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Editors' Picks: Green Gifts for the Holidays

This gift guide includes our favorite green gift products, and the companies behind them are committed to environmental and humanitarian missions. Skip the crowds at the store, and shop green for everyone on your list.

For the Fashionable:

pair of silver burmese hoop earrings

Fair trade jewelry from Coco Loco is crafted with the purpose of sustaining both culture and environment. The design of these handmade Burmese Hoops ($35) are influenced by the Hindi culture of the artisans who made it.

For the Outdoorsy Person:

green bird house shaped like the front of a cottage with marijuana plants on it

This Cannabis Cottage Bird House ($69.95) from Gardener’s Supply is made with an outdoor water-based non-toxic paint and adds a fun home for some flying visitors!

water bottle with fish on it and the text 'what if you're right and they're wrong?'

Encourage your loved ones to be themselves, stay hydrated, and avoid single-use water bottles! The Glass plastic-free soulbottle 0.6 L ($26) from Life Without Plastic is made of Venetian glass and sports a funky, easy-to-use swing-top cap made of ceramic, stainless steel and natural rubber. Paul Berndt designed this bottle, which encourages a be-yourself motto.

solar bottle lanterns

Gardener Supply’s Solar Bottle Lantern Kit ($14.95) provides an easy way to upcycle any glass bottle you wish into a beautiful night-time yard or garden accent that can be used year-round. The kit includes a steel hanger, a rubber stopper with a small solar panel, and a battery with a string of LED lights attached.

For the Homebody:

green blessing candle

Each of Sunbeam Candles’ Manifestations Aromatherapy Pillars ($28.99) comes in a deep color and a unique scent, courtesy of eco-friendly dyes and natural essential oil blends. Made to “celebrate the people and occasions in our lives,” the candles come in Meditation, Healing, Immunity, Goddess, Candle for Peace, Transformation, Gratitude, Blessing Candle, Birthday Candle, and Queen Bee. All Sunbeam candles are made in a 100-percent solar-powered studio, from pure beeswax and GMO-free soy wax with cotton wicks.

tub of body scrub

EcoChoicesGrape Seed Crush Body Scrub ($14.75) is a true aromatic experience of crushed grape seeds from the wine country. The natural oils from the seeds will hydrate your skin for a unique experience and smooth, polished look.

Need a personalized gift for a lot of people? ECO Promotional Productsbamboo items (range of prices). Dozens of options including utensils, awards, pens, and more. Long-lasting bamboo is naturally anti-fungal and anti-bacterial.

For the Pets:

cat in a sleeping bag

This Snuggle Sleeping Bag for Cats (prices range from $31.95 to $59.95 depending on size) from Purrfect Play (2016 People & Planet Finalist) comes in several sizes and is made with soft dye free natural white organic cotton.

golden retriever with a tug toy in its mouth

If it’s a pet plaything you’re after, try the company’s organic cotton or recycled wool Jingle Snakes for cat (cloth snakes with bells hidden inside, $11.95-$18.95) or organic cotton Tug Toys ($12.95-$18.95) for dogs. 

About Our People & Planet Award

Green America’s People & Planet Award recognizes businesses for their dedication to a green economy. Seasonally, we award three $5,000 cash prizes in a range of green business categories, such as zero waste, worker empowerment, and sustainable food. The public nominates businesses for recognition.

 

Human Labels
Environmental Concerns Labels

Back to the Food Labels Guide

100% Organic
100% USDA Organic
  • USDA National Organic Program (NOP) sets regulations and labeling requirements.
  • Verification guaranteed by annual unannounced or announced inspections, investigations of complaints, and enforcement penalties.
  • 100% organic labeled products must contain only organically produced ingredients and processing aids not including water and salt.
  • Organic ingredients are grown, handled, and processed without the use of pesticides or other synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.
  • Bioengineering is not permitted, so that means no GE (genetically engineered) ingredients
  • The USDA organic certification does allow for monoculture crop production.
  • The organic certification does not represent the highest standard in animal welfare. In order to ensure high animal welfare it is best to purchase products where USDA organic is accompanied by a credible third-party animal welfare certification. 
B Corp Certification
B Corp Certification
  • The B Corp certification is a third-party certification verified by B Lab, a non-profit organization.
  • B Corp ensures its members have high standards for environmental and social responsibility.
  • B Corp companies must commit to take steps to improve the treatment of their employees, their community, and the environment.
Certified Transitional Organic
Certified Transitional Organic
  • Independently verified by QAI (Quality Assurance International) through step-by-step benchmarks and inspections.
  • This certification helps farmers transition from conventional to organic practices by creating a better market for their products while they are transitioning, allowing them to pay for the cost of going organic.
  • Farms have three years under the label to become USDA certified organic, with each year having specific benchmarks farms must meet along the way.
  • This will create more organic acreage by giving farmers the financial security to transition to better practices.
Certified Transitional Organic
Certified Non-GMO by AGW
  • Certified Non-GMO is a standard from the organization A Greener World (AGW), who is also behind the Animal Welfare Approved standard.
  • This standard can not stand alone and can only be applied in addition to the Animal Welfare Approved standard.
  • The Certified Non-GMO standard applies to livestock feed and inputs; ensuring a product is non-GMO throughout the entire supply chain.
  • AGW requires regular testing.
Demeter
Demeter Certified Biodynamic
  • This is a certification given by Demeter Association Inc. that requires farmers to apply and then pass inspections.
  • Farmers must follow biodynamic principles, meaning the soil, plants, animals, and humans must work together as a holistic organism.
  • On-farm recycling of nutrients and composting must be demonstrated. Farms must have minimal dependence on outside sources for synthetic fertilizers and pest control.
  • Conscientious water conservation and the setting aside of land for biodiversity are practiced.
Made With Organic Ingredients
Made With Organic Ingredients
  • USDA National Organic Program (NOP) sets regulations and labeling requirements.
  • Verification guaranteed by annual unannounced or announced inspections, investigations of complaints, and enforcement penalties.
  • Includes products that contain at least 70% organic ingredients.
  • Remaining 30% of ingredients must be from USDA approved list
  • Organic ingredients are grown, handled, and processed without the use of pesticides or other synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.
  • Bioengineering is not permitted, that means no GE (genetically engineered) ingredients. The standard allows for monoculture crop production. 
  • The organic certification does not represent the highest standard in animal welfare. In order to ensure high animal welfare it is best to purchase products where USDA organic is accompanied by a credible third-party animal welfare certification. 
Natural
Natural
  • The USDA states that products should not contain artificial ingredients or added colors and must be minimally processed. Manufacturers should define their use of the term on the package.
  • Beyond the definition above (which is only applicable to meat products and is not verified) there is no set standard or enforcement mechanism.
Non-GMO (Unverified)
Non-GMO (Unverified)
  • Beware of non-GMO claims that are unverified. If a label has any GMO claims that are not verified by the USDA or a third-party verification the claim is not backed by any standard. 
  • It is best to look for a third-party verification, as the USDA does not include animal feed in its non-GMO requirements; meaning that an animal product can be considered non-GMO even if the animal was fed GMOs. The only way to ensure a product is non-GMO throughout its entire supply chain is through a third-party verification. 
Non-GMO Project Verified
Non-GMO Project Verified
  • Trustworthy third-party verified certification that guarantees products do not contain genetically engineered ingredients above a set threshold.
  • GMO contamination must be below .25% for seeds, .9% for food and skin products, 1.5% for cleaning products and textiles, and 5% for animal feed and supplements.
  • Compliance is ensured through analytical testing and corrective actions.
 
