them personally, compared with 37 percent of white Americans. The poll was conducted by Stanford University, The New York Times, and a polling group called Resources for the Future, and its results made…
