Jeff Daniels

Reporter

Our worldwide addiction to plastic is clogging up the oceans, harming wildlife, and resulting in overburdened landfills and lots of litter. That's why we scoured GreenPages.org for the most useful products to help you get single-use plastic out of your life. 

Rina recommends:

Pack tomorrow’s snacks in ChicoBag’s Snack Time rePete bag rather than a disposable plastic baggie. Composed primarily of recycled plastic bottles, this snack-time super hero offers a stain- and water-resistant liner and can be tossed in the washing machine after use.

Give your gift a festive finish with VZWraps reusable fabric gift bags. Sewn in Philadelphia, PA, these vibrant vessels eliminate the use of plastic ribbons, as well as throwaway paper. VZWraps come in a variety of patterns, from turquoise elephants to multi-colored aliens.

Plant-based from box to bristles, Brush with Bamboo offers its Adult and Kid’s Toothbrushes made from 100 percent organic bamboo. These eco-friendly brushes feature soft bristles and a pesticide-free bamboo handle.

Filled in a plastic-free “Eco Tube” and sealed with a matching “Eco Cap,” Organic Essence lip balm is all-natural and features compostable paper packaging. The shea butter-based moisturizer is available in six different flavors, including grapefruit and almond.

When stocking up on fresh fruits and vegetables during your next grocery run, bring along an ECOBAGS Organic Cloth Bulk and Produce Bag, so you are not left using the store-provided, flimsy plastic produce bags. This ECOBAG is made of 100 percent certified organic cotton and features a secure drawstring closure. 

Jenna recommends:

Keep your favorite single-serve morning coffee plastic-free and guilt-free by investing in a Stainless Steel Reusable Coffee Pod Fill Life Without Plastic’s pod with your favorite coffee, tea, or cocoa and pop it in your Keurig or other single-serving coffee maker. 

Whether you’re going camping or just having lunch at the office, To-Go Ware’s Carry Around Bamboo Utensil Set is the perfect plastic-free utensil option. The set includes a pouch made of recycled bottles, which easily holds a fork, knife, spoon, and chopsticks and can conveniently be clipped to a lunch bag or purse.

Skip the single-use plastic bag at checkout when grocery or retail shopping. With Marketplace: Handwork of India’s fair trade and 100 percent cotton Umang Bag, you’re not only supporting the environment, but you’re also helping to provide dignified job training for women in India. 

Klean Kanteen can help you combat your habit of picking up plastic straws with its 5-Piece Straw Set. Made with stainless steel and food-grade silicone, these straws are a perfect accessory to any reusable water bottle or coffee  thermos we know you already have. Split this set with a friend, and pledge to go plastic-straw-free together! 

Typical period care and packaging amounts to excessive single-use plastic waste. Stay comfortable but cut back on plastic by investing in one (or several) MAIA Bikini by LUNAPADS: leak-proof cotton underwear with additional organic cotton inserts to create customizable absorbency to fit your flow. 

This Christmas, Mariah Byrne was set on buying a hammock for a college friend. Preferably, she’d find just the right one from an environmentally conscious outdoor retailer.

She checked REI. Too expensive. She looked at Patagonia. Also beyond her budget as a graduate student.

So resist as she might, Byrne, 26, settled for a much cheaper option on Amazon that also came with free shipping.

“That for me is the toughest part: balancing wanting to be socially-conscious with being realistic about my budget," Byrne said.

Byrne’s conundrum is one shared by shoppers wanting to support eco-friendly, social-justice oriented or politically-savvy brands without breaking the bank. Especially around the holidays, retailers make a point of promoting themselves as companies you can feel good about supporting. Maybe they’re sourcing products from recycled materials; maybe they’re donating a share of Black Friday sales to charity. Maybe they’re teaming up with nonprofits and taking a stance on a charged social issue.

It’s an appealing pitch, especially to shoppers who increasingly wish to support companies that share their ideals or values.

But practically speaking, higher-income shoppers are often the ones who can afford to weigh those options in the first place.

“The climate has caused people to want to care, and I think that has caused people to be more aware,” said Alexis Desalva, a retail expert at Mintel. But still, “the price is always going to be the motivating factor. I don’t think that’s going away.”

Among older shoppers, it may be an added perk if, for example, a holiday gift was cruelty-free or fair trade, said Steven Barr, consumer markets expert at PwC.

“For prior generations, it was more 'oh, well, it’s kind of a bonus to make me feel good about a purchase I was already going to make," Barr said. “Now it’s the primary driver.”

