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Saturna Capital, manager of the Amana, Saturna Sustainable, Sextant, and Idaho Tax-Exempt funds, draws upon years of investment experience to aid investors in navigating today’s complex market environment. Founded in 1989, Saturna has helped individuals and institutions build wealth, earn income, preserve capital and achieve their financial goals for more than thirty years.

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It’s a very good thing that there are so many sustainability labels in the world, although it may feel confusing at first. These certifications are proof positive that lots of people care about how workers are treated and that they want products that are made without hurting animals or the ecosystems we all depend on. 

There are many of us willing to vote for less-harmful products with our spending. 

But with the plethora of certifications, marks, and labels, it can be hard to know what means what, and sometimes there's more than one organization seeking to guide consumers for a given product area. Sometimes this is because certifications began in different parts of the world, but then became large enough to cross borders — and sometimes it’s because two groups came up with a similar mission but have a different perspective on what they think is important. 

This means that some of these labels are stricter than others. Some organizations see stringency as a top priority, while other groups want to bring together as many companies under the umbrella of sustainability and guide them to greener choices over time. Then, of course, there are some of these organizations that have been accused of greenwashing. We’ve indicated where there is controversy on this issue. 

We hope this listing will be useful as you shop — or if you're just curious about what a certain certification means on something you’ve already bought. Keep in mind that in quite a few cases, these standards or certifications do change over time, with quite a few organizations on this list regularly updating their criteria, so to get more specific info than is presented here, you can always go to the website of the label or standard you’re curious about. 

General Certifications and Programs

Below, we look at a number sustainability certifications and programs that most businesses could participate in, including those that ensure good labor practices.

Certified B Corporation

• Also Known As: B Corp
• What It Certifies: companies

More than 3800 companies in 74 countries are certified as B Corporations: That means they must achieve a minimum score on the organization’s B Impact Assessment, which includes what they call a “rigorous assessment” of the company’s impact on environment, workers, community and customers.

For each company, this information is verified and posted on the B Corporation website. In addition, those companies who are Certified B Corporations must change the governing documents for their company so that the board of directors’ mission reflects the B Corp mission of “balancing profit and purpose.”

Cradle to Cradle Certified

• Also Known As: C2C
• What It Certifies: clothing , textiles, fashion accessories, building products, home decor, personal care, cleaning products

The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute was founded by Wiliam McDonough and Michael Braungart, coauthors of the book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Ways We Make Things. The design principles laid out in that book were the foundations of the Cradle to Cradle Product Standard, which has gone through several iterations which are determined via a stakeholder engagement process that includes input from the public, as well as technical experts and market leaders.

The Cradle to Cradle Certified label is meant to be a “measure of safer, more sustainable products made for the circular economy.” Towards that end, each Certified product is assessed in five categories, “material health, material reuse, renewable energy and carbon management, water stewardship, and social fairness.” Each products is then assigned a one of 5 levels (Basic to Platinum) for each category, and all details are available on the organization’s website.

Disclosure: The author of this article worked for the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute for four years but was no longer employed there when she wrote this article. 

Green America's Green Business Certification

• What It Certifies: businesses 

This certification is for a variety of businesses and is less product-driven than others on this list but is more about certifying a company which adopts “principles, policies and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, employees, communities, and the planet.”

The certification is awarded to those companies that actively use their business as a “tool for positive social change;” source, market and manufacture their products in an environmentally responsible way; are committed to practices that are socially equitable and have “extraordinary” practices that benefit workers, the community and the environment; and businesses that function with radical transparency.

Businesses must apply for certification and there are a host of requirements depending on what kind of business the company applying is involved in, from candlemaking to banks, from electronics to resorts, to packaging companies and many more.

1% for the Planet

• What It Covers: any company can participate

This organization was founded in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies. It aims to fund a diversity of environmental organizations by connecting them with companies which promise to give the equivalent of 1 percent of their gross sales (which can be money, in-kind, and promotional support) directly to environmental charities.

The 1% for the Planet Organization facilitates the connection and certifies the companies’ giving, so they can use the seal or logo on their products. Over $250 million has been given via the organization so far, and they recently launched an option for individuals to give 1 percent of their salaries through a separate program. 

Although 1% for the Planet business members are often engaged in various sustainability efforts, participation in this giving program does not necessary mean that all of a business' products are eco-friendly.

Fair Trade Certified

• Also Known As: Fair Trade USA
• What It Certifies: clothing, food, beverages

Fair Trade Certified is the global brand of Fair Trade USA, the nonprofit organization. There is a reciprocal agreement with Fairtrade International (see below).

That means that producers who have the Fair Trade Certified seal might have certification via Fair Trade USA or Fairtrade International standards. The idea is to discourage duplicate audits of the same product. Fair Trade USA has different certifications that can cover an “entire product, an ingredient in the product, or the facility where that product was made.”

Fair Trade Certification requires all businesses that work with them to be held to standards that include “income sustainability, community and individual well-being, empowerment, and environmental stewardship.” That includes requirements, which are updated regularly, around worker’s rights, fair labor and sustainable land management.

Fairtrade International

• What It Certifies: clothing, textiles, food, tea, coffee

Fairtrade International runs the Fairtrade mark, which is different visually from Fair Trade Certified, but with which they have a reciprocal agreement (see above). More than 30,000 products carry the Fairtrade mark, and the standard is a combination of social, economic, and environmental criteria that “support the sustainable development of small producer organizations and agricultural workers in the Global South.”

Environmental standards are set so they both reduce impact on the planet and also meet the realities of local populations—but they do include a ban on certain pesticides and GMO seeds. Economic standards are designed around more equitable distribution of profits, traceability, and transparency. The Social standards cover working conditions, enable worker organization, and ban exploitative child labor, and discriminatory labor practices.

Agricultural Certifications

These certifications independently verify that certain agricultural practices are being followed.

Non-GMO Project Verified

• What It Certifies: food, beverages, personal care products

This label rigorously verifies that all ingredients are GMO free in a product that bears this label. That includes testing of ingredients that might be cross-contaminated. The Non-GMO Project is the only organization that has such a thorough and well-developed vetting process (they are into the 16th iteration of their detailed standard) to determine this information, although other labels include GMO foods as part of their screening process.

USDA National Organic Program

• Also Known As: USDA Organic
• What It Certifies: Food, drink, personal care, textiles

The United States Department of Agriculture manages the USDA organic certification. It details the requirements for the types of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers that are allowed to be used on crops that can be labelled USDA Organic. The program has an allowable list of these substances, as well as specific amounts and circumstances where they can be used. 

The standard also disallows genetic engineering, ionizing radiation, or sewage sludge. The seal is overseen by certifying agents authorized by the USDA National Organic Program. 

Building and Home Certifications

The following certifications ensure that a range of buildings are constructed or renovated with health and/or sustainability in mind. 

Environmental Protection Agency Lead-Safe

• What It Certifies: building interiors

The US government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certifies construction and repair companies with this seal. To get it, contractors must take a one-day training course to understand how and why lead paint is harmful to human health and how to remove it/abate it properly. Any renovation or repair contractors that work in pre-1978 homes, schools, or day care centers (and disrupt more than six square feet of lead paint) are required to become EPA Lead-Safe Certified.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design

• Also Known As: LEED
• What It Certifies: buildings, cities, communities

The United States Green Building Council runs the LEED certification, which aims “help people, and the communities and cities they reside in—safely, healthily and sustainably thrive.” The certification looks at the health and environmental impacts and social benefits of materials used for construction or reconstruction.

They do this by certifying buildings via an independently verified points system—for each project, green building strategies and their impacts are assessed. Those points then indicate whether a project is Certified LEED, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. There is also a LEED Zero certification for projects with net zero goals in carbon and/or resources. The LEED Cities and Communities Pilot program measures and manages a city’s “water consumption, energy use, waste, transportation and human experience.”

Well Building Standard

• Also Known As: WELL Certified
• What It Certifies: buildings

This standard is applied to building interiors and its overall aim is to use scientific research to “advance human health through design interventions and operational protocols and policies and foster a culture of health and wellness.” It takes into consideration ten main strategies, including air, water, light, movement, nourishment, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community — and within each of those are features, so the certification is incredibly detailed and looks at a variety of aspects of building health.

To keep track of these details, the certification works on a points-based system with 110 points available for each project. Parts are weighted based on possible impact. WELL is currently used in over 60 countries by more than 4,000 projects. 

Chemical Safety Certifications

There are a number of third-party organizations that verify that consumer goods are free from toxic ingredients, residues and other chemicals of environmental concerns. Some of these certifications also ensure eco-friendly manufacturing processes. Below are some of the most common. 

eco-INSTITUT

• What It Certifies: construction products, flooring, mattresses, bedding, furniture, furnishings

This Germany-based label specifically looks at how products used in homes offgas, which affects indoor air quality.

They label low-pollutant and low-emission products with their label, based on “extensive lab tests” which focus on emissions testing (AKA offgassing) and they analyze compounds based on select parameters including heavy metals, pesticides, and others—what they test for depends on the product. 

Environmental Working Group Verified

• Also Known As: EWG Verified
• What It Certifies: skin care, personal care, hair care, cleaning products

The Environmental Working Group is a non-profit that tracks chemical safety. They employ scientists and rely on peer-reviewed research to look into water safety, agricultural chemicals, and consumer product ingredients. The organization’s EWG Verified mark has been given to over 1700 products and is an offshoot of their popular Skin Deep database where consumers can find details on over 70,000 personal care products.

The EWG Verified mark indicates that those products that have the label are free from EWG “chemicals of concern” and that they product meets the organization’s strictest standards for health.The list of “unacceptable” ingredients includes any with “health, ecotoxicity, and/or contamination concerns.” The mark also means that Verified products have to be transparent, listing all their ingredients.

GreenGuard

• What It Certifies: building materials; furniture, electronics, cleaning products, certain medical devices

The majority of chemical exposures most people have are via the air in their own homes, offices, or schools, GreenGuard exists to certify products with lower Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) — since VOCs offgas into the air, contributing to poor indoor air quality.

VOCs are incredibly common, found in products for building and maintaining buildings, interior furniture, cleaning products and personal care products. The idea is that consumers can look for the GreenGuard certification and know that they are helping to reduce indoor air pollution.

Made Safe

• What It Certifies: apparel, bedding, personal care, childcare items, menstrual products, apparel

Over 6500 chemicals are banned from being used in any Made Safe certified product. The organization’s goal is to ensure that products are made with “safe ingredients not known or suspected to harm human health.”

They do this by asking companies interested in certifying their product to send them a list of ingredients (including sub-ingredients), which the organization first runs against their list of banned chemicals. If it passes that process, then ingredients are put through the organization’s toxicant database screening which may verify some chemicals as permitted. Other chemicals are checked for bioaccumulation, environmental persistence, soil and water toxicity, human health effects, and more. Then a report is issued.

Animal Welfare Certifications

In this group of certifications, we look at various standards that seek to ensure better animal welfare. Some of these standards certify that animal products are collected in humane ways, although the product (like down) may be the result of animals being killed. Others, like Certified Vegan, ensure that no animals are used in the process of creating a product. If you are a vegan, it’s worthwhile to know the difference. 

Downpass

• What It Certifies: pillows, down products

Downpass is an animal welfare standard that aims to independently verify products the goose and duck down found in bedding products and clothing. In order to qualify for the standard, the origin of down and feathers must be proven, and on-site inspections of farms and plants are included.

Announced and unannounced visits by auditors several times a year monitor the “rearing conditions and keeping of the animals.” Material from foie-gras farms or farms that live-pluck is prohibited. Each product audited to the Downpass standard can be traced with a verification number on the label.   

Global Traceable Down Standard

• Also Known As: Global TDS
• What It Certifies: down, feathers and products that contain them

This standard is focused on ensuring that down and feathers are made without causing “unnecessary harm” to the animals that provide them. Those producers that use the label must follow local animal welfare laws and best practices based on the International Finance Corporation Good Practice Note on Animal Welfare in Livestock Operations.

The label doesn’t allow live-plucking of animals, nor feathers from foie gras producers. The welfare of the animals in the standard are evaluated by “visually inspecting animals and verifying handling practices with veterinarians and others directly in contact with the animals.” The Global TDS follows the chain of custody so that all parts of the supply chain are verified, to ensure that conventional down and certified down aren’t mixed together. 

Leaping Bunny

• What It Certifies: cosmetics, household products

Over 2,000 companies are Leaping Bunny Certified, which indicates that not only is the final product not tested on animals, but no ingredient, formulation, or product from a third-party supplier is either. Even if animal testing is required by the regulatory agencies of other countries, the product cannot be certified. The certification requires that companies have a supplier monitoring system. Companies with the seal must re-commit annually.

Note that the Leaping Bunny seal does not guarantee that a product is vegan.

Responsible Down Standard

• Also Known As: RDS
• What It Certifies: feathers, down and products that contain them

Textile Exchange manages this standard, which seeks to ensure that down and feathers come  from “animals that have not been subjected to any unnecessary harm.” The standard both monitors current practices and seeks to reward better treatment of animals by incentivizing humane treatment by producers. RDS also provides a format so that consumers know the claims made about the down or feathers used in their clothing or bedding are accurate.

Live-plucking and force-feeding practices are not allowed, the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare must be followed, and third-party audits of all of the above are a part of certification. Only products that are made with 100 percent certified down or feathers can carry the logo. 

Responsible Wool Standard

• Also Known As: RWS
• What It Certifies: wool yarn, apparel made from wool

Also run by the Textile Exchange, the Responsible Wool Standard can be attached to wool that comes from farms that have progressive land management and have respect for animal welfare —like the RDS, that includes adherence to the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare. All entities in the wool-creation process must be certified by RWS, including the farmer, traders, yarn, fabric, and final garment. 

Vegan Certified

• Also Known As: Vegan
• What It Certifies: food, drink, personal care, textiles, clothing, shoes, bags, accessories, mattresses, pillows, linens

The Certified Vegan logo is on products worldwide, but they must come from companies in the United States (and US territories), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Currently over 1,000 companies and tens of thousands of products include the logo, and it is used on products that don’t contain animal products or byproducts—and those that haven’t been tested on animals.

That includes insects and insect-derived products (like honey) or silk or silk derivatives, or any animal-derived GMOs, as well as sweeteners filtered with bone char, or liquids clarified with animal-derived products. The certification is managed by the nonprofit organization Vegan Awareness Foundation (AKA Vegan Action).

Electronics and Appliance Certifications

The following certification programs help shoppers find appliances that use resources like water and energy wisely. 

Energy Star

• What It Certifies: home appliances, new apartments, homes

Energy Star is a labelling program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy to promote energy efficiency in American homes and businesses. For appliances, meeting the Energy Star standard means the product meets a standard for energy savings over other similar machines or products (specifics on savings vary by the product category) .

Appliances included in the Energy Star program include washers and dryers, refrigerators, pool pumps, light bulbs, and more. For new homes or apartments to qualify for Energy Star labelling, they must be at least 10 percent more energy efficient that homes built to code. The program also works with buildings and industrial plants on who want to acquire an Energy Star label. 

Electronic Product Environmental Assessment

• Also Known As: EPEAT
• What It Certifies: electronics

Managed by The Global Electronics Council (GEC), the EPEAT ecolabel is the leading environmental certification system for electronics including TVs, computers, servers, mobile phones, solar panels, and more. The organization provides third-party verification of the products listed in its registry, which is updated daily.

The materials criteria for each type of electronic is different, and the standard is regularly updated. It includes criteria to address a product’s entire lifecycle, including energy conservation, toxic materials, product longevity and what happens to it when it has reached its end of life. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gasses, hazardous waste, and solid waste.

WaterSense

• What It Certifies: toilets, sinks, urinals, shower heads, sprinklers, irrigation controls

The WaterSense logo is the EPA’s label that indicates a product is at least 20 percent more efficient than average products. Labelled products must also perform as well or better than their less-efficient competitors.

Builders can also be certified by the WaterSense program if they are constructing homes that “meet the WaterSense specification for homes.” The label is verified by independent, third-party certification partners who test and verify products for efficiency, performance and specifications.

Forest Product Certifications

Global deforestation is a serious issue, which threatens to damage biodiversity and speed up climate change. The following certifications aim to ensure that products aren’t contributing to forest loss, but some programs have come under significant criticism. Below, we look at these different programs.

Forest Stewardship Council

• Also Known As: FSC
• What It Certifies: paper, sanitary paper products, wood products 

The Forest Stewardship Council’s Certification promotes more sustainable forest management practices and labelling to indicate that some or all of a product’s ingredients are from such forests. The forest management standards include preserving biological diversity and benefiting people local to the forest, including economically.

The FSC tracks certified material “from the forest to the consumer” and includes processing, manufacturing, and distribution. There are three FSC labels: 100% Products contain material only from FSC certified forests; Mix Products contain material from FSC certified forests and recycled material; and Recycled Products contain post-consumer material and pre-consumer content. 

Rainforest Alliance Certified

• What It Certifies: food, beverage, personal care, forestry products, tourism businesses

The Rainforest Alliance seal indicates that the product (or ingredient in another product) was made in a way that supports social, economic, and environmental sustainability. This is verified by independent, third-party auditors, who evaluate producers in those areas.

The seal varies in its more specific requirement depending on the product: Agricultural products are certified according to their specific standards and/or the UTZ Code of Conduct. For herbs and spices, they recognize the Union for Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) standard, combined with additional requirements. For forestry products, the FSC standard is used (Rainforest Alliance is a founding member of FSC), and the applying business is a part of Rainforest Alliance’s Forest Allies Initiative.

For tourism businesses, certification is via: “Preferred by Nature's (formerly NEPCon) Sustainable Tourism Standard, recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.”

Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

• Also Known As: RSPO
• What It Certifies: palm oil (used in food and personal care products) 

As palm oil has grown in popularity for food manufacture (especially for snack/junk foods), it has been implicated in the rapid deforestation in Malaysian Borneo, Indonesia and elsewhere. Often, palm oil plantations were created on land that was formerly the forest home to endangered animals like orangutans, tigers, elephants, and rhinos.

The RSPO certification works to prove that a palm oil is produced sustainably. All parts of the supply chain, from plantation to collection ports, refineries and manufacturers are audited to ensure that RSPO-certified palm oil isn’t mixed with non-sustainable products — and that supply chain is traceable.

This label has also come under fire for being too lenient with palm oil plantations that have more recently been converted from forested land. Studies have found that some of the RSPO plantations were forested land that was home to elephants, orangutans, and other animals as recently as 30 years ago. The idea that forest can be razed for palm oil plantations and then be certified as sustainable makes it a “meaningless certification” according to researcher Roberto Cazzolla Gatti.

