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Dynegy canceled coal-fired power plants. After a campaign by Green America and allies, the utility announced it was cancelling its plans to build multiple coal-fired power plants.

Ford agrees to introduce more hybrid and plug-in cars and stops promoting ethanol as a clean fuel source.

Jon Ellenbogen says the best payback for the new solar power system on his house is that he stands taller: "I love watching the meter run backwards during the day because I'm making more clean energy than I'm using. I'm proud to tell people about it—they think it's so cool!" 

Many homeowners like Jon and his partner Rebecca Sachs want to help curb climate change by generating some of their household’s electricity with rooftop solar panels. Today, in most parts of the country, it can cost between $30,000 and $40,000 to purchase and install a basic four-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) system. If you would love to stand taller with a home solar system, but have assumed that you can’t afford it, take a second look. A variety of available incentives can combine to bring the true price of a solar power system down from the number on the price tag.

A Little Solar Power, or a Lot?

There are three different variables that can determine how large a solar system homeowners should choose, says Neville Williams, founder of Standard Solar, which sells and installs solar home systems in the Mid-Atlantic: “The size of their roof, the size of their pocketbook, and the size of their electric bill.”

He encourages people with smaller roofs or pocketbooks not to feel they have to generate all of their power with a solar system—they can purchase only two or three kilowatts of solar generating capacity. Even a small solar system lowers your energy bill and your carbon footprint.

“Almost everybody can afford some level of solar power,” says Williams. Also, be sure to take all the smart energy efficiency steps first, so your solar system can better cover your now much-lower energy needs.

Federal, State, and Local Incentives for Solar Power

Both national and local governments have put programs in place to sweeten the deal for residents installing solar power. Through the end of 2007, a federal incentive offered a tax credit for 30 percent of the cost of a solar electric system, up to $2,000—which solar advocates are working to get renewed for 2008 and beyond.

All but a handful of states now offer financial incentives for renewable energy and energy conservation.

State incentives may take a variety of forms, including rebates, grants, loans, or tax incentives. To learn about programs in your state, visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE).

Some cities and counties have their own incentives; check with your state, city, and county’s Department of the Environment.

Decades of Energy Savings

From the day that a solar PV system goes up, it generates energy that reduces the amount of conventional power you’ll pull from the grid. Your current energy rates, as well as any future cost increases in energy rates, determine how much money the system will save you over time. 

“When you buy solar power,” says Williams, “you have bought that power at a fixed price for the next 25 years. It’s hard to calculate utility prices for years into the future, but rates are going to go up.”

In other words, even if infl ation raises the dollar cost of energy over the next two decades, the energy your solar panels provide in 2028 will have been purchased in 2008 dollars, a dramatic longterm savings. And if, as experts expect, new carbon regulation and financing constraints dramatically increase the cost of coal power over the coming three decades, the savings from pre-purchased solar power will be even more significant.

Net Metering

Home solar PV systems rarely make more solar energy than the household uses overall; but they often do make more energy than the household is using during the sunny daytime. About 40 states have laws guaranteeing that a homeowner with a solar system can place “net” extra solar power onto the grid when their panels are over-producing, and then pull the same amount of free power from the grid when they’re under-producing. You'll want to find out if your state has net metering, if the utility pays in full or at a discount for the power you supply, and if the net is calculated annually or monthly. While local details vary, a solar system in a netmetering state can reduce homeowners’ energy bills more dramatically than if they only benefited from the solar power they could use at sunny times. 

Increase in Home Value

One thing that helped the Ellenbogen family justify the expense of their new solar system was that they anticipated that it would increase the value of their home, and with good reason.

“The American Appraisers Association has proven that, on average, every dollar saved on your monthly electric bill” by an energy-saving renovation such as a solar system “adds $20 in value to the house—which can start to add up,” says Williams. And studies in California show that “the houses that have solar sell for much more—by more than the cost of the solar.”

Solar or Home Equity Loans

As with any major home improvement, you can finance a solar system with a loan, generally repayable over a 15-year period. Though home solar systems should in theory be eligible for much more generous financing than, say, a kitchen renovation—because only a solar system will continue to save homeowners money—the major credit providers haven’t created preferential solar loans yet, says Gary Kremen of Clean Power Finance, in San Francisco. Though some mortgage companies market their generic home equity loans or refinancing rates to solar customers, solar customers would be best off for now simply shopping for a favorable home equity loan or mortgage refinancing. Clean Power Finance, for the time being, serves as a broker between solar PV customers, solar installers, and major banks, working to secure good loan rates for customers who want to undertake energy-saving and energy generating renovations. But they, too, are currently shopping among generic loans.