[How to get holiday shoppers into the mall — and keep them there]

That means retailers cannot win customers over with their products alone. They also must convince shoppers that by making a purchase, they’re supporting some greater good. Madewell, for example, encourages customers to “shop for a cause” through its “Do Well”campaign. Fifty percent of the retail price from “Do Well” products go to charities including Girls Inc. and the Human Rights Campaign.

To cut down on plastic waste, Everlane announced its ReNew collection just before the holidays. The outwear line is made of recycled plastic bottles and kicked off a company pledge for no new plastic in its supply chain by 2021.

And through its holiday Believe campaign, Macy’s aims to raise one million dollars for Make-A-Wish. For every shopper who writes a letter to Santa through the Macy’s website, the retailer will donate $1.

Then there are the companies whose entire platforms revolve around promoting a greener and socially just economy. The national nonprofit organization Green America, for example, curates lists of “Grinch Gifts to Avoid This Holiday," “11 Great Green Gifts Under $100,″ and children’s gifts from green, family-owned and fair-trade businesses.

“Every dollar you spend is a dollar voting for the kind of world you want to see,” said Eleanor Greene, editor for Green America.

[How Hanukkah gets lost in the holiday retail rush]

In St. Louis, Byrne scoured local bookstores in search of a copy of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” for her brother. Out of luck, Byrne decided to buy him a print from one of her favorite artists, rather than order the book online. (Byrne’s dad, on the other hand, was more insistent about the exact gift he wanted: a sports water bottle from Target. He was unmoved by Byrne’s request to buy a different water bottle from a company with an ethically sourced supply chain.)

Celia Strainge is making a point of supporting local small businesses this Christmas. Strainge said she used to do most of her holiday shopping on Amazon but grew worried about reports surrounding company pay and worker treatment. (Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

For ideas, Strainge has been following the Instagram account of comedian Aisling Bea, who’s been posting her recommendations for socially conscious brands and holiday gifts. So far, the haul has included companies that sell second-hand clothes, a beer company that partners with charities to end food waste, and earrings made by women who survived sex trafficking.

Beth Porter is Green America’s Climate & Recycling Director, as well as the author of Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine: Sorting Out the Recycling System who joins Jonathan to talk all things recycling; what is is, how it works, if plastic straws are as dangerous we’ve been told, how oil prices effect recycled plastic demands, and more.

Listen to the Podcast here:https://player.fm/series/series-2323839/whats-really-going-on-with-recy…

Find Beth’s work at https://www.bethrecycles.com/

She’s on Twitter https://twitter.com/bethrecycles and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/bethrecycles/

Buy her book Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine: Sorting Out the Recycling System here:

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538105399/Reduce-Reuse-Reimagine-Sorting-Ou…

Beth also heads up Green America's Climate and Recycling Program: https://www.greenamerica.org/climate

https://player.fm/series/series-2323839

A weekly exploration of all the things Jonathan Van Ness (Queer Eye, Gay of Thrones) is curious about. Come on a journey with Jonathan and experts in their respective fields as they get curious about anything and everything under the sun.

By Nicky Schauder of Permaculture Gardens, a member of our Green Business Network

My family and I have a Climate Victory Garden in the suburbs of Washington DC. I wanted to give you a tour of our tiny garden with the hopes it will inspire you. Permaculture designer Geoff Lawton is known for saying, “All problems can be solved in a garden.” The real problem of climate change is no exception. 

Remember, you don't have to fulfill all the commitments to have a Climate Victory Garden but getting to all 10 is not as hard as you may think. Start with one and grow slowly but surely from there. We're a family of 8 living in what some consider a tiny townhome, and we grow over 300 pounds of produce each year. Here's how we try to live the Climate Victory Garden commitments:

1. Grow Edible Plants 

We can all grow something, even during the cooler months. If you're going to grow a garden, you might as well get the most bang for your buck. Choose your plants wisely. Many people grow ornamental plants for their beauty. But selecting plants that are also edible allows us to capture carbon from the atmosphere and feed ourselves all in one go (not to mention, they're still beautiful). If your plant is also medicinal (i.e. herbs), then you have a 4th function to boot!

We grow food in our garden and home year-round. We grow over 300 pounds of produce per year in our townhome’s back and front yards (around 500 sq ft). In the spring and fall, we have cool weather crops like peas and carrots. We grow seasonal mushrooms both outdoors or indoors in logs, bags or mason jars. Summer harvests include beets and tomatoes, and in the winter we start seedlings and grow herbs and lettuce by the south-facing windows.