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

• Also Known As: SFI
• What It Certifies: wood, paper products, other forestry products

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a non-profit organization that aims to inform consumers that fiber in a product “is certified to the SFI 2015-2019 (Extended through December 2021) Fiber Sourcing Standard, or comes from recycled content, or from a certified forest.” They state that all fiber must come from “non-controversial sources,” and all certified forests must go through independent audits of forests via accredited certification bodies. 

There are significant criticisms of SFI’s practices and some environmental organizations consider it a significantly less-robust label than FSC Certification (detailed above), due to lower transparency and standards, and the fact that it was founded by logging industry groups. Some critics even go so far as to allege that the label is an example of greenwashing. A 2020 article in the journal Forests also finds SFI to have comparably lower standards than other forest certifications. 

Textile Certifications

Have you ever wondered if clothes or furniture you buy is sustainable? The following certifications let you know which products are made with eco-friendly fabrics. 

blueSign

• What It Certifies: clothes, textiles

BlueSign is an independent verification system for sustainability in textiles. In order to carry the blueSign label, a piece of clothing or product must include at least 90 percent blueSign-approved textiles and 30 percent approved accessories. The goal is for the company to work toward 100 percent for each product.

Since textiles go through a complicated supply chain, including raw materials, processing, dyeing, finishing, each step of the process must be assessed. This is to ensure that there are no “missing links in sustainable materials and work steps — from raw material to finished product,” according to the bluesign website. 

Global Organic Latex Standard

• Also Known As: GOLS
• What It Certifies: latex products, mattresses, pillows

The Global Organic Latex Standard (GOLS) is seen most often in the sleep-products sector (mattresses and pillows) but can also be found in other types of furniture, like couches and chairs, which use latex padding.

To achieve the standard, a product must contain more than 95 percent certified organic raw latex. Qualifying products may have other polymers and fillers, but the finished product is subject to emission tests and there are specific limits to harmful substances. Both rubber plantations, where organic latex is extracted from the trees, and processing units, including the final retailer of a product, can be certified. The standard tracks this via transaction certificates at every sales point along the supply chain. 

Global Organic Textile Standard

• Also Known As: GOTS
• What It Certifies: clothing, home textiles, mattresses, fiber products, yarns, fabrics, food-contact textiles, personal care products

The GOTS standard was developed in 2006 by a working group of four organizations: The International Association Natural Textile Industry, the Japan Organic Cotton Association, the Organic Trade Association, and the Soil Association.

This widely used certification has two levels: Labelled organic for products that contain 95 percent or more organic material, and another for those that have 70 percent to 94 percent organic material, in which case they have to disclose the percentage on the GOTS label. The label certifies the entire process the material travels through, not just the final product. The entire supply chain, including processors, spinners, weavers, dyers and other manufacturers, and textile traders must be certified.

This process must be transparent and reported to the independent certifying body who approves the label for use. As part of the labelling requirement, in addition to the GOTS logo, the license number (or name) of the certified supplier database must be included, so consumers can look up the information for the item they have purchased. 

OEKO-TEX

• What It Certifies: textiles, leather

There are three OEKO-TEX certifications: Made in Green, Standard-100, and Leather. The Standard 100 is the most well-known, and it means that every part of a finished piece, including threads, buttons or other accessories, has been independently tested for “harmful substances and therefore is harmless to human health.” The Leather standard also has a specific test for chemicals that are harmful to human health.

The Made in Green Label can be applied to all textiles, including leather and non-leather goods and goes beyond the Standard 100 and Leather certifications. This label indicates that in addition to the chemical standards, an item with the label is also guaranteed to have been manufactured “using sustainable practices and under socially responsible working conditions.” Every Made in Green-labelled product also has a traceable code so consumers can find out more about that particular item.

We are addressing global plastic pollution.

Gondwana Ecotours specializes in small group and private tours to exciting destinations around the world. Our itineraries are carefully curated to include both unique nature and culture, and the fun activities are suitable to most travelers. Traveling with local guides who live in the communities we visit add depth and authenticity to the experiences.

We are committed to providing environmentally sustainable travel. We've carbon offset guest flights since the company's inceptions and are in the process of making all of our tours certifiably carbon neutral. Travel is a privilege that we don't take for granted and we make a point to support local programs that are focused on preservation and/or sustainability in an effort to reduce our collective footprint. 

We invite you to join us on one of our upcoming adventures, whether it's catching the Northern Lights in Alaska, visiting endangered gorillas in Rwanda or enjoying a beautiful vista on a hike in Patagonia. 

Thanks to the pressure of nearly 40,000 action takers Godiva has issued a public policy on responsible cocoa! Within this policy, Godiva commits to taking steps to scale child labor monitoring and remediation systems to 100%, commits to working with suppliers so that cocoa farmers earn a living income, and to no deforestation, among other commitments.

The policy and commitments are a positive step in the right direction. But, Godiva is still behind many other major chocolate companies in addressing social and environmental issues from cocoa.

We will continue to monitor Godiva’s progress. The new policy is a shift in the right direction, however the policy and commitments must be met with swift, meaningful action.

A Hawaii-based clothing company made by community, to support community. 

Contact: Website | Facebook | Instagram

AKO Wear is a community-driven microbusiness specializing in organic and Earth-friendly clothing. Founded in 2019 by Fozia Fearnley, this woman-owned company is on a mission to change the relationship we have with our closets by introducing sustainable and locally made products.

Prior to starting AKO Wear, Fearnley lived in many locations throughout the US, from New York to California. When she retired in Hawaii, she wanted to pursue her passions—and that’s when AKO Wear came to light. Starting a triple bottom line company would give her the opportunity to support local nonprofits through donations, uplift other small businesses with partnerships, and create clothes that are good for people and the planet. 

“Wherever I have my footprint is where I try to assist,” Fearnley says. 

Keeping it local has always been a core value of the company. AKO Wear is named after the place it was created, Kaka’ako in Honolulu. Fearnley states that every step in the supply chain supports US manufacturers on the mainland and people on the Hawaii islands. 

“Our mission statement has always been local, organic, and Earth-friendly,” she says. “Our products are finished by local businesses. For example, if there’s embroidery work to be done, like the Honu—the Lucky Turtle on one of our tops—that goes to a local business.”

“We’re helping one another,” she adds. 

AKO Wear also makes donations to Hawaii-based nonprofits. Fearnley originally began volunteering with Hawaii Literacy, a literacy program in Honolulu, and took her support further by donating AKO Wear’s proceeds to the organization. Fearnley listens to see where she can support community needs through both AKO Wear and by volunteering her time.

Beyond community support, AKO Wear is forwarding a mission of sustainability in the fashion industry. It is more than just wearing comfortable and nontoxic clothing—it’s about awareness around better choices for ourselves and the planet. Because the clothes are organic and non-GMO, they are gentle to people with skin sensitivities and allergies. 

Additionally, AKO Wear has recently launched a vegetable dye collection, which creates beautiful, nontoxic colors and honors nature in fashion.

“These dyes are made from plant sources like roots, berries, bark, and leaves,” she says. “We’re infusing nature back into our clothes.”

Fearnley is also excited to announce a men’s and unisex line to AKO Wear’s collections. Shop the Hawaii-based clothing company at akowearhawaii.com/shop.

Shop AKO Wear

Amazon is dominating the online retail space and rapidly expanding across industries. In fact, Amazon is the largest US retailer of apparel. While Amazon is full of deals, those deals come at a big cost to people and the planet.

Why is Amazon bad?

• Amazon's net profits increased by 84% according to Forbes, and it made over $20 billion in profits last year, but it is not paying workers hazard pay during the pandemic. And, Amazon worked relentlessly to stop workers from exercising their basic right to a union.
  
  
• Amazon's carbon footprint INCREASED by 15% in 2019 and is equal to the entire country of Norway's! 
  
  
• Injury rates at Amazon facilities are reportedly double that of the industry average. And, Amazon workers sustained more than 24,000 serious injuries in 2020, according to the Strategic Organizing Center.   
  
  
• Amazon has a history of selling unsafe products to consumers. Consumers have reported products exploding, catching on fire, or melting. Children's toys listed on Amazon have been found to have way over the legal limit of lead.
  
  
• Amazon does not have a public chemical management policy for apparel, meaning there could be harmful chemicals in the clothing purchased from Amazon.

Amazon relies on customers to generate its enormous profits, so as consumers, we can have real influence on this corporation. Due to consumer, investor, and worker pressure, Amazon has committed to being powered by 100% renewables by 2025 - consumer action works!   

Read more reasons why to pass on shopping from Amazon, how Amazon violates human rights, and 5 reasons to skip Amazon electronics. 

Take Action

Together, we can hold this massive corporation accountable!

Join over 100,000 people calling on Amazon to take meaningful action to address climate change and treat workers with the respect and dignity they are owed:

Take Action

Together, we can hold this massive corporation accountable!

Join over 100,000 people calling on Amazon to take meaningful action to address climate change and treat workers with the respect and dignity they are owed:

Support small, green businesses that put people and the planet first, unlike Amazon. Use your purchasing power to shift the market demand.

Contact Amazon directly to raise your concerns! You can call Amazon at (888) 280-4331 or write a letter to the company. It may be challenging to get ahold of a person when calling Amazon, but if you reach someone, have the reasons for why you are calling ready and feel free to pull from the list above or any of Green America's resources!

Major Uptick in Climate-Friendly Gardens Continues with Numbers Nearly Quadrupling in Just One Year; New Resources and Video Available for Climate Victory Garden Beginners and Pros.  

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 24, 2021 – Gardeners are ready to go for spring planting and Green America, the nonprofit promoting Climate Victory Gardens, has a major new resource for them: a new beginner gardener guide with information on planning, planting, soil health for carbon capture, and maintenance. Since last April, Climate Victory Gardens have almost quadrupled to over 8,600 registered gardens, due in large part to COVID-19 and social distancing.

This year, Green America also released a new video outlining the 5 steps for starting a Climate Victory Garden. Anyone can garden for the planet, and resources are available for all gardeners no matter if they are pros or starting at square one.

Jes Walton, former food campaigns director at Green America, said: “As home gardening grows in popularity, it’s important for gardeners to understand that the techniques they use can have an impact on the planet for better or worse. Climate Victory Gardens are a great alternative to chemical-intensive lawns, they provide food and biodiversity, and when we keep the soil healthy, it can absorb the carbon dioxide driving the climate crisis.”

The new resources for beginner gardeners cover popular topics such as:

• Container gardening
• Raised garden beds
• Growing food indoors
• Seeds vs. transplants
• Soil testing
• Composting
• Finding local help

Climate Victory Gardens help to fight climate change by fostering healthy soil that can draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Inspired by the “Victory Gardens” campaigns during WWI and WWII that produced 40 percent of the fresh produce consumed in the U.S. at the time, Climate Victory Gardens empower Americans to grow gardens with regenerative agriculture techniques to help address the climate crisis.

Green America estimates that current gardens are offsetting the equivalent of over 40 million miles driven, which shows how Climate Victory Gardens are a meaningful way for people to do something about climate change.

Climate Victory Gardens are being tracked through Green America’s searchable map. To add your own Climate Victory Garden to the map, visit: https://greenam.org/garden.

About Green America

Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today’s social and environmental problems. http://www.GreenAmerica.org

MEDIA CONTACT: Max Karlin for Green America, (703) 276-3255, or mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com.

By David Vetter

Does your favorite chocolate cost the Earth, or is it as sweet on sustainability as it is to your tastebuds?

This week, the Rotten Egg Awards ranked 31 chocolate companies around the world for their performance on sustainability and human rights. And what’s clear from the ranking is that some companies are doing a far better job than others of keeping their tasty treats guilt-free.

Out ahead of Easter, which this year lands April 4, the results indicate that many of the world’s largest confectioners are cleaning up their act on critical issues like child labor and deforestation, most have plenty of room for improvement. And some—the eponymous Rotten Eggs—scored poorly in almost every area.

On the other hand, the top-scoring companies offer chocolate lovers new, ethical options to consider when it comes to fulfilling their cravings.

Read full article here.

Bethesda Green works to address environmental challenges locally by creating a sustainable, green community, built collaboratively through citizen engagement, environmental education, government partnership and innovative business development. We do so through our Innovation Lab, which works to cultivate innovative “eco-entrepreneurs” and incubate green business development to ensure compatibility between economic development and environmental protection. We also advise existing local businesses through B-Corps certification on best practices for sound governance, support for workers, and sustainability. We build a green urban ecosystem through our Be Green Living program that works to elevate community engagement and engage in programs that address environmental challenges through projects that enhance the quality of life for local residents. Part of this community-driven work includes an Environmental Leaders program to support environmental education, cultivating the next generation of visionary green leaders.

Is this your year to start a garden? Make it a Climate Victory Garden! Get started and see results before you know it. 

Imagine it’s an early summer morning and you step outside to look at your garden just as the sun is evaporating the dew off the grass. You see new leaves on your herbs and some baby zucchinis starting to form under huge green leaves. You breathe in the fresh air and feel excited to see your garden thrive this year, and a sense of calm knowing it is doing important work for the Earth.

With a Climate Victory Garden, everyone can take meaningful action for soil health and emissions. This list for beginners is a jumping off point for learning the basics and starting on a path towards gardening for the planet. Start by asking yourself these important questions: 

Am I protecting the soil?

Soil puts "climate" in climate victory gardening by pulling the powerful greenhouse gas carbon dioxide out of the air and storing it underground where it feeds our plants and soil microbes. Avoiding tilling and keeping soils covered are examples of protecting the soil. 

Am I choosing climate-conscious products? 

When you choose what you put into your garden, you may make a climate impact in the wider world as well. Minimize those effects by making decisions that help reduce emissions. When possible, opt for natural and organic alternatives to synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Use sustainably harvested or repurposed materials whenever possible.

For example, instead if using synthetic chemical fertilizers—and their associated pollution and emissions from production and transportation—fertilize your garden with compost that supports soil life and keeps food and other organic waste out of the landfill where they produce the potent greenhouse gas, methane.

1. Set Goals for Your Climate Victory Garden

Think about your dream garden. What do you see, hear, and smell? Consider drawing or writing about it. Think about how much time you have to commit to your garden—be realistic and start small. If you have just a few minutes a day, consider a container garden—maybe just one pot. If it’s your first time ever gardening, consider a plot ten square feet or smaller, which requires two to three hours per week.

While it will take some time to achieve a dream garden, your vision and goals will guide you through the process. What does success mean to you? Maybe your top priority is growing delicious food to save money on groceries, getting your kids outside, or creating a habitat for pollinators. 

2. Choose Your Plants

First things first—grow what you love! Here are some additional considerations for deciding what to grow: 

• Look at your favorite recipes and grow the ingredients. 
• Plant veggies and herbs that are expensive or hard to find at your grocery store. Veggie blossoms can also support pollinators!
• Consider how much space you have and grow accordingly—herbs are great for small spaces, while squash need several square feet for each plant. 
• Grow plants that are suited to your climate—find your area’s hardiness zone and match that to the zone to information on the back of your seed packet. 
• Consider perennial plants that don’t have to be replanted each season because they’re great for supporting soil heath and are less work for you.

Choosing between seeds and transplants

Beginner gardeners will have the best luck with transplants, because they’ve been nurtured past their vulnerable seedling stage. Transplants are also quicker to mature because they’re several weeks old by the time you get them. Because of that, they’re also more expensive than starting from seed. When buying transplants from your local nursery or neighborhood farm, choose plants that were grown without the use of chemical pesticides or fertilizers. 

If you’d like to try to start some plants from seed, opt for the easy-to-grow plants like peas, beans, radishes, leafy greens, and sunflowers. 

3. Find the Perfect Place

Before you get too excited, be sure to check your zoning laws, any HOA requirements, and—if you’re a renter—talk to your landlord about starting a garden. If you don’t know the entire history of your property, consider getting your soil tested for toxic chemicals like lead paint. If your soil is permanently damaged, you can still grow food in raised beds and/or containers. 

When choosing a spot for your garden, the easier it is to see and access your garden, the more you’ll be reminded to care for it. Choose a site that’s visible from a room where you spend a lot of time. It’s also helpful to have a nearby water source, like a hose or spigot to fill your watering can.

If you have strict landscaping rules where you live, experiment with including beautiful edible plants in with your ornamentals. 

Think you’ve found the ideal spot? Take some time to observe the area to make sure it gets enough sun—most crops prefer 6-8 hours of direct sunlight every day. Look for other environmental factors like wind and drainage as well. 

No yard? No worries! 

If you don’t have a lot (or any) outdoor growing space, it’s time to get creative. Maybe you can grow along fence lines; in the parkways between sidewalks and curbs; at family’s, friend’s, or a neighbor’s house; or other open areas in your neighborhood. Or, you might be able to get a plot at a local farm or community garden. Have a balcony, sunny windowsill, or a little extra space on your counter-top? You can grow a Climate Victory Garden in containers indoors or outdoors too!

4. Time it Right

If you’ve purchased transplants, keep them indoors until the risk of frost has passed. When you’re ready to plant outside, help your seedlings adjust to their new home by hardening off—that is, placing them near their future planting site for a few hours each day and increasing the time gradually until they’ve spent a night outdoors in their pot. 

When planting, first water the ground thoroughly. Dig a hole twice as large as the pot, take the plant out of the pot and place in the ground, and lightly pack the soil around the roots. Water thoroughly again and maintain a consistent watering schedule to avoid shocking the plant. 

Planting from seed is more difficult, as they need regular watering and close attention. Look for seeds that can be direct-seeded right in the dirt of your garden or container, which will be on the back of the seed packet, along with seed depth, row spacing, and dates to plant. 

No matter what you plant, make sure you incorporate pathways into your layout and beds that you can reach the middle of for weeding and harvesting. 

5. Protect Your Climate Victory Garden Soil

Soils are rich with life that supports nutritious crops and carbon capture. There are many ways to protect and build soil health, and these are a lifelong part of the gardening process. 

• Avoid chemicals that reduce biodiversity 
• Add compost to support soil life 
• Mulch to protect soils from the elements 
• Allow weeds to cover uncultivated soils 
• Minimize digging to reduce disturbance of fungi and earthworms 
• Keep old plants in the ground over the winter for pollinator habitat and to anchor soils 
• When removing old plants to plant more, cut at the soil level, leaving the root underground 
• Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned gardener, it’s all an experiment. There will be ups and downs. 

Looking for more information about how to do any of the above steps? Check out our Beginner Gardener’s Toolkit.

When people of color lack access to financial services, their schools, housing, and businesses are affected. Delegate Jazz Lewis of Maryland details the economic repercussions for constituents like his. 

As the global pandemic disproportionately affected communities of color and activists took to the streets following the police killing of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, national attention turned to enduring systemic racism in American society. Among the many challenges facing Black Americans, Black communities are drastically underserved economically, and Black families lag far behind white families in terms of wealth, a phenomenon known as the “racial wealth gap.”

Despite the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, a 2020 report by Citibank on the racial wealth gap and its enduring effects found that the gaps in “unemployment, net worth, debt levels, wages, peak income, financing for businesses, [and] spending on education” are higher than ever. 

The Economic Costs of Racism

To learn more about the economic costs of racism, including how racism doesn’t just harm individuals but the economy as a whole, I spoke with Delegate Jazz Lewis, who represents the 24th Legislative District (Prince George's County) in Maryland’s House of Delegates. Lewis recently wrote an article for the Brookings Institute about how states can help close the racial wealth gap and has worked with Maryland pension funds to increase diversity in management teams to ensure more equitable investments. Prior to his work in the legislature, Lewis worked as a community organizer for the Service Employees International Union in 2011 and 2012 and helped ensure consumer protections for Baltimore City residents. In our interview, he spoke about how racism and racial inequality holds all of our people and our economy back, as well as how people are working to close the gaps. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Green America/Asher Weinstein: What do you see as the economic costs of racism for the country and our society, and why?

Del. Jazz Lewis: I worked as a community organizer on the streets of Baltimore. And a lot of my experience there taught me that if you give small businesses and minority-owned businesses, an opportunity, they’re going to hire the people who live in their communities. But they aren’t always getting those opportunities, and that has pretty far-reaching effects. The Citi report showed that because of inequities in who gets approved for housing and other elements of the wealth gap, [the US economy] was missing out on about $16 trillion worth of economic activity over 20 years. 

This is because these issues are disproportionately hurting the African-American community, and because of that, the negative effect spreads beyond just the businesses and people who didn’t get loans or assistance. That’s because those are jobs that people could have had, not just within the African-American community, but whoever they would have hired, and the stuff that they could have purchased. 

Green America: Speaking of access to credit and wealth, in your Brookings article, you highlight that community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and local credit unions outperform megabanks in giving loans and credit to minority and low-income communities. Why is that, and how did it affect communities of color during the covid-19 crisis? According to a paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research, the first round of PPP funds “was disproportionately disbursed to non-minority communities.”

In his Brookings article, Lewis suggests establishing a state-run “domestic emerging market fund manager, a person more likely to invest and allocate capital in non-traditional low income urban and rural communities, to increase the flow of capital to minorities.”

Lewis: One of the big reasons that traditional lenders don’t help minority-owned businesses is the corporate consolidations of these megabanks, which has meant that their underwriting costs (costs for the lender) for a loan are the same, regardless of if it’s a $50,000 loan or a million-dollar loan. From a business standpoint, you’re going to try to have your staff spending all their time on the higher-end loans instead of the low-dollar loans.

Unfortunately, we’re seeing fewer and fewer community banks, which are the bread and butter for a lot of these smaller Black-owned businesses.

And during covid-19 specifically, we noticed that in the later rounds, a number of minorities weren’t able to get their PPP loans when they needed them most. And as a result, 41 percent of businesses that closed during the pandemic were Black-owned, despite only making up only 3 percent of all the businesses in the US. In addition to no longer being able to hire people, these small business owners are major figures in their community, so you can imagine the impact that’s gonna have on those communities.

Green America: In addition to ensuring access to lenders, you’ve been working to improve diversity in Maryland’s pension funds. How can lawmakers and individuals put pressure on these pensions, as well as lending institutions to improve their practices?

Lewis: We can tell pension funds and other institutional investors that their guidelines should require them to have diverse fund managers, because they tend to be under-capitalized (lack sufficient funding to conduct regular fund operations), but they over-perform compared to their counterparts. 

As Lewis points out in his Brookings article, in 2018, “minority-owned equity firms represented 34 percent of the top quintile of performers but managed less than 1 percent of available capital.”

We can put pressure on them because they should have a policy requiring diverse fund managers to begin with. You can also tell funds they need to set some percentage of their investments set aside for non-traditional investments, because of the larger growth potential of the societal impact. After all, if a minority-run and a non-minority fund would invest in the exact same things, you’re not expanding equity or addressing racial wealth inequality.

Asher Weinstein is a former communications and editorial intern for Green America and is currently pursuing a Masters of Public Policy at American University.

When no amount of work is enough to support your family, you live in a system with unjust wages. A livable wage is a theory and, for some, a reality that shows a different way is possible.

For a couple with two kids to earn a living wage while making the minimum wage, they would each have to work 76 hours a week, or two full time jobs each, according to MIT research from 2018. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s 2019 Out of Reach report, nowhere in the US can a person making federal minimum wage afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment at market rates.

The federal minimum wage has not increased since 2009. In fact, in 2021, the federal minimum wage is worth the least it has ever been, when accounting for inflation, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 

The federal minimum wage was enacted “to help ensure that all work would be fairly rewarded and that regular employment would provide a decent quality of life,” according to EPI. The current rate of $7.25 per hour does not achieve that intended goal anywhere in the country. But 29 states and Washington, DC, have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum wage. 

In mid-January, President Biden proposed that Congress raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, which would be a step in the right direction, helping millions of Americans. Green America has supported advocacy campaigns like the Fight for $15 for many years and our Green Business Network members have also raised their voices as business leaders, calling for state and federal minimum wage increases.

What’s a Livable Wage?

On one hand, a livable wage is what it sounds like: a person can earn enough to cover cost of living, plus a little extra for emergencies. But the technical standard goes deeper—a person should be able to afford necessities like food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transportation, in addition to a small amount to be saved for unexpected events. 

The term “living wage,” was coined in acknowledgment that no one should have to work more than full time to cover basic costs of living. Everyone deserves the opportunity to survive and thrive and low wages should not be a barrier to achieving that. 

Studies show that paying people more will benefit everyone. EPI estimates that raising the wage floor would “generate $118 billion in additional wages, which would ripple out to the families of these workers and their communities”—meaning what is good for families is good for the economy. A recent report by the National Employment Law Project details that about a third of Black and Latinx workers, and about 17 percent of other workers of color currently make wages lower than $15 an hour. 

It’s important to dispel the popular myth that raising wages causes unemployment. The nonprofit Business for a Fair Minimum Wage synthesized research from various economic institutes and the department of labor since the 1960s and found that when the minimum wage is raised, unemployment tends to go down, not increase. One reason for this is that when workers are paid more, they stay in their jobs longer, and less turnover is less costly for employers overall.

It’s Time to Share the Wealth

A recent study from EPI found that “in 2019, the ratio of CEO-to-typical-worker compensation was 320-to-1.” This ratio is particularly shocking when compared to the ratio in 1965, which was 21-to-1. 

The federal minimum wage and many state minimum wages need to increase drastically to achieve a living wage, and understandably, when we have conversations about national changes, it can raise concerns. The pandemic has created additional economic burdens for workers and small businesses in particular. Considering that economic context, it’s understandable that people would worry about increasing prices in stores. It can seem like there just isn’t enough to go around.

The question should not be if businesses can survive paying workers in their operations and supply chains a living wage, but rather, how do we design businesses and an economy that flourish when workers are paid what they deserve? 

Living Wages Go Global

At Green America, we believe that both workers in the US and workers abroad should be paid a living wage. Regardless of industry, workers in global supply chains are often paid below a living wage, even in their home countries where the cost of living may be far lower than in the US. 

In the case of the cocoa industry, farmers in West Africa make less than $1 per day and farmer poverty is a key driver of child labor in cocoa—since farmers may not be able to afford hired adult work, cannot afford to keep their child in school, or need additional income to make ends meet. Because corporations fail to require their suppliers to pay cocoa farmers living wages, it jeopardizes families in the present and the future, as child labor could result in children missing out on school, using dangerous agricultural equipment, or being exposed to harmful pesticides—all of which harms the child’s development. 

While big chocolate companies are still far from paying cocoa farmers a living income, many small businesses are trying to make chocolate fairly. For example, Equal Exchange{GBN} operates under the higher standard of fair trade principles, paying a premium on top of the market price of goods. 

“Hundreds of millions of people are maintained in poverty around the world, because there’s a lack of connection between the obligation on the import and consumer side and survival on the production side,” says Rob Everts, former executive co-director of Equal Exchange, who now works on special projects. “[Equal Exchange is] structured as a for-profit business because part of our mission is to demonstrate successful viability of fair trade.”
Equal Exchange is able to pay over 90 percent of its US-based operations staff a living wage according to the MIT living wage calculator, says Everts. The calculator takes into account location, family size, and other personal factors.

For apparel workers, the pandemic has had especially devastating consequences. For decades, apparel workers have been paid abysmally, with no brands known to be paying a living wage, explains Anne Bienias, the living wage coordinator for the Clean Clothes Campaign. 

When shops closed in spring of 2020, fashion companies canceled billions of dollars’ worth of orders—including some that were already in process or done. Workers who were not paid for those orders were immediately in a dire situation, as they had been paid so little for so many years and had no savings. In some cases they were already relying on loans to cover basic costs. 

It is common for big apparel brands to push their suppliers for lower prices, which puts suppliers in tricky positions.
“A supplier doesn’t have much choice but to cut wages, because other things just cost what they cost, like material or the cost of keeping a factory operating—there’s not much they can lower those prices,” Bienias says. “So, the thing that they will cut first is always workers’ wages.”

While most major brands operate with that dynamic, which keeps workers in poverty generation after generation, the reverse can be true. Mehera Shaw{GBN} has a business model that is designed to be able to pay living wages to workers at its factory in India where textiles are made, printed, and sewn into apparel and household items. There have been many benefits of paying workers fairly.

“Workers can start planning for their families, a lot of people have made a much stronger commitment to keeping their kids in school, keeping their daughters in particular in school,” says Shari Keller, Mehera Shaw’s owner and director. “And so the way they’re thinking about themselves, their own communities, and what they can do, when they can plan is one of the biggest benefits that we see.”

As our Green Business Members demonstrate, it is possible to pay workers in supply chains more fairly and pay a living wage, though both Keller and Evert say it takes a lot more work on the side of the company to keep up those commitments. The cost of higher wages does not necessarily need to be passed on to the consumer. Brands could rethink and re-prioritize expenses, like spending for advertising or renting corporate offices, recommends Bienias.

Pave the Way for Living Wages

There are many actions an individual can take to fight for higher wages in the US and within supply chains. 
Get involved in your community: Many cities across the country have a higher minimum wage than federal or state minimum wages. In fact, in 2021, 32 cities raised their minimum wages and 27 cities or counties’ minimum wage will meet or exceed $15 per hour, according to a 2020 study released by the National Employment Law Project. 
Use your voice and purchasing power:

Purchase products from brands that are transparent about what workers are paid, what the company’s goals are to get to a living wage (hint: look for commitments that are time-bound), and check out certified Green Business Members at greenpages.org. 

If you can’t find information about a brand’s wages, ask the company about it! Post on social media or contact a brand through their website. While the company may not immediately start paying workers more, if more and more consumers are calling for fair wages and wage transparency, companies will respond. 

Support companies with a high rate of unionization in their supply chain or companies with unionized workplaces within the US. You can find union-made goods at unionlabel.org.

Immigrants and migrant workers are overwhelmingly the people responsible for getting food from fields onto American plates. When they don’t make enough money for their own food, communities create solutions.

Over 2 million farms are scattered across America’s rural lands, providing much of the produce, dairy, and meat products that fill grocery shelves from coast to coast. Yet many of the people working among the fruited plains and amber waves of grain are left out of the harvest bounty; millions of farmworkers across the US experience food insecurity. 

Food insecurity is a household’s inability to provide enough food for every person to live a healthy life. Currently, one in nine people in the US struggle with hunger. Farmworkers in particular are exposed to food insecurity at disproportionate rates; 45 percent of Latino farmworkers in California’s Central Valley reported food insecurity, according to a 2020 study. 

Hunger is a symptom of a much larger problem, however. Low pay, poor public infrastructure like unpaved roads, a lack of grocery stores, and language barriers all create significant challenges for farmworkers. 

Barriers Farmworkers Face

Bruce Goldstein is a practicing attorney and the president of Farmworker Justice, an advocacy nonprofit that seeks to empower migrant and seasonal farmworkers. Goldstein has been advocating for farmworkers for decades and says that low wages have a ripple effect on the rural areas farmworkers live in.

“Farmworkers’ low wages often mean that they cannot afford food, or sufficient food, or healthy food for themselves and their family members,” he says. “The poverty-level wages in farmworker communities also interferes with the ability to develop economic markets that can generate the businesses needed to have an infrastructure, including for food.”

Immigration status also plays a big part in food insecurity. Labor economies like farming and construction depend on immigrant workers since many Americans have no interest in blue-collar jobs—a 2020 report from The Conference Board stated 85 percent of companies in mostly blue-collar industries reported recruiting difficulties due to a dramatic decrease in the labor supply. In the agriculture industry, it is much cheaper to hire undocumented immigrants than reluctant US citizens. Undocumented immigrants are unlikely to challenge unfair or illegal employment practices for fear of deportation. More than half of all field workers are undocumented, according to the American Farm Bureau. 

The pandemic has exacerbated these preexisting conditions. In a study from UC Berkeley School of Public Health, researchers found evidence to suggest that one in five farmworkers in California’s Salinas Valley had been infected with COVID-19 between June and October of 2020. More than half of the farmworkers surveyed experienced symptoms or were diagnosed with the virus, yet reported to work for fear of losing pay, losing their job, or being told to go to work anyways by their employer. Additionally, a third of respondents reported that they were food insecure during the pandemic.

On the other side of the country, the economic fallout from COVID-19 worsened the hunger already present in farmworker communities.

Hunger Amplified by the Pandemic

Immokalee, Florida, is a farming town and, simultaneously, food insecure. When COVID-19 arrived, its economy slowed as people stopped going out to restaurants, which left fields unharvested and farmworkers without income.
Cultivate Abundance is a faith-based organization addressing food insecurity in low income, migrant farmworker communities in Immokalee. The local food pantry that Cultivate Abundance partners with, Misión Peniel, serves 300 to 500 clients each week. When that existing food insecurity was compounded by economic shutdown, the USDA Farmers to Families program attempted to alleviate hunger with food boxes filled with fresh produce, meat, dairy, and seafood products.

“Ironically, Immokalee kind of became a food dump area,” says Rick Burnette, technical director of Cultivate Abundance. He notes that the food boxes provided by the program were large enough to occupy the trunk of a car. Unfortunately, most of the food pantry clients come on foot or bike. 

“We did an experiment one week with those just to see how it would go…and it went terribly,” he says. 

Additionally, the boxes were full of foods that were not culturally appropriate for the Latin American and Haitian populations served. Dairy products, acorn squash, and much more was being tossed aside because the clients did not eat or know how to cook with these ingredients. To serve the needs of these populations, Misión Peniel and Cultivate Abundance worked with local partners to provide food donations and grow produce that was culturally appropriate. 

“Since 2018, we have grown, collected, and shared over 17 tons of local foods,” says Burnette. “Assuming that everyone that comes through has at least two other people to feed—we want all of them to have adequate servings of fruits and vegetables for at least that day and beyond—we’ve been able to provide enough to help feed 400 people for two months, if that’s how you want to look at it. That’s a good start, but that’s not enough.”

While Cultivate Abundance works to address the immediate hunger of its farmworker community, the Farmworker Association of Florida is educating people across the state on underlying systemic issues. The association has community gardens spread out among the peninsula as part of its goal to educate and build food sovereignty for farmworkers and the region. 

“We often hear the term food deserts, but we like to refer to them as areas of food injustice because some of these poor communities are not supplied with quality foods,” says Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli, the association’s general coordinator. “It’s an irony that the same people who pick our fruits and vegetables often can’t afford them.”

Xiuhtecutli notes that the problem with food injustice is bigger than just empty plates at the dinner table. Scarcity and insecurity have much to do with who controls the agriculture supply chain—he states that when the colonizing powers first arrived in North America, Native American populations were devastated by disease and genocide, and eventually became dependent on access to goods from the colonizers. Today, small family farms have largely been replaced by four corporations that control more than 75 percent of the global grain trade. Instead of growing native crops and trading regionally to build resilient local food systems, these corporations—ADM, Bunge, Cargill, and Dreyfus—push commodity crops and ornamental plants to turn a profit. Most farmworkers work on farms operated by a major company or for a farm that sells their products to these companies.

“The whole system is designed around those with the greatest wealth, who really control who has access to better quality food and better health care, better education, and all those things,” says Xiuhtecutli says. “The idea is not for [the community gardens] to be the catalyst as much as the seed that gets planted in their minds about what sovereignty is and how we can regain control over our lives.”

While food banks and community gardens serve an immediate need, if the systemic problem is not addressed, food insecurity will persist.

Bringing Farmworkers Justice

Resolving the labor abuses and discrimination farmworkers face requires reform on a larger scale. Programs to relieve food insecurity exist because people are hungry; people are hungry because they face systemic barriers to healthy, nutrient-dense foods.

“The first step should be to enable people to make a living wage,” says Goldstein. “That does involve labor rights and immigration status. And that’s a large part of what we work on.”

In 2020, Farmworker Justice and other allied organizations formally opposed the US Department of Labor (DOL) after the DOL changed the wage structure of the H-2A Guestworker program. The program allows employers to bring in foreign citizens on temporary work visas to work in US agriculture on a seasonal basis; these guest workers can only work for the employer that provides the visa and must return home at the end of the period. To protect US farmworkers, the DOL cannot approve more H-2A guestworker applications if the wage rates would drive down current wages and job opportunities for domestic workers. This ensures that guestworkers and US workers are paid the same minimum wage. Currently, that is about $14 per hour, but it has been increasing modestly in recent years. 

“The Department of Labor decided to freeze the wages for the next two years at the 2020 rates, which are based on rate surveys in 2019,” says Goldstein. “So, the employers don’t have to comply with the labor market.”
The DOL admitted that H-2A guestworkers would suffer wage losses an average of $170 million annually over ten years, affecting over 200,000 guestworkers each year. US farmworkers would also suffer wage losses, but the DOL did not make estimates of that amount. 

In December 2020, Farmworker Justice and allied organizations won an injunction that prevented the changes from taking effect in the United Farm Workers v. Department of Labor case.

Assuring farmworkers the wages and worker rights they deserve, and ultimately alleviating food insecurity, will be a long process. But bringing justice to the people that keep the US food system running, even in the midst of a pandemic, is a worthy cause. You can demand better for farmworkers by taking part in one or all of the actions in the sidebar, including signing the Essential Workers Bill of Rights. 

What Can You Do?

Purchase fair trade foods. A fair trade certifying body demands accountability, meaning a higher likelihood for farmers and farmworkers to be paid better and thus experience better living conditions. 

Contact your Congressional representatives to voice your support for immigration reform that includes a path to immigration status and citizenship for undocumented agricultural workers and their family members. You may reach them through the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121.

Advocate for organic products and fight toxic pesticides. Farmworkers are exposed to higher rates of pesticides, which are harmful to human health and have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, and birth defects, among others.

Demand better for farmworkers by joining us in signing the Essential Workers Bill of Rights, mandating a safer workplace for essential workers.

Dig deeper. Soul Fire Farm compiled a document with Northeast Farmers of Color with dozens of ideas for reflecting on and taking action for food sovereignty, “for anyone who has ever asked ‘how can I help make the food system more just?’” 

Telling the truth about history, apologizing, and paying long-owed debts are the start of
healing and reparations for Black Americans. 

Every year, millions of visitors flock to Asheville, North Carolina, a city in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains. Tourists hop on trolleys and snap photos of Gilded era mansions and estates. Others find hiking and biking trails within hardwood forests. 

Like any place, Asheville has a story that is much more complex than what can be gleaned from a travel guide. Still, those who learn about the local impacts of the 1929 stock market crash or forced removal of the Cherokee from the land the city sits on can sense a history of economic turbulence and despair. For the city’s Black residents, this history lives on through legacies of enslavement, redlining, and urban development currently manifesting in the form of rapid gentrification. 

Reparations, Explained 

With this history, Asheville is a snapshot into the national problem of rampant racial injustice. In 2020, it decided to take its first steps into repair by joining Evanston, Illinois in enacting reparations legislation, with Rhode Island and California following suit soon after. While the movement for reparations for Black Americans has been slow, in the era of Black Lives Matter, it’s garnering more recognition for its power to heal, educate, and transform the nation. 

“Being born and raised in Asheville, I already had a good knowledge base about our local history before I did the formal research. But there were more things I learned that made the need for a reparations program clear,” says Robert Thomas, Racial Justice Coalition of Asheville (RJC) community liaison. “Getting into that deeper history allowed us to make a beautiful case of why we need to repair the damages done.” 

One example of that deeper history was Asheville’s convict leasing system. During the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, locking up African Americans for petty crimes like vagrancy was common. Many cities, including Asheville, used unpaid, incarcerated labor—a legalized form of slavery—to build infrastructure that would grow the local economy. This included the North Carolina railroad and multiple hotels; many of these workers died during their incarceration.

To repair this local legacy of systemic racism that endures to the present day, legislation passed in July 2020 by Asheville’s city council delivered a formal apology on behalf of the city for sanctioning the institution of slavery, enforcing segregation, and destroying burgeoning Black communities with an “urban renewal” program.

Asheville’s city council has named funding for programs that will increase homeownership and business opportunities for Black residents as a goal for the city, but Thomas says that direct cash payments are also still on the table. The RJC is focused on advocating for an inclusive decision-making process for all grassroots organizations and residents. 

While it can take many forms, what makes reparations different from divesting and reinvesting programs is specificity and acknowledgment on behalf of an oppressive party. While programs that divest funds from harmful industries and into community-building initiatives like housing and education may benefit a specific group of people who are harmed because of the historic practices, those funds are not solely allocated to that group and there is not an explicit goal of restitution. The business of slavery contributed to the US’ position as an economic superpower on the world stage, largely at the expense of social, economic, and political equality for African Americans. 

In 1860 alone, there were nearly 4 million enslaved people recorded in the US Census and the estimated value of their forced labor was $3 billion according to a Harvard University study—showing how extremely valuable enslaved labor was to the US economy.

Seven hundred miles northwest from Asheville, the small town of Evanston, Illinois, grabbed headlines in 2019 when its city council passed a resolution to establish a $10 million reparations fund using revenues from cannabis sales to invest in housing assistance and economic development programs for Evanston’s Black residents. In the winter 2020 Green American, Evanston’s 5th Ward alderman Robin Rue Simmons told us that “Black families were leaving Evanston at an unsettling rate because of [a] lack of access to affordable housing,” highlighting the nimbleness and creativity of local power. 

While such advancements give an encouraging signal to other cities looking to start a reparations process, scholars say there’s still work to be done by the federal government which has collected colossal interest on an outstanding debt. 

A 40-Acre Dream Deferred

After a meeting with a group of Black preachers in 1865, Union General William T. Sherman issued an order to distribute 40-acre plots of tillable land to freedmen and mandate that the communities formed within the new territory govern themselves undisturbed. But, the same year, President Andrew Johnson reversed the order and returned those lands back to Confederate owners. 

The US government has delivered reparations to Indigenous peoples forcibly removed from their lands, Japanese internment camp survivors, and reached a settlement with survivors and families of the Tuskegee Experiment. But it has not made any major steps since Sherman’s order toward delivering reparations to African Americans who descended from enslaved people. 

That’s why Representative Jackson-Lee (D-TX) reintroduced HR-40 in 2021 to create a commission to study the economic impacts of slavery and enduring racism and recommend a formal apology. HR-40 has yet to go to a vote in Congress, but in 2020, California made history by becoming the first state to launch its own taskforce to study and make recommendations for reparations. 

While those who survived enslavement in the 19th century and before are no longer with us, research shows that Black Americans are still shackled with economic inequities. The ratio for white family wealth to Black family wealth is higher today than it was at the beginning of the twentieth century, according to the Brookings Institute. Median net worths for white households have continued to outpace Black ones, with Black households seeing a 44 percent decline from 2007 to 2013. 

In the 2018 report, “What We Get Wrong About Closing The Racial Wealth Gap,” Duke University economists dispel the myth that the racial wealth gap can be solved through personal action. Black families whose top earners graduated from college have about 33 percent less wealth than white families whose top earners dropped out of high school, according to the Pew Research Center. (Read more about the economic costs of racism on p. 10). 

Investing In Healing 

What makes reparations a powerful tool for healing is its potential to invite truth-telling and reconciliation. 

“For me, the formal apology is like the very small first step. It opens the door to have conversations about how to rectify the injustice,” Thomas says when reflecting on his city’s apology. 

For David Greenson, a RJC member who moved to Asheville from New York, advocating for reparations is a way of becoming part of a solution that can shape our nation’s future. As a white person, he thought about leaving when he first recognized that he was part of gentrifying the city. Then he decided to do what he could while he was there to advance justice and reparations. 

“The argument I often make to white people who say that they weren’t a part of any of this or that they’re good people is that all of that is irrelevant,” Greenson says. “Our country is complicit in great historical harm and harm that’s happening currently and it’s our responsibility to do what we can to find a path forward.” 

How we spend our money is a way of making our values clear and measurable. When retail corporations use robust revenues to open new store locations, we know those companies want to increase sales. When city councils vote on budgets, residents get to see what programs are being prioritized in their communities. Taking a quick review of our own shopping habits can reveal the practices, products, and services we prize most. 

The government can vote with its dollars, too. In an era of interrelated crises, from climate, to COVID-19, to unchecked racial injustice, government spending is in the spotlight for its role in enabling destructive practices as well as for its transformative potential. Today, frontline organizations are fighting for the right to use public funds for the public interest and reimagine a safer, more prosperous world. These include efforts to ensure the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes, dramatically reduce military spending, and re-imagining policing—all strategies that would create change on the local and national levels.

No Taxation Without Taxing the Rich

In 2019, investing tycoon Warren Buffett confirmed that he’s still paying a lower tax rate than his secretary following an enlightening staff survey he conducted years prior. Over time, other affluent and influential business leaders like Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, and Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, have advocated for an increased tax rate on the rich, supporting the call from nonprofit organizations, think tanks, and politicians for tax reform that not only holds corporations accountable, but wealthy individuals too. 

When it comes to our current tax system, multiple truths exist. Tax breaks from charity donations, capital gains from stock and bond sales, and estate deductions which doubled under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, all enable the richest Americans to pay the least. 

“When Americans found out that Donald Trump only paid $750 in taxes in 2017 they were shocked. But, this revelation points to a much larger problem, the tax code and its many loopholes favors the rich,” says Todd Larsen, executive co-director at Green America. “We need a tax code that prioritizes low- and moderate- income households in the US, to help the families who are struggling to make ends meet.”

Tax breaks for the wealthy prevent the federal government from collecting sufficient revenues. Currently, US tax revenue represents just 24 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is significantly lower than the 34 percent share of other wealthy countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation Development (OECD) like Canada, France, Germany, and Sweden. Sweden holds the spot for the highest tax rates with its highest income earners paying a 57 percent rate in 2019, according to the World Economic Forum. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Austria, and The Netherlands all have rates over 50 percent. Not coincidentally, these are also countries known for strong government services and social safety nets. 

Increasing the tax rate by just one percentage point on the top two tax brackets would raise $125 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Raising taxes by 10 percentage points for the those who make $510,000 or more would generate roughly $3 trillion over 10 years, according to a 2019 study by The Guardian. This $3 trillion is about the same amount as adopting a 2 percent wealth tax would raise, a policy advocated for by progressives like Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The same Guardian study estimates that if that happened, the US could afford to make tuition at public universities free and triple the budget for the National Institute for Health (NIH), the latter of which would be particularly beneficial as the nation still grapples with COVID-19. 

Budgeting For A “Peace Economy” 

Imagining how the wealth of the American economy can be shared among the people is something activists have been working on for a long time. Five years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and his indelible “I Have A Dream” speech, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned a campaign that would unite Americans of all races and cultural backgrounds facing the bitter circumstance of poverty. Dr. King’s fateful 1968 visit to striking sanitation workers in Memphis marked one of the first actions in what was dubbed The Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). 

Over 50 years later, the PPC has been revived in the The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, working to create what Dr. King called the Beloved Community, where “all people can share in the wealth of the earth and where poverty, hunger, and homelessness would not be tolerated because of international standards of human decency,” according to the King Center. The organization calls for funds to be redirected from the Department of Defense (DOD) to community-centered initiatives like health care access, housing, and education, raising the minimum wage, and enacting a federal jobs program. 

Today, the DOD budget is $732 billion which is more than the military budgets of the next 10 countries combined. The PPC says that proper investment in public welfare is a necessary step to transition from a war economy to a peace economy. 

“Our current economy uses violence, whether it’s through war, policing, incarceration, immigration enforcement, or detention to solve social problems, and poverty itself is violence,” says Shailly Gupta Barnes, the PPC policy director. “The creation of systems and weapons of violence not only impacts us here but also abroad. We’ve been in constant war for the past 20 years.”

A counter-argument that PPC organizers often hear in favor of military spending is that the military is a good jobs-creation program, but that doesn’t tell the whole story as thousands of veterans are struggling against poverty and food insecurity, especially amid COVID-19. In 2018, seven to 18 percent of military households sought food assistance, according to the nonprofit Blue Star Families. 

In April 2018, the PPC published the Souls of Poor Folk, a report that analyzed how systemic racism, poverty, ecological destruction, and militarism has progressed over the last 50 years, and yielded compelling research. Medical debt is the number one cause of personal bankruptcy with the bottom 90 percent of Americans holding more than 70 percent of debt in the country, according to the report, highlighting how so many Americans are only one emergency away from financial ruin. Gupta Barnes notes environmental health risks Americans are living with as well. 

“When looking at the number of Superfund sites across the country and the military installations around them, we can see the relationship between militarism and the devastation of our environment and of course, that’s affecting poor communities, especially poor communities of color, first,” Gupta Barnes says. "This campaign is about assessing how organizing across these inter-related issues can bring unity among those most impacted by them and fundamentally change our national priorities."

If the PPC's demands are met, the US would have $350 billion in military spending cuts which could possibly be reinvested in the Departments of Education, Health, and Justice, and the Veterans Affairs. 

Reimagining Policing 

Across the country, budgeting for peace and communal care is happening at the local level too in cities working to put an end to police violence and reimagine safety. 

Over the summer of 2020, “Defund the Police” became a rallying call in the aftermath of police-involved killings. Contrary to what the phrase may suggest to some, many BLM activists are not intent on rendering police departments bankrupt. The organization’s call to defund the police means reallocating funds from bloated police department budgets to community investing initiatives like housing, education, mental healthcare, and social services. 

Police departments typically receive between 20 to 45 percent of discretionary funds in municipal budgets, according to the Center for Popular Democracy. In June 2020, Black Lives Matter DC made a national statement when they painted the words “Defund the Police” on 16th Street in Washington, DC, now dubbed “Black Lives Matter Plaza,” a popular gathering place in front of the White House. A month later, DC’s city council approved a city budget that included a $15 million cut to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). 

Now, Defund MPD, a coalition of local racial justice organizations is calling on DC schools to end contracts with MPD. At $23 million allocated annually, MPD’s largest contract is with DC Public Schools. The Black Swan Academy is a nonprofit student advocacy organization in the Defund MPD coalition that is demanding the implementation of violence interruption programs in place of a police presence and transformative justice instead of the criminalization of Black youth. 

“Unlike policing, violence-interruption strategies are preventative. They’re oriented around authentic relationship building within the community and they’re trauma-informed. It comes from a lens that says our neighbors are not inherently bad, criminal or violent,” says Samantha Davis, founder of the Black Swan Academy. 

With the money saved by ending their contracts with MPD, Defund MPD is demanding that DC public schools invest at least $10 million in mental health and violence interruption programs, and “send counselors, not cops,” as the Black Lives Matter at School campaign says. 

“One of the most important things there is to understand about this movement is that police in our schools react to one or two things: trauma responses from young people, or healthy adolescent behavior,” Davis says.

What Can You Do?

Washington is too often in a stalemate, but local government is nimbler and more responsive to the people’s voice. Take these next steps and get involved in divestment/reinvestment efforts: 

Provide public comments at city council meetings concerning local budgets and tell your city council officials to pass resolutions that divest from industries and practices that spur the climate crisis, mass incarceration, or the military industrial complex. 

Support small businesses: Instead of shopping at big corporations that do not pay taxes, support small businesses with green values. Find them at Greenpages.org.

Join and amplify organizations you believe in: Join local or national chapter organizations leading divestment/reinvestment campaigns and share their actions with your community.

A year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic put the country in lockdown. Millions of people lost their jobs and small businesses across the nation closed, despite the trillions of dollars disbursed by the federal government. Yet, the biggest companies profited. Across industries, giant companies swallowed the market share previously occupied by independent retailers. 

The pandemic makes America’s wealth disparity painfully obvious, but the way wealth accumulates at the top is not new—corporations and their executives have been getting richer while the rest of the country struggles for decades, enabled by a tax code written in their benefit.

Writing Tax Loopholes

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, faced scrutiny in 2018 when it paid zero dollars in federal income taxes on its $11 billion profits and even received $129 million in tax rebates. 
“Corporate interests were there at the beginning of the US tax code,” says Stephen Ellis, president at nonprofit research organization Taxpayers for Common Sense. “No sooner was there a tax code than the oil and gas industry got a tax break.”

In the 1950s, the wealthiest in America paid an income tax rate of 91 percent, according to Americans for Tax Fairness. By the 1980s, changes to the tax code had eroded taxes on the wealthiest people and corporations. Prior to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that gave Amazon its millions in rebates, US corporations were required to pay a 35 percent tax rate on profits, but the 2017 law reduced that to 21 percent and offered a plethora of tax credits. The dollars that could go to public needs, like roads and education, instead line the already deep pockets of corporate executives line. If Amazon had paid taxes in 2018, even just 21 percent on profits, $2.3 billion in taxes could have been directed to the federal government, then to the people. 

This corruption of the tax system results in a negative feedback loop, where corporations and the ultra-rich use their wealth to influence the political system to write policy in their favor, ultimately broadening the wealth gap.
“They have lobbyists, PACs, and tax lawyers who know how to write and exploit the tax code to their interests,” Ellis says. 

Comparatively, small businesses and working people do not have the resources to push back on corporate priorities dominating the political system. So corporate interests continue to dominate legislators’ time, ensuring loopholes remain in the tax code for the benefit of America’s largest companies. 

Taxpayers for Common Sense brought to light one such loophole written in the December COVID-19 relief bill: Sec. 1002 on Contractor Pay. The bill’s language means that contracted employees who cannot report to work will be paid by federal funds, even if they work at a corporation that could pay them. Several trillion-dollar corporations, such as Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon, and Comcast turned a profit during the pandemic, and these profits will increase by not paying these contractor paychecks, at the public’s expense. 

Additionally, some public companies received a total of $1 billion in Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans meant for small businesses, thanks to another loophole in the CARES Act. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Shake Shack returned the money under the pressure of media scrutiny, but up to 88 percent of public companies kept the funds, over half of which were large corporations. 

Sweeping attempts to demand corporate accountability over the years have largely fallen short. Yet, when the federal government fails to rein in corporate abuses, people-led and state-enacted regulation often intervene to keep bad actors in check. 

Building Local Power to Break Up Corporate Power

The concentration of wealth among the highest-earning corporations does more than just manipulate the political system—it squashes small businesses and curtails innovation. Some corporations deflate prices to the point that they lose profit in the short term in order to run their competition out of business in the long term. Without competitors, the corporation can set prices as they please. Recent US Congressional hearings, revealed that Amazon used these pricing practices against Diapers.com, ultimately acquiring and then shutting down its competitor. These practices harm consumers as well. The US has some of the highest broadband internet prices in the world, yet millions of Americans have access to only one provider. 

Additionally, giant corporations buy up companies in the markets they want to breach. This is true for Amazon, which purchased Whole Foods in 2017 to access the organic grocery market. The more of the market a corporation occupies, the more control it can exert on things like wages. Giants like Amazon have the vast resources to work with lobbyists to suppress unionization efforts and win.

Corporate oligopolies (similar to a monopoly, where a handful of companies control the market—like internet service providers) have historically enforced or benefited from systemic racism: megabanks charge higher interest rates to minority borrowers than white borrowers; oil companies have commonly placed extraction and waste sites in Black, Indigenous, and Latinx neighborhoods; and food apartheid in poor communities has led to an increase in dollar store oligopolies.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which works to build local power to fight corporate control, lays out policy recommendations for lawmakers to dismantle monopolies and restore democracy and independence to communities. 

“In every corner of the economy, you can find corporate power that’s concentrating at epic levels,” says Susan Holmberg, senior editor and researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “We believe that federal action is incredibly important and necessary, but there’s a lot that states and local communities can do.”

Holmberg says that people can combat corporate power through organizing, protesting, and developing action plans for legislators. She emphasizes that localizing power is crucial to dismantling the monopoly crisis.
“And in fact, it was actually the states who spurred the first anti-trust laws,” adds Holmberg, citing the efforts of states in building momentum for the anti-monopoly laws in the early 1900s. The laws resulted in the restructuring of the banking and commerce industries, which fostered several decades of economic stability and innovation.

As individuals, we can join with other concerned Americans to increase corporate accountability. When increasing numbers of Americans shift their spending to protest corporate exploitation or reward positive corporate behavior, it makes a difference.

Resistance to injustice takes many forms; for example, when we exercise our voting rights, or take part in national days of action to push companies to improve, we can be more powerful than the deep pockets of corporate monopolies.

In North Dakota, pharmacies must be majority-owned and operated by registered pharmacists, preventing chain stores like CVS and Walgreens from selling prescriptions. It is the only law of its kind in the country. Ultimately, this has led to residents paying better prices for drugs and care—as well as preventing fatal errors since pharmacists are not concerned with busy work to meet corporate performance metrics. Walmart and other corporations have attempted to repeal this law by proposing amendments over the decades, but each time, North Dakotans vote it down in overwhelming numbers. 

“This is not an individual burden, but something we need to solve together though political action and new policy rules,” says Holmberg. “It’s about rewriting the rules of our economy to democratize power.”

Accountability By the People

Corporations have managed to avoid regulation through a variety of means, but perhaps the most disheartening are the greenwashing campaigns that paint them as compassionate entities to humanize them to the public and reduce fallout from destructive or exploitative practices.

Fossil fuel companies are well-versed in these performances of goodwill, as University of Minnesota researchers found out in a study demonstrating how oil companies use philanthropic donations to shield their reputations. Essentially, oil companies that gave more donations spilled more oil the year following those donations; for every $100,000 firms donated, the damage caused by further spills could be valued as high as $1.9 million. Associate professor and co-author of the study Jiao Luo says these companies used philanthropy as insurance to protect them from potential public backlash.

“The proper philanthropy can actually help to build up an image of citizenship,” Luo says. “At the same time, we look at those tax-exempt donations—where do they go and what is the societal impact—it just doesn’t seem to add up.”

It is common for corporations to point to their donations to charity to demonstrate their social responsibility and it can be an efficient tactic for manipulating their public image. Luo says it is the shared responsibility of the people to be wary of publicity campaigns that tout the humanity of giant corporations. When the bottom line is profit, altruistic actions may be driven by high dollar returns. 

One such example is the Bezos Earth Fund, where Amazon founder Jeff Bezos set aside $10 billion in funds for climate action. Simultaneously, Amazon is aggressively courting partnerships with fossil fuel companies with its cloud computing services and dismissing climate concerns from its own employees.

Additionally, large companies frequently make vague claims of improvement in their corporate social responsibility reports, such as decreasing their water usage without clarifying what their current usage is. That is why our campaigns at Green America look closely at the real impact of companies and call them to task when they fall short of meaningful improvements.

“When we started our Hang Up On Fossil Fuels campaign, we saw that some major telecom companies were saying that they would double their commitments to renewable energy,” says Beth Porter, climate campaigns director at Green America. “But at the time, renewable energy only equaled about one to two percent of their overall energy, so doubling would still mean less than five percent. That’s why we called for 100 percent renewable energy commitments from all companies with a clear timeline for achieving them.”

With strategic consumer action, Hang Up On Fossil Fuels has pushed T-Mobile and Sprint to commit to 100 percent clean energy. AT&T has made some of the largest corporate clean energy purchases ever and Verizon adopted a goal of 50 percent renewable energy by 2025. This was possible because of Green Americans who took to social media, signed petitions, and contacted their service providers. Such pressure is crucial to holding corporations accountable when the government fails to do so. 

Wealth concentration and corporate power in the US has reached astronomic levels and everyday people are on the frontlines of the consequences—from poverty wages to inadequate social services and crippled entrepreneurial innovation. It will take strategic action at all levels of society to adequately address the wealth disparity crisis, but the result will lead to economically diverse and thriving communities. 

In the year since the global spread of the novel coronavirus, it seems fair to say every person on Earth has struggled. One in twelve Americans have been diagnosed with the virus since last January and well over 500,000 have died, according to the New York Times COVID-19 tracking project. As of September 2020, 25 percent of US adults say they or someone in their household has lost their job, according to Pew Research, and many of those lost health care coverage for themselves and their family along with their paychecks. For those who have been lucky enough to keep both their jobs and their health, they are likely to be grieving friends or family. Nearly everyone has had their normal lives turned upside down by isolation and fear for the future. 

But it has been a great time to be a billionaire. There aren’t too many of them in the world, but those 660 ultra-rich have gotten even richer, with the wealth of billionaires rising 44 percent (over $1.3 trillion) between March 2020 and the end of January 2021, according to a report from Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies. With that $1.3 trillion, those 660 mostly white men could afford to give every US resident (including children and non-citizens) a $3,960 stimulus check and still be as rich as they were a year ago.

Those who were disproportionately affected by covid-19 are people of color, low-wage workers, and women— all people who our cultural and financial systems are already stacked against. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed, many people sought out Black-owned businesses to support. But the system had failed many already, as 41 percent of Black-owned businesses closed due to covid-19 by April 2020, compared to only 17 percent of white-owned businesses. According to Brookings analysis, businesses in “majority-minority neighborhoods” took longer to get approved for PPP loans than those in majority-white neighborhoods.

COVID-19 didn’t create the systems whose flaws became glaringly evident in 2020. Those systems were in place before in the case of unfair tax codes that favor companies and the ultra-rich (see “Out of the Loop”). In fact, in the past few decades, America’s wealthiest 1 percent have taken $50 trillion from the bottom 90 percent, according to a report by economists at RAND corporation. Government policies and services have proven to best serve those who make laws—white and wealthy Americans. Systems like public schools and healthcare systems prove to be an example of that.

These broken systems create conditions that can make it impossible to have what has been promised under this democracy—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But those who aim to rebuild our broken systems to be stronger and more equitable than before have not been stopped. For example, Black Americans who have led the charge, even under intense pressure, to come up with creative and kind solutions to violent problems (see “Defunding Dystopia, Reimagining Peace”). As Black Americans are still feeling the ripple-effect of enslavement, Black activists and allies are raising the profile of healing through the idea of reparations (see “How We Heal from Here”).

In our country’s farmlands, immigrants and migrant workers toil for meager wages where they cannot afford to eat the healthy food they harvest—so local organizers have created systems of support (see “Who Feeds the Farmworkers?”). And we can help all workers achieve a living wage. Economists and small businesses show a future where higher wages can truly support workers, in the US and abroad (see “More than the Minimum”).
Our systems may have broken down, but when we listen to and uplift those who are already rebuilding, we’ll be building a stronger, greener, more equitable future for the generations to come. 

COVID-19 didn’t create the systems whose flaws became glaringly evident in 2020—disparities between the rich and the rest of us, racism that took lives through COVID and violence. Our systems may have broken down, but when we listen to and uplift those who are already rebuilding, we’ll be building a stronger, greener, more equitable future for the generations to come.

It’s not a debate. If we don’t take drastic action, climate change will have dire consequences for all life on earth.

Environmentalists agree that we need to completely do away with fossil fuels, a primary driver of climate change. But there’s less agreement on what sources of energy should replace them.

Nuclear energy has gained more support as an option, but some activists and experts are still skeptical it’s safe or effective. Others argue that adequate regulation and oversight can help it become a key component of the fight against climate change.

Find our conversation with a former leading regulator in the United States here. 

What role should nuclear power play in our fight against climate change?

Listen to full podcast here.

Washington, D.C. – March 17, 2021 – Ahead of Easter, many of the world’s biggest cocoa traders, chocolate manufacturers and retailers are still failing to address social and environmental concerns, according to the 2021 joint Easter Scorecard published by Be Slavery Free, Green America, Inkota, Mighty Earth, and National Wildlife Federation.

Storck, a confectioner with production facilities in Germany and 21 international subsidiaries, received the lowest marks – the “Rotten Egg Award'' – for its lack of responsiveness and transparency. Their brands include Werther’s Original, Riesen, Toffifee, Merci, Colourful World, and Bendicks.

The “Good Egg” was awarded to three highest-ranking companies:  

• Alter Eco, a US-based company with distribution in the US and Europe, received its first Good Egg. The NGOs also acknowledged its partner Chocolats Halba / Sunray for Halba’s role in helping Alter Eco achieve sustainability goals.
• Tony’s Chocolonely, a Netherlands-based multinational company, received the Good Egg for the second time in a row.
• Whittaker’s, from New Zealand with products available primarily in Australia and New Zealand, also received the Good Egg for the second year in a row.

Previous Rotten Egg “winners” have since substantially improved their performance on sustainability across the board. 2020 Rotten Egg recipient Godiva made major progress on living income policies and its environmental work, and 2019 Rotten Egg recipient Sucden made progress on all categories of sustainability.

"With this scorecard, consumers in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and beyond can buy Easter chocolates from the heart. They now have clear guidance on which companies are shining and which companies’ treats are likely tainted by deforestation and human rights abuses,” said National Wildlife Federation Senior Advisor Etelle Higonnet. “Consumers can now buy chocolate with their eyes wide open and use their purchasing power to push laggards like Storck and reward industry leaders Alter Eco, Tony’s Chocolonely, and Whittaker’s.”

The groups surveyed 31 chocolate companies and cocoa suppliers, estimated to be supplying over 80 percent of the world’s chocolate confectionery. The companies were scored on the six most pressing sustainability issues facing the chocolate industry: human rights due diligence; transparency and traceability; deforestation and climate change; agroforestry; living income policies; and child labor. Brands were then placed into one of four categories, with those awarded a green bunny leading the industry on policy, or a red bunny for needing to catch up with the industry. Those companies who chose not to participate in the scorecard also received a red bunny.

Cocoa companies, particularly those in the Cocoa & Forests Initiative, have taken an important step to increase traceability in their supply chains by mapping over one million farms since 2018, and most major chocolate companies have disclosed at least some of their Ivorian cocoa supply chains in Mighty Earth’s Cocoa Accountability map.

“We have seen the most positive progress in the traceability category in recent years,” said Charlotte Tate, Labor Campaigns Director at Green America. “Companies are getting better quickly on this issue, but most still aren’t crossing the finish line. In order to address all other issues in the scorecard, companies must first know where the cocoa is coming from. Without that information, there is little hope of ending child labor, farmer poverty, or deforestation. Companies must have fully traceable supply chains, paired with transparent reporting.”

Besides the traceability trend, the scorecard provides a snapshot on farmer income. “A staggering 180 million wrapped or boxed eggs are purchased for Easter every year. That doesn't include mini or creme eggs which are huge sellers. Not enough of the chocolate industry’s money goes to countries where cocoa is grown, or to cocoa farmers themselves,” said Fuzz Kitto, Co-National Director of Be Slavery Free in Australia. “Most cocoa farmers earn under $1 per day, with women farmers making as little as $0.30 daily – they are especially hard hit by economic disruption in this pandemic.”

Another trend in the Easter scorecard is the slow but steady improvement of Japanese companies on certain sustainability metrics over the past four years. However, Japanese chocolate companies still need stronger policies with monitoring and enforcement to end child labor, poverty and deforestation in their cocoa supply chains. The Japanese sector must evolve quickly to avoid underperforming relative to its global peers. The creation of a new “cocoa platform” launched by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2020 could be the key to address sustainability problems industry-wide by bringing together government, industry, and non-profits.

“The scorecard also shows that the pace for adopting agroforestry and more climate friendly farming practices is much slower than required,” said Samuel Mawutor, Senior Advisor at Mighty Earth. Transforming the cocoa sector from the problematic monocultures cannot be possible without a stronger focus on forest and farm restoration through agroforestry. He notes that “companies need to transition from tree seedling distribution and invest many more resources into growing and nurturing planted trees on cocoa farms and tree tenure security to ensure the uptake of agroforestry at scale across West Africa.”

“This scorecard sets the record straight on greenwashing versus real action,” said Johannes Schorling, Campaign Coordinator at Inkota. “Despite decades of voluntary industry commitments, poverty, hazardous child labor, and deforestation are still widespread in the cocoa sector. Most companies have only started to carry out due diligence, and many gaps remain. This corporate underperformance shows that we need robust due diligence legislation, because voluntary approaches have clearly failed.”

For more about the methodology of the Scorecard, go to https://www.greenamerica.org/chocolate-scorecard.

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About Be Slavery Free

Be Slavery Free is a coalition of civil society, community and other organisations working together to prevent, abolish and disrupt modern slavery in Australia, the Netherlands  and around the world. Be Slavery Free has on the ground experience in preventing, disrupting and remediating modern slavery, with a particular focus on shining a light on slavery in supply chains. Be Slavery Free helped build momentum to pass Australia’s Modern Slavery Act. Since 2007 they have been working with the chocolate industry, advocating for addressing child labour and slavery in cocoa. More information on Be Slavery Free can be found at https://beslaveryfree.com. 

• Fuzz Kitto (Australian Eastern Time) +61 407 931 115 fuzz.kitto@beslaveryfree.com  (English)
• Esta Steyn (Central European Time) +31 6 3457 1595 esta.steyn@beslaveryfree.com (Dutch, Afrikaans)

About Green America

Green America is America’s leading green economy organization, whose mission is to harness US economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Founded in 1982, Green America provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today’s social and environmental problems. More information on Green America can be found at http://www.GreenAmerica.org. 

• Max Karlin (USA Eastern Standard Time) +1 703 276 3255, mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com (English)

About INKOTA

INKOTA has spent the last 50 years campaigning to end hunger and poverty and make globalization work for all. With targeted campaigns, INKOTA aims to raise public awareness in Germany for the darker sides of globalization and the importance of human rights. INKOTA coordinates the “Make Chocolate Fair!” campaign, which advocates for better living conditions for cocoa farmers in West Africa. Furthermore, INKOTA cooperates with civil society partner organizations in the global South, helping them to campaign for justice and equality in their home countries. More information on Inkota can be found at  https://www.inkota.de/english/. 

• Johannes Schorling (Central European Time) +49 30 4208202 57 schorling@inkota.de (German, English)

About Mighty Earth

Mighty Earth is a global environmental campaign organization that works to protect forests, conserve oceans, and address climate change. Mighty Earth works to drive large-scale action towards environmentally responsible agriculture that protects native ecosystems, wildlife, and water, and respects local community rights - including in the cocoa sector. Mighty Earth’s team has played a decisive role in persuading some of the world’s largest food and agriculture companies to dramatically improve their environmental and social policies and practices. More information on Mighty Earth can be found at https://www.mightyearth.org/chocolate/. 

• US Contact: Samuel Mawutor (USA Pacific Time) +1 541 368 8603 samuel@mightyearth.org (English)
• Japan contact: Roger Smith (Japanese Standard Time), roger@mightyearth.org (Japanese)
• West Africa contact: Amourlaye Toure (West Africa Time) +(225) 07 07 97 30 27 amourlaye@mightyearth.org (French, English)

About the National Wildlife Federation

The National Wildlife Federation, America's largest conservation organization with over 6 million members, works to unite Americans from all walks of life in giving wildlife a voice. NWF has been on the front lines for wildlife since 1936, fighting for the conservation values that are woven into the fabric of America’s collective heritage. NWF’s international program combines expertise in natural resource economics, remote sensing and GIS, international law, and tropical ecology to advance market-based solutions and public policy to eliminate tropical forest loss. NWF promotes “zero deforestation” agriculture, focusing on commodities with the greatest impacts on forests and wildlife. More information on NWF can be found at https://international.nwf.org/about/. 

• Etelle Higonnet (USA Eastern time), +1 202 848  7792. Etelle.Higonnet@nwf.org (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian)

Eutree is a wood manufacturer that's setting a new standard for sustainability. Our timber isn't logged out of forests. Instead, we help urban tree services divert beautiful hardwood specimens from becoming waste. That's why we call our products "Forest Free".

Whether it's flooring, paneling, beams, live edge slabs or hardwood lumber, each product we create tells a unique story about the lifecycle of the material itself. From sourcing a variety of wood species to specialty finishes, our skilled craftsmen will help you create custom designs for residential and commercial use.

Discover Eutree for all your hardwood needs.

Campaign Update: Falling Short on Greenhouse Gas Reductions

Campaign Update: Kroger said that it would address the issue in its latest Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Road Map which came out in January of 2023. Well, let’s just say the road doesn’t go very far. In fact, its own projections show HFC emissions going up before plateauing in 2025 onward. Not going down. Kroger must do better.

Kroger is a crucial time for Kroger to get the message! The company’s shareholders are meeting June 22 and HFC reduction needs to be part of the conversation. At last year’s meeting, 35 percent of Kroger’s shareholders voted to encourage the company to take action on refrigerants. Join Green America in showing Kroger that customers also want the grocery giant to act fast.

Kroger's Inadequate Action on HFCs

Kroger is the largest grocery chain in the US and is failing to take action on HFCs. HFCs account for a staggering 63% of Kroger’s direct climate emissions, but Kroger is only committing to install non-HFC refrigerants in 7 out of their 2,800 stores.

These HFCs have thousands of times the warming capacity of carbon dioxide, and supermarkets are leaking millions of tons of them every year.

Some major chains like Target, Aldi, and Whole Foods are taking steps to reduce HFCs and use refrigerants with ultra-low Global Warming Potential (GWP) in their stores.

However Kroger still is not.

Take Action for Urgent Change

The climate crisis is here, and we need Kroger to take action to cut these dangerous emissions on a more aggressive timeline.

Kroger needs to hear from consumers. Whether you've taken action before or not, please take action now. Kroger needs to hear from us again.

Hours: Full-Time (4-days, 32 hours/week)
Salary: $68,000 - $72,000/Grant Track Position
Benefits: medical, dental, sick days, holidays
Supervisor: Managing Director, Climate Safe Lending Network   

Green America is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a just and sustainable society by harnessing economic power for positive change. Our unique approach involves working with consumers, investors and businesses to create a world that works for all. We deploy marketplace solutions to solve the most pressing social and environmental problems facing society today.

The Center for Sustainability Solutions builds on Green America’s work over the years, where we’ve brought together industry groups across supply chains to create major shifts in such areas as solar, banking and investing, sustainable agriculture and fair labor. The Center supports Innovation Networks, focused working groups of stakeholders with the objective of making significant, industry-wide system change.

The Climate Safe Lending Network (CSLN) is an international multi-stakeholder collaborative of banks, NGOs, academics, investors, and others aiming to accelerate the decarbonization of the banking sector to secure a climate safe world. The network brings together senior leaders and change makers within banks, stakeholders, and influencers (including clients, foundations, and shareholders), policy experts and civil society groups to collectively explore how they can play their optimum role in accelerating change.    

Working closely with the Managing Director, the Program Manager will contribute to the development and growth of the Climate Safe Lending Network and its ongoing Initiatives, which includes stakeholder engagement and recruiting; meeting design, planning and facilitation; communications; and fundraising.

Post-pandemic, this position will involve domestic and international travel for Network meetings, conferences and business cultivation meetings, staff training, and other purposes. CSLN is a virtual Network; therefore, this position may be housed internationally or at Green America’s office in Washington, DC.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Management

1. Work closely with the Managing Director to manage the CSLN and its priority initiatives.
2. Identify opportunities for growing CSLN and deepening member engagement. 
3. Participate in the design and planning of CSLN meetings and events in collaboration with the staff team.
4. Deliver CSLN meetings and events that run smoothly and achieve desired outcomes, including meeting facilitation and support, managing logistical arrangements, and preparing meeting reports.
5. Organize and help facilitate CSLN staff, Initiative, and Design Team meetings as well as contribute to the design and development of Network initiatives.
6. Identify new systems, processes, and tools to help the Network grow, stay organized, and achieve desired goals.

Communication

1. Lead the design, administration, and implementation of a communications plan and strategy.
2. Participate in new participant and CSLN member engagement.
3. Lead the design, administration, and moderation of an online communications platform for network members.
4. Conduct outreach to current and potential network members to include preparing a monthly newsletter and other communications materials.
5. Enhance CSLN’s online presence to include maintaining and improving CSLN’s website, moderating CSLN’s LinkedIn group, and regularly posting on CSLN’s social media channels.  

Fundraising

1. Contribute to growing and diversifying CSLN’s sources of funding by identifying potential new funders and helping to prepare grant applications and fundraising materials.
2. Design, manage and administer a network membership program to be developed in collaboration with the CSLN team, including specific revenue targets for membership.
3. Participate in donor stewardship to include tracking the completion of grant deliverables and preparing donor reports.

Participate in Cross-Departmental Teams

1. Provide operational support to the Center for Sustainability Solutions, as needed.
2. Participate in Center for Sustainability Solutions efforts and ensure the collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas, tools, and resources between teams, as needed.
3. Ensure that knowledge gained is converted into “knowledge capital” for the Center for Sustainability Solutions by documenting work processes involved in managing Innovation Networks and successful strategies used in CSL operations.
4. Participate in Green America staff meetings and processes and other duties as required.
5. Participate in Green America Cross Departmental Teams: The success of our organizational work includes the voluntary participation of staff members from all levels of the organization in cross departmental teams addressing a range of issues to strengthen our impact and planning, as time and other work commitments allow.

Qualified Candidates should have the following skills and qualities:

• Demonstrated project management skills, particularly starting up and running a new project and/or managing several projects simultaneously
• A passion for and strong knowledge of banking, sustainable finance, and/or environmental sustainability
• Experience making sense of and synthesizing information across diverse perspectives
• Strong written communication and research skills; able to effectively communicate complex ideas and concepts
• Strong verbal communication and inter-personal skills
• Adept at building and maintaining collaborative relationships, especially in sustainable finance, banking, and environmental sustainability; robust professional network desired 
• Strong technology skills, including videoconferencing and website platforms, CRM, newsletter email software, etc.
• Able to work remotely with minimal supervision; intrapreneurial skills desired
• Bachelors degree required in banking, sustainable finance, environmental sustainability, or a related field; MBA or Masters degree in a related field preferred
• Experience working with networks or having previously worked in more than one organizational sector (e.g., business, non-profit, government) desired.
• Presentation and group facilitation experience desired
• Experience with business development or fundraising a plus

How to Apply:

Please email your resume, cover letter, and writing sample (preferably 2-5 pages that has not been professionally edited) to connect@climatesafelending.org. Please note in your application where you learned of this position.

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Green America is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination regarding: actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, breastfeeding, or reproductive health disorders), age (18 years of age or older), marital status (including domestic partnership and parenthood), personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, genetic information, disability, matriculation, political affiliation, citizenship status, credit information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Harassment on the basis of a protected characteristic is included as a form of discrimination and is strictly prohibited.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Green America’s Green Business Network is launching an open comment period to collect informed feedback on a new certification standard for hemp-derived CBD (cannabidiol) products that are legally compliant. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GBN_CBDstandard_opencomment. The comment period will remain open until May 1, 2021.

The draft standard addresses a wide range of social and environmental issues facing CBD businesses and includes two tiers of certification – Standard and Gold.

Once finalized, this new hemp-derived CBD certification standard will play an important role in affirming for consumers that the businesses providing CBD products are operating in accordance with practices that support people and the planet.

The Green Business Network is a national network of small to mid-sized companies that work to integrate strong social and environmental commitments into their business operations. The Network is home to both rising social and eco enterprises and to well-established green businesses. The Network provides the tools, information, and – for certified members – access to consumers to help green businesses thrive in today’s competitive green marketplace.

The Green Business Network certifies businesses across 38 different industry sectors, including apparel, banks and credit unions, cleaning products, housewares, travel and more.

For more information about the open comment period contact: certification@greenamerica.org.

by Ayate Temsamani, Former Green America Climate Fellow
 

The last seven years have been the warmest on record as the climate crisis continues to rapidly drive up global temperatures and intensify storms and seasons. As the world warms, access to cooling has become increasingly critical for public health.

Yet over one billion people still lack access to cooling worldwide.

Sustainable cooling can safeguard from heatwaves, preserve food and vaccines, and maintain societal productivity. Cooling equity is necessary to promote healthy communities, stable energy supplies, and inclusive prosperous economies.

Heat equity is the development of policies and practices that mitigate heat islands and help people adapt to the impacts of extreme heat in a way that reduces the inequitable distribution of risks. Higher temperatures caused by the climate crisis will only exacerbate the growing global demand for cooling equipment.

The countries that produce the most emissions will experience less extreme heat than countries that produce far fewer emissions. As a result, the cooling technologies and fossil fuels used in wealthier countries are making life unlivable for the rest of the world. And people living in poorer and hotter countries are much less likely to be able to afford cooling technologies to protect themselves from rising temperatures and extreme heat days.  

Cooling Inequity, a Global Problem

Today, more than half of the world's population lives in cities, and by 2050 an additional 2.5 billion people are expected to live in urban areas. Rapid urbanization contributes to the sharp increase in the frequency of heatwaves and makes populations across the globe more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

The increase in population, urban densification, and climate change will only amplify urban heat islands, which experience significantly higher temperatures than other areas. The EPA estimates that heat islands will result in a 1-7°F rise in temperatures and the CDC reports that heatwaves are the deadliest of the climatic disasters facing cities.

An estimated 699 million people have little or no cooling to protect them in a heatwave primarily due to the lack of access or affordability.

The top 10 countries with the largest urban populations at risk from the lack of cooling include China with over 207 million urban poor, India with more than 110 million, and Nigeria with nearly 50 million people.

Most low-income households around the world either cannot afford cooling appliances or live in inefficient homes that are costlier to keep cool.

Roughly 3.6 billion cooling appliances are used globally today. Estimates suggest that if cooling is provided for all who need it – not just those who can afford it – up to 14 billion cooling appliances will be needed by 2050.

Sustainable cooling is crucial to achieving many Sustainable Development Goals including ending global hunger, access to affordable and renewable energy for all, and making cities inclusive, resilient, and sustainable.

How It Affects the U.S.

Cooling inequities are evident across the U.S., putting low-income and marginalized groups at risk. Climate change is burdening New York City with more acute heat island effects. Summers are hotter and longer, leaving many marginalized communities suffering and even dying.

According to WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Black residents make up 50 percent of the heat-related deaths in New York City, despite  making up 25 percent of the city’s population.

The EPA attributes lack of air conditioning or the inability to afford it as factors in the higher death rates of low-income residents.

Lack of cooling access in public housing, poses health risks to many low-income and communities of color as poor insulation and old infrastructure holds heat. The Harlem Heat Project in New York City shows that marginalized groups suffer during the hot summers since the homes rarely have an air-conditioning unit.

And unlike heating in the winter, there are currently no legal provisions to make cooling a public housing requirement.

WE ACT for Environmental Justice is working to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat and advocate for better state policies to allow the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) funds to be used for increasing access to more efficient cooling.

Innovative Solutions 

Innovators are working to develop radiative cooling technology that follows practices used for centuries in North Africa, India, and Iran. At night, people in desert areas would pour water into shallow pits insulated with reeds and by morning the water turned to ice. The water transformed overnight by radiating its heat out into space, despite the air temperature not dipping below freezing point.

New technology follows this ancient practice using thin film to send heat into space and lower temperatures of objects, even in daytime. This innovative technology reportedly releases no greenhouse gas emissions and can save energy and lower electric bills. After solar panels, cooling panels may be the next solution for sustainable cooling, and ultimately allow us to cool entire buildings just with the sky.

For current practices, governments can invest in efficient cooling through green roofs, reflective pavements, trees, and proper building design to significantly reduce heatwave risks.

Affordable and sustainable cooling has the potential to restore environmental health and justice in communities around the world as well as improve the overall quality of life and well-being. 

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for countries to increase access to efficient cooling to low-income and marginalized communities as part of their economic recovery plans and improve energy efficiency, cooling technologies, as well as improve cold chains to reduce global food waste and provide communities in remote areas with access to vaccines and other temperature-sensitive goods.

How Refrigerants Contribute to the Climate Crisis

The appliances we use to keep cool are leaking gases that warm our atmosphere at a shocking rate. The most common refrigerants used in these appliances are greenhouse gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have thousands of times the warming power of CO2.

Eliminating HFCs and adopting climate-friendly refrigeration is a top solution to address the climate crisis that can prevent nearly half a degree of global warming. There is a range of refrigerant options that are available with ultra-low global warming potential to curb these emissions.

Policymakers and companies in wealthier countries have the obligation to reduce emissions from cooling and lower the climate impacts on poorer countries. Adopting better cooling now can also drive down costs so that the millions of people worldwide who need these technologies to address extreme heat can adopt them. 

To learn more about cooling equity in the U.S. and worldwide, we urge you to explore the following resources:

• Heat, Health, & Equity  - WE ACT for Environmental Justice
• Sustainable Recovery: World Energy Special Report - International Energy Agency
• Heat Islands and Equity - Environmental Protection Agency
• Map of Climate Friendly Supermarkets - Environmental Investigation Agency
• Take action with Green America’s Cool It campaign urging supermarkets to adopt sustainable refrigeration.

The following is excerpted from a new report by Community Capital Management (CCM), a certified Green Business Network member. CCM manages impact investing portfolios to promote community development and contribute to positive environmental outcomes. Read CCM’s full report on the Black homeownership gap here.

For millions, owning a home remains at the heart of the American dream. Most American renters — 72% — say they want to buy a home at some point in the future instead of continuing to rent, according to the Pew Research Center. But many Black Americans have been left out. Black Americans struggle with a deep wealth gap, in fact, recent research shows that only 44% of Black Americans own a home compared to 74% of white Americans. Homeownership is important for accumulating and passing on wealth, which means the trailing homeownership rate further impacts Black Americans’ ability to build generational wealth over time.

Mending the Black homeownership gap in America is not going to happen overnight. It is going to take years to make a profound impact on this serious issue, and the pandemic has only hurt an already fragile situation. In 2019, the National Association of Realtors laid out a five-year plan for how the real estate industry can step up to provide support in increasing the number of Black American homeowners. It included building more homes to increase supply, increasing access to down payment assistance, strengthening the Federal Housing Administration’s loan program, and expanding alternative credit scoring models.

In 2019, The Urban Institute also published a five-point framework for reducing the Black Homeownership Gap calling for:

1. Advancing policy solutions at the local level

2. Tackling housing supply constraints and affordability

3. Promoting an equitable and accessible housing finance system

4. Accelerating outreach and counseling for renters and mortgage-ready millennials

5. Focusing on sustainable home ownership and preservation

End the Black homeownership gap will take commitment, coordination, and efforts from a variety of resources, including the capital markets, public and private partnerships, government agencies, developers, and more, along with a shift in our views of how every American deserves fair housing.

What is CCM’s role in Black Homeownership?

CCM’s Minority Community Advancement Racial Empowerment Strategy (also known as Minority CARES), launched in June 2020, allows investors the opportunity to direct their fixed income capital to advance racial equality, tackle social disparities, and help build an economy that provides opportunities for everyone from affordable housing to access to capital. Minority CARES anticipates investing $2 billion over the next five years in market-rate bonds that align with the values of social justice, improvement in the lives of those in historically marginalized communities, and increased economic opportunity for people of color.

CCM also has a new investment opportunity to be launched soon with a focus specifically on affordable homeownership for low-to-moderate income and minority borrowers. Visit ccminvests.com to learn more in the months ahead.

Support a green economy and initiatives like Black homeownership through Green America programs like Get a Better Bank.

Amazon is rapidly expanding its apparel footprint.

When the pandemic struck, Amazon was posed to respond well and even gain more market share. Over the last year, Amazon’s profits have skyrocketed. At the same time, traditional apparel brands have struggled, consumer demand dropped dramatically for many companies, and brick and mortar operations became less profitable as lockdowns spread across the world.

Are Amazon Prime clothes the next big name to dominate the fashion industry?

The answer to that question could have big impacts for workers, and for women since they make up 80% of workers in the garment industry. 

It’s important to note that garment workers have borne the brunt of the apparel industry’s financial struggles over the last year. You can read more about that in our guest blog from the Worker Right Consortium. When large companies dominate a sector, whether it’s apparel, food, or electronics, workers at the bottom of the supply chain have often paid the biggest price, while the corporations at the top often sees the biggest benefits.

Amazon has a history of disregarding the planet and workers’ rights, giving very little reason to think expanding its market share in the apparel space would be good for anyone but Jeff Bezos. Slow and ethical fashion is not his game.

1. Amazon’s apparel impact is rapidly growing! Between 2018 and 2020, Amazon has tripled its private label offerings.
2. Amazon has about 80 private label apparel and accessory brands.
3. Consumers are responding by buying more apparel from Amazon (including its own brands and those from third party sellers), and Amazon is dominating, again. In the last year, “70% of apparel shoppers bought clothing or footwear from Amazon.” When compared to key competitors, Amazon also takes the cake. Only 51% of shoppers purchased apparel from Walmart, and 45% from Target. Further, 80% of Prime members state to have purchased clothes or footwear off Amazon.
4. As of 2020, apparel, footwear, and accessories accounted for 54% of Amazon-brand products.
5. Workers and consumers are not being protected. Amazon’s chemical management policy does not apply to apparel. While Amazon has made progress in a variety of areas over recent years, Amazon branded clothing could have toxic chemicals in it, jeopardizing the health of both consumers and garment workers.  AND this wouldn’t be the first time that Amazon has risked safety of consumers, last year, CNN reported that there were numerous consumer reviews of multiple of Amazon’s products being dangerous.

Amazon is a dominating force and will stop at nothing to increase its market share. There is evidence that it will undersell competitors to push the competitor out of business (see the case of diapers.com), and Amazon has developed similar products to popular brands, like AllBirds which is a B Corp that makes shoes with more environmentally friendly materials than traditional brands – Amazon copied the design but left out the more sustainable materials, not surprising. And the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon has used 3rd party sellers’ data to develop its own competing products.

Across industries and despite its enormous profits, Amazon has been reluctant to prioritize workers’ rights, environmental justice, and its climate impact. We need to make sure that we are holding Amazon accountable as it moves further into the apparel sector, where millions of workers and their families could be impacted.

That is why over the next year, Green America will further incorporate Amazon’s apparel supply chain within our Amazon campaign, focusing on Amazon’s chemical management for apparel and garment workers’ rights. Take our Amazon action, which includes a call for the company to protect apparel workers from harmful chemicals, and check out these tips for shopping sustainably online.

Tell Amazon to Respect All Workers & End Toxic Textiles

Always remember to shop local, delve into secondhand, and support sustainable business when you go on your shopping sprees, because ethical fashion is the name of the game. While Amazon Prime clothes may be fast, simple, and cheap, like most things it is too good to be true.

By DAVID LAZARUS

BUSINESS COLUMNIST 

MARCH 2, 2021 5 AM PT

There’s a lot to fret over these days. Whether you’re entitled to a paper receipt when you buy something seems like a decidedly small matter, all things considered.

But it can have potentially large ramifications for consumers in terms of their ability to return products, seek warranty protections, maintain purchase records and itemize tax returns.

For those reasons, as well as a general wariness of change, a 2018 survey found that nearly 70% of Americans prefer paper receipts over digital alternatives.

On the other hand, there’s the environment to consider.

A 2019 study by the advocacy group Green America estimated that production of paper receipts in this country requires more than 3 million trees and 9 billion gallons of water annually.

The study also estimated that generating receipts creates more than 4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide and 302 million pounds of solid waste.

I’ve been stewing on this since chatting the other day with a Valencia resident named Karl Strauss. He told me about his recent experience buying something with his credit card at a shopping mall.

After signing the receipt for the merchant, Strauss, 67, asked if his copy was in the bag.

“She said they don’t give out paper receipts anymore,” he recalled. “If I wanted one, I’d have to get it by email.”

That surprised Strauss. “It was the first time I ever encountered this.”

He reluctantly gave the saleswoman his email address, sure that it “will now be part of some big database” and that his inbox inevitably will start getting more spam.

“That’s not what I want,” Strauss said.

Let’s pause briefly to note that he’s by no means opposed to technological progress.

Strauss works for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, these days as a self-described “paper pusher” but in the past as an electrical engineer.

Strauss told me he designed the solid-state data recorder for the Cassini spacecraft, which spent 13 years observing Saturn and its moons, as well as making contributions to numerous other missions.

“My projects have been to every planet in the solar system,” he observed — a boast few of us will ever make. Needless to say, Strauss is totally stoked about the current Perseverance mission to Mars.

So, yeah, the ability to get a paper receipt is kind of small potatoes by comparison. But Strauss takes it seriously.

“I prefer paper receipts,” he said. “They’re nice for record keeping and tracking. Shouldn’t it be my choice if I want one?”

California lawmakers apparently don’t think so. In 2019, they rejected a bill — AB 161 — that would have required stores to ask customers if they want a paper receipt before printing one out.

Supporters of the legislation cited the epic receipts from CVS as a good reason for such a law. The bill stalled in the Legislature amid opposition from the paper industry and some business groups.

While there’s clearly a trend toward paperless transactions — particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic creating boom times for no-contact payments — there isn’t yet a state or federal law that lays down clear rules for such practices.

The current thinking appears to be that if a store wants to go digital-only with customer receipts, it can. Paper-preferring consumers can decide for themselves if they want to shop there.

The environmental considerations are highly compelling. The Green America study concluded that use of paper receipts “has the same greenhouse gas emissions impact as driving over 450,000 cars each year.”

It also cited the presence of chemicals on paper receipts, including bisphenol-A and bisphenol-S, which can pose a danger to children and have been linked to reproductive harm.

At the same time, though, a switch to digital-only receipts probably would be another nail in the coffin of your privacy.

It would spread your email address even more widely among businesses, and would provide yet another way for marketers and data brokers to link your identity with your personal behavior.

For businesses, digital receipts are “a cheap way to get your email address and to build their database to track your shopping habits,” said John Zhang, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“As a result, firms can do all kinds of targeted promotions on the cheap, and you will receive all kinds of junk emails,” he told me.

Nicholas Gerlich, a marketing professor at West Texas A&M University, agreed that email addresses provided by consumers for digital receipts “will most likely be used for marketing purposes at some point.”

He suggested that people create special email accounts exclusively for digital receipts so they, and all subsequent spam, end up in one place — the cyber-equivalent of dumping all your paper receipts into a shoebox.

John Deighton, a professor emeritus of business administration at Harvard Business School, told me he wouldn’t be surprised if credit card companies started automatically compiling people’s digital receipts “as a benefit of card use.”

I have no problem with digital receipts being the default, but any consumer who desires paper should be able to get it, at least for the foreseeable future.

Eventually, it seems safe to assume, we’ll make our way to exclusively paperless transactions, just as use of cash, as opposed to plastic and payment apps, probably will come to an end at some point down the road.

Until that time, consumers have a choice to make: Protect your privacy or protect the planet.

I’ve thought a lot about this because, like many people, I take both choices seriously.

I finally decided that my privacy, which I safeguard as best I can, is already so compromised, it’s a given that my personal information is up for grabs.

I’m not happy about that, make no mistake, but I acknowledge that every time I purchase something, every transaction I’m part of, adds more info to the digital dossier bearing my name. The toothpaste, as they say, is out of the tube.

So I come down on the side of Mother Nature. If I had to choose, I’d go with digital receipts.

Your privacy is already to a large extent a lost cause. Let’s give the planet a fighting chance.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 1, 2021, Media Advisory – Green America’s Green Business Network is launching an open comment period to collect informed feedback on a new certification standard for hemp-derived CBD (cannabidiol) products that are legally compliant. The survey for the CBD certification can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GBN_CBDstandard_opencomment. The comment period will remain open until May 1, 2021.

The draft standard addresses a wide range of social and environmental issues facing CBD businesses and includes two tiers of certification – Standard and Gold.

Once finalized, this new hemp-derived CBD certification standard will play an important role in affirming for consumers that the businesses providing CBD products are operating in accordance with practices that support people and the planet.

The Green Business Network is a national network of small to mid-sized companies that work to integrate strong social and environmental commitments into their business operations. The Network is home to both rising social and eco enterprises and to well-established green businesses. The Network provides the tools, information, and – for certified members – access to consumers to help green businesses thrive in today’s competitive green marketplace.

The Green Business Network certifies businesses across 38 different industry sectors, including apparel, banks and credit unions, cleaning products, housewares, travel and more.

For more information about the open comment period contact: certification@greenamerica.org

Take Survey

MEDIA CONTACT: Max Karlin for Green America, (703) 276-3255, or mkarlin@hastingsgroup.com.

ABOUT GREEN AMERICA
Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America provides the economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses, investors, and consumers to solve today’s social and environmental problems. http://www.GreenAmerica.org  

Amazon announced a commitment to power 100% of its infrastructure with renewable energy by 2025, which is 5 years earlier than the company's initial target of 2030. Amazon's corporate offices, fulfillment centers, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers will all be powered by renewable energy.

This announcement would not have been possible without pressure from tens of thousands of consumers who joined Green America and our allies in calling on Amazon to ramp up renewable energy, as well as pressure from hundreds of Amazon's own employees, some of whom were retaliated against by the company.

While this is important progress for Amazon, there are still concerns about where the renewable energy will be coming from and whether the sourcing of renewable energy will benefit workers and communities worldwide.  It is also unclear if Amazon will be using renewable energy credits for a portion of the energy as opposed to ensuring all of this renewable energy will come from new solar and wind installations sited close to where the power is being used.

Green America is also continuing to push Amazon to treat workers in its fulfillment centers as well as supply chain workers who make Amazon products better, and to ensure their safety. 

Green America reports a surge of interest in people gardening for climate reasons.

If it seems like more people are gardening than ever before, you're not wrong. Green America is a non-profit that promotes the creation of Climate Victory Gardens. It tracks these in an interactive online map that just surpassed an impressive 8,000-garden milestone. As a point of reference, there were only 2,400 gardens on the map in April 2020, but that number has nearly quadrupled since, reaching 8,239.

What is a Climate Victory Garden? It's a garden that relies on regenerative methods, particularly those that minimize soil disturbance and improve the soil’s ability to hold carbon. The name acts as a reminder of just how important gardens can be in the fight against the climate crisis. It comes from the Victory Gardens that were planted across the United States during World Wars I and II. By the late 1940s nearly two million gardens produced 40% of produce consumed in the US. 

Read more: Grow Food, Not Grass, to Fight Climate Change

Now we are fighting a war of a different kind. Gardens can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by shortening the number of miles food has to travel from farm to table. If done properly, they can improve soil health, reduce erosion, and sequester carbon. Backyard gardens can produce food without harmful chemical inputs and boost food security, ensuring that families have something to eat when store shelves are temporarily bare. As Green America explains on its website,

"When we grow food at home in a regenerative manner, we purchase less food that has traveled across the country, we keep methane-producing organic materials out of landfills with composting, we increase the water holding capacity of our soil to decrease flooding and runoff, and most importantly we rebuild our soil health bringing back its carbon sequestering potential."

Green America encourages everyone to start gardens and to upload their locations to the map. It has five criteria for gardens to be considered Climate Victory Gardens. These include: (1) Growing food, (2) covering soils, (3) composting and using it to nourish soil, (4) ditching chemicals, and (5) encouraging biodiversity.

There is no minimum size requirement for gardens to be included on the map. Todd Larsen, executive co-director for Consumer & Corporate Engagement at Green America, told Treehugger that the organization encourages people to start wherever they can. 

"If they are living in an apartment we provide them with instructions for container gardening, and help them do it cheaply, utilizing materials on-hand. If they have a backyard, we help them start small (e.g. with a raised bed) and then expand from there. We want everyone to be able to take part, gain a love for gardening."

Larsen described some of the different types of gardens on the map. "[They] range from herb gardens up to gardens that are several acres, and include private gardens in people’s backyards, as well as community gardens. People have planted Climate Victory Gardens in right of ways, at schools – really all over the place."

While food does need to be grown for the garden to be considered a Climate Victory Garden (flowers alone don't count), Green America doesn't care how much is produced. "Some people are growing produce that is hard to get or expensive at the store in a relatively small plot. Others are growing most of the produce their family needs in a larger plot," Larsen explained. "If people want to grow enough produce in their garden to feed themselves year-round, they would need to allocate at least 200 square feet per person." Not everyone has access to that kind of space, nor the time and skill required to maintain it. 

Green America isn't concerned about those details; it just wants people to get their hands dirty, to become familiar with the miraculous process that is growing food, and to understand the connection between doing so and fighting for the climate. You can learn more about Climate Victory Gardens by watching the short video below or visiting Green America's website that has plenty of resources for getting started. (So does Treehugger's Gardening category, so be sure to check that out.)

Please tell the companies in the communications industry to make 100% clean energy a high priority. And urge the industry to do much, much more to address energy equity and a just supply chain.

Amazon, Nike, and Next: It’s Time to Pay Your Workers

Millions of textile workers worldwide are losing their jobs without compensation, or receiving even less than their normal poverty wages. Most of these workers are women. Hunger forces those who still have jobs to put their lives at risk in unsafe workplaces.

With #PayYourWorkers, we demand that Amazon, Nike, Next and all other apparel brands and retailers:

• Pay the workers who make their clothes their full wages for the duration of the pandemic;
• Make sure workers are never again left penniless if their factory goes bankrupt, by signing onto a negotiated severance guarantee fund; and
• Protect workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively.

This many people have signed the petition: 47610

Share the petition:

What is this petition about?

Globally, 60 million people sew our clothes, they are paid some of the lowest wages in the world. Pre-pandemic this was a desperate situation, now it is a crisis. Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, garment workers have lost at least three billion dollars in income, a figure which continues to rise. Approximately 10% of the apparel workforce may have already been laid off. Millions more are at risk of being fired and have not received their full wages for months. Of the workers who still have jobs, many work in factories without proper Covid-19 protections in place, having no choice but to risk their health each day. The vast majority of these workers are women.

Many of them report skipping meals, borrowing money to buy food, and struggling to afford vegetables or meat for their families as the pandemic’s economic crisis rages on. Garment brands must take immediate steps to ensure the workers who make their clothes are paid in full or receive the full severance money they are owed. They must give these workers back their futures. It would take the equivalent of just ten cents per t-shirt for clothing brands like Amazon, Nike and Next to make sure garment workers have the income they need to survive the pandemic, and to strengthen unemployment protections for the future. Tell brands: It’s time to #PayYourWorkers

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the deep injustices in the garment industry, now is the time for change! Sign the petition to brands and retailers and join us in campaigning for a just garment industry where people and planet take priority over profits. 

Green America has joined in with over 200 NGOs and trade unions on this campaign. To read more about the campaign, go to payyourworkers.org

What are garment workers experiencing?

Hulu Garment

Hulu Garment, a sewing facility supplying Amazon, Adidas, Walmart, Macy’s, and LT Apparel Group located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, suspended its entire workforce of 1,020 workers at the beginning of March 2020.

As the end of the suspension period neared, management called workers in and told them on April 22nd that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the factory had no orders and may need to lay off workers. Management also told workers to “sign” a document with their thumb print in order to receive their pay, explaining: “you have to sign; otherwise, we cannot wire your last wage.” All Hulu Garment workers signed the document that day, without realizing that buried in the document was a sentence stating they were resigning. Management hid the word “resignation” appearing at the top of each letter by affixing the worker’s most recent payslip to cover it.

“The workers did not resign at all, but the company said the workers have resigned. The company did this to avoid paying seniority pay to the workers.”

— Ry Sithyneth, president of Independent Trade Union Federation (Khmer Times)

The day after, when it became clear to the workers that their employer had hoodwinked them into signing resignation letters in order to avoid paying $3.6 million dollars in severance, hundreds of them protested to demand reinstatement. A month later the factory reopened but at least 500 of the workers were never rehired. A year later, these workers continue to demand payment of the severance they would be legally owed if they had been fired, because they had been scammed and had not voluntarily resigned.

To learn more, visit payyourworkers.org/hulu.

Global Garments

In a blatant union-busting move, Global Garments, a garment factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh, supplying Amazon and Kohl’s, closed in October 2020 leaving 1,200 workers without an income.

Global Garments had been unionized since 1984; the factory-level union is part of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Union Federation (BIGUF), an affiliate of IndustriALL Global Union. The union and management have concluded four collective bargaining agreements in the factory and the union was collecting dues through a check-off system.

Global Garments laid off workers for a total of 79 days during March to October, paying them half their regular wages for those days. To avert permanent closure of the factory, the union has requested the factory management continue with the temporary lay-off, to safeguard the workers’ jobs and to help the factory survive. However, management rejected the union’s request and is using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to bust one of the longest established unions in the country’s garment industry.

Since 2014, Azim Group, the parent company of Global Garments, which also does business with Asda, C&A, and Zara, has gradually closed all five of its factories that were unionized.

This is not the first time that workers at Global Garments have faced repression of their basic rights. A U.S. Congressman spoke out about an earlier episode of violence inflicted by managers on workers at Global Garments, which was also covered by The New York Times in December 2014 before a resolution was reached in February 2015.

To learn more, visit payyourworkers.org/globalgarments.

What's Good is a trusted online market for green, sustainable, eco-friendly, and socially responsible products. Visit shopwhatsgood.com for informative content, convenient shopping, and good-friend customer service, while generating good opportunities for the makers and small businesses we support, our employees, and significant returns to the greater good.

Our mission is to provide healthy, green, ethically sourced products in one place at competitive prices along with helpful content, friendly and knowledgeable customer service (delivered by humans), all while sustaining give-back programs that support the greater good and a company culture that enriches the lives of our employees.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 18, 2021 – Climate Victory Gardens, promoted by the nonprofit Green America, have reached a new 8,000-garden milestone according to the group’s interactive map that allows members of the public to register their own gardens. COVID-19 triggered a surge in new Climate Victory Gardens, which nearly quadrupled in under a year, from 2,400 last April to 8,239 now.

Climate Victory Gardens help to combat climate change by restoring soil health to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Jes Walton, food campaigns director at Green America, said: “Climate Victory Gardens have the power to change the world. Gardening is closely tied to the classic American value of self-sufficiency, and when the principles of regenerative agriculture are applied, it can be part of the climate solution. We’re excited to hit this milestone and we’re eager to continue building on this great progress.”

Inspired by the “Victory Gardens” campaigns during WWI and WWII that drove the creation of nearly 20 million gardens and produced 40 percent of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. at the time, Climate Victory Gardens empower Americans to grow their own produce while incorporating regenerative agriculture techniques that help fight climate change.

Green America estimates that current gardens are offsetting the equivalent of 36 million miles driven.

To plant your own Climate Victory Garden, start by following these five steps:

1. Ditch the Chemicals
2. Keep the Soil Covered
3. Encourage Biodiversity
4. Grow Food
5. Compost

For more information on planting your own Climate Victory Garden this spring, visit ClimateVictoryGardens.org.

Climate Victory Gardens are being tracked through Green America’s searchable map. To register your own Climate Victory Garden, visit: https://greenam.org/garden.

Over 100 organizations urge home and garden giants to reject toxic weedkiller during Valentine-themed week of action.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Over 100 consumer and environmental groups delivered letters to Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) and Home Depot (NASDAQ: HD)  this week, urging the retailers to protect pollinators, human health and the environment by ending the sale of toxic weedkiller Roundup and other glyphosate-based products. The letter was part of a Valentine-themed week of action in which activists delivered messages to store managers and took to social media to urge the companies to “show us love and #RejectRoundup”. Ads were also placed in Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Charlotte Observer in the headquarters cities of the companies.

This national week of action (February 8^th-14^th) is a part of an ongoing campaign led by a coalition of environmental and consumer organizations, including Friends of the Earth, SumOfUs, Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides, Green America, Herbicide-Free Campus, Toxic Free North Carolina, and Kids Right to Know. As the largest home and garden retailers in the U.S., Lowe’s and Home Depot can play a huge role in ending the use of this toxic weedkiller in our backyards and across the country. The coalition delivered over 157,000 petition signatures to the companies in 2020.

“Home Depot and Lowe’s can make a significant difference in reducing the use of this toxic weedkiller,” said Kendra Klein, Senior Staff Scientist at Friends of the Earth. “Research shows that homeowners use up to 10 times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops. It’s reckless to sell consumers products linked to cancer and pollinator declines when safer organic alternatives exist. These retailers must build on their earlier commitments to phase out bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides by taking decisive action on glyphosate.”

“Lowe’s and Home Depot are well-aware of the research that shows glyphosate is linked to an increased risk of cancer. And yet these dangerous pesticides still line their shelves,” said Lacey Kohlmoos, U.S. Campaign Manager at SumOfUs. “It is time for the two largest hardware store chains in the world to show they care about their customers’ well-being and stop selling products containing glyphosate.”

“The youngest members of our communities — children who play outside — and essential workers of our communities — landscapers and groundskeepers — are those most at risk to the carcinogenic impacts of Glyphosate,” stated Katelyn Mann of Herbicide Free Campus. “It is imperative that companies such as Home Depot and Lowe’s prioritize public health with their product sales, especially as they focus on home gardeners who usually do not have the training and awareness necessary to avoid the health risks of Glyphosate-based products. We are calling on Home Depot and Lowe’s to take precautionary measures to protect public health by stopping the sale of Roundup and other Glyphosate based products.

“Consumers want glyphosate out of pollinator habitats and waterways, away from their families and pets, and off the shelves,” said Green America’s Food Campaigns Director Jes Walton. “It’s time for Home Depot and Lowes to wake up and see that this dangerous chemical is bad for business and the communities they serve.”

“Organic products and practices can address weed and pest problems while ensuring people, pets, and pollinators are not harmed by toxic chemicals. We urge Lowe’s and Home Depot to stop stocking toxic pesticides like glyphosate in favor of this safer, natural approach,” explained Drew Toher, Community Resource and Policy Director for Beyond Pesticides.

“It’s time for corporations like Lowe’s and Home Depot to stand up and take responsibility for their actions and the wellbeing of their customers. They know of the expansive research that links glyphosate to cancer and yet regardless of the consequences they continue to sell it to unsuspecting customers who spray around their homes; areas that pets walk through and children walk barefoot in. With so many organic and non-toxic options available it’s time for change, because poisoning people in the name of profits is simply not acceptable,” said Rachel Parent, Founder of Kids Right to Know.

The main chemical ingredient in Roundup® — glyphosate — is the most widely used pesticide in the world. Glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen. Research has linked glyphosate to high rates of kidney disease in farming communities and to shortened pregnancy in a cohort of women in the Midwest. Animal studies and bioassays link it to endocrine disruption, DNA damage, decreased sperm function, disruption of the gut microbiome, and fatty liver disease.

After a spate of high profile lawsuits linking plaintiffs’ cancer to glyphosate exposure, manufacturer Bayer agreed to pay $10 billion to settle an additional 95,000 cases out of court. Under the terms of the agreements, Roundup would continue to be sold for use on yards, school grounds, public parks, and farms without any safety warning.

Glyphosate is also linked to environmental damage. The EPA warms that glyphosate can injure or kill 93% of U.S. endangered species. It is a primary driver of the decimation of monarch butterfly populations because it destroys the milkweed plants their young depend on. Recent research has also shown that glyphosate can disrupt honeybee gut microbiomes, affect larval development, increase colony vulnerability to pathogen infestation, reduce productivity, and impair honeybee navigation, linking the herbicide to declines in bee populations.

Guest post from Casper Ohm of Water-Pollution.org.uk, an outlet intended to raise awareness of the alarming levels of water pollution in our planet’s oceans.

With 1 million extra tons of trash per week being thrown away by Americans around the holidays, it’s better not to contribute to the already overfilled landfill on Valentine’s Day as well. In fact, creative gift wrap ideas can show a person how much you care. Take your time to come up with eco-friendly alternatives to the traditional gift wrapping that adds to your gift. 

Preserve the aesthetics of the gift and cut down environmental pollution at the same time by using these crafty substitutes:

Cardboard delivery boxes

We all get those cardboard boxes in the mail after ordering something online. If you use them for gift wrapping, you not only reduce your waste and save on purchasing boxes that will wind up in the trash bin anyway.    

Paper grocery bags

Get paper grocery bags out of the stack that’s been piling up in your kitchen corner and pack your gifts in them. For a creative touch, decorate them with a hand-written note to your loved one and an original drawing with your own personalized doodles. 

Old maps and newspapers

Stored away in the attic, old maps and newspapers couldn’t have come more in handy than on Valentine’s Day. Personalize your gift by choosing specific pages from the newspaper and the parts of the maps that relate to your significant other.

Upcycled fabrics

Scarves, shawls, and handkerchiefs you don’t use anymore can be turned into wrapping material too. Learn the Japanese technique of gift wrapping also known as Furoshiki if you want to take gift-wrapping to the next level and really make an impression.

Repurposed old clothes 

Speaking of fabric, you can also reuse the T-shirts and button-downs that are no longer hanging in your closet. Cut-down strips of fabric can be repurposed into bows and ribbons that add character to your gift.

Natural decorations 

Perhaps the most straightforward way to green your Valentine’s Day present is to add to them sustainably-sourced pinecones, cotton buds, leaves, and tree branches. Pick up nature’s decorations from a neighborhood walk. Chances are you’ll have this season’s most original Valentine’s gift presentation. 

Making a positive difference for the environment doesn’t automatically translate to making grand gestures. Changing your gift wrap ideas and habits is a good start to an environmentally-conscious journey you’re embarking on that will account for cleaner and greener surroundings.

Green America and Kiss the Ground hosted a live Q&A about the film Kiss the Ground, where we discussed regenerative agriculture and its game-changing potential to combat the climate crisis and revive the planet’s health, and ours too.

Below are questions from the audience and the panelists’ answers, grouped in these categories:

About Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture and Animals

Increasing Regenerative Agriculture Through Government, Education, and Financing

Actions Individuals Can Take

Technical How-To's

Panelists:

Ryland Engelhart, Executive Director, Kiss the Ground
Don Smith, Stewardship Program Advisor, Kiss the Ground
Alisa Gravitz, President/CEO, Green America
Zach Ducheneaux, Executive Director, Intertribal Agriculture Council 
Kellee James, CEO, Mercaris 
Ken Roseboro, Editor, The Organic & Non-GMO Report (Moderator)

Thanks again to our panelists!

ABOUT REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE 

In the short run, how many humans on this planet can regenerative agriculture support? With 6 billion people, is regenerative agriculture productive enough to support us all? 

Zach - I think we need to first breakdown our calorie consumption. The average American consumes more than 3,600 calories daily – a 24% increase from 1961, when the average was just 2,880 calories. (Business Insider via google.) Given that, and then analyzing the nutrition per calorie, I’m pretty certain that Regenerative Ag can feed the planet. There’s probably an entire panel in that alone! Not to mention food waste. On average, every person in the U.S. throws away over 1,500 calories worth of food each day, a study has found. According to the authors, the findings suggest the problem of waste could be twice as big as previously thought. (Newsweek). In short, the current system of ag, overproduces to make up for a lack of nutrition that our bodies seek to fill with excess consumption, then we can’t eat it all.  

Are some land areas generally "doomed" to be deserts regardless of what we do?  I'm thinking of places such as Saudi Arabia.  I'm primarily interested, though, in the African countries -- is there hope for regenerating them? 

Zach - That's where Allan Savory continues to prove his model. We just need to figure out how to stimulate the biology to grow in the sand. Imagine if we put as much science and research into that and desalination of ocean water as we do into digging through the sand to harvest the solar power that is buried thousands of feet below the surface.  

Where does agroforestry fit into this picture? 

Green America - Agroforestry is an important element of integrating further diversity into agricultural lands. Tree roots are much deeper then crop roots and can further secure soil as well as creating additional nutrition and water holding capacity. Trees can also create an additional source of revenue for farmers, tree crops can take 3-5 years to produce which can be a financial burden for farmers. 

How are the crops harvested with all the cover crops mixed in with them? 

Zach - I think there is probably both a technological, and a biological solution. Technology will develop that will allow for segregated harvest of diverse crops as the movement grows. Look at this video. 

Biological solutions can take the form of human interaction, paying folks a fair wage to harvest, based on a more equitable distribution of the food dollar, or by embracing a multicrop environment and breeding for it. I’ve got a friend that selects his corn variety by choosing for lower ears so the ducks can more easily reach them when he floods the fields in the fall for hunting season.  

What obstacles does regenerative farming face from lobbyists and farmers? 

Zach - The system is working the way it was designed. Cheap production at the expense of nutrition, that allows for corporate skimming of the value in the form of capital. The system of finance is the foundation of all of this, and it serves the operators of the system well. The biggest obstacle is the lie that there isn’t enough capital in this system to do what’s needed. Farmers, who should be our biggest ally, are put in opposition to consumers, by lobbying groups and industry, and told that these things must be funded from the outside.  It’s akin to planting a perennial crop and tilling it up to do the same thing after the first harvest. The money never takes root and has an impact because it’s torn out before it can. 

How significant is the financial penalty for farmers switching to regenerative agriculture before their soil is healed, and is there enough support for farmers to survive until the benefits kick in? 

Zach - Again, it’s a misconception that this has to be a change founded on absence, or penalty. The same amount of capital, deployed in a patient manner, can do this. Our investment model of ag finance is just one. RePlant Capital and MadAg’s Perennial fund are others.  It’s not a penalty, it’s greed that is keeping existing production income from being used for the conversion.  

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE AND ANIMALS 

There is a debate about putting livestock back on pasture. The average American eats about 220 pounds of Big Meat a year.  Isn’t it better to eat less big meat and transition to eating a smaller amount of small regeneratively raised small meat? 

Zach - This is one of my favorite topics. I harken back to the answer about feeding 6 Billion people. We overproduce and undernourish. It’s the same with meat. Currently, I’m aware of two successful models of meat marketing. McDonalds, where the flavor is all so artificially manipulated that you’re buying consistency. Then there is the Certified Angus Beef model, where you’re buying the concept, and that’s telling you what it’s going to taste like instead of the actual flavor.  

We need to move towards a third model. Nutrition and flavor profile. I would scoff at my mother, (you were right Regina!) when she said she could taste the fish in the Purina Accu-ration fed beef we’d eat. We need to embrace the taste. Let our biology tell us. Our olfactory sense is so tremendously underestimated, but the vintners have decided to embrace it. We need to sell our meat based on improved nutrition and diverse flavor; not commodified.  

It's well accepted that farming with plants can and does improve soil health including carbon sequestration. But, there is a great deal of debate regarding farming with animals, ranching, and its impact. What is your perspective on the movements to open all lands to open grazing? 

Zach - I’m not aware of those movements, however I’d offer that anything that isn’t done thoughtfully, as though your part of the ecosystem, probably isn’t going to work out. Grazing for the sake of grazing, without us embracing our role as a biological creature in the ecosystem isn’t going to do much good.  

INCREASING REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE THROUGH GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION, AND FINANCING 

Is it feasible for Big Ag in the US to become regenerative? How can these large farms get support and money to start undertaking this transition, such as government subsidies? Are there ways to encourage larger-scale farmers to adopt this methodology?  

Zach - We first need to convince them it’s worth undertaking, and continue to have the conversations about the investment opportunity that is ag and food, especially in a regenerative sense. Not only is it feasible, it can be profitable in the long term if we stop focusing on short term gains.  

How can we encourage and provide support to local farmers to move to regenerative, when the Ag Bill uses our tax dollars to dis-incentivize farmers? 

Green America - 

• Support local and state initiatives around healthy soils  

• Reach out to brands you purchase from and ask them to source ingredients from regenerative farms 

Is there anyone we can support for new Secretary of Agriculture who will be a proponent? 

Zach - Janie Hipp has our support. I think much like Regenerative Agriculture, we’ll make more headway talking about what, or who, we’re for, than what or who we’re against. Except banks, I’m against banks. ;) 

I work for a local school district and have kids in high school and at university. How can we expose all of them to this message of hope? 

Zach - I recommend the book Indian Givers for any kid that can read. It helps illuminate the origins of many of the “groundbreaking” concepts we aspire to. Long term agriculture, food as medicine, value-added, even freedom and the U.S. governmental structure, all had their foundations in Indigenous practices in the western hemisphere.  

Why is regenerative farming not a bigger part of the political debate? Is it even mentioned in the Green New Deal? Regenerative agriculture seems like such a powerful tool to help rural America AND the planet which would also bring our country together. 

Zach - It behooves those that are currently hoarding the profitability in the ag and food to keep us convinced that the only solution is carbon credits, philanthropy, and hard, hard work that are the key. The successfully pit rural folks against urban folks against each other; and have most farmers and ranchers advocating against environmental concerns. Think about that for a minute. Some of the loudest anti-EPA voices come from cattlemen and farmers. Well played. 

Is it worthwhile to talk to cities about implementing regenerative practices on their parks and city owned land? 

Zach - Not just cities, citizens. Lawns serve no practical purpose but to make work. Might as well be getting some of your fruit/vegetable, or even eggs from your land. 

ACTIONS INDIVIDUALS CAN TAKE 

What grassroots actions can be taken? Are people working with their state or local Ag departments? What can I do in my area to help out? 

Green America - 

• Support local and state initiatives around healthy soils  

• Reach out to brands you purchase from and ask them to source ingredients from regenerative farms 

• Buy local and get to know your farmers. You can start with these sample questions to ask your farmer about regenerative agriculture. 

• Share the importance of regenerative agriculture with your friends, families, communities. 

• Video on regenerative agriculture with Rosario Dawson and Ron Finley 

• What is regenerative agriculture 

• Start a Climate Victory Garden 

How can I as a consumer purchase products from farms that support regenerative agriculture? It's not so easy to find. Not like organic food that is clearly labeled. Is there a way to find products that would support regenerative agriculture in my local grocery store?? 

Green America - 

• The easiest way to ensure what you are purchasing is to buy local and get to know your farmers. Otherwise, it does require research into companies and products individually. You can start with these sample questions to ask your farmer about regenerative agriculture. 

• Reach out to brands you purchase from and ask them who they source from and that you want them to source ingredients from regenerative farms 

I would love a step by step, simple and user friendly way for those of us that are starting to take action to join the movement. 

Green America - See the advocacy opportunities and trainings offered by Kiss the Ground 

What are some resources that would provide me with talking points that I could use in pushing for composting in my area, where we have available land?  

Green America - A simple google search will give you lots of results – here are two for starters 

https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/organics/compostmulch/community 

https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/growing-local-fertility.pdf 

Is there a main ‘regenerative farms’ map so we can locate farms near us we can buy from? 

Green America - Unfortunately, at this time there's not a lot of aggregated information out there. You might take a look at Regeneration International's map. We also suggest buying local and getting to know your farmers and their practices. Otherwise, it does require research into companies and products individually. You can start with these sample questions to ask your farmer about regenerative agriculture. 

TECHNICAL HOW-TOS 

How do you start this process on the barren fields? Do you put hay out for the cows to eat so they poop on the barren land and that’s how it starts? 

Green America - The first step would be to take some soil samples to see what the soil needs. Then beginning with a multi-species cover crop and let it take hold and begin to improve the soil structure and then allow animals to graze on the crops. After that the land can be planted with a cash crop. 

I live in the Northwest where fires rage every summer so growing grasses and brush which dry out and are tinder for fast moving fires are a problem. So should we grow or mow? Plus, fires put carbon in the air. 

Don - The goal is to grow plants that are perennial and establish deeper roots so they don’t dry out in the summertime. You need to maximize photosynthesis so that the growing plants can pump more carbon into the soil which will help with water infiltration during the rainy season. If your annual grasses are already there and you know they will turn brown, try and graze them regeneratively and then you are setting the system up for success in the future. 

What about covering bare ground that is not part of the garden at home? Should we encourage residents to do sheet mulching?  

Don - Mulch is good, but having a living ground cover is even better, because it helps absorb carbon, feed the soil and keep the temperature lower. There are lots of different plants that can be used including certain herbs that even smell good as you walk on them. 

How can regenerative principles, e.g. no GMOs and no glyphosate, be applied to 1000+ acre wheat production? 

Green America - There are no GMO wheat varietals on the market, so all wheat farmers are already using non-GMO seeds. From there you would follow the process of conducting soil tests to see what the soil needs to be productive and then planting multi-species cover crops and using other natural biologicals to improve soil health.  

Don - Check out what the Haggerty’s are doing in Western Australia.

What do you feel about the use of biochar in building healthy soils? 

Don - Biochar is a complex story, because a lot has to do with how the biochar is created - it’s not all the same quality, just like not all compost is the same quality. How much needs to be used for optimum improvement in a given context, if any. And how much does it cost per acre to use and apply? Can it produce benefits, yes, it’s pure carbon and will generally not go away or get used up. It’s been shown to be best when added to compost or inoculated with a diverse amount of biology than to just be used straight. 

Why did native plants seem like a glaring omission from almost the entire film? 

Zach - Maybe the concept of native species isn’t what we need to be thinking of, maybe soil-friendly. At some point all plants came from somewhere or another, by way of bird, animals, wind, what have you.  

If I started a contest among the farmers I work with, can I use 'worms per cu.ft. as a measure of success? 

Green America - Yes, but you should include additional measures and not just one variable. And you might want to look at soil organic matter, water infiltration rates, nutrient profiles, etc. I could create a worm rich soil, but not be making any money as a farmer. Profit per acre and worms per cubic foot might be a fun metric to track. 

What part do worm farms play in helping regenerative agriculture? 

Don - Generally speaking as your soil carbon goes up and your water holding capacity goes up you can create a better habitat for worms, which do an amazing job of increasing nutrient cycling in the soil, which makes for healthier plants, which means more photosynthesis, which means more carbon flowing back into the soil to feed microbes, which means more worm food, etc. Don’t focus on one organism – yes, they might be obvious and they are generally very beneficial, but we need diversity and you should be just as excited seeing more dung beetles! 

We are starting from scratch, with suger sand/silty sand.  It was farmed in old timey tilling fashion in the 1920s and 1930s, and they grew hay.  How should we start?  Bring in compost and grow on top of the soil we have without tilling into the sand? 

Don – That isn’t enough context, but you could try that. It might be too expensive to add compost, in which case you might be better just growing cover crops and grazing them, if that is an option. You really need to think about the entire farm and what you are trying to accomplish. I would read a few more books before you do anything. Holistic Management, The Reed Warbler, would give you two different ways to start thinking about the land. 

Does non-soil growing techniques such as hydroponic have any impact on carbon sequestration? 

Don - It depends on context. Most hydroponic systems require a lot of plastic and chemicals to run, and really do nothing about getting extra carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil where it can do some good. Now if you can show that your hydroponic system is carbon negative because it is hyper local and using renewable energy, then it could still be a net positive to the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. 

Can raised bed gardens help maintain soil and help regenerative gardening? 

Don - It depends on the context. Why are you making the raised bed? What materials and carbon costs are involved in making the raised bed? Are you importing soil to fill the bed? How are you going to manage the soil once it is in the bed? How are you irrigating your bed and what is the water source? I could go on... 

For someone who wants to go into this field full-on, is it worthwhile to get a PDC and what is your favorite one? There are some online PDC as well as local, and some supposedly more cutting edge than others such as Matt Powers? 

Don - It all depends on your context, every course and each group of teachers has different styles. What country are you in? Do you like online learning or face to face? Part of the course is the community you get thrown together with – in person is vastly different than online. There are plenty of great teachers and systems out there beyond Permaculture, which is really based on indigenous wisdom and not new “cutting edge” info. Yes, you can use a microscope, but an indigenous person didn’t need a microscope to “see” if something was good! 

What efforts are being made nationally and throughout the world to create pollinator corridors? 

Don - not nearly enough! 

Can you speak about the rise of mosquito spraying in the suburbs? Does this harm vegetables and soil? 

Don - Generally I think anytime we are applying something toxic in the environment it has some unintended and unknown consequences. Obviously they say it is a “safe” amount of pesticide, but what does that really mean to a microorganism that comes into contact with it?  

Is anyone in the US converting animal waste to biochar at commercial scale to help regenerate depleted land? 

Don - Generally, I would say no. I do know of some chicken farms that are turning their manure into biochar, but I don’t think they are using it to “regenerate depleted land”. Probably someone is and I just haven’t really looked for them. 

Anyone can garden for the planet, whether you live in a high rise apartment or on acres of rural land. This video will get you started with the basics of where, what, and how to plant and care for a new garden with an emphasis on soil heath and carbon sequestration.
 https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mv3PhydtOVY

Ready for more Climate Victory Garden tips and tricks? Check out these beginner FAQ.

Step One: Start small.

• If you have a yard, grow a small bed that gets several hours of sun.
• No yard? No worries! You can grow food on a balcony or sunny windowsill.

Step Two: Grow What You Love to Eat.

• Look to your favorite recipes for inspiration.
• Choose plants that are suited to your area and easy to grow like greens and herbs.
• Beginner gardeners may have the best luck buying seedlings but growing from seed is more affordable.
• When you can, choose organic and non-GMO.

Step Three:  Plant and Care for Your Garden.

• Water thoroughly when planting… and consistently after that.
• Weed regularly so your plants get enough water, sunlight, and space.

Step Four: Protect Your Soil.

• Cover it with mulch, avoiding chemicals, and using compost.
• Every acre of soil we restore can capture 25 to 60 tons of carbon!

Step Five:  Learn more!

• Ready for more Climate Victory Garden tips and tricks? Check out these beginner FAQ.

Back to Climate Victory Gardens home.

Have a question that’s not answered here? Or, have advice you’d like to share? Let us know: ClimateVictoryGardens@GreenAmerica.org.