All GAM Articles

Parent Issue Authored on Title Body Relevant Lens
Take the Plastics Challenge Bioplastics: Benefits and Pitfalls There are a lot of claims made about bioplastic products. Some are true, some are partly true, many are misleading, and most are unsubstantiated. It’s a bit of a Wild West scenario in the world of bioplastics: producers are trailblazing into new terrain in search of petrochemical plastic alternatives; everything from corn to mushrooms to poop is… Green Living
Take the Plastics Challenge 11 Easy Ways to Kick the Plastic Habit Replace common single-use plastics with these sturdy reusables, recommended by MyPlasticFreeLife.com's Beth Terry and the editors of the Green American.   1. Instead of accepting plastic bags at the grocery store, carry your own cloth grocery and produce bags. Choose stretchy string bags that carry many times their weight (ReuseIt.com),… Green Living
Growing Community Solar Socially Responsible Mutual Funds That Empower Women Many socially responsible mutual funds screen for diversity and/or equal employment opportunity (EEO). In fact, in US SIF's Mutual Fund Performance Chart (the association for socially responsible investment professionals and institutions), there are 17 mutual fund companies that have funds that either seek investments with positive… Finance, Social Justice
Growing Community Solar Investing to Empower Women Socially conscious investors have been making investments in companies that make equal rights for women a priority. A growing body of research confirms that doing so is a smart financial decision. Experts have found there is a relationship between women’s participation and the economic success of both companies and overall economies, which means… Social Justice
Growing Community Solar Solar Power Leases: Avoid the Big Initial Costs Would you like to get a solar power system on your roof without having to pay a single cent up front? Leases are making it possible for people in several states to go solar with no money down. The single biggest barrier to going solar has always been the high upfront costs of purchasing solar panels, says Solar City founder Lyndon Rive. “So… Climate, Green Living
Growing Community Solar Community-Owned Solar Gardens Community-owned solar gardens make renewable energy accessible to all. Glenn Sliva works as a consultant for some of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world, like Chevron, Exxon, and BP. As a reservoir engineer, he calculates the amount of oil and gas in the ground at a given site, so he’s intimately aware that fossil fuels are, as he… Climate, Green Living
Good Food Gone Local Common Good City Farm Slideshow The farm only has two full-time paid staff, and the rest are volunteers. Some volunteers help grow food and tend to the plants, and others help with promotion, communications, volunteer coordination, events, and workshop coordination. Pictured: Common Good City Farm youth education coordinator (volunteer) Chris Soriano and executive… Food, Green Living
Good Food Gone Local Labor Activists Face Death Sentence Bangladeshi workers seek living wages and safe working conditions in the factories of Walmart suppliers There are 3.4 million garment workers in Bangladesh employed at 4,200 factories, supplying clothing for Walmart and other major US retailers. Safety conditions in these factories are often so poor, about 100 workers per year die in factory… Labor, Green Living
Good Food Gone Local Lifting Up "Food Deserts" Highlighting the work of "Growing Power" in Chicago and Milwaukee   “Right now, there are 23.5 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, who live in what we call ‘food deserts,’” First Lady Michelle Obama stated in February,in support of her “Let’s Move” campaign against childhood obesity. A food desert is a community where… Green Living
Good Food Gone Local 9 Ways to Support Sustainable Food Back to the Vote With Your Dollar Toolkit All across the country, people are creating healthy, vibrant, local, and sustainable food systems. Help change the system in your area in the following ways: 1. Start your own garden (and raise your own chickens for eggs). For urban gardening advice, see our interview with "Garden Girl"… Green Living
Poisonous Personal Care Our Interview With the Makers of the Oscar-Nominated Short "Sun Come Up" Ever wonder what to say when you encounter someone who claims climate change is not real? You might refer them to the Oscar-nominated short film "Sun Come Up," which deals with the plight of the villagers on the Carteret Islands in the South Pacific, who are losing their island as it sinks into the ocean. Green American's Tracy Fernandez Rysavy… Green Living
Poisonous Personal Care 9 Toxic Ingredients to Avoid in Personal Care Products Find product safety ratings at CosmeticDatabase.org.  Find research on individual ingredients at Toxipedia.org,  and always avoid these nine worst toxins.   Download an 8x10 poster of these nine toxins »   1. PARABENS: They’re in adult and baby shampoo and many other products, and they are estrogen… Green Living
Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? Cell Phone Radiation: An Interview With Dr. Devra Davis Over her distinguished career as a scientist, professor, and author, Dr. Devra Davis has racked up her share of laurels. With a Ph.D. in science studies and a post-doctoral Master’s of Public Health in epidemiology, Dr. Davis has worked for the National Academy of Sciences, and as a senior advisor in the US Department of Health and Human Services… Green Living
Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? Dialogue: A Powerful Shareholder Strategy Four decades ago, the socially responsible investing (SRI) movement began with dialogue. By calling on companies to not do business in South Africa because of the government’s policy of apartheid, a group of concerned investors helped spur a movement of shareholders who regularly demand that companies put people and the planet on par with profit… Green Living
Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? Our allies at the Environmental Health Trust have a wealth of resources available to keep you informed about the potential health risks of cell phones. Check out the links below to find out more from their Campaign for Safer Cell Phones, and download some clever stickers (courtesy of the Environmental Health Trust and Jeanne Chinard) that you can… Green Living
Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? 11 Ways to Protect Yourself Ninety-one percent of Americans and nearly 5 billion people worldwide use a cell phone. Increasingly, cell phones are becoming a vital part of our lives, functioning as our primary mode of personal and business communication as well as our calendars, cameras, MP3 players, and address books. It is hard to imagine a world where we didn’t have all… Green Living
Efficiency First! A Power Primer: Electricity 101 Our demand for electricity is at the heart of the nation’s single greatest source of the pollution that causes climate change. Fully half of our electricity in this country is generated by coal-fired power plants and coal power by itself is responsible for 40 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity can be difficult to think about… Green Living
Efficiency First! How is Our Electricity Generated in the US? The chart below explains where our energy comes from and what each type’s impacts are on people and the environment. Energy sources in red or yellow have significant environmental and social problems, while sources in green are key to a green energy future. Almost all types of energy generation end up doing the same thing: they turn the arm of a… Climate
Efficiency First! Community Investing Banks and the Economic Crisis Community investing banks don't promote the reckless practices that brought down the economy, and they use your dollars to provide much-needed services to underserved communities. With big changes occurring at two of the country’s largest and best-known community investing banks, socially responsible investors may be wondering how the current… Finance, Green Living
Efficiency First! Energy Efficiency: The Magic Bullet To curb the climate crisis, increase national security, and avoid economic disaster as peak oil looms, it's time to accelerate energy efficiency. Back in 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter gave a speech to the American public in which he laid out a brave, ahead-of-its time energy policy. He exhorted Americans to deeply conserve their use of gas… Green Living
Efficiency First! Passive House, Aggressive Savings A certified Passive House will cut down the energy used to heat a home by a jaw-dropping 90 percent.  Jim Conlon lives and breathes energy efficiency—as president of Elysian Energy, he oversees hundreds of energy audits every year and provides energy-efficiency consulting to green builders in the greater DC area. What’s got him excited… Green Living
Efficiency First! Why Josh Barclay and Green America Say: "Efficiency First!" This article is an expanded Web version of a piece that first appeared in the print edition of the Green American. High school science teacher and Green America member Joshua Barclay’s super energy-efficient home started off as a simple science experiment, trying to answer the question: Can solar panels power a home, even in cloudy Michigan… Green Living
Organic or Local? Is Organic or Local Food Better? Which is best for people and the planet?  And how do we make truly healthy food accessible to all? You walk into the grocery store, wanting to buy some Granny Smith apples for a pie you’re planning to bake. You find there are two types—organic apples from across the country, or apples from a local farm that uses chemical pesticides and… Green Living
Organic or Local? Our Interview with Maria Rodale Maria Rodale is the Chair and CEO of Rodale Inc., a multimedia company focusing on healthy living on a healthy planet. The company includes the nonprofit organic research arm, the Rodale Institute, which has been running what may be the country’s longest side-by-side comparison of organic and chemical growing methods. Rodale’s grandfather, J.I.… Green Living