2. Keep Soils Covered

There are so many reasons to keep the soil covered. Here are some of them:

• We are trying to maximize our space and therefore maximize our yield, especially when growing in small spaces. No “plantable” space should be left uncovered.
• Nature will help you out. Go with her flow. When weeds come to cover those empty spaces you've left bare, don't take the weeds out unless you have a better idea of what should live there and are ready to plant it in the weed’s place.
• Covering the ground reverses soil erosion and depending on what you plant, may even build-up your soil fertility.
• Covering soil keeps moisture in. Even if some ground cover doesn't provide apparent edible benefits, it may be harboring beneficial animals as well as shading other plants from too much sun.  

3. Encourage Biodiversity 

Just as in a community of people, in our garden, even a tiny garden, diversity is the key to abundance. And by diversity, we mean we encourage the growth of all the 6 Kingdoms on the planet! We want a diversity of plants, animals, fungi, algae, archaea, and bacteria even if we are planting in a small space. 

A monoculture (planting the same thing in rows) may give an appearance of neat and tidy-ness. But it is not a healthy one. If you must have rows of the same kinds of plants, consider planting what's known as a "polyculture" of alternating plants and planting diverse habitats around these production patches. From our experience, it is possible to design your gardens to be both beautiful and biodiverse at the same time.

4.  Plant Perennials

Perennials provide stability to your garden. Less fussing with the soil, allowing plants to "take root" and establish themselves over time will lead to less work for you and the garden ecosystem. Perennials include powerhouse plants like trees, vines, and bushes. There is nothing like a tree to stabilize a garden. When you cut down a tree, you alter the weather. Trees are havens for biodiversity and great helpers in rain/water management. So, choose your trees wisely and remember that trees can outlive us! 

In our backyard, we plant apples, pears, cherries, native trees called pawpaws, and figs. We even grow bananas indoors! 

5. Ditch the Chemicals

When talking about balance and ecosystem health, permaculture designer Geoff Lawton says, "You don't have a mosquito problem. You have a lack of dragonfly (or bat or mosquito fish) problem." Your species and crops have to be in a balance that favors bountiful yields and keeps “pests” in check. That balance is not achieved when we use pesticides and unwittingly kill the good bugs (and plants, and ourselves) too! 

We understand that everything affects everything else. So, we cannot in good conscience justify the use of chemical pesticides to wipe out a pesky population of mosquitoes (or rats or weeds) in our backyard. Instead, we have sought out natural alternatives that work in a holistic way. The balance in our yard is an ongoing process. But we have learned more and more every year how to slowly keep the "pest" population down and the favorable species population up! This takes more time than spraying chemicals, but it’s worth it!

As Ron Finley said, "If it's in the soil, it's in our food." We already know about all the evils of glyphosate. No thank you!

6. Compost

Our garden is a cyclical one. We try our best to have a zero-waste gardening process and teach others to do the same. Our main household aim is to eventually become a zero-waste household. I was shocked to learn that if global food waste were a country, “it would be the third largest carbon emitter in the world.” What an inspiration for composting. We use several methods:

• chop & drop - just prune or chop leaves and let them fall close to the plants.
• mulch with leaves - we use what we have or ask the neighbors if they want someone to rake their leaves for free!
• hot composting - we use an 18-day process called the Berkeley method.
• compost pile - when we are lazy we just let our compost heap rot and harvest the rich remains to feed our garden after 3 months.
• vermicomposting - we have worm pets that eat our kitchen scraps and turn them into "black gold" quality soil.
• Bokashi - we put all non-compostables such as meats, bones, and fish into an anaerobic air-tight bin filled with EM (effective micro-organisms) that ferment these foodstuffs so they can be safely added to the outdoor compost heap or directly into the soil.

7. Integrate Crops with Animals

The backbone of every Climate Victory Garden should be a pollinator-friendly patch. Or better yet, several pollinator corridors sprinkled throughout your garden beds. Our goal is to support the ones who do the real work in the garden. Bees rely on plants and flowers for their homes and food and our crops rely on bees.

Integrating crops with animals has a lot to do with diversity and function. We want the garden to be an ecosystem, a web of functions and relationships. The more crops and animals, the more stable your garden will be. That means fewer diseases, fewer crop decimations, and more wildlife. A total win-win-win all around.

In our garden, we keep mason bees and have made a cute little bee lodge for these early spring pollinators. We plant native varieties of flowers and plants to support the native species of wildlife in our region. As we learn more and more about plants and animals, we begin to see that plants that we once thought of as "weeds" and animals that we once thought of as "pests" shoulder the burden of stabilizing our local ecosystems, our home gardens, and our nutrition.

We don't have chickens or other large animals (our HOA won't even allow us to grow crops in our front yard!), but we've asked neighboring friends with farms and stables for manure to add to our compost for a natural nutrient boost that makes this “waste” useful. 