Note, though, that for new homes, you can add the cost of a new solar system directly to your mortgage; and if you are purchasing or refinancing a home using a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, you can raise the maximum loan limit by 20 percent if the home has a solar system or you’re planning to install one. Some states, municipalities, and PV providers also have favorable loan programs.

A "Rooftop CD?"

If you are fortunate enough to have $20,000 or more in Certificates of Deposit (CDs), these low-risk, insured financial products will bring around a 3.5% interest rate over a five-year time period. You can think of solar as a rooftop “CD” with a guaranteed return.

A small (2 kw) solar electricity system will cost around $20,000, and federal, state, and local incentives may bring the cost down to $13,500. And assuming you pay average energy prices (about 10.8 cents/kilowatt), the average annual savings from a system of this size will be at least $280 per year, corresponding to a 2% "interest rate." And in regions where energy rates (and therefore savings) are higher, a solar system can start to look like a very reliable, if unconventional, Certificate of Deposit that lives on your roof instead of at the bank.

While the analogy isn't perfect, because the value of the solar installation will decline over time, the increased value of your home due to a solar system can be seen as similar to the initial “principal” placed in a conventional CD.

What About Waiting for Solar Prices to Drop?

Green America’s Solar Catalyst program is working hard to bring down the price of solar power to be competitive with coal power within the coming decade. And rising energy costs will only hasten the day when installing a solar system is a significant, money-saving proposition. If you’re not in a position to put up solar at today’s prices, make major energy-efficiency improvements around your home so your energy needs will already be reduced when solar costs come down in the future. Meanwhile, everyone who is ready to ready to install solar now can play a valuable role in supporting and expanding the solar market.

Solar Appliances

Even if you’re not in a position to invest in a PV solar electricity system right now, you may be able to consider solar-powered appliances to reduce your household energy use.

A solar attic fan, powered by a single PV panel, vents hot air from the top of the house, reducing the load on air conditioners. The fans cost $300–800 and may be eligible for energy conservation rebates in some states (check www.dsireusa.org).

A solar hot water heater can reduce your energy bill by more than half. They come in several different designs, generally cost $1,000–$6,000, with federal and state rebates covering up to a third of the cost. Learn about solar hot water heaters in our previous Real Green article.

Purchasing Green Power

Whether or not you can generate any green energy on your own roof, you can direct your energy dollars towards renewables by purchasing “green power.” This may be an option through your utility (check the EPA’s map), or you may be able to purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs, or “green tags”) that support putting as much wind or other clean energy onto the grid as your household is using. NativeEnergy, for example, sells RECs generated by its wind projects that benefit small farmers and Native American communities. 

Everyone who can afford solar now is sending a big signal to companies and politicians that it’s time to scale up on solar in a big way. (Here is a tool for finding a ballpark estimate of how much it will cost you.) And Williams hopes the day is coming soon when homeowners won’t have to consider solar a luxury expense: “We’re getting closer to the tipping point,” he says. “The minute the economic argument is strong, everyone will do it.” For right now, he says, “Solar is a great long-term, high-value investment.”

The Problem with Seafood from Thailand

Thailand is the world’s third-largest seafood exporter, behind only China and Norway. Every year, the Thai fishing fleet finds itself short by about 60,000 crew members, so human traffickers help boat captains fill that gap by kidnapping men from Thailand or luring men from Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Cambodia onto the boats with false promises.

Once aboard, the workers toil for years in horrific, extremely dangerous conditions, including 20-hour workdays, homogenous diets of scrap or “trash” fish, cramped quarters, and physical and mental abuse. Some never see land for years.

Only one in six Thai fishing boats is registered—the rest operate as a “ghost fleet”, coming into port and leaving without registering their presence or their workers with authorities.

After hearing stories on the street in Myanmar about men disappearing from villages to become modern-day slaves on fishing boats in Thailand, journalist Becky Palmstrom knew she had to act.

She teamed up with award-winning journalist Shannon Service, and the two women set out to uncover what was happening to the disappearing fishermen. After nine months of on-the-ground investigations in Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Cambodia, they released a two-part series for National Public Radio that told the stories of several fishermen who had indeed been enslaved on Thai fishing boats. With this series, the two were among the first to break the story in the US and in many countries abroad, and, in the words of Matthew Friedman from the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking, “helped to bring international attention to the plight of fisherman in the Mekong Region.”

Today, Palmstrom and Service are completing The Ghost Fleet, a ten-minute short film that expands their NPR piece, and they’re working to turn the hundreds of hours of footage they and their crew have filmed into a long documentary.

Green America’s Tracy Fernandez Rysavy talked to Shannon Service about her experiences with the “ghost fleet” fishermen.

photo by Shannon Service

In part because so many young men are being enslaved on Thai fishing boats, families in Cambodia lack able-bodied men to help make ends meet.

Green American/Tracy: What’s the status with your film, The Ghost Fleet, and what are you hoping turning your NPR piece into a documentary will accomplish?

Shannon: We’re finished with the first round of filming, where we interviewed several men who had escaped from Thai fishing boats. We plan to put out a short film in the next several months and use it to raise money for a long feature.

One of the things we are trying to do is provide the story and the in-depth human aspect to this whole landscape. The advocacy piece is coming together with a number of organizations working on the issue. What we think we can provide is the stories of a few people whose experiences stick in your mind and capture your heart and show you that these are guys ... I was going to say they’re normal, everyday guys, but I can’t because they’ve been on a crazy odyssey.

Green American/Tracy: Right. How does that odyssey start? How are the men lured onto the fishing boats?

Shannon: Inside Thailand, the biggest route is being drugged in a bar or brothel and kidnapped, especially in port towns, because it’s all about the captains needing crew.
For people outside of Thailand, probably the biggest route to ending up on a Thai boat is that they’re sold straight out of their villages—usually by people they know—to brokers, who make money by selling men. It’s an informal network that stretches into villages in Myanmar and Cambodia.

A cousin or neighbor might say, “Things aren’t going so well with your rice harvest. I can get you a great job in Thailand, where the baht is strong, in a factory or other situation. You’ll make three times as much money, and you can come back whenever you want.”

The cousin or neighbor will get paid by a broker, who will sell men to another broker and then to another. A broker at the border will then smuggle them across and sell them to Thai brokers, who sell them again to others, who sell them to fishing boat captains. It’s an incredibly difficult thing to track, like a spider web. In some cases, the men do end up in good factory jobs, work in good conditions, and can leave when they want. Those men come back and build expensive houses in their villages, so other men think, “That looks great; I want that, too.”

The problem is you just don’t know where someone will end up, especially with the hand-offs from broker to broker. The biggest deciding factor is whether someone has enough money to pay the brokers. If a worker can pay, chances are high he’ll end up in a good situation, because he’s the client. Because most are coming from economic hardship, the next broker is the client, and the men aren’t—they’re the goods. So they’re shuttled along, and they take their chances.

A lot of migrant workers come to Thailand, and brokers will approach them and lie: “I’ll take you to a warehouse, or a short-haul ship that goes out and comes back in the evening.” And then it goes out for years.

Green American/Tracy: Tell me about the conditions the men endure once they’re on the boats.

Shannon: First of all, the boats are not large. They’re about the size of an 18-wheeler with ten men working aboard. These men are usually from different countries, speaking different languages. A lot have historic problems or wars between them, and they might not like each other much. So they’re living and working inside a very confined space, typically without proper medicine. If someone gets cut, they may die of infection. They don’t have access to a variety of food and are mainly eating trash fish that won’t sell.
There are resupply boats that come out to meet the fishing boats, which is what allows them to stay out at sea for so long. Captains don’t want to bring their boats close to shore, because they’ll lose their slaves. The resupply boats bring ice, food, men, and bring the fish back to shore so the boats can stay out there. I met one guy who was out for ten years without seeing land at all.

photo by Shannon Service

Sok Chan, one of the fisherman in the Ghost Fleet documentary, was lured onto a Thai fishing boat by the promise of good pay. He wasn’t paid at all and ended up escaping.

The men will work up to 20 hours, sometimes more, at a stretch. The captains often give them methamphetamines to keep them working for hours without full nutrition. It’s a common thing that they will kill each other. They’re growing stronger through work, and they start to come into conflict because they’re in a small space and on amphetamines.

So conflict is common, and it takes violence to control them. They’re beaten routinely with engine belts, butts of rifles, stingray tails. I talked to one man who saw his crewmates beheaded. It’s not at all uncommon to pull up body parts in their nets. Every single guy I talked to, well over a dozen, told me a captain or slave master had killed someone in front of him.

One of the major problems is that the boats aren’t tracked, and the men on them aren’t tracked. These boats are called the “ghost fleet,” because they come in, leave, and no one knows how many men are on them or what their names are. Nobody tracks that ten men left and nine came back.

On the flip side, many men are able to keep themselves largely sane, keep each other sane, and develop friendships that keep each other safe. I heard many examples of heroism and sacrifice in these conditions.

There was a father and son who jumped ship and were sheltered by a Cambodian crew on a resupply boat. They hid in the ice compartment of the boat in total darkness and cold until they escaped to shore. The crew risked their lives—if they’d been caught, they’d surely have been killed.

Green American/Tracy: You said one of the purposes of your film is to put a human face on this issue. Would you share one of the fishermen’s stories with us?

Shannon: One of the guys we’ve focused on in the short film is Asorasak Thama. He actually was tricked onto a Thai fishing boat by a friend of his. The friend said he’d get plenty of money and have great working conditions, and he could come back after a few weeks. He wasn’t paid at all, and he was kept out at sea for a year. The only reason he made it home was that the boat was captured [by authorities] while illegally fishing in Indonesian waters.

Years later, he was drinking in southern Thailand and was drugged and ended up on a fishing boat again. He told us that when he woke up, “It was horrifying, but I also knew what to do. I’d done this before, so it wasn’t as horrifying as the first time.”

Fishing is incredibly intense, dangerous work, so he felt that at least this time, he knew how to fish. He did fish with the second boat for several months—the time frames are always a little squishy, because it’s not like they are sitting there with a calendar.

One day, he started arguing with his captain, who had been known to kill people in the past. So when boat came into shore to get a fishing license from Malaysia, he waited until the captain had had a few drinks, then punched him and ran.

photo by Shannon Service

Vannak Prum left his village in Cambodia looking for work. He was enslaved on a Thai boat for three years before he escaped.

He had no way home. It takes a lot of money, and he had no passport. Men like him jump ship, they go through unbelievable things [to escape], and then they can’t get home. He had to make his way working on palm oil plantations. He eventually met a nice local guy, Sani, who used hand signals to ask if he was hungry. Sani took him in and fed him, housed him with his family. Turns out Sani was a local fisherman, so Asorasak and Sani would fish, and Asorasak was able to keep some of the catch. But it wasn’t enough to earn his way back.

When our crew met him in this remote area of Borneo, we told him we knew some organizations who could get him home. There’s a small network of local organizations that have been helping men like him—none of which have it in their mandate to do this, but they just ended up doing it. They work with the governments to raise money and get men repatriated.

It took over 70 days for him to get travel documents, but he did manage to get home, and we followed him.

We don’t know where his mom is, because she was working. His sister and aunts were there, uncles, cousins. It’s a small town, so everyone was really happy to see him. Looking at family, most were older. He was the only young, able-bodied guy that I saw. In a rural family, that’s a really big deal.

That also points to another major issue. If you go to parts of Cambodia, and probably Myanmar, there are basically no able-bodied working men, just old men and boys. They’re not all slaves on Thai boats, but seeing that lack gives you a sense of the outflow of men trying to support families. When they don’t send money back or don’t come back, it’s a major problem. Fields don’t get sown, families don’t eat. Every one of the men [we talked to] was tied to a family who has been struggling.

The scale [of the slavery problem on Thai boats] is hard to gauge because it’s all underground. But so many men are absent from Cambodia and Myanmar because they’ve been enslaved. And there are so many extra men in the southern regions of Asia like Indonesia and Malaysia. According to the ambassador in charge of human trafficking for the US State Department, there are so many absent, it’s knocking the entire economy of Southeast Asia off kilter.

Take Action: Green America campaign

For the past few years, Green America has worked to protect the rights of fisherman in Thailand. In 2014, in response to pressure from NGOs including Green America, the US State Department downgraded Thailand to “tier 3,” or the worst level, in its annual Trafficking in Persons report, This downgrade sent a strong message to the Thai government to end the corruption that allows human trafficking to persist.

Recently, the Thai government proposed a scheme to supply prison laborers to fishing boats—a plan that would replace one vulnerable population (migrants) with another (prisoners) and would do nothing to prevent human rights abuses. In January 2015, Green America and our allies were quick to oppose this plan in the press, and the Thai government has stated it will not move forward.

The Thai government is not the only actor that bears responsibility for labor abuse in the country’s fishing sector. Global seafood companies profit tremendously from cheap labor and lax regulation in Thailand. In 2014, the Guardian connected the “trash fish” used to feed shrimp sold in Costco and Walmart to slave labor.

Sign our online petition demanding that Costco source from only sustainable and socially responsible fisheries and fish farms, and trace its shrimp down to the boat level, including the boats catching “trash-fish” used as feed on fish farms.

Green American/Tracy: Does the slavery ever come to an end nonviolently? Or is this just an indefinite condition for these workers until they are killed or can escape?

Shannon: There are some good captains who will drop off men who are too unruly or too ill. But it sounds like that’s pretty rare.
There’s a rumor, I haven’t seen it, that there are some remote islands where men are dropped off. I don’t know under what kind of conditions. [We’re investigating that as] part of the bigger feature. What it sounds like to me is that it’s more a matter of expediency. If the boats happen to be close to these islands, they’ll drop men off. If it’s easier to simply kill, that’s often what’s done.

Sometimes the boats will illegally fish inside the boundaries of other countries. If they’re busted, eventually the crew will go home. Although sometimes the crew will be prosecuted for the crime they “committed” while enslaved.

Sometimes the boats do come back to shore to be repaired. If there’s a crew member who’s too sick to work, he’ll be let off, and more men will be bought.

Every guy I talked to so far has escaped. I have yet to talk to someone who didn’t have to jump ship or hitch a ride or punch his captain to get home.

Green American/Tracy: You said that the Thai government and police are complicit in the slavery on boats.

Shannon: Usually you have large groups of men who are moving [illegally] through borders and ports. That doesn’t happen without it being noticed. The local police, particularly at the ports, are being paid by the brokers or boat captains to look the other way.

We interviewed the governor of a Thai district where men are commonly trafficked. Probably thousands of men are going through the border checkpoint [in his district], so we asked him why he wasn’t doing anything about it. He said because the military and police are paid off—they won’t arrest anyone because they’re in pockets of traffickers.

Then you have police who, as [non-Thai] workers are being transported illegally from the border to the boats, will stop the trucks. The men are stacked like lumber in the back of these trucks, with a tarp thrown over them, and the drivers regularly take certain routes. The police will pull them over and bust everyone on immigration charges. Then they’ll extort everyone on the truck, including the enslaved men.
There are a lot of reports that the police in southern Thailand are busting boats for having undocumented workers on board. They’ll arrest the workers, and then sell them to other fishing boat captains.

We went into a station and asked [about this practice]. At first, the police fully denied it. Then they said, “Okay, it happened here, but it wasn’t us.”

Green American/Tracy: What is the connection between this issue and exploitation on palm oil plantations?

Shannon: Boats will go out in middle of ocean when they have slaves [to keep them from escaping]. Fish like being close to shore, so there isn’t a lot in the middle of the ocean. If you’re a boat captain, you may have to chase fish into the border waters of other countries. You can either do pirate fishing, or, if you’re afraid of getting caught, you apply for a fishing license.

The point is that the boats will come close to shore to pirate fish or to obtain a legal fishing license. That’s when men jump, and there are areas where men have historically jumped ship in Indonesia and Malaysia. The police figured out that they could wait for the men.

The men would jump, run, hide. They’d go to the police speaking a foreign language, saying, “Cambodia”, “Myanmar”, or “Vietnam”, and police would put them back on boats or sell them to palm oil plantations.

The plantations are better than the boats, but we’re comparing horrors. They’re forced to work, and then there’s a company store where they’re charged at exorbitant rates for the things they need. Every month, they find they have to keep working to pay a debt they can never work off. They have to run again from the palm oil plantation.

Vannak Prum, one of the men we talked to, was kept on a fishing boat for three years. He jumped to one of the areas where police would wait for the escaped men, and he was sold to a palm oil plantation. Malaysia has since cleaned up that area, but it was like that for a long time.

Vannak worked at a couple of palm oil plantations before he could escape again.

Choose Fish Responsibly

Over the past decade, global awareness of overfishing has grown, and in response, a number of standards and certification bodies have been developed to ensure the world doesn’t fish the ocean empty. However, there is still work to be done with seafood companies and certifiers to address human rights issues in production, not only environmental problems.

Here are some labels you are likely to encounter at the grocery store and what they mean (and don’t mean):

Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Standard for sustainable marine-caught fisheries
Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Standard for sustainable fish farms

The MSC and ASC standards help ensure fish was caught or farmed in a sustainable way. These standards focus primarily on ecological issues, such as preventing overfishing, minimizing the environmental impact of a fishing operation, and monitoring waste water and genetic diversity. These standards do not focus on human rights issues; however, they do require certified partners to follow local labor laws.

At present, neither MSC nor ASC has certified any fishing operation in Thailand.

Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)
BAP certification focuses on the sustainability of fish farms, as well as hatcheries and processing facilities. The BAP standard includes provisions for both environmental and human rights issues. BAP has certified hundreds of fishing operations throughout Asia, Australia, the US and Mexico, and South America.

Green American/Tracy: What are the men enslaved on these boats catching, and how can Americans avoid fish that’s connected to the Thai fleet?

Shannon: They’re catching everything—tuna, squid, etc. The boats send the fish back to Thailand to be processed, canned, frozen, and sent elsewhere. The stuff that is transported mainly to us in the States comes in the form of pet food or frozen fish. If you go to frozen food aisle in the grocery store and pull out fish, if it says “product of Thailand,” it doesn’t necessarily mean slaves caught that fish, but there’s a higher likelihood. The likelihood is lower that fresh fish on ice is coming from Thailand.

I personally avoid frozen and canned fish products that are coming from Thailand, and I try to make sure that fish I eat is fresh, ideally local, ideally seasonal.

There’s no independent certification that ensures boats are tracked through the supply chain. It does come down to US consumers putting pressure on supermarkets to put fish on the shelves that they know to be ethical. And therefore, it’s up to supermarkets to use their purchasing power to choose clear supply chains that customers can check ourselves, or to go through a third-party to examine the supply chain to make sure there’s no slavery or forced labor. It’s within their power. But whether they take those steps will depend on the consumer.

Learn More

The Ghost Fleet Movie website includes the original NPR story on the Thai fishing fleet, as well as information about the upcoming short- and long-documentary.

Greenpeace USA’s “Carting Away the Oceans” report ranks US retailers based on their commitment to selling environmentally sustainable seafood. In their 2014 report, Whole Foods, Safeway, Wegmans, and Trader Joes all earned high marks for sustainable sourcing, while Kroger and Publix scored near the bottom.

The International Organization on Migration released a report in 2011 on the Thai fishing industry, “Tracking of Fishermen in Thailand”, and assists escaped fishing workers.

Seafood Watch, a program run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, helps people choose fish that are farmed/caught sustainably and avoid those that are overfished. Its free guides are updated throughout the year and by region.

Slavery Footprint in Oakland, CA, helps former Thai fishing workers get home and obtain mental health services.

Tenaganita, based in Kuala Lumpur, aids refugees in southeast Asia, including helping escaped Thai fishing workers get back home.

Dominion cancels 3 coal-fired power plants. (June 2006)

With the New Year in sight, many of us start looking ahead to 2015, setting our priorities, goals, and intentions. But maybe this year, instead of making some of the same old promises to yourself (this writer confesses to ritually vowing to be more organized with paperwork, bills, and properly archiving the hundreds of pages of kid artwork that come into our home), you can set your sights on some vital and easy-to-take steps to clean up and green-up your finances.

Make 2015 the year that you make important (and easy!) changes that will move your money into alignment with your values, and you can go through the year knowing that your New Year’s resolution isn’t just good for you, but for the whole world. Here are four ideas to get you started in 2015.

WHAT? Make your New Year’s resolution to improve the health of your finances.

WHY? The new year is an ideal time to take stock of your financial health—and make improvements to ensure you save as much as possible for your future..

WOW! It’s also a great time to ensure your money is working for you and for a better world.

1. Save More for Your Future

Start paying yourself first, if you haven’t yet taken this step, by regularly setting aside as much as you can for retirement.
“One smart and concrete resolution is to commit to putting a certain amount of your paycheck into retirement every month,” says Bob Dreizler, a Chartered Financial Consultant® in Sacramento.

If you are putting even a little away each month, that savings will build over time and help create a more secure future for you and your family.

It’s always a good idea to contribute the maximum amount you can to your retirement accounts. If your workplace offers free matching funds if you contribute to an employer-sponsored retirement account, make sure you meet the requirements to take advantage of it—it’s free money!