Organic is Non-GMO

REMEMBER: When a food is labeled USDA organic that means it cannot be produced using genetic engineering (GE) or use ingredients derived from GE crops. Shop carefully when buying corn, soy alfalfa, sugar, canola, cotton, papaya, zucchini, and summer squash, as well as animal products, which most often come from animals that have been fed GE crops. Unless organic, these items are most likely derived from genetic engineering. Organic certification goes beyond non-gmo certification to address other key components of sustainable agriculture. However, organic does not require testing for the presence of GMOs. In order to ensure that there is not GE material in your food, you should purchase products that are organic and have a third-party non-GMO certification. 

NSF Non-GMO True North
NSF Non-GMO True North
  • Standards enforced by National Science Foundation (NSF) through unannounced audits.
  • Products verified by NSF Non-GMO True North contain less than .9% GE contents or less than 5% for feed.
  • Regulates feed for livestock, ensuring feed from GE crops is not used through an animal's lifecycle.
  • Compliance is ensured through analytical testing and corrective accounts.
USDA Organic
Organic
  • USDA National Organic Program (NOP) sets regulations and labeling requirements.
  • Verification guaranteed by annual announced or unannounced inspections, investigations of complaints, and enforcing penalties.
  • Must contain at least 95% ingredients produced organically excluding water and salt. Remaining 5% if ingredients myst be from a USDA approved list. 
  • Organic ingredients are grown, handled and processed without the use of pesticides or other synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.
  • Bioengineering is not permitted, product does not contain any GE ingredients.The organic certification does allow for monoculture crop production.
  • The organic certification does not represent the highest standard in animal welfare. In order to ensure high animal welfare it is best to purchase products where USDA organic is accompanied by a credible third-party animal welfare certification. 
Rainforest Alliance Certified/UTZ
Rainforest Alliance Certified/UTZ
  • Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) sets criteria for products to be certified.
  • This certification emphasizes the yield of farmers and has no guaranteed price paid to farmers.
  • Prohibits child labor and has an environmental component that addresses biodiversity, natural resources conservation, and sustainable agriculture.
  • Allows multi-ingredient products to be certified without making it clear what percentage of ingredients are certified. Look for single ingredient products with this label, such as coffee beans. 
Salmon Safe
Salmon Safe
  • The Salmon Safe label is put on products that are produced in a way that minimizes pollution in rivers and wetlands to protect native salmon.
  • This includes limiting pesticides, improving irrigation practices, and planting trees by rivers.
  • These products are verified by a third-party.
Sustainably Grown Certified
Sustainably Grown Certified
  • Certified by SCS Global Services, a third-party organization that provides environmental and sustainability verification, certification, auditing, testing, and standards development. 
  • This certification addresses a broad range of environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues pertaining to crop production. (Note: this standard does not address animal husbandry or welfare). 
  • Specific environmental protection issues addressed include production system parameters, soil and water resources, air quality, climate change, ecosystem protection, energy efficiency, and waste management. 
  • Social responsibility requirements cover work agreements, wages and benefits, working hours, child labor, non-discrimination and freedom of association, human resource management, health and safety, and community relations. 
  • Economic sustainability issues addressed include business accounting and reporting, continuity and resilience, community economic engagement, and product quality and safety. 
 

How we rated the labels

1. First, we considered whether the label evaluates a practice that could lead to measurable benefits. For example, organic labels are certifying practices that prohibit the use of synthetic chemicals and therefore seek to reduce impacts on the environment and human health. This leads to measurable benefits. By contrast, “farm fresh” is meaningless since it does not define practices that create any measurable benefits.

2. We then looked at whether the label represents a legal or regulatory standard that is clearly defined. For example, the USDA organic standards are clearly defined by the USDA, and those standards are publicly available. By contrast, the words “naturally raised” are not regulated, and are meaningless.