8. Use People Power, not Mechanization

There are so many benefits to getting "grounded." To us, low-tech people power means:

• less dependency on fossil fuels and therefore less carbon released into the air.
• a healthier, truly mobile, human body. Our bodies were made to move! 
• a connection to the process of food production. 
• no mechanized tilling to keep the soil biome alive.

When we teach students how to best water plants, we tell them what Brad Lancaster writes in his book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Vol 2: households that use automatic timers and other high tech approaches tend to use more water than those who water by hand. For example, households that water with a hand-held hose use 33% less water than those that do not. That's why we try to capture the water into our landscape passively instead of sourcing it from the grid and spraying it into the air.

9. Rotate Plants and Crops

We have written a whole boat-load about how we do crop-rotation in our garden. Basically, we try to keep renewing our soil's fertility with every action we take. How? By feeding it the way John Jeavon's teaches in his Grow Biointensive method: follow a “heavy-feeder” plant, with a “heavy-giver” plant. 

Tomatoes and most summer crops are heavy feeders. After the harvest, they can leave your soil depleted of trace nutrients and minerals. To help that cause, we plant nitrogen-fixing legumes in between large harvests. In fact, no garden bed is ever without a legume plant in our yard.  It’s that important!

Rotating annual crops also helps confuse pests like squash beetles. We usually give the squashes a rest for two years before we try again for this reason. And, we try different bug-resistant squash and cucumber varieties to keep from crying after a bad year when all baby cucumbers have been lost to beetles!

10. Get To Know Your Tiny Garden

Finally, observe your yard. I cannot say enough about this. Don't just rely on garden manuals and Youtube videos. Find out what the weather is like by going outside and feeling it (in many areas of your garden). There is no replacement for your own personal observation. There are myriad ways to do this. 

By getting to know your tiny garden, you will find out what gardening techniques work or not. Getting to know your garden is directly proportional to your gardening success. And by doing so, you will be able to better plan and prepare for an epic next year. In essence, observation and reflection is where the cycle of growing begins again.

Together all our gardens make a difference.

Our family of eight eating from our tiny townhouse garden is but one version of what a Climate Victory Garden could look like. Your garden may be on an apartment balcony or in a community garden plot. You may have been practicing these Climate Victory Garden commitments all your life. Or you may only be "Ditching the Chemicals." 

Wherever you are on your gardening journey, we salute you. We celebrate you. And we encourage you on your way, at your own gardening pace.  

Through our gardens, we are all connected in this environmental campaign. Each of our gardens, small or large, make more of a difference than we think. Together, they capture carbon in our soils and bring all of us closer to real global climate victory. With these Climate Victory Gardens, we all move the needle towards a greener, healthier, and happier life.

Join forces with us and sign-up to become a Climate Victory Gardener today!

We start with 100% American made equipment.  

Our goal has always been to purchase materials as locally as possible. If what we need isn’t available in Humboldt, we widen our search to all of California. If California cannot fulfill our needs we look throughout the West Coast, and then the Country as a whole. 

This cuts down on fuel and transportation costs but also keeps our investment in our community, contributing to a stronger local economy. 
100% of our grains are organically grown and sourced as locally as possible. 

More details under the ingredients section below.

We have extremely high quality control due to my husband and i being the only employees.  The two of us oversee every stage of production including; grain procurement, milling, fermenting, distilling, bottling and labeling.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – December 11, 2018 – After hearing from more than 30,000 consumers mobilized by Green America, telecommunications giant Verizon has quietly set a new goal to achieve 50 percent clean energy use by 2025. Now at 2 percent renewables, Verizon had previously indicated that it would only go to 4 percent in the foreseeable future. 

Approximately 33,000 people mobilized by Green America have sent petitions urging Verizon to begin powering its networks and data centers with renewables. As participants in Green America’s Hang Up On Fossil Fuels Campaign, thousands of consumers also took direct action by contacting Verizon through social media and phone calls. Earlier this year, Verizon had the worst showing among major telecom companies in Green America’s industry report.

Green America estimates that, based on Verizon’s reported carbon emissions, this will result in a reduction of approximately 2.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of taking nearly 600,000 cars off the road each year. That also equals the amount of carbon that 2.9 million acres of forest could sequester in a year. 

Even though Verizon is moving in the right direction, there is still much more that can be done.

The Verizon announcement comes after T-Mobile's January 2018 commitment to reach 100 percent clean energy by 2021 (which will reduce over 1.2 million tons of CO2). Also earlier this year, AT&T announced its plan to purchase 830 MW of wind power, taking that telecommunications company up to 30 percent clean energy and cutting more than 2.6 million tons of CO2 emissions. 

So far, Verizon has not announced any purchase agreements with wind or solar farms that will help the company meet its 2025 goal. