Can Pollinator-Friendly Solar Energy Work for Bees and Farms?

By: Lela Nargi, FoodPrint 

In 2016, the Scenic Rivers Energy Cooperative approached Sharon and Bob Wood about placing solar panels on nine of their 300 acres in Mount Hope, WI. The Woods, former dairy farmers in their 70s, already leased much of their land as crop ground and pasture for milk cattle. But this deal “sounded too good to be true,” recalls Bob.

To set up 1.25 megawatts worth of ground-mounted solar panels that power 300 homes a year, the utility company would give the Woods a 25-year contract for three times the amount they could charge a farmer for a lease — a financial buffer for the couple in their retirement. As a bonus, the land under and around the panels would be planted with low-lying native flowers and grasses like clover, asters, and June grass.

There was aesthetic appeal to this set-up, in contrast to the eyesore of gravel or turf grass that usually undergirds a strip of solar panels. But looks weren’t the only reason the Woods were interested. In a state with 400 bee species, many in decline, so-called pollinator-friendly solar energy offers bees and butterflies something to eat and somewhere to nest. This is important since pollinators are vital to food production, and their populations are being decimated by habitat loss and agricultural chemical sprays. It’s a win for the bugs and in Mount Hope, it’s also a win for the Amish farmers who are “a quarter of a mile away from us as the bee flies,” Sharon says, and who have vegetable crops that need pollination from the insects attracted to the Woods’ native meadow.

Solar Ascending

Just two years earlier, the Woods’ solar energy story might have turned out differently. In 2014, solar energy companies were approaching Midwest farmers to develop prime farmland into conventional gravel-and-turf-grass-based solar projects, according to Rob Davis, director of the Center for Pollinators in Energy at clean energy non-profit Fresh Energy in Saint Paul.

“Anticipating the unintended consequence of this kind of energy transfer sent shivers down our spines,” Davis says. Minnesota was in the process of moving from 150 to 8,000 acres of ground-mounted (as opposed to roof-mounted) solar. Not only would such conversions of farmland to energy-only operations have negative consequences for pollinators; they’d also take arable land out of production—the opposite direction US agriculture needs to head to meet food needs as climate change continues to negatively affect our crop yields.

Davis discovered that in the UK, some solar energy parks were planting seed mixes developed by an ecologist. Online, inspiring photos showed innocuous-looking solar panels plopped into vibrantly blooming meadows. Were such initiatives worth pursuing in the States?

Davis contacted renowned University of Minnesota bee expert Marla Spivak to ask. “She was pretty direct and emphatic and helped us understand that county, state, and federal governments and authorities were not investing enough money in conservation programs, and that private sector money for creating habitat would be meaningful,” says Davis. He got a similar answer from an entomologist with expertise in monarch butterfly populations, which have plummeted by 90 percent.

Fresh Energy began an awareness campaign that attracted stakeholders eager to discuss pollinator-friendly solar solutions, including Minnesota’s Board of Water and Soil Resources; Audubon Minnesota; the Minnesota Farmers Union; the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. In 2016, thanks to the efforts of this consortium and other players, the state became the first to pass a pollinator-friendly solar energy law, which mandates standards companies must meet to label themselves “pollinator-friendly.” Five other states—Illinois, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont—have since followed suit; six more have written standards without the legal framework. As of this writing, there are 5,000 acres of pollinator-friendly solar energy from Oregon to Vermont.

The Benefits of Pollinator-Friendly Solar

The potential benefits of pollinator-friendly solar energy are many and varied. Yes, they provide on-site habitat and forage for beleaguered bees, butterflies, and other insects. These insects provide pollinator services to both agricultural crops planted on nearby farms, and to those that have been purposefully planted right at the edges of a field full of solar panels—a technique known as agrivoltaics. Having lots of pollinators around, to visit flowering plants over and over, actually increases crop yields.

These systems can also support rotational grazing of livestock and honeybee apiaries. And yes, they keep arable land as arable land, so that it can be used to grow things in the future; and also add to it energy and ecosystem services that improve life for everything on our planet—Davis calls this “stacking benefits.”

The ecosystem services that come about through the (re)introduction of native plants to a landscape improve soil health; help remove carbon from the atmosphere and its store in the ground; reduce flooding; and clean air and water. Larger arrangements of solar panels than what the Woods’ host on their property, for example, which are naturally situated on larger plots of meadow, make for prime foraging ground for animals like pheasants. Additionally, the plants underneath a solar array—raised two to 10 feet off the ground—help cool the panels, boosting their efficiency. Some more elevated models also allow for food crops to be grown directly beneath them.

Although native seeds can be expensive, it’s less work to prepare the ground for a meadow than it is to purchase and lay down gravel or turf grass. This lowers the cost, as does a meadow’s reduced maintenance—requiring maybe one mow a year. Jordan Macknick, lead energy-land-water analyst at The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), says the extra money for seed is made back in a couple of years.

Searching for Stats

Still, what’s missing is hard data—on everything from whether the meadows beneath pollinator-friendly solar panels do improve the health of insect populations, to what seeds thrive in various climates. The former has mostly been informed by parallel research from the restoration ecology sector that shows native-plant benefits to pollinators.

The latter is very much a work in progress. As Davis points out, Vermont’s agriculture (blueberries, apples) differs vastly from Illinois’s (corn, beans, pumpkins); so does each state’s native plant network and the insects that rely on it. As a result, determining standards for the steps an energy company must take in order to use the “pollinator-friendly” designation has been a challenge, requiring input from an army of experts with wide ranging knowledge.

Broadly, the standards are loose and flexible; scorecards give points for high diversity of native plants, selections that bloom throughout the year, and best management practices. Regionally, would-be solar-adopters are advised to work with local plant specialists to determine the right seed mix—in Vermont, for example, this could include Black-eyed Susans, Little blue stem grass, and coneflowers.

Still, there’s a lot to know about what works and doesn’t. Which is why NREL is studying nine seed mixes, comprised of hundreds of species of plants, at 21 solar energy test sites across the country. One of these is located at a Clif Bar bakery in Twin Falls, ID. Helping to figure out what the right mix of native seeds for this region of high desert is a way for the company to meet its sustainability goals, says Clif Bar vice president of environmental stewardship Elysa Hammond. But demonstrating pollinator-friendly solar could have wider influence. “If utilities understand they can do something that benefits farmers and the environment, that will be a whole new way to think about energy policy,” Hammond says

University of Illinois professor of entomology Adam Dolezal, who worked on Illinois’s standards and legislation, thinks that pollinator-friendly solar energy has its limitations. The state’s agricultural land leans toward conventionally farmed monocultures of corn and soy beans, which provide very few nutritional resources to pollinators needing a variety of multi-season flowers to forage from.  “If we can work patches of restored habitat in to extreme agricultural landscapes, is that the best-case scenario? Probably not,” Dolezal says.  However, research has shown that bees with access to small areas of prairie restoration, right across the street from, say, a cornfield, collect more pollen and showed increase fat stores.  And we also know, says Dolezal, “that the alternatives of turf grass and gravel are not going to have any benefit.”

Which means that, with the solar energy sector growing at a rapid clip of 14 percent a year, pollinator-friendly models still provide an important opportunity, says energy and research specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity Greer Ryan. On top of the climate benefits of switching off of fossil fuels, “We can be creative about where and how we build to protect the environment.”

Meanwhile, back in Mount Hope, WI, the solar meadow on the Woods’ property will soon be blooming for its second season. “I was so happy they didn’t just spread gravel,” says Sharon Wood. “I haven’t seen bees and butterflies around here for years, and if this brings them back, that’s a good thing.”

Washington, D.C. - August 13, 2019 - Green America, the nation’s leading green economy organization, has announced a new campaign to call on Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, to reduce its hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions. The Cool It campaign urges Walmart to release a detailed plan to phase out HFCs in all locations, monitor and repair its refrigerant leaks and practice responsible disposal. The company’s own data states that HFCs account for roughly 46 percent of the company’s total direct emissions, according to the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are greenhouse gases with thousands of times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. Used as refrigerants in air conditioners and refrigerators, HFCs leak into the atmosphere from faulty equipment and improper disposal. Walmart has made statements on the importance of refrigerant management in the past but has not released a concrete plan to cut those emissions.

“These potent greenhouse gases have extremely high global warming potential and need to be addressed,” said Beth Porter, Green America’s Climate Campaigns Director. “The energy equivalent of Walmart’s annual HFC emissions would power nearly every household in San Francisco. It is a glaring source of the company’s impact on the climate crisis and we are urging Walmart to take action.”

In 2013, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) explicitly called attention to Walmart’s inaction on its refrigerant practices and HFC emissions in its report, The Dirty Dozen: How your local supermarket is killing the climate. Although Walmart released goals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions through its highly publicized initiative, Project Gigaton, which aims to “avoid one gigaton of greenhouse gases” by incentivizing its suppliers to make changes, the company does not list a public goal on direct HFC emissions despite having been aware of the issue for years. In April 2019, EIA released its Climate Friendly Supermarkets platform map to celebrate leaders on the issue (including Aldi, Whole Foods and Target) showing the actions of each company and why it makes business sense to move to climate-friendly cooling.

“In a time of acute need for climate action, Walmart, a company with a massive footprint and ample resources, continues to sleepwalk while smarter companies are rapidly adopting energy efficient HFC-free technologies,” said Avipsa Mahapatra, Climate Campaign Lead, EIA. “EIA joins Green America in once again calling upon Walmart to sever its reliance on potent super-pollutant HFCs for cooling and demonstrate that the company’s sustainability commitments are not just hollow words.”

Improved refrigerant management is identified by Project Drawdown as the number one solution to reduce greenhouse gases causing the climate crisis. The EPA reports that one quarter of refrigerants used at a typical store leaks out every year.

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

ABOUT EIA

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is an independent non-profit campaigning organization dedicated to identifying, investigating, and implementing solutions to protect endangered wildlife, forests, and the global climate. EIA Climate campaign is working to eliminate powerful greenhouse gases and improve energy efficiency in the cooling sector, and expose related illicit trade to campaign for new policies, improved governance, and more effective enforcement. www.eia-global.org.

Contacts

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

Lindsay Moran for EIA, (202) 253-0006, or lmoran@eia-global.org

Back To Cool It! Campaign

1) What are HFCs and how are they different from CFCs? 

2) Where are HFCs found? And when are they the most dangerous? 

3) Who are the major contributors? 

4) What are the risks for the planet? 

5) What threat does the climate crisis pose to human health? 

6) What are the refrigerant alternatives to HFCs?

7) What is the Kigali Amendment? And how is it different from the Montreal Protocol in the 1980s?

8) What is the EPA doing to address refrigerants?

9) Why Walmart? 

10) Which supermarkets are cutting HFCs? 

11) What can I do?

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are greenhouse gases containing carbon, hydrogen, and fluorine. They are entirely human-made and do not occur in the natural environment. HFCs are used as refrigerant to promote cooling in appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners. Decades ago, appliances used chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as refrigerants, which wreaked havoc on the ozone layer and were phased out after the 1987 Montreal Protocol. They were replaced by hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which do not deplete the ozone, but they do have up to 9,000 times greater warming capacity than carbon dioxide.    

August 1, 2019

Amazon is funding a 23.2MW wind farm in Cork, Ireland, and a 45MW solar farm in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, USA.

The two sites, with an expected annual generation of 68,000 megawatt hours (MWh) and 100,000 MWh respectively, will be used to serve Amazon Web Services data centers when the farms come online next year - via Power Purchase Agreements.

The two sites are the company’s 65th and 66th renewable energy projects, including 51 solar rooftops. Together, by 2020, the 66 sites have the capacity to generate 1,342MW of power, and deliver more than 3.9 million MWh of energy annually. Amazon made a commitment to power 100 percent of its global operations with renewable energy all the way back in 2014, but didn't set a time frame. Also, as of 2018, it is only getting about 50% of its energy from renewable sources while Google and Apple are using 100% renewable energy.

Thanks to Green Americans taking action with us, we have been able to continue to push Amazon to keep adding more clean energy.

Reduce your diet’s impact on the planet by adopting an eco-friendly meal plan this week or all year. Even adopting one day a week of planet-friendly eating can make a huge impact.  

Day-By-Day Meal Plan for a Health Planet

MONDAY: Meatless/Vegan Monday

During WWI, the government encouraged Americans to reduce their intake of staple foods to aid the war effort—in part by adopting Meatless Monday and Wheatless Wednesday. Though those days were left behind after the war, climate activists have also pushed for people to eat meat-free at least one day per week. Nearly 60% of all global greenhouse gas emissions can be contributed to animal agriculture, according to research published in academic journal Nature Food.

Ideas for vegetarian dinner:

• Peppers stuffed with rice and organic meatless soy “beef” or “chicken.” To make it vegan, forgo cheese topping and use salsa, vegan cheese, or olive tapenade instead.
• Tex-mex veggie bowl: Add rice, beans, sautéed veggies, guacamole, and salsa to a bowl in whatever proportions make you happy. Enjoy a tortilla on the side, or sprinkle tortilla chips on top.

TUESDAY: Reconsider Your Meal Kit

Do you get mail-order meal kits from companies like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh? The insulated boxes include enough portioned and prepped ingredients to quickly whip up a meal for two or four. 

With these boxes, you don’t need to shop or plan and there often isn’t much food waste at meal-time. But the ingredients are often wrapped in lots of plastic. We dug deep in our article “Are Meal Kits Recipes for Fun, or Waste?” and determined a good/better/best of all the plans we could find, including organic meal-kit options.

Idea for meal kit dinner: Meal kit companies often post fun recipes online for free, so you can save money by buying the ingredients yourself.

• From Whole Foods meal plan service: Layered vegetable enchiladas.
• Find recipes from Blue Apron: blueapron.com/pages/sample-recipes/.

WEDNESDAY: Try Local Flavors

Ever heard the term “locavore,” meaning someone who eats local food? It’s not possible for all foods all the time, but there are great benefits to eating local when you can: 

1. Taste: local food might taste better because it was picked at its peak, instead of weeks earlier, like produce you find at the grocery store. 
2. Climate impact: It travels less distance to get to you, which lowers the transportation footprint.
3. Supporting local economies: Buying local keeps money circulating in your local economy. Plus, knowing the farmers means you can ask questions about how your food was grown and engage in conversations about important topics, like how regenerative agriculture helps soil health and fights climate change. 

Incorporate local food by finding a farmers’ market in your area or joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, which delivers boxes of local food to your door or an easily accessible location every week. Find a CSA or market at localharvest.org.

Idea for local dinner:

• Veggie skewers: Add seasonal veggies and organic tofu or chicken pieces to skewers. Brush with BBQ sauce, salad dressing, or oil and a favorite spice blend. Bake or grill. Seasonalfoodguide.org can help you find out what’s in season.

THURSDAY: Feeling Fishy

Fish is broadly considered a healthy food, with less fat and just as much protein as other meats, plus omega-3s, calcium, and other minerals. There’s not currently a certification for USDA organic fish. But some methods of fishing aren’t sustainable, like bottom-trawling, which can speed up coral reef destruction. Sometimes, eating specific types of fish isn’t sustainable, as they may be chronically over-fished, or unhealthy because they may have high concentrations of mercury. 

The best way to get high-quality seafood that’s caught in an eco-friendly way is to buy local and check labels. If you have a fish market in your community, talk to the employees about where fish comes from. In stores, look for labels including Marine Stewardship Council, Fishwise, and Seafood Safe. Learn more about those labels and about getting truly sustainable seafood. 

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch has resources about finding safe, sustainable seafood, including an app you can use in the grocery store to see if the brands you like are green.

FRIDAY: Eating Out, Green

Many folks who are interested in their health and the health of the Earth avoid eating out because food tends to be more processed, or when it’s organic and unprocessed, it can get rather pricey. That doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself to a night out once in a while. Check GreenPages.org for certified green restaurants, as well as the Green Restaurant Association, dinegreen.com.

SATURDAY: Be Aware of Food Waste

A study from the Natural Resources Defense Council found that 40% of food in the US is wasted. Much of it never makes it to fridges and pantries as it goes bad on farms, in trucks, or at grocery stores. But it’s estimated that households waste a quarter of the groceries they bring home—that’s like leaving a bag of groceries you’ve paid for at the store every week!

Make sure you use up the food you buy. We have lots of tips for how to make the most out of fruit and veggies and pantry staples that are aging.

Use-it-up dinner ideas:

• Frittata or a quiche. Add five eggs and a splash of milk to whatever vegetables or cooked meats you have left over from previous meals and bake in a pie pan (with crust to have a quiche, or none to make a frittata).
• Fried rice: Stir leftover cooked rice in a hot pan with eggs, cooked meats, and cooked or raw veggies, along with a bit of oil, soy sauce, and hot sauce to taste.

SUNDAY: Shopping Day

Going to the grocery store is a great way to vote with your dollars about what kind of world you want to see. 

Sunday dinner ideas:

• Come full circle with climate-friendly lentil soup. Lentils have the lowest carbon footprint per pound than any other food. Plus, this is a one-pot meal, which is great for a busy day.

Updated January 2024

Written by Priscilla Woolworth, the author of the online Eco-Living Almanac and the book LOLA: Lots of Love Always, a book for young women who are adopting a sustainable lifestyle and making healthier choices. Here, she discusses the process of starting a Climate Victory Garden at her house, in the lowest waste way possible.

Even before starting renovations on the 1790’s house I bought in the Hudson Valley of New York, I created a Climate Victory Garden. My priority was to start growing my own food and share it with my family, friends, and the local food pantry as soon as possible. Living self-sufficiently, reducing waste by reusing as much as possible, growing food organically, saving seeds, planting a pollinator garden, and composting are all essential to me.

Location Location Location

First, I had to choose a location that wasn’t too far from the house, had lots of sun, and was reachable for the garden hose. I also wanted it to be close enough to the road so that people passing by could see it and hopefully get inspired.

While I had help building the 8-foot high deer-proof fence, I simultaneously assembled 27 raised beds, leaving enough room to walk around comfortably between them. Most of the fencing and bed materials were purchased new because of the quantity needed and to ensure long-lasting protection. This was more expensive, but better for the long term because they will withstand the extreme weather and won’t leach toxins into the soil. I used cedar posts and wire mesh fencing, installed 3 feet underground, to prevent diggers from getting into the garden.

Filling the Raised Beds

When it was time to fill the beds, I spread un-composted plant-based kitchen scraps like coffee grounds and old salad greens all over the bottom. As the material decomposes, it adds beneficial nutrients to the soil and attracts worms, which aerate the soil. Then I fill the beds with a mix of organic garden bed soil (which had to be delivered) and a sprinkle of centuries-old leaf mold, which I harvested in various areas of my woodland—being mindful to just take a little here and there.

While getting the beds ready, I started vegetable seeds in reusable plastic food containers.

When the seedlings emerged and were ready to be planted, I mulched around the new plantings with chopped up straw, which helps protect the roots from drying, reduces weeds, and eventually decomposes into the soil at the end of the season. I also used reusable ID stakes, so I don’t forget what I planted and where. I especially love these stakes because they used to belong to my grandmother in Maine.

Reducing Waste by Reusing

I’m mindful on a daily basis about reducing waste in my life, and I’ve found that the garden is one of the easiest places to be zero waste. Everything used in the garden can be reusable, and even seeds can be saved from each vegetable or flower for the following year’s garden. All plant material can be composted, creating healthy garden soil that also stores carbon, helps mitigate climate change, and allows for reuse and recycling of nutrients!

I made bamboo tipis for the cherry tomatoes and, as they grew, I secured the plants to the bamboo with stretchy, reusable, and repurposed panty hose, which allow the tomato plants to grow without cutting into their stems—just use the leg parts, which can each make two ties. I also used old drawers as planters to diversify the garden and use more found objects.

Compost Area

The next thing I needed was somewhere close to the garden for composting. The perfect spot had a ton of weeds, which had to first be cut back. Once the area was cleared up, it was enclosed using old posts and discarded weathered fences. Next, I laid down pieces of cardboard (free of tape, staples, and colored ink parts)—to discourage weeds from growing back—and started adding plant waste on top. These two semi-enclosed compost areas have plenty of room to put garden waste along with the kitchen scraps and leaf litter.

In the fall, when the garden is ready to be put to bed, I remove all the spent vegetables and add them to the compost area. I dig and turn the beds, add more un-composted plant-based kitchen scraps, and cover each bed with a layer of straw. Come spring, all I have to do is scrape off the straw and add it to the compost; then the beds are ready to be planted all over again.

My new home and Climate Victory Garden made it possible for my long-time dreams to come true. It feels good to be a respectful steward of the land, while using nourishing and waste-free practices. Plus, my children enjoy picking homegrown tomatoes!

Materials I bought once and reuse every year:

• Bamboo poles for staking tomatoes, peas, and tall flowers
• Nude pantyhose, for securing tomatoes to the bamboo poles
• Metal watering cans bought at flea markets
• Plastic food containers for sprouting seeds
• Plastic food netting, for carrying harvested vegetables like cherry tomatoes and peas, or mushrooms foraged in the woods
• Woven bamboo food covers used for harvesting greens and peas.
• Round aluminum pans for harvesting vegetables

Materials I found and reuse:

• An old weathered fence and wood posts for the compost area
• A wood chair found on the side of the road, for sitting in the middle of the garden
• Fallen branches used to create support for climbing vegetables like tomatoes and beans
• Rocks and chunks of bark used for edging on non-wood raised beds
• Cardboard, ripped up and added to the compost area
• Plant stakes and terra cotta pots from my grandmother 

Read more inspiring Climate Victory Garden stories and tips.

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Washington DC//July 25, 2019 – Green America fully supports the Clean Energy Victory Bond bills introduced in the US House of Representatives and Senate today.  The legislation, introduced in the House by Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Doris Matsui and in the Senate by Senator Tom Udall, calls for the government to issue up to $50 billion per year in Clean Energy Victory Bonds that all Americans could purchase for as little as $25 per bond.  The funds raised from the bonds would support solar, wind, battery storage, infrastructure, and energy efficiency technologies at the state and federal level, and tax incentives and credits supporting businesses and individuals that adopt these technologies.

With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calling for a transition to a clean energy future in the next 12 years, and over 70% of the US public supporting aggressive action on climate change, Clean Energy Victory Bonds can provide a major boost to the clean energy future without raising taxes. The technologies supported by Clean Energy Victory Bonds are also major job creators, with jobs in solar, wind and other clean energy technologies outpacing the growth of those in the fossil fuel sector.

The legislation has been endorsed by Green America, the American Sustainable Business Council, Union of Concerned Scientists, and National Wildlife Federation.

“Americans from all walks of life want the US to move quickly towards a clean energy future,” said Todd Larsen, Green America’s executive co-director for consumer and corporate engagement. “Americans are also looking for a way to be part of climate solutions, and Clean Energy Victory Bonds will offer a safe investment, open to anyone with $25, that will support a rapid adoption of the solar, wind, and battery storage technologies that will create cleaner air and better jobs nationwide.” 

“Business leaders, from the smallest companies to multinationals, are increasingly understanding the risks of climate change to their bottom lines, and the benefits of moving quickly to a clean energy future,” said Fran Teplitz, Green America’s executive co-director of business and investing. “With Clean Energy Victory Bonds, businesses will be able to invest and in turn benefit from lower cost energy efficiency and clean energy technologies that boost their bottom lines.”

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.

A new report says that brands like J.Crew, Urban Outfitters, Forever21, and Carter’s fail to disclose important information about their chemical practices.

Scorecard: Urban Outfitters, J. Crew, Carter’s, Forever 21 Seen Failing on Commitments and Transparency; Target, The North Face, Nike & Gap Are “Better Than Average.”

Washington, D. C. – July 23, 2019 – A new report from national nonprofit Green America provides a company-by-company scorecard on the policy and actions of top US retailers on chemical management, sustainability and transparency. The new Toxic Textiles report reviewing 14 major US-based corporations shows much room for improvement across the sector on transparency, chemical, waste and water management, and workplace conditions.   

The report includes a primer on the impacts of clothing throughout the supply chain and examines the social and environmental policies of major American apparel firms. Key findings include:

• Above Average: Target, VF (The North Face, JanSport), Nike and Gap (Old Navy, Banana Republic) have better than average corporate practices. None of the major brands were found to be true environmental or social leaders.
• Average/Below Average: Ascena Retail (Ann Taylor), Walmart, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Ralph Lauren, The Children’s Place and URBN (Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People) are behind the curve, but were not the worst. These companies tend to claim to have policies in place but fail to provide details.
• Fail: Carter’s (OshKosh B’gosh, Skip Hop), J.Crew and Forever 21 indicate little to no corporate policy whatsoever on chemical management, factory transparency, factory safety, water management, alternative resources or waste/recycling.
• Token Plans/Brands:  Companies throughout the sector often incorporate one policy or brand of clothes to address a single issue in the supply chain and use it to claim overall sustainability.
• Greenwashing: Many apparel companies claim to have policies addressing environmental or labor issues but have not followed through with specific plans, goals, metrics or timelines.
• Transparency Still Lacking: Only four companies (Target, VF, Nike and Gap) have started to identify and restrict chemicals used in manufacturing and found in the final consumer product. Only six (Target VF, Nike, Gap, Acena, and Abercrombie and Fitch) list their supplier factories.

“Consumers want sustainable clothing, and the market is responding,” said Caroline Chen, Green America’s social justice campaigns manager. “But too often, many of the promises we hear from conventional companies are token sustainability initiatives that are band-aids to one small part of the problem, or empty platitudes without a plan to achieve real change. Sustainability shouldn’t just be a marketing trend.”

“For too long, companies have focused on blaming consumers as the primary driver of environmental and social degradation,” said Todd Larsen, Green America’s executive co-director. “And while it is important for consumers to adjust our shopping habits, it is also important for companies to start taking responsibility of the role they play in these issues, starting with the massive amounts of chemicals used in the industry.”

Key industry impacts include:

• Textile production uses an estimated 43 million tons of chemicals every year, not including the pesticides used to grow natural resources, such as cotton.
• Approximately 20% of industrial water pollution comes from textile manufacturing.
• The apparel industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions.
• Legal minimum wages are not high enough to provide workers with a living wage.

In May 2019, Green America started a campaign calling on Carter’s, the owner of OshKosh B’gosh and Skip Hop, to publicly adopt a strong and transparent chemical management policy, starting by implementing a public Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) and issuing public updates as the company phases out the most dangerous chemicals.

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.

Green America examined the environmental and social sustainability policies of major American apparel companies, focusing on companies who sell their own branded clothing. The companies are a mix of traditional and fast fashion retailers. We looked at publicly available information, such as codes of conducts, corporate social responsibility webpages and sustainability reports, if available. We also sent companies on the scorecard a survey with a list of questions to supplement this information. To keep the scorecard from becoming too cumbersome, we looked specifically at how their policies affect workers and environments in their supply chains – so while policies about greenhouse gas emissions, retail stores/corporate offices, and other operational aspects are important for companies to consider, they are not a part of this particular scorecard.

It’s important to note that even if a company has some policies in place to address sustainability within its current supply chain, it does not negate the sheer volume of resources used and lost annually to manufacture new clothes. Furthermore, there is still, unfortunately, no way for us to shop our way to sustainability.

This scorecard examines if a company has a policy, and does not necessarily translate to an endorsement of that particular policy.

To see full company breakdowns, please refer to the appendix of our 2019 Toxic Textiles report. If your favorite company isn't listed, reach out to them and ask what they're doing to fix environmental and social challenges!

_{Homegrown Stories: Shiloh Valley Family Farm – Farming for the Community}

By: Farm Aid 

Theresa Shaw stands in a greenhouse at Shiloh Valley Family Farm as dark storm clouds fill the sky. Her youngest son, 5-year-old David, hangs on her hip as she begins her story.

“The Farmer Veteran Coalition provided us a grant to buy this greenhouse as we were expanding into vegetables,” said Theresa. The Coalition educates and gives grants to veterans who are making a transition from active duty military to farming. “Neither my husband nor I were combat veterans but farming is healing.”

The Farmer Veteran Coalition provides a much needed service Theresa says. “The Farmer Veteran Coalition is vital because many of our veterans are in distress. Farming can be a very healing activity but it also has an incredibly steep learning curve and financial investment. The Coalition provides educational, as well as grant opportunities to assist veterans in the sometimes difficult transition to civilian life.”

Theresa grew up on a conventional farm in Miles City in southeastern Montana. She went into the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Montana State University where she met her husband, Chris Shaw. Both Theresa and Chris served in the Air Force. Theresa served as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations for five years. Chris served as a Civil Engineering Officer for nine. “When my husband and I got out of the Air Force we knew we wanted to farm and we ended up in Sheridan,” she said.

Theresa and Chris run Shiloh Valley Family Farm with their four children. Chris studies online through Montana State University on the GI Bill. He’s working on a masters in education, while teaching as an adjunct professor at Sheridan College. Theresa runs the farm full time, while homeschooling their children.

The Shaws primarily raise pigs, goats, and lamb as well as produce pastured eggs. Theresa saw a need in Wyoming for good pork. “I knew this being Wyoming, I could get good grass-finished beef, I could get lamb, but when I went to the grocery store, but the selection of pork kind of grossed me out. That’s how we decided to raise our own pastured pork. Later, we went with dairy goats and dairy cows for our own personal consumption, and then we started selling goat meat, and eventually, lamb.”

After a few years of solely raising livestock, the Shaws ventured in to growing fruits and vegetables, due to the interest of their son, Michael, in gardening. They now have a market garden which is Michael’s foray into local food production, and an orchard for fruit. “After being in the Air Force and moving every two or three years, we never had gardens or anything so that’s been a huge learning experience. We just planted our orchard last year and some berry plants. So really, a little bit of everything — and that just goes with our vision of things being sustainable and diversified.”

Every Shaw product is stamped with the “Homegrown by Heroes” label. “The Homegrown by Heroes label is a designation,” Theresa said. “Once you’re a member of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, then you can use that label to advertise that you’re a veteran-owned business.”

Theresa worked with the Powder River Basin Resource Council to bring the Homegrown by Heroes label to Wyoming. The label provides consumers with a choice. “To have that designation of the Homegrown by Heroes, for people to be able to say, ‘yes, I want to support that veteran-owned business,’ I think it’s valuable and I would just encourage any veteran to look into it.”

Livestock labeling in general has become a hot-button issue at the national level. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently began to accept public comments on a rule that allows meat processors to import foreign-raised grass-fed beef, run it through a USDA inspector, and slap a “Product of the USA” label on it. This practice helps slaughter companies undercut market prices, hurting American producers. It also encourages deforestation in Latin American countries, where would-be ranchers clear acres of rainforest to pasture cheap beef bound for a trip north and a “Product of the USA” sticker.

Production practices in the Shaw family are the opposite of the suspicious USDA labeling practices. Shiloh Valley Family Farm reflects the family’s belief in honesty, sustainability and diversity. Although they are not certified organic, the Shaws feed their livestock organically grown grain in addition to their grass-fed diet. The family doesn’t use any pesticides or chemicals on any of their food. Their production values stem from the Shaw’s wanting the best food possible for their own family.

“We started out with wanting to teach our kids where their food comes from, respect for animals, respect for the land and just wanted to feed them really healthy food.” That blossomed into producing sustainable, wholesome food for their entire community.

All of the Shaw children help out on the farm.

“We have four kids. Our youngest is five and our oldest is 18,” Theresa said. The Shaw children have varying interests, but all value wholesome food. “My oldest is going off to college this year and she’s going to be doing something completely different than farming. She’s either studying physics or music and has no desire to farm but says she will always have dairy goats and chickens. It’s something that we all value. I don’t expect any of my children, except for maybe my 15-year-old, to farm as a career, but I think the lessons learned and the values that come from farming will stay with them.”

The Shaws take pride in the food they produce for themselves and for their community. “It’s a privilege to be able to provide food for people,” said Theresa. The Shaws sell their meat and vegetables at Landon’s Greenhouse Market, the Sheridan Farmers Market, local health food store Good Health Market and directly to several customers. “We’ve been very fortunate that people from Jackson and Casper have actually started buying our pork and so we’re expanding outside of our primary market, but Sheridan is where we really focus.”

The sense of community that comes from growing food helps fuel the Shaw operation. “I guess growing up on a farm really formed who I am, and I wanted to recreate that sense of community and family entrepreneurship with my own family and my husband decided that that was a good idea, too,” she said.

Connecting with customers at markets is one of the ways Theresa feels a bond with her community. She considers some of her customers more friends than patrons. “I know my customers, and my customers know me, and that’s just really important that I’m contributing to my community. That money spent with me or with our farm gets recycled in the community — we’re giving the community something that maybe they couldn’t get otherwise.”

The U.S. Senate recently stepped up its support for farmers like the Shaws. Included in the Senate draft of the 2018 Farm Bill is more funding and protection for a program that pays for technical training, business planning, farmland access, and other supports for beginning, military veteran, or socially disadvantaged farmers. The new Farming Opportunities, Training, and Outreach Program combines the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program and the 2501 Program (a program aimed at helping socially disadvantaged farmers) will help lift an entirely new group of farmers. Both of the old programs were threatened with being cut in recent Farm Bill cycles. The Senate bill combined the two, made them permanent, and grants them 50 million dollars in annual funding with an additional 50 million dollars in discretionary spending. A conference committee will work out the two different versions of the Farm Bills passed by the Senate and House of Representatives.

Soul Fire Farm is a force to be reckoned with, according Leah Penniman, tackling racism and injustice at all levels of the food system. This small nonprofit farm in New York is bringing food sovereignty to the community by feeding people and soil (what’s known as survival programs), training farmer-activists (known as “skill up” programs), and building a global food justice movement for systemic change.

Penniman, Co-Director and Program Manager at Soul Fire Farm, traces her journey back to an early summer job with The Food Project in Boston, MA. Even at 16, Leah was excited to grow food and serve her community. From there, she went on to train at Farm School, Many Hands Organic Farm, Youth Grow, and with farmers internationally in Ghana, Haiti, and Mexico. There was no looking back.

“From the first day, when the scent of freshly harvested cilantro nestled into my finger creases and dirty sweat stung my eyes, I was hooked on farming. Something profound and magical happened to me as a I learned to plant, tend, and harvest, and later to prepare and serve that produce in Boston’s toughest neighborhoods. I found an anchor in the elegant simplicity of working the earth and sharing her bounty. What I was doing was good, right, and unconfused. Shoulder to shoulder with my peers of all hues, feet planted firmly in the earth, stewarding life-giving crops for the Black community—I was home.”

Today, Leah’s work at Soul Fire Farm is informed by these past experiences and focused on many of the same issues: working with producers and consumers at the intersection of structural racism and injustices throughout the food system.

The food grown at Soul Fire Farm is intensively cultivated on five acres using organic and ancestral practices that increase topsoil depth, sequester carbon, and improve soil biodiversity. Human health is also an important part of the farm’s mission, so these nutrient-dense, life-giving foods are available to SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) recipients and on a sliding scale to lift up community members, many who are living under food apartheid and state violence. Leah chooses this term—food apartheid instead of food desert—very intentionally to describe impoverished neighborhoods that lack healthy food options, because deserts are natural ecosystems while this lack of access is human-created segregation.

Leah is the author of many poignant articles and the book Farming While Black. In one article, she writes about the inspiration behind Soul Fire Farm’s training program: “The soil stewards of generations past recognized that healthy soil is not only imperative for our food security—it is also foundational for our cultural and emotional well-being.” While the farm’s training curriculum focusses on nitty-gritty details like soil organic matter and earthworm counts, many participants point to the personal healing that takes place on the farm.

The farm produces good food, talented farmers, and vocal activists—this is what sets Soul Fire Farm apart. Hundreds of youth and adults attend training programs that encourage leadership in both agriculture and activism through their BIPOC FIRE program (Black-Indigenous-People of Color Farming in Relationship with Earth). The result is food-growing, food justice organizers—often people of color (POC)—armed with the knowledge, mentorship, land, and training needed to amplify their often-underrepresented voices in the food system. Soul Fire Farm’s commitment to change goes beyond the individual, reaching out into the world to heal racial traumas and fight for systemic change through large-scale collaborations and events.

The goal of these programs is to lift up those affected by racism in the food system by ending inequity in access to land, sustenance, and power; reversing industrial agriculture’s negative effects on people and planet; and healing from a history of oppression.

Leah points to bleak statistics and a history of structural racism in US agriculture. “The food system is built upon land theft and genocide of indigenous people and the exploitation of Black and Brown labor.” Today, Black farmers operate less than 1% of the nation’s farms. Most farm managers are white, while farm labor is composed largely of exploited POC. People of color are disproportionately likely to live under food apartheid, be exposed to environmental pollution and the impacts of climate change, and suffer from diet related illness and other “nature deficit disorders”. Labor laws allow exploitation of farm and food workers.

It doesn’t have to be this way. “At Soul Fire Farm, sustainable farming practices rooted in African-Indigenous wisdom and technologies are part of the solution to feeding the world and supporting communities of color without undermining natural systems.”

Leah points to the fact that these practices have been ignored, erased, or appropriated by mainstream society throughout history. She writes: "Racism is built into the DNA of the United States’ food system. It began with the genocidal theft of land from First Nations people and continued with the kidnapping of my ancestors from the shores of West Africa.” After that, convict leasing—the practice of providing prison labor to southern plantation owners—and migrant guest worker programs aimed at Latin Americans have continued to undermine human rights and the role POC play in our food system.

“Our food system needs a redesign if it’s to feed us without perpetuating racism and oppression."

Soul Fire Farm envisions an equitable food system, sustainable from “sunshine to plate” defined by the international peasant activist movement Via Campesina. The food sovereignty movement has developed six principles: growing healthy food for people, valuing providers and producers, prioritizing local food systems over international markets, returning resource control to local communities, building agricultural knowledge and skill, and working with nature in mind. While this movement is often associated with its African, Asian, and Latin American counterparts, Soul Fire Farm is making these changes—putting people and planet first—in rural New York.

Change is possible. Everyone can take action to end racism and injustice in the food system. Soul Fire Farm has a comprehensive guide of simple actions for those looking to make impactful changes in their own lives and communities. Many of these are well within reach including good food purchasing programs for institutions, buying products from farmers and food businesses owned by POC, and supporting existing community work led by those directly impacted by the issues. There are a lot of good resources for better understanding structural racism in the guide as well.

Leah Penniman and Soul Fire Farm are nourishing the land, while nourishing people and teaching others to follow in their footsteps. The farm is healing and growing all levels of the food system, from field to producer to consumer. Physical and mental health are tied to healthy foods, strong communities, and relationships with the land that are built on a foundation of well-tended and cared for soil.

The challenges facing the fashion industry, from the labor to t environmental issues, can feel overwhelming to a consumer. While there is no way for us to shop our way into sustainability, at the end of the day, we still live in a society where pretty much all of us have to wear clothing on a daily basis. So, what’s a person to do?

1. Reduce how much clothing we purchase.

Part of the challenge that the industry is facing is the sheer volume of resources it needs to sustain consumer appetites (which in turn are fed by the marketing of clothing companies themselves). Even eco-friendly alternatives still require energy and non-renewable resources to be produced. Until the fashion industry is able to produce clothes in a circular economy – in which resources are reused, rather than end up in a landfill in varying forms – there is no way for consumers to shop our way into sustainability. No amount of sustainability initiatives or fair labor practices can counteract the resources needed to produce large volumes of clothes at increasingly faster turnaround times

We purchase so much clothing that when people recycle clothes by donating them, many of them are overwhelmed. Secondhand stores are overwhelmed by donations and can only sell 20-40% of the clothes they receive.

Clothing swaps are a great way to cycle clothes – at no cost! – amongst friends and communities. Meanwhile, companies like Rent the Runway provide consumers with the option to rent clothes for set amounts of time, allowing consumers to try new trends or get dressed for a fancy event without the need to own them. In fact, in a report by McKinley and Business of Fashion, the clothing rental market is expected to be one of the fastest growing ones over the next couple years.

2. Shop secondhand when possible.

While thrift stores and charity shops are still options for people to shop secondhand on a budget, there are new ways to shop secondhand now as well. Companies like ThredUp, an online secondhand store, and TheRealReal, an online luxury consignment store, are changing consumer perceptions of what shopping secondhand looks like.

3. If you need to buy new, try to support green businesses or products that have been certified.

Sometimes, there are certain items that you’d prefer to buy new. We get it! If possible, try to purchase a product from a green business that shares how it is socially and environmentally responsible, or purchase an item that has been certified through a sustainability certification, such as GOTS certification. You can read more about certifications here. By supporting green businesses, or even opting to buy certified clothes from a more conventional brand, you’re indicating to businesses that you’re putting your money where your values are.

Of course, some of these options do come at a premium price; if you do need to shop with a conventional company, you can look at our scorecard to see which ones are doing better than average – and then advocate for big companies to adopt more sustainability initiatives.

4. Reach out to companies and demand change

Companies really do care about what the market wants. Consumer outrage at the Rana Plaza collapse led to companies and trade unions forming the Bangladesh Accord and Bangladesh Alliance. Consumer disinterest – and even disgust – for  products made from fur have led to luxury companies starting to distance themselves from items made from animal fur, and to adopt stronger animal welfare policies.

It’s important for consumers to reach out to companies and ask what they are doing to address the different environmental and social challenges in their supply chains, like water and chemical management policies; to push back on corporate language designed to make them sound more sustainable than they actually are; and to hold them accountable to goals and plans that they make. Every call you make, e-mail you send, or social media post you make increases corporate awareness of how important these issues are to consumers. If you stop shopping with a company, send them a message to let them know why, and what changes they could make for you to start shopping with them again.

And you can start right here by taking our Carter's action and telling the country's largest retailer of baby clothes that you want them to clean up their act and make their clothes safer for the workers, the planet, and the babies and children that wear their clothes.

6. Continue to educate yourself – and people in your networks!

Shifting consumer habits and perceptions is an important step to take to drive change at the company level. As you educate yourself and change your shopping habits, don't forget to pass along your resources and tips to the people in your life!

• To learn more about toxins in clothing: Check out Green America’s Toxic Textiles campaign. Our friends at Fashion FWD, a non-profit dedicated to this issue, also have great resources.
• To learn more about a company’s practices: Check out Green America’s scorecard, or visit GoodOnYou for company ratings. Don’t forget to reach out to companies directly!
• To learn more about sustainability and labor in apparel: Check out Green America’s new report, Toxic Textiles, and our green living pieces on apparel.

Our Cool It Campaign urges retailers to end the use of  HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), potent greenhouse gases that leak out of supermarkets and escalate the climate crisis. HFCs are human-made greenhouse gases with up to thousands of times the warming potential of CO₂. 

While some companies are beginning to take action on HFCs, there's a long way to go to eliminate these potent emissions from the supermarket sector. Below are steps companies can take to begin improving refrigerant practices. 

Monitor & Repair Leaks  

A typical supermarket consumes 4,000 pounds of refrigerants each year. A quarter of those refrigerants leak out due to faulty systems and contribute to warming our atmosphere. And that really adds up–the Environmental Investigation Agency reports that refrigerant leaks from US supermarkets emit 45 million metric tons of CO₂e every year.  

A clear solution is to monitor these leaks and, when detected, repair them. But not all supermarkets have the incentive to do this basic act to reduce HFC emissions. 

In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the “GreenChill Partnership” to improve commercial refrigerant management. As of 2018, roughly 28 percent of US stores were participants. 

All participants are required to test for leaks and must achieve less than a 15 percent refrigerant emissions rate to remain a part of the program. The EPA provides resources on best practices, calculators for climate impact, technology assistance, and collects annual refrigerant data from all partners.  

Along with reducing these dangerous greenhouse gases, there are financial benefits to improving practices. Companies following these steps find increased appliance efficiency, and lower energy costs. Not maintaining a refrigerant system can not only lead to leaks, but to costly mechanical problems and reduced energy efficiency.  

Responsible companies regularly monitor and repair leaks to reduce their emissions and eliminate the waste of other resources.  

Choose Alternatives 

It's critical to repair leaks and use responsible disposal, but we also must eliminate the use of HFC refrigerants. There are a range of refrigerant options that are available with zero or lower global warming potential (GWP). 

Greenhouse gases have different qualities, such as how long they remain in the atmosphere and how much warming they can cause. The GWP allows us to compare these different gases by measuring how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a certain gas will absorb over a time period as compared to 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2). The lower the GWP number, the lower warming potential.  

HFC gases have GWP levels in the thousands, but there are low GWP alternatives available. 

Although the right alternative is dependent on the application, the options listed below show the suite of natural, low GWP refrigerants that can be used instead of HFCs.  

Ammonia 

This option has zero GWP, no ozone impact, high energy savings, and more affordability and efficiency than HFC refrigerants. Its toxicity requires strict safeguards, including that all pipes in a system with ammonia must be made with steel or iron to prevent corrosion. There are guidelines provided by the EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to assist in preventing accidents. 

Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

This may seem like an odd choice for an alternative, as CO2 is a major contributing gas to the climate crisis. However, a low amount of CO2 is needed when used as a refrigerant and it has a nearly zero GWP. CO2 refrigerant is obtained most commonly as a by-product from industrial processes.

It requires high pressure to operate, meaning there can be higher upfront investment costs to adopting the system, but CO2 is one of the more cost-effective options once up and running. Increasing demand for refrigerant alternatives is lowering costs even below HFC-based systems. 

Hydrocarbons 

These are non-toxic options with what is considered negligible GWP. Examples of hydrocarbon refrigerants include: propane (GWP of 3), isobutene (GWP of 4), and propylene (GWP of 2). These substances are not energy intensive to produce and they are easier to recycle or dispose of responsibly than HFCs.

Hydrocarbons are flammable, but, safeguards and proper technician training can mitigate issues. These options lead to high energy efficiency, have good thermodynamic properties, and are more affordable than HFC refrigerants. 

Water 

One of the world’s oldest forms of refrigerant is water. It has no toxicity and has zero global warming potential. But water cannot be used in refrigeration systems below 0 degrees Celsius, as it would freeze in the pipes. This alternative is most often used in building air conditioning systems.  

Ensure Responsible Disposal 

When refrigerants need to be replaced, they must be removed by a certified technician to prevent venting into the atmosphere. The gas then needs to be securely taken to a facility to be reclaimed, where impurities will be removed for reusing the gas, or destroyed. Gas that is recovered must be stored without leakage.   

Given the measurable environmental and financial benefits to phasing out HFCs and repairing leaks, why aren’t more supermarkets stepping up? Even though many supermarkets are part of national corporations, the refrigerant decisions are typically left up to the individual store owners or managers. However, an individual store within a chain is unlikely to make purchasing shifts or even use its budget to monitor and repair leaks, unless headquarters has made a companywide commitment. 

This is why Green America is urging major supermarkets like Walmart and Trader Joe's to phase out HFCs, set stricter leak and repair systems, and commit to responsible disposal. 

Join us in urging companies like Walmart to make cutting HFC emissions a top priority!  

Thousands of chemicals and dyes are used to turn raw materials into our clothes. There currently isn’t enough transparency or understanding of all of the different chemicals and chemical formulations that are being used, nor their impacts on human and environmental health.  Regulation  like Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals  (REACH) in the European Union is designed to help identify more of the chemicals and chemical formulations that are being used by the industry.  We need similar disclosure here in the US, but since our national government is failing to protect workers and the public, we need to demand transparency directly from companies.

The Toxic Textiles campaign is putting the spotlight on major American apparel companies to get them to come clean about what chemicals they’re using and how they plan on cleaning up their supply chain. We believe that clean clothes should be available to all consumers – not just consumers who can afford to buy clothing at a premium price point.

Safer alternatives and better wastewater management technology are already available – but companies and factories have little incentive to use them when they can hide the toxins lurking in their clothes. Meanwhile, there are industry initiatives that are already helping companies adopt chemical management policies. We need more companies to take part in these initiatives.

The fashion industry is a highly polluting industry. Experts estimate that over 8,000 chemicals are used by the textile industry, and there isn’t enough transparency about what chemicals are being used by specific companies or in specific garments.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 20% of industrial water pollution comes from the textile manufacturing industry. Wastewater containing the chemicals and dyes used in manufacturing textiles end up in local water sources; in some manufacturing countries, local water sources are so polluted by chemicals that they can no longer sustain wildlife. In some places, locals can tell what is the ‘It’ color of the year based on what color the local river source is.

Meanwhile, workers are exposed to toxic chemicals while bleaching, dyeing, and applying finishing treatments to textiles that will become clothes.

Chemicals in clothing not only affect workers, communities, and environments in manufacturing countries, residual chemicals can also affect consumer health as well.

Recycling has been used for years by companies in an attempt to reduce their negative impact on the environment. Recently, many businesses have been turning to upcycling to achieve this goal in an alternative and more impactful manner.

What is recycling?

Recycling primarily entails breaking down old items into their raw materials to create new items, such as plastic, glass, paper, etc. Recycling is an incredibly important process that people use to reduce the negative impact of new production on the environment. This is a common method of helping the environment that many people learned as kids, along with reusing and reducing their consumption of goods. Most of our waste is discarded in a landfill or incinerator, but recycling offers a different option for materials to be used again. Depending on the material being recycled, there can be a need to use new or "virgin" materials along with the recycled ones to meet quality standards for a product. For example, certain amounts of new plastic (depending on the product) are used in manufacturing along with the recycled plastic. 

What is upcycling?

Similar to recycling, the process of upcycling takes previously used products and converts them into new products. However, unlike recycling, upcycling reduces, and in many cases eliminates, the need for additional energy and natural gas consumption in the supply chain. Also, upcycling strives to not use new materials to improve the finished product. Upcycled objects are of equal or greater quality and value than the original. An example of upcycled fashion products would be when a company takes the cloth from old rice or flour bags and turns it into shirts, headbands, etc.

Is one better than the other?

Recycling occurs in a plant and requires energy to break down products. It is a more responsible method of managing discarded materials than burying them in a landfill or burning them. However recycling does require resources to carry out, unlike upcycling, which ideally occurs without adding strain to the environment as products are reused from its original state, and don’t need to be broken down. So, there is no need for excess energy consumption when upcycling. Also, people can upcycle at home, with few or no additional tools or cost. And as a reminder, typically the most environmentally preferable option is reducing waste at the source before either upcycling or recycling would occur. 

How can small businesses get involved?

Many businesses are incorporating upcycling as a part of their efforts to have a more green/sustainable business model. Honest Tea and Clif Bar are two companies that utilize the services of TerraCycle in an effort to provide upcycling options for their consumers. TerraCycle offers a range of recycling and upcycling programs for companies and individual consumers to participate in. Honest Tea’s Honest Kids drink pouches are part of a program in which a consumer can send the pouches to Terra Cycle, where they will be cleaned, sanitized and used for other purposes, such as being sewn into backpacks. Clif Bar is part of a similar program, where the consumer can send their used granola bar wrappers (and other Clif Bar product containers) to TerraCycle for free to be repurposed into different products, like shoes or shower curtains. Both of these programs offer incentives for the consumers, which encourages them to continue participating.

Businesses can also upcycle as part of their merchandise creation, instead of outsourcing their used products to be upcycled. Soul Flower Organic Clothing has a selection of upcycled clothes which are made from unwanted materials, such as the plastic from old soda bottles, which are turned into fibers to make shirts and sweaters. While upcycling is an environmentally beneficial option, recycling still has many benefits and is far more useful in sustainability efforts than throwing things into the trash. We're pleased to see more businesses moving towards sustainability in these and even more ways.

Along with helping you live green, for over 40 years, Green America has been working for safe food, a healthy climate, fair labor, responsible finance, and social justice. 

Substances in cooling appliances must be handled responsibly to curb impacts on the climate.

Our Cool It! campaign works to eliminate HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), greenhouse gases with thousands of times more warming potential than CO2 that are used in our air conditioners and refrigerators. 

These gases are emitted into the atmosphere through leaks and improper disposal of appliances. Beyond HFCs, appliances have hazardous components that can pose threats to the environment and communities if leached out.

Fortunately, there are best practices to reclaim or destroy refrigerants at their end of life. 

Here’s how to get started:

Cool It in Your Home

When hiring an HVAC company for leak repairs or refrigerant removal, ask if it's certified under Section 608 from the Clean Air Act. If the process is being done correctly, your technician will be using a recovery machine and a reusable cylinder to capture the gas. If the technician is emptying the gas into a plastic jug or no container at all, it's not being recovered properly and is venting out into the air. If you suspect a company is venting out these gases instead of responsibly containing them, you can report it on the EPA’s tip line. 

If your cooling appliance is broken beyond repair, first check with your electric utility to see if they sponsor a turn-in program which would pay you for your old appliance.

Check EPA’s Responsible Appliance Disposal Program to find retailers and utility companies you can use for disposal. These partners send appliances to certified technicians to responsibly remove the substances. 

When buying a new fridge, look for HFC-free options with EIA's helpful guide of climate-friendly refrigerators.

If you’re a renter, you can encourage your landlord to follow these practices and ask your landlord if they have a schedule for monitoring leaks on your property. Repairing leaks cuts emissions and is cost effective.

And importantly, don't attempt to cut any refrigerant line or remove items like the compressor from your cooling system, as this will result in venting out the gases. 

Cooling Your Business

If you own a commercial space that uses cooling appliances, commit to monitoring leaks on a quarterly or annual basis. Develop a plan to make a quick repair if you detect a refrigerant leak, and make sure to contract with technicians who are Section 608 certified under the Clean Air Act.

Find more ways that businesses can improve refrigerant management practices on our Cool It Solutions page. 

Use your voice as a business-owner and submit a letter to the Trump Administration to ratify the Kigali Amendment. You would be joining many states, major industry refrigerant suppliers, and elected officials from both sides of the aisle in urging to ratify the Amendment.  

Tips for Your Car

For car owners, it may be tempting to go the DIY route to repair any problems with your air conditioning, but specific recovery equipment is required to prevent gases from venting out.

Make sure to have your car’s AC serviced by a technician certified under section 609 of the Clean Air Act to prevent these harmful emissions from entering the atmosphere.  

Companies Should Do Their Part

You're working to cut HFCs - tell companies to do their part. Supermarkets are a major source of HFCs and need to be held accountable for their refrigerant emissions – join Green America in urging Walmart, one of the world’s largest retailers, to cut HFCs! 

Gallant International is a trend-forward supplier of Fair Trade and 100% Certified Organic Cotton products. We make telling your brand story quick and affordable by offering customized eco-friendly bags and accessories such as promotional tote bags, reusable produce bags, shopping bags, muslin bags, cosmetic bags, custom aprons, and custom wine bags. All our reusable bags are 100% customizable to size, shape, color, print, accessories and quantity. Gallant’s products are proudly reusable, biodegradable, and recyclable.

Written by John Trimble, who founded the volunteer nonprofit group Foodscaping Utah with his wife Holly in 2017. 

As I woke up this morning and looked out my front window to a view of fresh peas, strawberries, and lettuce, I couldn’t help but wonder what sort of impact it might have on my community if more people were able to enjoy harvesting some of their own food right from their own yard. To me, the idea of using your landscape for something as productive and beneficial as a food garden seems like a logical first choice but driving around my city it might seem radical. 

I live in Utah, in a dry climate, and while there has been a long tradition of home gardening and food production, most of that is now associated with previous generations and grass lawns dominate the home landscape. But what if we were foodscaping our yards and public spaces instead of installing lawns? What if more people discovered how good homegrown fruits and vegetables taste? What if more of our food was grown locally instead of shipped across the country and the world? What if more of our water was used to grow food instead of grass? What can we do to help?

Foodscape Your Front Yard

The first thing we did was replace our front yard with a foodscape. Foodscaping aligns well with Climate Victory Gardens, because it transforms landscapes with designs that put food-bearing plants front and center to maximize food production while keeping esthetics in mind. 

There are numerous benefits to foodscaping your front yard, but perhaps the most unexpected and profound is that it starts building community. Since foodscaping our own front yard, we have started interacting with our neighbors on a more personal level. People are always interested to see what's growing, and they often stop by to ask questions. We also tend to give a lot of our extra vegetables to our neighbors, which leads to interesting conversations. The best part is that foodscaping front yards in our small community seems to be catching on. Two of our immediate neighbors now grow food in front of their houses, we’ve seen foodscapes pop up around our city, and we are helping many others get started.

The Birth of Foodscaping Utah

A few years ago after completing the local extension office’s Master Gardener program and watching Ron Finley’s Ted Talk, my wife and I decided that we want to do everything we can to help people learn how to grow their own food. So, we started a nonprofit organization called Foodscaping Utah. We developed a website and YouTube channel with lots of how-to information and started a volunteer group that comes together to help residents get their foodscapes started. 

Volunteer workdays are called scapes, and it all starts with an application on our website and an initial consultation from a Master Gardener who helps create a plan. During a typical scape, we put in a raised bed or two for vegetables and sometimes plant a fruit tree or grape vine. The homeowner has all the necessary materials on site in advance and invites their friends and neighbors to join Foodscaping Utah’s volunteers. We work for two hours and then we eat and have a 30-minute class related to something we planted during the scape (fruit tree care, planting vegetable starts, growing grape vines, etc.).

We have been blown away by the response from our community and the amazing volunteers who have shown up to help. The truth is that when we started Foodscaping Utah, we weren’t sure how well we would be able to get the word out or if anyone would even be interested. We have the most hard-working enthusiastic volunteers around and there is something powerful and resonating about how we can transform a monotonous unproductive lawn into something as inspiring as a foodscape—in just a couple hours! 

Now in our second growing season, we have seen interest double from one year to the next and have gone from three volunteers participating in our first scape to over twenty at our most recent one. Volunteers range from people who know very little about gardening but are eager to learn, to Master Gardeners looking to share their knowledge and give back. And our city, Ogden, has also generously started donating a cubic yard of green-waste compost for all of our scapes!

Start Your Own Volunteer Group

We started Foodscaping Utah hoping to inspire others to reconnect with where food comes from and to rethink how we view and interact with our landscapes. For those out there who have some gardening knowledge and are interested in creating positive change in their communities and beyond, we would encourage you to start a volunteer group and see what happens. We think helping one another in-person does wonders to make getting started less intimidating, and front yard gardens—whether called foodscapes or Climate Victory Gardens—can quickly become less of a radical concept. 

There’s no reason landscapes can’t look great, feed us, and have a positive impact on our communities and the environment too. Of course, grass lawns are still the norm in Utah, but we have noticed that particularly the youngest generations are seeing the futility of grass, especially in the front where they never play on it. We’re also seeing a massive increase of interest in vegetable and fruit gardening. 

And why not? Homegrown fruits and vegetables taste amazing and are super nutritious! And getting outside and digging in the dirt has a host of health benefits for children and adults alike. We started out hoping to inspire, but the response from our volunteers and our community is what has been truly inspirational.

Grow your own!

Read more inspiring Climate Victory Garden stories and tips.

Summer is underway and Green America’s work is in high gear! Thanks to our members' generous support, every day our programs are advancing the policies and systems needed for safe food, clean energy, responsible finance, and fair labor on which the health of people and the planet depends.

Whether we are taking our message to the streets, to legislators, to consumers and investors, or to corporations, we focus on the economic strategies that can really make a difference for the well-being of communities and the environment. We are pleased to share these policy highlights with you, addressing recent initiatives to change public policies and corporate polices for the better for all of us.

Principles of the Green New Deal

The principles of the Green New Deal reflect many of the green economy recommendations that Green America has been advancing since our inception. We were pleased to join a coalitional letter with more than fifty other investor signatories sent to the full Congress on April 11, 2019, affirming support for the Green New Deal’s focus on the urgent need for action on climate.

Prior to that we partnered with the American Sustainable Business Council to engage our business members in supporting the direction outlined in the Green New Deal. The policy framework offers an historic opportunity to combine the strengths of businesses and government to solve crucial problems and put us on a path toward a sustainable economy. You can read the letter here.

In addition, we have also worked with the Sunrise Movement -- a youth-led movement addressing climate change and job creation -- to advance the goals of the Green New Deal. On May 2, 2019 members of Sunrise and the University of Maryland Community Learning Garden hosted a town hall meeting to jump-start a local coalition that supports a Green New Deal. Green America’s executive co-director Todd Larsen spoke on how to make the Green New Deal reforms a reality and what is at stake.

Safe Food

Green America and six of our allies delivered petitions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 26th, urging it to ban glyphosate. Glyphosate is the main ingredient in Monsanto/Bayer’s Roundup weed killer. The petitions were delivered as part of the EPA’s public comment period on whether to extend glyphosate’s registration and thus allow its continued use for years to come.

Glyphosate has been implicated in causing lymphoma, shorter pregnancies, pollinator decline, and other negative impacts on the environment. A number of lawsuits have also been brought against Monsanto related to cancers following exposure to glyphosate. Nearly 150,000 people signed the coalitional petition. Please read our press release for additional information.

If you live in the Denver area: Come hear Green America’s Food Programs Director, Jillian Semaan, speak on a panel at the Slow Food Nations international food festival in downtown Denver’s Larimer Square, July 19-21. Jillian will speak at the “Food on the 2020 Ballot” session on Sunday, July 21 from 10-11am in the Food for Change tent. This panel is free and open to the public.

Climate & Clean Energy

As part of our Hang up on Fossil Fuels campaign, we updated our “Clean Energy is Calling” report in late April. We received media hits (examples from Clean Technica and CSO Magazine) and generated engagement on social media. The report shows the commitments made from T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon in the past year and offers updated data by company from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Unfortunately, Sprint is now in last place of the four, due to missing its 2017 10% clean energy goal and failing to provide a new goal or updated data to CDP. This year we will focus on tracking purchasing contracts from each company to prove that they are moving towards meeting their commitments.

On May 13, 2019 our executive co-director Todd Larsen took part in an all-day energy conference in Indianapolis called ELECTRIC AMERICA: Will the Grid Evolve or Be Replaced?, sponsored by the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy. Todd spoke about the rapid growth in corporate purchases of clean energy nationwide and discussed Green America’s work in moving the telecom sector to increase its clean energy purchases. AT&T made the largest corporate purchase of clean energy in the US last year, and TMobile is highlighting how large-scale corporate purchases of clean energy save companies money in the long run. These companies are helping pave the way for ever-increasing corporate purchases, which are already on par with utility scale clean energy purchasing in the US.

Also related to climate impacts, our Skip the Slip campaign urges stores to offer digital receipts in order to reduce waste, save trees, and eliminate toxins from thermal paper receipts. The campaign has even inspired legislation in California. The California “Skip the Slip” Bill, AB 161, has now made it through two committee votes, appropriations, and the California Assembly floor vote. It now moves onto the state Senate and then, hopefully, to the Governor. Skip the Slip has become Green America’s greatest media success as interest in the impact of our campaign and the California legislation has built since the beginning of the year.

We mobilized our Green Business Network members and our consumer members in CA in support of the bill to help protect the health of workers, consumers, and the environment.

Skipping the Slip would:

• Protect workers and customers from toxic receipts coated with BPA and BPS;
• Save the billions of gallons of water used to produce paper receipts;
• Save the millions of trees needed to produce paper receipts;
• Save the 302 million tons of waste generated by producing and disposing of receipts.

Version 2.0 of our Skip the Slip report, released June 25, 2019, includes an expanded list of retailers for our scorecard, updates from those companies, and policy updates on the California bill.

As you’ll read, only three retailers – Best Buy, Apple and Ben & Jerry’s – get top marks for how they deal with electronic and paper receipts.

Fair Labor

Green America has launched our new campaign Carter’s: Remove Toxic Textiles! The campaign targets the largest retailer of baby and children’s clothes in the country. We’re asking them to adopt a strong chemical management policy that will protect workers, the environment, and consumers – specifically, the smallest members of our society. Despite what the chemical industry says in their pushback against the campaign, we do not want children to run around naked (Osh Kosh B’Gosh: “Green America’ Wants Your Kids to Go Naked”); we do, however, want Carter’s to follow in the steps of green businesses and leaders who have already adopted strong chemical management policies.

The textile industry uses over 8,000 chemicals and contributes to 20 percent of industrial global warming. Rivers are actually dyed unnatural colors thanks to run offs; workers and their communities are at high risk of contracting fatal diseases; and residual chemicals in clothing can affect our health as well. Learn more about the new campaign here, and if you haven’t taken the action yet you can do so here.

Responsible Finance

In follow-up to the findings of the 2019 Banking on Climate Change Report, we emailed all of our e-activist members to urge them to contact JPMorgan Chase – the world’s worst/biggest funder of fossil fuels. In the last three years, the bank’s fossil fuel financing totaled over $195 billion – nearly 30 percent higher than the next largest bank funder!

And even more astoundingly, the bank has provided $67 billion in financing for fossil fuel expansion in the three years following the Paris Agreement. That is 68% higher than then next largest bank funder.

See how these Big Banks are leading the way in financing fossil fuel and use these flyers to educate others: JPMorgan Chase; Wells Fargo; Bank of America; Citi.

Remember – you don’t need to use a “fossil bank” – you can Get A Better Bank!

Center for Sustainability Solutions: Regenerative Supply Working Group

In June we conducted a working group meeting in Iowa City with farmers, companies, researchers, and other experts on soil health and its ability to sequester carbon. Topics covered included recent research on:

• Accelerating soil health: When you get soil healthy enough, it rapidly delivers improved carbon sequestration, water quality, biodiversity, yield and farmer economics;
• The impacts of exposure to Round up (glyphosate);
• How to financially support farmers for transitioning to regenerative agriculture;
• The prevalence of the top ten agricultural chemicals in food;
• Consumer interest in healthy food and knowledge of regenerative agriculture;

Working group members will build on the knowledge and connections made in Iowa to advance our goals for healthy food, safe agriculture, and carbon sequestration by the soil to actually reverse the climate crisis.

In closing, thank you once again for following and participating in our green economy work. Every action our members take and every dollar of support we receive brings us closer to realizing our goals. We appreciate your partnership!

Creating a budget and other financial tasks can be downright hard. Make them easier with these apps.

I love Mint’s budgeting feature and that it sends me reminders when I’m getting close or go over. It’s nice to have all my expenses and income in one place so I can see how much money I really have. And every month it updates me with an estimated credit score. I also like Venmo for transactions between friends, instead of cash. —Mary Meade, editorial fellow

I use Splitwise to keep track of friend credits/debts and roommate shared costs. It’s nice to have in one place and not have to constantly remember who paid for what. Eliminates the need to do math too! I also have been using Fingerlakes Wealth Management  to manage an IRA and they offer one on one help and financial planning info if you have funds managed by them, which is great. —Jes Walton, food campaigns manager

Clark Howard (clark.com) is a consumer guru who has a site all about getting good deals on things like streaming TV, cell phones, insurance, and mortgage rates. It also has tips on saving money everyday and getting deals at places you already shop. —Christy Schwengel, major gifts officer

The Everydollar app helps you track every transaction in and out, to get an idea of how you really spend your money, and reminds you to plan a budget every month. Pie charts on your goals vs. reality also helps you get an idea of how well you’re doing sticking to your budget. —Eleanor Greene, editor

I like The Financial Diet (Financialdiet.com), which is aimed towards getting women to talk about money. Besides budgeting and investing articles, they also have lists of high quality, low-cost products, or how to save money in creative ways. —Dana Christianson, membership marketing director

I’ve found NerdWallet.com to be pretty helpful for financial advice on all sorts of topics. —Ed Barker, director of sustainable food supply chains, Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions

In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Democrats in Congress worked with the Obama administration to pass the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and put several key financial protections on the legal books. The law aimed to prevent future financial crises and to protect vulnerable Americans from Wall Street and mega-bank excesses and from predatory financial practices. 

The CFPB’s first director, Richard Cordray, resigned shortly after Trump’s election, after which the president appointed vocal anti-CFPB critic Mick Mulvaney as acting director. 

In 2017, the CFPB survived a 2017 bill called the Financial CHOICE Act (HR 10), which would have dismantled the CFPB, decimated Dodd-Frank financial regulations, and limited the ability of shareholders to engage with corporations. 

Despite the fact that Congress was not successful in passing the bill, the Trump administration has been successful in slowing the agency’s work to molasses. The Washington Post reported that publicly announced enforcement actions by the bureau have dropped about 75 percent from average in recent years, while consumer complaints have risen to new highs. 

From December 2017 to December 2018, the agency’s workforce dropped by 129 employees. Seth Frotman was one of them. Before his resignation in August 2018, he was the CFPB’s assistant director and student loan ombudsman.

“The bureau is forcing hundreds of staff to sit on their hands while millions of Americans suffer from predatory practices happening right under its nose,” said Frotman to the Washington Post. 

In December 2018, Kathy Kraninger was approved in a 50-49 Senate vote to head the agency for a five-year term. Kraninger has put a focus on “consumer education,” which may sound inocuous enough, but not when the agency’s stated mission is consumer protection, which includes holding financial institutions accountable for bad actions, says Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform (AFR).

Since Kraninger took over the CFPB, she has largely kept the agency on the same track as Mulvaney had it on, says Jun. The only major difference is she’s not actively trying to dismantle it. What has she gotten done? Jun notes three policies Kraninger has affected:

1. The Payday Lenders Rule 

This rule was finalized in 2017 after five years of research, discussion, and public comment. The rule states that payday lenders must consider whether lendees have the ability to pay back their loans, an action that would reduce predatory lending. Kraninger has proposed a delay in the compliance date of the rule and to repeal the rule altogether. In June 2019, Kraninger succeeded in delaying the rule's compliance date until November 2020.

2. The Debt Collection Rule 

This rule is quite long (538 typed pages, Jun notes), but a main concern of Jun and AFR is that the rule allows violations of consumer privacy by allowing debt collectors to leave confusing messages via text, email, and direct message on social media without recipients’ consent. This makes debt collection even more intrusive than typical phone calls and may cost money to lendees (for example, if you have a prepaid plan where you have to pay per text). Jun is a lawyer and it has even taken her weeks to parse through the complicated language.

3. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act 

This act is used to collect data on mortgages, which helps identify patterns that might be useful for holding banks accountable for bad practices, including discriminatory practices. The CFPB is raising the threshold for reporting, meaning that more financial institutions will be exempt from reporting data, which means less will be collected overall and patterns will be harder to identify. 

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has its  mission in its name. And there are a lot of questions of whether it’s actually pursuing that mission, versus protecting lenders and financial institutions,” says Jun. “When the CFPB is doing its job, we see bad behavior is curtailed and people are protected. The question is, is that happening now?”

What You Can Do

For a regular person (or “consumer” as we’re known to the CFPB), it can be hard to know what to do to help a faraway agency, even if you think the work they do has the potential to do good (not unlike the EPA these days). 

Jun reminds us that we all participate in financial products, and in that way are the consumers that the agency was designed to protect. You’re a consumer if you have a credit card, have student debt, take out a loan, are harassed by debt collectors, have a mortgage, or open a new account. You can take action by reporting problems you may have with those products and the companies that sold those products to you.

“It’s an important piece to share your story, whether that’s with advocacy organizations, or directly with your elected officials, or the regulators at the CFPB or anywhere else,” says Jun. “There’s value in bringing things to light, which helps people identify patterns and helps elevate these issues and show that these are real things that happen to real people.”

You can also tell your elected officials your story with debt, loans, or bad-actor banks. Whether or not a bill is on the table, it’s important that they know their constituents care about the the CFPB.

“The reason this stuff matters is that we want the average person, no matter who they are, whether they live in the countryside or the city, when they go get a loan or get a credit card, that the process is fair, and you know what you’re getting,” says Jun. “That’s what we’re advocating for. The details are confusing. A lot of groups are doing our best to distill what’s happening into more readable resources so real people can engage.”

To find resources on different financial topics or submit a complaint to the CFPB, go to consumerfinance.gov.

To keep up to date on CFPB and other financial news from Americans for Financial Reform, and find more financial resources, go to ourfinancialsecurity.org.

To leave your bad-acting bank and find a community bank or credit union in your area, go to greenamerica.org/getabetterbank.

Shareholder activism is a powerful tool that gives shareholders the opportunity to initiate change within companies.

By dialoguing with companies and voting on proxy ballots, shareholders can influence corporate decisions. A “shareholder” is a person or institution that owns company stock, that is, a portion of a company’s capital. Any shareholder who owns at least $2,000 worth of stock for at least a year can file a resolution. Often, shareholders come together in coalition to file shareholder resolutions. 

In 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report that found that the global community has approximately 12 years to prevent irreversible climate-caused damages to the planet. And today, as that 2030 deadline approaches and the Trump Administration continues to roll back protections for both people and planet, the role of economic action in an age of government inaction and corporate irresponsibility is ever more important.

Shareholders as Changemakers 

The Trump administration has ushered in another era of rampant deregulation in United States history. After withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017, the administration rolled out several environmental policies , including repealing the Clean Power Plan, and reversing multiple Obama-era rules concerning how companies report emissions, how refineries monitor pollution in their surrounding communities, and how much pollution new power plants can emit.

For shareholders, harnessing the power of a resolution—a 500-word formal request to corporate management—can voice investors’ values against environmentally and socially destructive policies. 

“We’ve seen a shift from just being shareholder-centric to being stakeholder-centric,” says As You Sow CEO, Andrew Behar. “We want companies to demonstrate their values not only to shareholders but to customers, employees, and to the planet and larger society. All of these groups have a stake in a corporation’s success, so companies have an obligation to them all.”

It’s important to understand that shareholder resolutions do not need to receive majority support in order to be effective. In fact, it is rare for votes on social and environmental issues to receive majority support—especially since corporate management typically urges investors, in writing on the ballot, to oppose such resolutions. Resolutions receiving double-digit support, however, are enough to send a solid message to management about investor concerns.

“One thing the companies always say is that the vote lost if it got under a 50 percent vote in support but there really is no win or loss,” says As You Sow president, Danielle Fugere. “These resolutions are really discussions with upper management, and we’ve had companies take action at three percent of the vote. It just matters whether they’re sufficiently listening to you.”

2019 Victories and Trends 

Socially responsible advocacy groups and investment agencies are continuing to guide investors through the filing process and produce victories. Climate change continues to be a major issue brought forth by shareholders and more are advocating for company policies that align with the Paris Agreement. 

The nonprofit foundation As You Sow filed three resolutions at Chevron that asked the energy giant to 1) report on how it can reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in compliance with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, 2) disclose short, medium and long term GHG reduction targets, and 3) create a board committee dedicated to supervising the company’s strategy and response to climate change.

Chevron agreed to all three proposals. And in another major win for the climate, Emerson Electric agreed to a resolution filed by the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) to establish GHG reduction targets with a 39 percent vote in support.  

As You Sow also filed resolutions at Chevron, Exxon, Phillips 66, and Dow Dupont Chemical concerning “nurdles”—tiny pellets of plastic used in that manufacturing of larger plastic products. Nurdles range from about 1mm-5mm in size but they have a large-scale impact on the environment as plastic pellets not only contain toxic chemicals themselves but also absorb other chemicals, are accidentally eaten by wildlife, and never break down. In exchange for the proposals being withdrawn, each of the companies agreed to issue reports on the amount of nurdles their facilities are releasing to the environment and to assess the effectiveness of their current policies for mitigating this kind of contamination.

Diversity continues to be a keen shareholder issue this proxy season. As You Sow filed and successfully withdrew resolutions at Caesar’s Entertainment, Eastman Kodak, New Media and Sketchers calling on board members to produce reports detailing the steps companies are taking to enhance diversity at the board level in terms of gender, race and ethnicity.

This Pride month (June 2019), the Corvel Corporation, which provides health administration and workers’ compensation, faced a resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity. The resolution, introduced by the Boston-based SRI firm Walden Asset Management, asks the company to investigate the risk of omitting “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from the company’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) statement.  

Climate Change

While climate change remains a dominant issue within the shareholder community, efforts to garner support from companies to embrace climate resolutions are countered by other forces. President Trump has voiced skepticism about the extent to which human beings cause climate change and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued “no-action” letters on climate resolutions, meaning the resolutions will not appear on the proxy ballots. Still, proposals concerning plans to address climate change accounted for 21 percent of those filed during this year’s proxy season and they focused on GHG management, carbon asset risks, and becoming Paris-compliant.

“On climate change, what we’re seeing is that companies are being challenged on getting serious about becoming Paris-compliant,” says Behar. “Up to now, there were a lot of questions around greenhouse gas emissions in general, but shareholders are paying more attention to Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions coming from a company’s value chain and an important distinction.” 

In January 2019, the NYC Pension Funds, announced a settlement with the aerospace manufacturing company TransDigm Group, that allowed a resolution asking for TransDigm to establish time-bound, GHG management goals that had previously been blocked by the SEC. In March 2019, the resolution received 33 percent vote in favor.

As You Sow is also elevating the issue of climate change by questioning the carbon-reducing and Paris-aligning plans of five energy companies: Anadarko Petroleum, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Hess and Cooper Cos. The resolution to issue reports on how each company can reduce their carbon footprints in alignment with the Paris Agreement has been blocked by the SEC at Hess and Exxon, and has yet to go to vote at Anadarko and Cooper Cos. It earned a 33 percent vote in support from Chevron. 

Clean Energy

In 2012, Apple, Facebook, and Google made pledges to transition to 100 percent clean energy to power their data centers. Two years later, Amazon committed to a similar pledge. The former tech giants have all since made significant strides in achieving their climate goals; however, Amazon’s renewable energy promises have fallen flat.

Despite its rapid expansion, Amazon has not announced new investments in clean energy and refuses to produce an annual sustainability report, unlike its peers. Additionally, in 2017, Amazon Web Services aggressively courted the fossil fuel industry by pitching its services to accelerate the location and extraction of fossil fuels at a company event.

Amazon employees haven’t taken CEO Jeff Bezos’ clean energy complacency lightly. In 2019, employees in the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, launched a public campaign demanding that the company take serious action against climate change. 

Though the company opposed the resolution, it achieved significant shareholder support at 31 percent, a strong showing for an environmental or social resolution. The resolution was also endorsed by 7,600 Amazon employees.

“I want Amazon to do more on the climate crisis because I think it is unacceptable for one of the richest companies in the world to continue to take half-actions as the consequences of its emissions put so many lives of the global poor at risk,” Rajit Iftikhar, an Amazon software engineer, said to the Seattle Times. 

In 2018, Green America joined the movement to #BoycottAmazon with our “Pass On Prime Day” campaign to inspire purchasing from local green businesses. Green America and Greenpeace are continuing to pressure Amazon to weigh human and environmental concerns in their bottom line. Green America calls on Amazon to fulfill its promise of 100 percent renewable energy by cleaning up its cloud computing services—one of the largest and dirtiest in the industry. Visit greenamerica.org/amazoncloud to learn more and sign the petition.

Amazon, AT&T, and Verizon are examples of how consumer advocates and shareholder advocates putting pressure on a company independently can have more impact than if just consumers or investors acted alone. 

Workplace Diversity and Gender Pay Equality

Since the beginning of the Trump presidency in 2017, the administration has received criticism for its lack of diversity in its presidential cabinet and White House staff, but shareholders are continuing to amplify the need for diversity, equity and inclusion at the companies people work for and buy from every day.

“We’re seeing a lot of activity around shareholders expressing to companies how beneficial it is to have an ethnic- and gender-diverse board,” says Behar. “It gives the companies more points of views and protects them from risks. It defines their culture and attracts the best and the brightest talent, there’s nothing but upsides to diversifying the boards.”

Access to demographic data is key to understanding the severe need for greater diversity in corporate leadership, but many companies don’t report it. In 2017, only 16 of the Fortune 500 companies shared in-depth demographic information about their employees. At those 16 companies, 72 percent of the executive staff were white men. 

Zevin Asset Management filed a resolution in 2018 at Google’s parent company, Alphabet, calling on the company to make the diversity metrics of senior staff a factor when evaluating the performance and compensation plans for the CEO. Zevin Asset management came back again this year to file a similar resolution with the support of Google employees. The resolution earned 9.7 percent of votes in support. In 2018, women accounted for 30 percent of Google’s workforce, African Americans made up 2.5 percent, and Latin Americans made up 3.6 percent, according to Google metrics. 

Trillium Asset Management  also filed resolutions at Borg Warner, Carter’s, BNY Mellon, Marathon Petroleum, and Newell Brands asking for an assessment of the company’s current senior leadership diversity and concrete plans to expand diversity in respect to gender, race and sexual orientation. At Skecher USA (the shoe brand Skechers), As You Sow and Amalgamated Bank filed a resolution asking for a formal commitment to enhancing diversity in respect to gender, race and sexual orientation at the board level, in part by including diverse candidates for its board nominee selection process. The resolution was well received with a 26 percent vote in support. This May, Skechers welcomed Katherine Blair to its board, the first woman to be appointed to the position in over 20 years. 

In terms of equity and fairness, Arjuna Capital filed resolutions asking for a report on the global median pay gap at Alphabet, Amazon, Bank of America, Facebook, JPMorgan Chase and Mastercard, and a report on the risks associated with emerging government policies addressing the gender pay gap at Adobe Systems, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Intel and Wells Fargo.

Northstar Asset Management , also filed its Give Each Share an Equal Vote at Alphabet, a resolution it has filed every year since 2015, calling on Alphabet, Facebook and the manufacturing company A.O. Smith to switch to a one-vote-per-share system. This proposal promotes shareholder equality, as in the current policy, shares owned by insider shareholders can have many votes per share while ordinary investors get one vote per share. This inequality means that votes cast by the corporate insiders will win.

Corporate Spending on Elections

Shareholders filed 93 resolutions on corporate political activity during the 2019 proxy season, which is up from 80 resolutions filed in 2018. In 2019, As You Sow alone filed 54 resolutions focused on corporate spending and influence on elections—twice that of the year before and a record number. As the 2020 presidential election gets underway, companies are paying closer attention to the risks associated with supporting candidates or taking a side on hot-button political topics. 

According to Market Watch, the Center for Political Accountability is filing resolutions at 57 companies asking them to report on their political contributions and expenditures. These resolutions also request information on the identity of contribution recipients, the contribution amount, and identity and title of the decision-maker for approving political contributions.

One of the companies that received the resolution was General Electric, which agreed to disclose contributions made to trade associations and social welfare organizations that may be used for election-related activities.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Walden Asset Management filed resolutions at 31 companies that privately lobby against policies they claim to support in public. The resolutions request annual reports that disclose payments made by the the company for lobbying purposes and disclosure of membership in organizations that write and endorse legislation. For example, AT&T has public goals to reduce carbon emissions but is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that drafts legislation that consistently opposes climate change regulation. 

Private Prisons and Detention Centers 

In March 2019, JP Morgan Chase announced that it would no longer lend to private prison operators Core Civic and GEO Group, following a landmark resolution filed by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility ICCR. Wells Fargo agreed to issue a report on the human rights risks to the banks that are related to the Trump Administration’s immigration and family separation policies, in response to a resolution filed by the SEIU Master Trust. Bank of America had agreed to the same, but at the end of June 2019, the company announced it would be exiting the detention industry completely, after bank officials toured a privately owned detention center for children outside of Miami.

As the Trump Administration continues to detain asylum-seekers and migrants in crowded facilities, and shows no sign of changing those policies, shareholders are also focusing on detainee rights and conditions. The Jesuit Conference filed a resolution with GEO Group asking for a report on how the company implements its policy on respect for all inmates and detainees, metrics for assessing human rights performance, and remedies for inadequate performance. 
 

If you want to...

• Get problematic industries like tobacco, fossil fuels, weapons, and others out of your portfolio 

• Invest in forward-thinking companies on the cutting edge of green technologies, like renewable energy, water purification, and responsible waste management,

Try Screening

What is it? 

• Screening is making the choice to include or exclude investments in your portfolio based on social and environmental criteria. 
• Avoidance screens mean that investments that violate your social and environmental criteria are kept out of your portfolio. 
• Affirmative screens seek out investments that support business practices in which you believe. 

Scale

• Investors have put $12 trillion under management which places environmental, social, and governance concerns that integrate into investment decision-making at the forefront, according to The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing (Also called US SIF). 

Impact 

• “The very act of buying a portfolio that’s more consistent with goals of universal human dignity and ecological sustainability changes the conversation. It expands the mission of companies. 78 global stock exchanges have joined the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative, which means that 45,700 companies now attempt to track their impact on people and the planet. Those things never would have happened had just Wall Street been their shareholders." —Amy Domini, Domini Social Investments 

Get Started

• Do research and screen your own investments, or hire a socially responsible financial advisor to help you. Find one in the “Financial—Advisors & Planners” category at Green America’s GreenPages.org. 

If you want to use your investor power to pressure irresponsible corporations to clean up their acts...

Try Shareholder Activism

What is it? 

• Shareholder activism/advocacy describes the actions many investors take to press corporations to improve their social and environmental practices—using their status as part-owners of companies as leverage. 
• Shareholders, generally in coalition, may start out by dialoguing behind the scenes with corporate management to ask for change.
• If dialogues don’t work, they may introduce a shareholder resolution, which is a formal request to corporate management to change company policies or procedures. All shareholders vote on shareholder resolutions through a proxy ballot mailed to them each spring, or in person at a company’s annual meeting. 

Scale

• Investors controlling nearly $1.8 trillion in assets filed or co-filed shareholder resolutions between 2016 and the first half of 2018, according to the 2018 Report on Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends produced by US SIF.
• Shareholders introduced over 386 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) resolutions in the 2019 shareholder season, according to As You Sow. 

Impact 

• “Publicly traded companies can benefit from the unique insights offered by their shareholders. Shareholders’ specific views on the marketplace, society, resource constraints, and policy provide us with a clear, powerful, and persuasive voice that can be compelling for corporate directors and management. Through dialogue, shareholder proposals, and other channels of communication, investors serve as an important catalyst for improved ESG policies, practices, and performance.”
  —Jonas Kron, Trillium Asset Management

Get Started

• If you own stock, look for a shareholder ballot to arrive in the mail in the spring, and vote in favor of social and environmental proposals. Visit Green America’s annual shareholder roundup on our key issues at shareholderaction.org. 

If you want to...

• Put your money to work helping low- and middle-income people lift themselves up economically

• Move your money away from predatory mega-banks tied to the foreclosure crisis and toward institutions that are doing good,

Try Community Investing

What is it? 

• The simplest method is to open accounts in a community investing bank/credit union. 
• Community-investing vehicles maximize the social impact of your investments, providing capital to low-and middle-income people in the US and abroad who are underserved by conventional banks. 
• Other options include CDs and money-market accounts in a community-investing bank or credit union, community-investing loan funds and venture capital, and mutual funds with community investments in their portfolios. 

Scale

• Thanks in part to Green America and US SIF’s publicity campaigns, the community investing field has grown from $5 billion in 1999 to $185.4 billion currently, according to the US SIF 2018 Trends Report. This sector has experienced rapid growth especially in recent years, nearly doubling in assets between 2014 and 2016 and growing another 50 percent by 2018. 

Impact 

• “Community development financial institutions like HOPE offer a tremendous return on investment. A credit union is a powerful resource that empowers individuals and communities to help themselves. For more than two decades, HOPE has generated more than $2.7 billion in financing that has improved conditions for more than 1 million people in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. In collaboration with a strong network of partners […] we equip members to drive positive change. When these kinds of communities have access to the right tools, they thrive. That benefits not only the region, but ultimately the nation.” —Bill Bynum, Hope Credit Union 

Get Started

• Find a community investing bank, credit union, or loan fund in Green America’s Get a Better Bank Database at greenamerica.org/getabetterbank. 
• Find more community investments in the “Financial—Community Investments” category at GreenPages.org. 

If you want to send a message to an entire industry that it’s not sustainable...

Try Divestment

What is it? 

• Divestment means pulling all of your money out of a particular investment or industry. 
• The goal is to send a market signal to a company, industry, or government that its actions are not sustainable, and their investors and customers want them to change course. 

Scale

• As of June 2019, 1,070 institutions representing over $8.77 trillion in assets had made a fossil-fuel divestment commitment. At the time, this signified a 160 percent growth in divested assets just in the last two years. Just several months later, by September 2019, total asset divestment commitments had reached $11 trillion, displaying the sheer momentum of the campaign. Since 2014, there has been an increase of 20,000 percent in divestment commitments.
• More than 58,000 individuals with about $5.2 billion in assets have committed to divestment as well, according to the Fossil Free campaign of 350.org.
• Investors have divested $4.8 billion from private prisons, according to Freedom to Thrive.

Impact 

• “Divestment is a powerful strategy, used after other strategies have not achieved the change needed. By pulling assets out of a country, industry, or company, investors declare that entity a pariah, and acutely raise the stakes for the continuation of the unacceptable conduct or policy. Divestment shines a spotlight on an issue that can no longer be ignored, intensifying the pressure for change.” —Fran Teplitz, Green America executive co-director

Get Started

• Join the Fossil Fuel Divest/Invest campaign and pull your money out of the top 200 fossil-fuel companies. Also, see our article on new divestment campaigns afoot to put pressure on the fossil fuel industry, and private prisons and private detention centers.

Amazon is one of the wealthiest companies on Earth and has a huge impact on people and the planet. Is it using that wealth responsibly? The numbers tell the story.

As the world’s largest company, Amazon’s operations leave a huge environmental footprint. But in order to power Amazon’s business, it also relies on a large labor force – one that exploits workers throughout the supply chain. Globally, Amazon employees over 630,000 people.

High Stress from the Warehouse to the HQ

The median wage for American Amazon employees in 2018 was $35,096, an increase from the previous year in large part due to Amazon increasing its company minimum wage to $15/hour. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezo’s net worth is estimated around $165 billion, in large part of his share of Amazon stock.  And while that net worth will decline temporarily by $38 billion owing to his divorce, it will increase again if Amazon stock continues its steady rise in value.  By contrast, NPR notes that an Amazon employee making the minimum wage would need to work for 133 hours (or over three weeks) in order to afford one share of Amazon stock.

Reports depicting the grueling work conditions in Amazon warehouses, especially during seasonal sales, have continually dogged Amazon. Workers report long hours, timed bathroom breaks, surveillance of work productivity/speed, intense isolation from others, physically demanding quotas, and other difficult conditions to work under. These working conditions take a physical and mental toll on the workers, who are often treated more as a data set or a robot than as humans.

Amazon’s troubling labor abuses aren’t limited to their warehouses either. Amazon’s corporate offices have their share of toxic workplace cultures too. A 2015 expose on Amazon’s offices described an office that prioritized productivity and efficacy over all else, pushing their employees to physical, mental, and emotional limits. One employee was sent on a business trip the day after a miscarriage; another was put on a “performance improvement plan” while struggling with breast cancer. Employees shared experiences such has having their personal and working lives monitored, demanding work schedules, and a competitive workplace culture where employees were encouraged to sacrifice themselves – and their coworkers – in order to advance.

Amazon Electronics: The High Cost of Convenience 

While Amazon primarily sells other company’s goods, it also sells its own line of Amazon electronic products, such as the Echo and Kindle. Yet Amazon is not transparent about how workers throughout its global supply chain are treated. This lack of transparency makes it hard for consumers and activists to conduct due diligence on Amazon’s claims of treating its employees well.

Leaders in electronics have begun publishing lists of factories that they source from. They also engage in other transparency initiatives such as publishing manufacturing restricted substances lists (MRSLs), which limit/ban what chemicals can be used during the manufacturing process, and restricted substances lists (RSLs), which limit/ban what chemicals can be found in the final consumer. RSLs help protect consumer safety, while MRSLs help protect workers from dangerous chemical exposures.

Although Amazon has an RSL for cleaning, beauty, and self-care products, it has not applied that to electronics. Furthermore, it does not have an MRSL, which would protect its workers that regularly come in contact with chemicals in its supply chains.

Meanwhile, a report from China Labor Watch in 2018 details labor abuses in a Chinese factory that produces Amazon Eco Dots, Kindles, and tablets. China Labor Watch’s investigation found pay discrepancies between full-time and dispatch workers. Dispatch workers are hired through an agency. Dispatch workers for Amazon were making less than their full-time counterparts and did not receive adequate safety training. Both full-time and dispatch worker on average make less than the monthly average wage in the city. During peak season, workers have to put in 100 hours of overtime monthly – which is significantly more than the legal cutoff of 36 hours. China Labor Watch also discovered that the factory didn’t have adequate fire safety, protective equipment, or a functioning labor union.

More recently, a Guardian article, Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa Devices, documented how schoolchildren, aged 16-18, in China are listed as "interns" at Foxconn factories and required to work late night and overnight shifts in violation of Chinese law. The interns are paid significantly less than adult dispatch workers.  Foxconn pays schools for each intern they supply. A student said that when she raised concerns about the long hours, her school told her that refusing the work would affect her graduation and scholarship applications. Foxconn admitted that the children were employed illegally and states that it will be taking action.

It’s clear that both abroad and at home, Amazon has to do more to protect its workers.

Take action for workers' rights and safety!

You can reach a Member Services representative by calling 800-58-GREEN (800-584-7336) or emailing info@greenamerica.org, or submitting the form through our website. Our Member Services representative is available between 9AM and 5PM Eastern time Monday through Thursday. If you email or leave a voicemail, you can expect a response within one business day.