3. We then considered whether the standards set forth by the label are subjected to third-party certification or audit. The use of an outside certifier and/or auditor helps to prevent greenwashing that can easily occur with self-regulated labeling.

Labels that received the highest marks from Green America (4 to 5 stars) are those that scored the highest on the criteria above.

sustainable something or other
Envio Labels 3
Envio Labels 2
Enivo Labels 1
Food Labels for Animal Welfare

Whether you're buying milk, eggs, or meat, animal welfare is an important consideration when grocery shopping. Food labels and certifications are the key for deciphering ethically made products.

Back to the Food Labels Guide

American Grass Fed
American Grassfed Approved
  • American Grass Fed Association establishes standards, compliance is ensured by FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Services) of the USDA.
  • Animals are fed a 100-percent forage diet and are never confined to feed lots.
  • Animals are never fed antibiotics or hormones and are born and raised on American family farms.
  • Third-party audits assure compliance.
American Humane Certified
American Humane Certified
  • Certification given by Humane Heartland after an application and audit.
  • Does not require pasture time for animals, permits cages, and allows beak-cutting.
  • Concerns have been raised regarding audits and and failure to put limits on the distance live farm animals can be transported (a traumatic experience for animals).
American Welfare Approved
Certified Animal Welfare Approved by AGW
  • A Greener World (AGW) audits, certifies, and supports farmers.
  • AGW is a non-profit organization and does not charge farmers for AWA certification. 
  • Animals have continuous access to pasture or range and are not put in feedlots.
  • Cage confinement, horomones, and preventative or growth-promoting antibiotics are prohibited. 
Antibiotic-free
Antibiotic-Free
  • Use of this claims is not backed by any standard. 
  • This claim can be verified through the USDA Process Verified program. The USDA Process Verified program is a verification of paperwork and does not require an audit. 
Certified Grassfed
Certified Grassfed by AGW
  • Certified Grassfed is a standard from A Greener World (AGW), a nonprofit organizatoim, that also developed the Animal Welfare Approved standard.
  • This standard can not stand alone and can only be applied in addition to the Animal Welfare Approved standard.
  • The standard is 100% grass/forage based and compliance to the standard is monitored through audits.
  • AGW encourages sustainable pasture management with attention to plant biodiversity.
  • The grassfed standard and allowed exceptions to the standard are set to ensure the highlest level of animal welfare.
Without Antibiotics
Raised Without Antibiotics/No Antibiotics Administered/Added
  • The USDA grants these labels if it receives documentation that animals were not given antibiotics during their lives. 
  • This label does not require a physical audit or third-party assessment and is granted solely from a signed affidavit. 
Certified Humane
Cage-Free
  • Cage-free labels do not require any third-party certification.
  • Cages are prohibited but animals are not required to have access to sunlight, animals can be tightly crowded with movement restricted.
  • Allows beak-cutting and starvation-based forced molting.
  • Does not regulate feed or antibiotic use.
Certified Humane
Certified Humane Raised and Handled 
  • Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) is a non-profit organization that verifies this certification.
  • Continuous outdoor access required for ruminants (cattle, goats, and sheep).
  • Outdoor access not required for birds and pigs unless the words “free range” or “pasture”’ also appear on the package.
  • If indoors, adequate bedding, space, and enrichment are provided for birds and pigs.
  • Cage confinement, hormones, and non-therapeutic antibiotics are prohibited.
  • Feed lots with standards better than conventional feed lots are allowed for limited periods of time.
Farm Fresh
Farm Fresh
 
Humanely Local

One of the best ways to know what animal stewardship practices were involved in producing your food is to meet your farmer! Buying meat, dairy, and eggs at your local farmer’s market, or through a CSA (community supported agriculture), allows you to have a conversation with the farmers that produce your food. You can ask them questions about humane practices and support local, ethical farms.

Free Range
Free-Range/Free-Roaming (USDA)
  • The term free-range is not regulated by the USDA except when applied to chickens and turkeys raised for meat.
  • It must be verified that animals have “access to the outdoors” but the quality of this access is not specified so it could be a very small space for a very short time; conditions of farms with this label vary greatly
  • Does not regulate feed.
Global Animal Partnership
Global Animal Partnership (GAP)
  • The Global Animal Partnership (GAP) has a 5+-step rating program for animals raised for meat (this does not include milk).
  • The higher the step (1 is the lowest, 5+ is the highest), the stricter the requirements for animal welfare and the more natural the animals’ environment. The steps build on each other encompassing the standards of the steps preceding them.
  • It is important to note that the 5-star rating is for GAP Step 6.
  • Added Hormones and antibiotics are prohibited at all steps.
  • Standards are comprehensive including breeding stock (placement for poultry) through to slaughter for all animals except beef (coming later this year), and laying hens (coming next version)
  • GAP requires audits on single every farm every 15 months to ensure compliance – no group, or sampling protocols permitted.
Grain Fed
Grain-Fed
  • Feeding ruminants grain instead of vegetation causes severe digestive problems and increases the likelihood of infection, contributing to the increased used of antibiotics. 
Grass-fed
Grass-Fed
  • The USDA grass-fed label has been withdrawn and farms applying to the program will no longer be verified.
Humanley Raised
Humanley Raised/Humanely Handled
  • The USDA does not define or regulate these terms.
  • Check for third-party verified labels listed above and below for meaningful animal welfare claims.
Naturally Raised
Naturally Raised
  • The USDA does not define or regulate this term.
No hormones added/No hormones administered (USDA)
No Hormones Added/No Hormones Administered (USDA)
  • This label is certified by the USDA. It should be noted that administration of hormones is illegal for pork and poultry, so the claim is meaningless on those products. 
  • Producers must prove no hormones were administered during the animal’s life.
  • No relevance to any other aspects of animal welfare.
Pasture Raised/Pasture-Grown/Pastured
Pasture Raised/Pasture-Grown/Pastured
  • There are no legal definitions for these terms, companies can put this label on their products without third-party verification.
Pennsylvania Certified Organic 100% Grassfed
Pennsylvania Certified Organic 100% Grassfed
  • This certification uses the USDA organic standard as its baseline and ensures that ruminants are 100% grassfed, above and beyond the USDA organic standard for time on pasture.
  • This is a third-party verification of products that are sourced from animals raised on pasture.
Pasture Raised/Pasture-Grown/Pastured
Validus Animal Welfare Certified
  • Certifications hold accreditations from ISO 9001:2005, PAACO, USDA PVP and USDA ISO TS 34700 Animal Welfare Assessment Programs.
  • Standards are owned and administered by Validus, an independent certification company, but governed by external expert advisory committees.
  • Certification affirms that an operation has met the published Validus animal welfare standards with yearly on-site audits of each location to ensure compliance
  • Certification does not address hormone-use, antibiotic-use, feed type, or access to the outdoors.
 