The New Year is also a time to make sure that the women in your family, in particular, are saving appropriately. Cindy Hounsell of the Women’s Institute for A Secure Retirement (WISER) points out that women tend to under-save for their retirement.
“Because women tend to live longer, they need to have more retirement savings,” says Hounsell. “This is compounded by the fact that women often make less than men, so they have to save more while making less.”

If you’re a woman, don’t delay in securing your future. And remember, as Hounsell points out, “One of the gifts you can give your family is to take care of yourself through savings and retirement.”

In addition, January is a perfect month to consider moving more of your money into green retirement accounts.

“For people who want to become more involved in mission-aligned green investing, the best place to start is often to find out what kinds of investments are inside the mutual funds in the retirement plans they participate in,” says Dreizler.

He recommends visiting the websites of your retirement accounts—your employer-sponsored 401(k) or 403(b), as well as your IRAs and other individual retirement accounts. Dig down to find out the top ten stock holdings in the mutual funds that make up those accounts—and then go online to research if the companies mesh with your values.

Keeping your retirement savings in a socially responsible retirement vehicles is a great way to build your savings while putting your investments dollars towards a better world. Many socially responsible investment companies, like Calvert Investments, Portfolio 21, Green Century Funds, and others, have both Roth and traditional IRA funds available.

Advanced step: If you have a 401(k) or 403(b) through your employer, ask your benefits manager about socially responsible options. If one isn’t currently available, distribute a copy of Green America’s free guide, “Planning For a Better Future,” which helps employers discover how to offer socially and environmentally friendly retirement options through work plans.

2. Break Up With Your Mega-Bank

You’ve heard us say it before, but if you haven’t already, it really is time to break up with your mega-bank and switch to a community development bank or credit union that will keep your money in your community and funding projects you can be proud of. Need a reminder of why breaking away from your mega-bank should be a priority for 2015?

• Mega-banks JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Bank of America have led the way for banks financing climate-changing coal since 2005, according to BankTrack.org, which tracks the operations and investments of commercial banks.
• A 2012 report from the Centre for Research on Globalization found that banks Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Bank, and others are making heavy investments to buy up access to water worldwide, including purchasing thousands of acres of land with aquifers, lakes, water rights, water utilities, and shares in water engineering and technology companies all over the world.
• Despite continued evidence that small businesses are essential drivers of the American economy, the New Rules Project reported in 2010 that the 20 biggest banks “devote only 18 percent of their commercial loan portfolios to small business.”

The list goes on, and you can read more reasons a break-up is necessary at Green America’s breakupwithyour megabank.org. By following a few steps to switch your accounts to a community development bank or credit union, you can put your money to work funding affordable housing, small businesses, and projects that build up communities rather than break them down. Our free guide (see the resource box) can help you find a community development bank or credit union in your city. If a local bank isn’t an option, many banks make it easy to do all of your banking from a distance.

Advanced step: Don’t forget that most credit cards are also backed by a mega-bank. For help finding responsible credit cards that aren’t connected to mega-banks, see the resource box, and see p. 19 for more on the Green America Visa, offered through Beneficial State Bank.

Green America’s Investment Resources

For a list of credit cards backed by credit unions and community development banks, visit Green America’s Take Charge of Your Card campaign website. Consider the Green America Visa, which supports community development banking and Green America’s programs

Our Break Up With Your Mega-Bank campaign makes the case for breaking up with that mega-bank for good, and connects you with resources to switch to a community development bank or credit union.

Our Guide to Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean-Energy Reinvestment digs deep into the reasons to divest from fossil fuels, and how you can reinvest your money in an economy that will help people and the planet. Access the guide for free.

Greenpages.org is the free online version of Green America’s National Green Pages®. Consult the “Financial—Advisors & Planners” category to find socially responsible investment companies and financial advisors.

Ask your employer to offer socially responsible retirement options. Green America’s free guide, Plan For a Better Future: How to Add Socially and Environmentally Responsible Retirement Options to an Employer’s Retirement Plan, can help.

3. Conquer Your Fears

If the thought of examining your finances or having conversations about money keeps you up at night, the new year is a good time to face some of your fears and develop a clear understanding of where you stand financially. If you get into the habit of doing it each year, you may be able to cut down on some of that anxiety and find joy in a new relationship with money.

“Engage!” recommends Lousville-based financial advisor Carrie VanWinkle. “Take a step towards engaging with something in your financial life that you’ve been keeping at arm’s length. Maybe it’s that quarterly investment statement that you never open. Commit to opening the envelope, Googling some terms in the statement you don’t yet understand, or asking your financial advisor for more information. By taking those small steps to engage, by the end of the year you will become more confident in that area of your financial life.”

“The new year is the perfect time to improve your overall financial responsibility,” adds Bob Dreizler. Dreizler points out that the beginning of a new year means you’ll be receiving statements from your bank, mutual funds you invest in, student loans, and more, making it a great time to assess where you stand each year.

“Use the information on these statements to do a balance sheet,” he recommends. “Write down where your assets are, the total of all your assets, and also the total of your liabilities—what you owe on your credit card, on your car loan, student loans, etc. At the end of the year, get out your balance sheet and compare it to the year before. Make sure your assets are growing and liabilities decreasing.”

Advanced step: Facing your financial fears this January 1st might also mean looking ahead to the future and making sure you have a will or estate plan in the case of your death.

“At the very least,” says VanWinkle, “Make sure that the beneficiaries on all of your accounts are up to date. This is especially important for LGBT couples in states where they can’t yet marry or for couples who choose not to marry for whatever reason.”
Unmarried couples can face specific hardships in dealing with financial matters upon the death of one partner, points out Emily Bowen, a Michigan-based financial advisor with experience working with LGBT couples.

“What is the state of your will, power of attorney, and medical power of attorney?” she asks. “Will your spouse have to deal with the uphill battle of probate—on top of losing the love of their life—because you didn’t plan well for them?”

4. Divest from Fossil Fuels and Reinvest in Clean Energy


While you’re talking with your financial advisor, ask him or her about fossil-fuel divestment. Divestment emerged as a dynamic activist strategy in the 1980s when investors sold off stocks they held in companies that supported the apartheid regime of South Africa. Today, in a bid to pressure corporate America to take action to mitigate the rapidly worsening climate crisis, socially responsible investors around the world are divesting from companies that hold reserves in fossil fuels. Burning these reserves could result in a catapult past the two-degree rise in world temperatures that scientists say will result in the most catastrophic forms of climate change.

“In the past couple of years we have seen a huge movement to divest from fossil fuels,” says Fran Teplitz, Green America’s social investing director. “University endowments, city government pension funds, religious institutions, foundations, and countless individual investors are pulling their money out of oil and gas companies with fossil fuel reserves and switching to investments in clean energy” (see p. 4).

The South African divestment movement showed the world that the stigma associated with widespread divestment campaigns have motivated companies to change their ways. With our climate getting closer to the tipping point of catastrophic changes, commit to supporting fossil-fuel divestment in 2015 and investing to support clean energy.

• Purge your own portfolio of the worst oil and gas companies. Gofossil
  free.org lists the top 200 global companies with the largest fossil fuel reserves.
  If, like most people, you don’t manage your own investments, ask your financial advisor to look for fossil-free funds and investments.
• Encourage your institutions to divest. University endowments, pensions funds, charitable foundations, and religious institutions have been leaders in the fossil-fuel divestment movement. Visit gofossilfree.org to find a list of ongoing campaigns pressuring endowments, cities, and other institutions to divest, and add your voice to the chorus of concerned citizens who support a cleaner economy.

To help solidify your resolution to divest and help build the US movement for a clean-energy future, take the Divestment Pledge for Individuals at
divestinvest.org.

Advanced step: Consider re-investing your money in clean, green energy. One of the easiest ways to make sure your investments aren’t going toward the burning of fossil fuels is to invest through trusted socially responsible mutual funds that screen out companies who, among other things, hold fossil fuel reserves. You can also find funds that specialize in supporting green energy like solar and wind. Search greenpages.org for a socially responsible mutual fund, or to find a financial advisor who specializes in matching your investment strategies with your values.

For 2015 and Beyond

Let’s be honest—a lot of our would-be resolutions, whether it be exercising more or staying away from chocolate, don’t last all year. But when you commit to one of the resolutions above, and put time into shifting your investments or establishing a retirement account, your work for the year is done! All you have to do is move your money once, and all year long and beyond it will be at work for communities and clean energy industries who need it the most.

—Sarah Tarver-Walhquist

Procter & Gamble committed to sell Fair Trade Certified™ coffee products through its speciality coffee division, Millstone