Fair Trade Boom How New Credit Card Rules Can Help You If you’ve ever carried a balance on a credit card, you may be well acquainted with how much the fees and penalties added to that balance can cost you. And you weren’t alone: In 2008, the “big 4” mega-banks—Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo—charged their customers $15.1 billion in credit card penalties and overdraft fees… Finance, Green Living
Fair Trade Boom The Sweet Side of Fair Trade Sustainability has always been an important value at Food For Thought, the gourmet organic food company Timothy Young started over ten years ago. All of his products—from strawberry preserves to corn muffin mix—include certified organic fruits and vegetables. Social justice has also been a strong part of his mission, so when he saw the… Food, Green Living
Reclaiming the Streets Use the following "Web exclusive" articles from our Fall Green American magazine to help you walk more, bike more, and reclaim the streets: • Calculate how much money you’ll save by walking, biking, or taking transit to your most frequent driving destinations by using our Car-Lite Worksheet. • Read how Mollie Gore helped create… Green Living
Our Interview with Van Jones Van Jones is working to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction. In 1996, Van and Diana Frappier co-founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, headquartered in Oakland, California. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the Center promotes positive alternatives to violence and… Finance
Beyond Waste: Further Reading Learn more about how to get serious about the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) with our Web exclusives to our Fall 2007 Green American, Getting to Zero Waste:   Exclusive Interviews Green American editor Tracy Fernandez Rysavy talks to leaders in the environmental justice movement:      Her interview with Van Jones… Climate, Green Living
The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance Biodiesel is clearly a win for the planet—using it results in 52% fewer lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline, 41% fewer than diesel, and 41% fewer than the much-touted corn ethanol when it’s made from soybeans. But some people wonder whether a massive switch to biodiesel would be sustainable: would it use up food crops and drive up… Climate, Green Living
Felix Kramer and the First Plug-In Hybrids In 2004, Felix Kramer gathered with a group of engineers and car junkies in a friend’s garage. Their goal: to make a hybrid car that would plug into the wall, giving it a greater ability to run on electricity. The concept had been pioneered by University of California Davis professor Andrew Frank years before, and with the help of student teams,… Climate, Green Living
31 Ways to Walk or Bicycle More Biking or walking isn’t as scary as it seems—in fact, 40 percent of trips taken in the US are fewer than two miles from home, according to the League of American Bicyclists, so integrating more biking and walking into a daily routine is often convenient and manageable. When starting to bike or walk more, however, you don’t have to quit driving… Climate, Green Living
Four Steps to a Healthy Home Exterior 1. Avoid Vinyl (PVC) Siding  The problem: Home siding can be the single largest use of PVC plastic in a home. Vinyl siding often contains DEHP, an additive and a phthalate. The manufacture and incineration of PVC releases dangerous pollution. May be linked to: endocrine disruption, reproductive toxicity, cancer… Green Living
More Steps to Energy Efficiency Take these actions and save up to 56 percent of your energy use! Replace Your Light Bulbs  Take the step: Replace the incandescent light bulbs in your house, even if they haven’t yet burned out, with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). Why: You’ve been hearing about the wonders of CFLs for years now—they last ten times longer and use… Climate
Civility In A Polarized World James Hoggan is a Canadian public-relations expert who is also known for his commitment to ethics and integrity in PR. He is the chair of the David Suzuki Foundation and founder of DeSmogBlog.com, which works to “expose misinformation campaigns polluting the public debate about climate change and the environment.” He’s also the author of Climate… Green Living
A Tale of Two Shirts: Green vs. Conventional This is a tale of two T-shirts, one from the popular mall store Forever 21, and one from Green America Green Business Network member Blue Canoe. The shirts are both blue and made of 100-percent cotton. They both have cap sleeves, slight tapering at the waist, and come in sizes XS-L. But that's where the similarity ends. The Forever 21 shirt… Green Living
Ready Your Finances for a Climate Disaster Personal finance expert Tony Steuer will help you prepare your money for nature’s worst. Caption for header image: Neighborhoods in Houston and its suburbs faced extensive damage from flooding after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Credit Karl Spencer via iStock. Tony Steuer is a financial preparedness advocate, insurance expert, and author of… Climate, Finance, Green Living
About Green America @media only screen and (max-width: 600px) {.youtube { display:none} } @media only screen and (min-width: 601px) {.youtube1 { display:none} } .field--name-field-photo-credit {display: none !important} .page-header {display:none} What We Do  Economic Action for People and the Planet Clean Energy h4 {margin-top:-25px !… Food
Sustainable Computer Options Two years ago, the computer manufacturer NEC Solutions launched a new product for environmentally conscious computer users. NEC’s PowerMate eco computer was described at the time as “the first all-in-one, fanless ecological PC … specifically [designed] to address the growing environmental problems associated with traditional PCs.” The PowerMate… Green Living
A Beginner's Guide to Buying Stocks Whether it’s the ticker running across the bottom of your screen, or the numbers filling up the business section in the newspaper, the stock market is everywhere. For many of us, buying stocks remains a mysterious, and oftentimes overwhelming, thing. But history has shown that, over the long term (ten years or more), the stock market almost… Green Living
Shrink Your Impact, Offset the Rest When Ethan Merlin, a school teacher and Green America member in Rockville, MD, had an opportunity to take a group of students to visit Moscow, he had just one regret: by flying roundtrip across the Atlantic, he and his students would have no choice but to each cause the emission of more than three tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.… Green Living
Three Steps to a Healthy Bathroom 1. Trash Conventional Body Care Products The Problem: More than one-third of all personal care products contain at least one ingredient linked to cancer, and very few products are tested for safety. Some products contain phthalates, which don't appear in the list of a product's ingredients. Instead, they are covered by the general term… Green Living
Go Vegetarian: Eat Less Meat to Cool the Planet Back to the Vote With Your Dollar Toolkit The average American may not have considered the connection between global warming and a cheeseburger, but the United Nations has. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report in February of this year, concluding that livestock is responsible for 18 percent of our world global warming… Green Living
Our Interview with Dr. Bernard Lietaer Bernard Lietaer is the author of the forthcoming Of Human Wealth and The Future of Money (London: Random House, 2001), and has been studying monetary systems for over 25 years. While at the Central Bank in Belgium, he co-designed and implemented the convergence mechanism to the Euro, the European single currency system. He is the co-founder… Finance
Food that Nourishes People and Planet—The Next Climate Solution Back to the Vote With Your Dollar Toolkit Bobby and Diann Johnson grow pecans on a small farm in southeastern Georgia. Rajah Banerjee improves his community by tending organic tea gardens in northeastern India. Ofelia Flores harvests wine grapes on a vineyard in California where workers have organized for a voice on the job. And formerly… Green Living
Simple Steps to a Healthy Bedroom 1. Choose Better Bedclothes — The problem: Toxic chemicals that resist flames, water, moths, stains, soil, and wrinkles are sometimes added to textiles like bedclothes. Labels such as "permanent-press," "no-iron," "water repellent," and "flame retardant" may indicate fabric treatments that off-gas chemicals like formaldehyde and… Green Living
Your (Kids') Guide to Staying On Task Working from home has benefits, but the challenges of turning your home into an office while your kids are in the room adds distractions to an already hectic day. Whether your kids are six or sixteen, here are ways that they can keep themselves busy in a green and enriching way so you can get back to work. For Younger Kids Christy Schwengel,… Green Living
Interview with Faith Leader The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal “They’re making profit because we’re letting them destroy God’s Creation.” The Reverend Dr. Jim Antal is a conference minister in the United Church of Christ, responsible for the 375 UCC congregations in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts conference board of directors recently approved his proposal to divest their funds from fossil fuels and… Finance, Social Justice
6 Simple Steps to a Safer, Germ-Free Home The easiest way to create a germ-free home and eliminate toxic chemicals from your life is to not bring them into your home to begin with. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to start fresh with a new build out of the greenest of green materials, buying as little as possible, and then, always green? Unfortunately, problematic chemicals are already in… Green Living
Meet Our Members: Interview with Brady Quirk-Garvan Brady Quirk-Garvan is a business development associate at Money With A Mission [m], a socially responsible investing firm focused on divesting from destructive industries and making money work for progressive causes.  Quirk-Garvan has lived in Charleston, South Carolina for over 15 years and served as Chairman of the Charleston Democratic… Green Living, Social Justice