How we rated the labels

1. First, we considered whether the label evaluates a practice that could lead to measurable benefits. For example, organic labels are certifying practices that prohibit the use of synthetic chemicals and therefore seek to reduce impacts on the environment and human health. This leads to measurable benefits. By contrast, “farm fresh” is meaningless since it does not define practices that create any measurable benefits.

2. We then looked at whether the label represents a legal or regulatory standard that is clearly defined. For example, the USDA organic standards are clearly defined by the USDA, and those standards are publicly available. By contrast, the words “naturally raised” are not regulated, and are meaningless.

3. We then considered whether the standards set forth by the label are subjected to third-party certification or audit. The use of an outside certifier and/or auditor helps to prevent greenwashing that can easily occur with self-regulated labeling.

Labels that received the highest marks from Green America (4 to 5 stars) are those that scored the highest on the criteria above.

Animal Labels 4
Animal Labels 3
ANtibiot Free
Animal Welfare Labels 2
Animal Welfare Labels 1
American Grassfed
Green America Financial Report 2017
Buena Onda Games/Taproom Toys

Buena Onda Games sells a line of fun, soft, safe packable toys - mostly that fly - to get kids and grownups moving and having a blast, wherever they are. Safe for indoors and out, the Pocket Disc is the flagship product (an all cotton frisbee alternative). All our products are handmade by the Maya of Guatemala under strict Fair Trade and Green Business practices.

Green America in The Huffington Post -- On Child Labor in Cocoa

Of Gods and Goblins

 
Judy Gearhart, Contributor
Executive Director, International Labor Rights Forum
 

This week, as millions of American kids prepare their costumes for the biggest chocolate consumption holiday of the year – Halloween – most are unaware of the 2 million children laboring in West African cocoa fields. Likely none share industry experts’ worries about the sustainability of cocoa supplies in the world. Yet cocoa, which has the lofty Latin name, Theo Broma (fruit of the gods), has proven to be one of the most difficult development conundrums for those who advocate for international trade as a path to prosperity for developing nations.

Since 2000, when my organization, the International Labor Rights Forum and others helped push out international exposés of child labor and child trafficking in Ivory Coast’s and Ghana’s cocoa sectors, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to build schools, train farmers, certify cooperatives and generally transform the industry. Sadly, little has changed. In 2015, Tulane University reported that child labor actually increased between 2009 and 2014 in Ghana and Ivory Coast. These two countries, which produce 60% of the world’s cocoa supply, should theoretically have some influence over the cocoa market, as remarked recently by the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina. Yet they have been unable to convert that market dominance into national prosperity and there are wide spread, anecdotal reports of labor shortages and of cocoa farmers turning to more profitable crops such as palm oil because they can’t make enough in cocoa.

This exodus from cocoa farming shouldn’t really surprise industry or development experts since the Cocoa Barometer, which estimates farmer incomes based on pricing, average per hectare production data, and average family size has shown since 2010 that most cocoa farmers still live well below the poverty line. In 2015, the Cocoa Barometer estimated the average cocoa farming family income provided per person per day income of 50cents in Ivory Coast and 84 cents in Ghana – well below the international poverty line, recently updated by the World Bank to $1.90 per person per day.

Despite the numbers, I’m actually hopeful the tide is turning. The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) appointed a new president, Rick Scobey, who is talking about the need to address farmer incomes. The WCF also focused their annual conference, which I attended this week, on three themes:

inclusive growth issues such as farmer livelihoods and women farmers’ empowerment;

  • transparency and traceability, which is essential to having chocolate buyers and manufacturers become more accountable for conditions in their cocoa supply chains; and
  • farmer professionalization, which included discussions of land tenure and farmers’ access to credit.

It’s a welcome shift to finally have the industry talking about farmer incomes, not just farmers’ productivity. Although I wish we could claim credit – we have been advocating various strategies to improve farmer incomes for more than a decade, starting with Fairtrade International’s pioneering of price premiums – the exit of farmers into other crops is likely the main reason for the shift in focus from “How do we sustain our cocoa supplies?” to “How do we sustain cocoa growing communities?” Hopefully, this shift ushers in a more holistic approach to ending child and forced labor in cocoa, one where companies don’t segregate their charity work building schools from their duty, under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to monitor and remediate child labor and its causes.

So what to do about all those trick-or-treaters? Having grown up in Hershey, PA, I’m the last one to advocate for candy corn (that uniquely American confectionary) over chocolate.

Our friends at Green America publish a Chocolate Scorecard, which still credits Fairtrade International for paying the highest price premium to farmers and doing the most to monitor and remediate child labor. Although the price premium, even if it were doubled, would still leave cocoa farmers subsisting well below the poverty line, it remains an important benchmark. Additionally, companies such as Divine and Equal Exchange go a step further than most in developing strategic partnerships with cooperatives of cocoa farmers and ensuring those farmers receive a higher percentage of the profits from the final product you consume.

If you absolutely have to buy in bulk, though, we can at least recommend Nestle over others this year. Nestle gets a C+ from Green America – the highest grade for any of the large chocolate manufacturers and, although they haven’t had any breakthroughs in addressing the abject poverty or power imbalance between farmers and chocolate manufacturers, they have been leading the field in transparency. Their most recent report, co-published with the International Cocoa Initiative, features a promising Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) and establishes a level of transparency in corporate reporting, which we can only hope inspires a trend among others in the industry.

Greater transparency, starting with the way chocolate manufacturers report on their supply chains and their investments into social solutions, would go a long way to finally breaking through nearly 20 years of muddled, sometimes counterproductive experimentation to addressing child labor and farmer poverty in cocoa. From the perspective of the farmers, this breakthrough is urgent. We can’t waste yet another generation.

Huffington Post
Exchange Traded Funds

 

Green America assumes no legal or financial responsibility for the practices, products, or services of any businesses listed. Please read all materials carefully prior to investing.

Back to Financial Products & Services

Green Finance: Asset Management

Looking for your next step in the world of green finance? The following asset management firms are able to assist higher-net-worth individuals in establishing customized fossil-free portfolios upon request. They may also help you shift the assets of your house of worship, university, or pension plan.

Green America assumes no legal or financial responsibility for the practices, products, or services of any businesses listed. Please read all materials carefully prior to investing.

Back to Financial Products & Services

Mutual Funds

Broad-Based Mutual Funds that Exclude Fossil-Fuel Companies by Policy

Appleseed Fund

The Fund has divested its long positions in fossil-fuel companies in order to pursue a fossil-fuel free investment strategy.

Green Century Balanced Fund

This fund excludes fossil-fuel companies, and in 2009 became the first fund to release a carbon-footprint report of its holdings: 66 percent smaller than the S&P 500.

Green Century Equity Fund

Since April 1, 2014, the Equity Fund is divested of all fossil-fuel companies. The fund already excluded coal and oil companies; Green Century has now screened out natural gas.

Green Century International Index Fund

The first responsible and diversified international index fund (that is fossil fuel-free) that invests in companies chosen for their outstanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings in 22 developed countries.

Parnassus Mutual Funds

These funds avoid companies engaged in the production, manufacturing, or refining of fossil fuels.

Green Alpha Investment Portfolios

Green Alpha Advisors believes that fossil fuels disrupt the economy and its underlying ecosystems, do not represent solutions, and have no place in Green Alpha portfolios.

Shelton Sustainable Equity Fund

Invests in companies that work to improve human well-being and increase economic efficiencies, while significantly reducing environmental risks

Sphere 500 Climate Fund

Low-fee index fund that invests in the top 500 biggest US companies, minus fossil fuels, and votes its shares in the remaining companies to encourage climate action.

Trillium ESG Core Equity

Invests across the range of market capitalizations and economic sectors in companies that meet Trillium’s sustainability criteria. This strategy has no direct exposure to fossil fuels.

Clean Energy Mutual Funds

Impax Global Environmental Markets Fund

While excluding fossil fuels, this fund also invests in clean energy and energy efficiency, pollution control, waste management, and water infrastructure.

Community Development Mutual Funds (Fossil-Free)

Access Capital Community Investment Fund

Because of this fund’s focus on community investing, it is not invested in fossil fuel companies.

CCM Community Impact Bond Fund

The CRA Fund focuses on community development, including affordable housing, job creation, and redevelopment of blighted communities.

Green America assumes no legal or financial responsibility for the practices, products, or services of any businesses listed. Please read all materials carefully prior to investing.

Back to Financial Products & Services

Socially Responsible Financial Planners & Investment Consultants

Where you put your money can change the world. Learn more about these socially responsible financial planners and investment consultants:

AIO Financial Link

AIO Financial is a fee-only financial planning firm that specializes in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). SRI is an investment strategy seeking to maximize both financial return and social good. AIO Financial can address many issues, including climate change, thorough investment screening (fossil fuel-free investing), shareholder advocacy, and community investment.

Amalgamated Investment Services

Amalgamated Investment Services (AIS) is a division of Amalgamated Bank -- America’s socially responsible bank and a Certified B-Corp public benefit corporation. Our mission is to drive positive change in the world by aligning our client’s investments with their values. To accomplish this, we offer full-service wealth management including both negative/positive ESG screening and impact investing. Our proprietary 100% Fossil Fuel Free Portfolios are completely divested from the fossil fuel industry while seeking to mitigate climate change, as well as promote environmental sustainability, gender equality, and social and racial justice. Please see complete disclosures on our website.

Capital Intelligence Associates

Capital Intelligence Associates is a Southern California-based full-service financial planning firm specializing in multi-generational wealth management, philanthropic planning, and socially responsible investing. They can develop fossil fuel-free portfolios for both individual and institutional clients.

Carbon Collective Investing

Carbon Collective Investing is an online investment advisor that creates sustainable investment portfolios that divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in climate solutions. We tend to be a good fit for investors who need help rolling over an old 401k from a past employer into a climate friendly portfolio, and include people doing mission driven work in climatetech, policy advocacy, and just making our world better. To find out more, visit carboncollective.co

Effective Assets

Specializing in Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) for over 29 years, Effective Assets provides goal-oriented, fee-based financial planning to individuals, families, and business owners. Our services include values-based retirement and life planning, SRI and fossil-fuel free portfolio management, and investment consulting to non-profits and social enterprises.

Encore Wealth Advisors

Encore Wealth Advisors is helping to solve the climate crisis by supporting individuals, families, non-profits and small businesses in divesting of fossil fuel investments. They accomplish this by offering a values based wealth management process, utilizing fossil-free investment portfolios, that helps clients achieve their financial, social and environmental goals.

First Affirmative Financial Network

With 25 years of experience serving Green America members with their social investing needs, First Affirmative and its nationwide network of 100 associated advisors can develop fossil-free portfolios using mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and individual securities as appropriate to your needs.

Greenvest

Greenvest’s commitment to environmentally responsible investing for our clients naturally extends to creating fossil fuel-free portfolios. We are also dedicated to providing true personal investment counseling in an age of increasingly mechanized investing, and to serving the financial needs of the 99%.

Hansen’s Advisory Services, Inc.

Hansen’s Advisory Services, Inc. (HAS) works with clients who wish to invest their money in a way that can create a world in which we all prosper. We are involved in presenting workshops on Fossil Free Funds, along with Nuclear Free funds and the “Don’t Bank on the Bomb” program for a nuclear free world.

Horizons Sustainable Financial Services

Horizons Sustainable Financial Services offers a line of well diversified, zero-carbon energy mutual fund portfolios with no exposure to any companies directly involved in the production of fossil fuels. The portfolios are built on a “sustainable, responsible, impact” (“SRI”) investing foundation, using mutual funds from SRI industry leaders.

Longwave Financial

All too often, numbers on a page feel too disconnected from our day-to-day lives. It’s hard to know what the right decisions are and how to make them. That’s why our team sits at the center of your financial life, helping you coordinate all the details so you feel confident and known. At Longwave, your future is never left to guesswork. Our financial planning process is a framework to help you better understand your entire financial picture and bring your future into focus. We're empowered with the freedom to work openly and help interested clients pursue impact investing opportunities or learn how to invest ethically. Ultimately, we're able to work collaboratively to understand your needs and help you reach your goals.

Natural Investments

Natural Investments, a B Corp and public benefit corporation owned by a purpose trust, is a network of 20+ investment advisors across 10 states serving investors nationwide with an exclusive focus on sustainable, responsible, and impact investments since 1985. For over 30 years their Heart Rating, featured on their website, has rated SRI funds on the breadth and depth of their environmental, social, and governance, shareholder engagement, and community investing criteria. They have offered fossil fuel-free investment portfolios since 2012 and support racial and gender equity, community development, and regenerative ecological investing in both public and private markets. Thought leaders in the field, they have published three books since 1992, including "The Resilient Investor: A Plan for Your Life, Not Just Your Money."

Newground Social Investment

For over 30 years, Newground has focused exclusively on ESG-investing for families and non-profits, and supplements with direct corporate engagements using clients’ stocks to help keep corporations accountable to all stakeholders. By “Connecting Money with What Matters,” Newground offers well diversified, fossil fuel-free portfolios that support your values and mission in the world. Both mutual fund and highly customizable separate account management portfolios using stocks, bonds, and alternative investments are available, in addition to private impact investing for accredited investors. Our goal is to help humanize the face of wealth management. Please see our website for additional information on our client-focused planning approach.

Pekin Hardy Strauss Wealth Management

Pekin Hardy Strauss Wealth Management has been helping clients reach their goals since 1990. Over the years, we have helped our clients navigate through several challenging market environments. We have learned through experience to think deeply about wealth management through market cycles, to make adjustments as a cycle matures, and to protect capital during down markets. We help individuals and families customize their portfolios to support their social and environmental principles, excluding firms or industries that don’t align with their values and seeking out new investments with positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) characteristics through our rigorous investment process.

Progressive Asset Managements, Inc.

Since 1987 PAM Inc has been providing social screening to members of the PAM Group, the socially responsible division of Financial West Group. Advisors in the PAM Group can create a fossil-free portfolio utilizing stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs to meet the needs of any client.

Quantum Financial Planning, LLC

Providing hourly, fee-only financial planning since 2005. Quantum Financial Planning can assist investors interested in fossil-free investing using methodology based on the book Low Fee Socially Responsible Investing, Investing in Your Worldview on your Terms, published by Tom Nowak in 2012.

SRI Wealth Management Group of RBC Wealth Management

The SRI Wealth Management Group of RBC Wealth Management provides customized investment solutions that help clients achieve financial and value-based objectives. With $1.3 billion AUM, SRI Wealth Management Group works with investors to implement client-specific Environmental, Social, Governance and Impact preferences throughout their asset allocation. RBC Wealth Management, a division of RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Member NYSE/FINRA/SIPC.

Stakeholders Capital

Stakeholders Capital is a full service wealth management firm committed to integrating their clients’ values with their financial goals. Stakeholders Capital is proud to be a leader in sustainable, community and impact investing.

Sustainable Wealth Advisors/Sustainable Advisors Alliance, LLC

Sustainable Wealth Advisors (SWA) is an investment management and financial planning firm based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Harry Moran is SWA’s founder and has been providing financial guidance to environmentally and socially conscious investors for over 30 years. Harry has specialized in designing highly customized fossil-free solutions for individual and institutional clients since 2001. In 2021, he became a founding member of Sustainable Advisors Alliance LLC, and is now part of a national network of dedicated financial professionals who share his passion for environmental sustainability and social justice. Harry has been a frequent contributor and speaker on a variety of impact investing topics and is proud to be helping support the work of the statewide Divest NY coalition.

Vision Capital Investment Management

The president of Vision Capital Investment Management, David Kim, has been working with socially responsible investing since 1983 when he co-founded Working Assets. Vision Capital Investment Management works to align personal values with financial goals using portfolios customized for each client's social and financial criteria. Investment strategies include fossil-fuel free, clean energy, non-GMO, natural processes, and community investing. Their focus is to provide competitive financial return, highly personalized client relationships, to help clients create positive social change, and to practice with a high standard of ethics.

Green America assumes no legal or financial responsibility for the practices, products, or services of any businesses listed. Please read all materials carefully prior to investing.

Back to Financial Products & Services

Donor Services Director

Title: Donor Services, Operations and Database Manager
Reports to: Director of Membership Marketing and Operations (MM&O)

Benefits: Excellent Benefits package

Status: Full Time 4-day 32 hours, compensation $52,000-$55,000

 

Green America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a socially just and environmentally sustainable society by harnessing economic power for positive change. Our unique approach involves working with consumers, investors, and businesses. Our workplace reflects our goal of creating a more cooperative, environmentally sound economy. We have a participatory decision-making process that aims to build consensus within the departments and teams.

 

Our Membership Marketing and Operations team uses mission-focused communications to engage our membership — 'one to many' requests of support. Members serve two key functions for Green America. First, our members are the vehicles of our social change work. Second, they are the people who provide one of the largest portions of revenue for Green America’s operating budget. To keep our members happy, we provide prompt and personalized assistance everyone that contacts us directly.

 

Duties and Responsibilities:

 

Donor Services Management (25%):

  • Oversee Member Services Assistant
  • Oversee the mail, phone, and email response system to member inquiries, from address changes to publication sales.
  • Coordinate and produce mail and data files for Green America publications.
  • Work with Member Services Assistant and Marketing Manager to coordinate renewal and acknowledgements data file generation and mailings.
  • Coordinate with Director of Marketing to send monthly email renewals.
  • Manage post office BRM accounts.

 

Recurring Gift Processing (25%):

  • This position is responsible for meeting annual revenue projections.
  • Process recurring (monthly, quarterly, annual) payments and manage the recurring processes: data entry, reporting, recapture, and refunds
  • Create annual budget projections for ongoing recurring processing.
  • Work with member services to meet recapture budget projections.
  • Create new systems and offers, to increase recapture.
  • Coordinate with Accounting to send summary of monthly revenues.

 

Operations & Data Entry Management (35%):

 

  • Oversee Data Entry Specialist.
  • Manage data entry systems and processes to ensure data integrity & hygiene, streamline processes, research new systems, and solve problems as they arise.
  • Manage relationship and coordinate with our data caging company.
  • Oversee credit card and debit card processing.
  • Coordinate with IT department to ensure timely modifications and updates to, Raiser’s Edge, and other resources.

 

 

Constituent Relationship Management Systems Management (15%):

  • Create and provide reports and data files to different departments in the organization, including Marketing, Development, and Accounting/Finance
  • Responsible for data integrity, processes and procedures of Raiser’s Edge, Green America’s membership information system.
  • Responsible for data integrity, processes and procedures of Charity Engine, Green America’s transactions website.
  • Work with Accounting to provide reports for year end closing and final financial reports.
  • Work with Director MM&O and Director of Development to provide reports and data files for the organization’s annual planning process.
  • Work with Accounting to provide reports and data files for annual audit and taxes.
  • Provide data assistance for state registration process.
  • Update Salsa with constituent information from the Raiser’s Edge.
  • Support of legacy systems, as needed, until they are phased out (Enterhost, SQL Server)

 

Miscellaneous

 

  • Support the Director of MM&O in administrative duties related to contract management, hiring, budgeting and operational functions as needed.
  • Review and process vendor invoices and ensure complete information has been provided
  • Oversee office supplies, kitchen, and copier paper orders.
  • Back up for front phone coverage.
  • Other duties as assigned.

 

List of Systems this position will manage:

 

  1. Raiser’s Edge Membership System
  2. Charity Engine (web transactions)
  3. Authorize.Net Credit Card System
  4. Beneficial State Bank ACH Software
  5. Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS)
  6. PC Charge Credit Card System

 

Qualified Candidates should have:

  • Minimum of 5 years work experience in non-profit setting
  • Minimum of 3 years managing data entry and/or member services staff
  • Customer-service mindset and strong interpersonal skills
  • Candidate must demonstrate solid critical thinking skills and experience in collaborating with cross-department teams to achieve common goals
  • Exceptional problem solving skills and outstanding attention to detail
  • Excellent organizational skills, ability to prioritize various important requests
  • Ability to communicate effectively with vendors, consultants, and staff and ensure deadlines are met.
  • Proficiency in: Raiser’s Edge, Crystal Reports
  • Preferred: SQL Server Querying, Charity Engine, Authorize.net, B.S. in Computer Science or an IT-related field
Shepherd Energy and Community Foundation, Inc.

Coming soon.

Clean Technica
Deli Market News
Beneficial Studio, LLC

Online and digital consulting.

Green America's Food Label Guide
Busboys and Poets
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3 Rivers Natural Grocery
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Green America on Green Halloween in the Alternative Daily

 

This year, spending on Halloween is expected to reach an average of $86.13 per person, up from $82.93 last year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey on Halloween.

The Halloween spending stats

Halloween was originally a festival that marked the end of harvest, and was a time of sharing with the dead as they crossed over into the other world. It has been a way to recognize and play with death, but over the last 50 to 60 years, U.S.-based candy companies promoted the idea that trick-or-treating shouldn’t be rewarded with coins, nuts, fruit or toys, but with chocolates and other candy.

The National Retail Federation survey talked to 7,013 consumers in September about their plans for this year. It forecasts a total spend of $9.1 billion, with that spending including:

  • $3.4 billion on costumes
  • Of that, $440 million on pet costumes (2017 figure, Statista)
  • $2.7 billion on candy
  • $2.7 billion on decorations
  • $410 million on greeting cards
  • $300 million on haunted attractions (2016 figure)

In addition, the top 10 advertisers spent $29.2 million in 2014 on advertising for Halloween, with Walmart topping the list, spending nearly $5 million.

Beyond the spending, 48 percent of adults plan to dress up, with witches, Batman and animal costumes among the most popular choices. Superheroes were at the top of the list for children, and hot dogs and pumpkins for pets. Some 71 percent plan to hand out candy, 49 percent will decorate their home or yard, 46 percent will carve a pumpkin and 16 percent will dress pets in costumes.

Some of the most profitable categories, according to retailers, are home decor and accessories. This could be because people spend time and money on outdoing their neighbors, one participant in the 2016 survey of businesses said.

Further, the haunted house industry, according to a Statista analysis, has been “embraced by Corporate America” with millions being spent on sponsorship deals with soft drink, fast food and cell phone brands.

Other ways Halloween money could be spent

Here at The Alternative Daily, we crunched the numbers to work out how this Halloween money could have been spent:

  • The money spent on costumes could send 98,209 students to college for four years each (average in-state college tuition is $34,620 for four years).
  • The money spent on candy would provide 1.5 million homeless and extremely poor people with three hot meals every day for a year (Feeding The Homeless says meals cost $1.60 per person. That completely covers the total national homeless population of 564,708 people, as well as an extra 1 million people living in extreme poverty.)
  • The money spent on decorations could provide at least 4.5 million women with free birth control pills for a year (the pill costs up to $600 per year).
  • The money spent on greeting cards could reforest the U.S. (at an average of $100per acre to prepare the site, $70 per acre to replant or reseed, 2.4 million acres of land could be reforested. The National Forest Foundation says at least 1 million acres of land in the U.S. need reforestation).
  • The money spent on haunted attractions could make condoms free for a year (450 million condoms are sold annually in the U.S., at average cost of $0.45 per condom — for a total spend of $202 million).

So, added all up, the money being spent on Halloween paraphernalia could instead put some people through college, feed the homeless, make contraception more affordable and reforest the country.

Does your Halloween costume contain toxins?

Halloween costumes are often made from plastics that contain toxins. Beyond the way money is spent, there are also issues with the way Halloween goods are produced. The Alternative Daily talked to Todd Larsen, a director with Green America, who stressed that the costumes and decorations are often made from plastics derived from petroleum “and can contain many toxins.”

“Since these costumes and decorations are often thrown away after one use, they end up in landfills, where they break down slowly, leaching toxins. Plastics also end up in waterways and harm a wide variety of wildlife,” he said.

Consumerism has consequences on your happiness

Casey Williams, a director of New Dream, an organization focused on transforming consumption habits for the wellbeing of people and planet, also talked to AD, and warned that these high spending levels and the general “accumulation of stuff” is having significant consequences for not just the environment, but also on “our own health and happiness.

“Advertising campaigns are telling us that more stuff will make us happier, smarter or more loved, even though the research suggests otherwise,” Williams said. In fact, “evidence suggests that once basic needs are met, further consumption doesn’t do much to increase happiness. It may even decrease it.”

Indeed, studies have found a direct correlation between materialism and being susceptible to mental health disorders. People who consume more also see a decrease in well-being, which includes things like sense of purpose, autonomy and good interpersonal relationships. A controlled study published in Psychological Sciencealso found that people who repeatedly see advertising that portrays them as consumers rather than citizens experience immediate increases in anxiety and depression and become more selfish.

“Consumption is the “norm” in American society… we have transitioned from a society that values savings and thrift to one that increasingly relies on debt and credit,” Williams said. She cited retail analyst Victor Lebow, who in an influential paper published as early as 1955, stated, “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing pace.”

Halloween goods are manufactured in sweatshops

Costumes and decor are made overseas in sweatshops. The manufacturing process of many Halloween goods also comes with its own price, as “costumes and décor are generally manufactured overseas in sweatshops with long hours and with workers frequently exposed to toxins. Chocolate mostly comes from cocoa farms in West Africa, where farmers are paid far less than a living wage, and many children toil on farms instead of attending school,” Larsen pointed out.

Other ways to celebrate Halloween

As Larsen noted, people are becoming increasingly pressed for time, and often aren’t able to make their own costumes or decorations. However, he suggests that where possible, it’s important that people take up the challenge to make costumes and decorations from materials around the house. It’s “an opportunity to use our creativity… and time spent with family or friends.”

“You can also work with your neighbors to create a costume swap. Everyone brings old costumes and puts them out on tables organized by age group or size. Then, people pick a new costume and go home with it for Halloween,” he suggested.

Larsen believes it’s important to aim for fair trade chocolate, which pays farmers a dignified wage, and his organization recommends this list of other green treats.

Williams and New Dream stress the importance of reusing decorations, and making them out of materials like corn husks, gourds and straw bales.

For Halloween and the upcoming holiday seasons, New Dreams is also promoting a resource called the GiveLIst, which is the opposite of a traditional registry. Here, adults and children can register their home-made creations, and make them available for others to choose from.

Finally, Global Exchange in the past has promoted the idea of reverse trick-or-treating, where children give out fair trade chocolate along with information sheets, instead of asking for candy.

How are you making Halloween meaningful?

— Tamara Pearson

The Alternative Daily

The Alternative Daily shares alternative health news on stress, sleep, alternative diets with a newsletter and health eBooks.

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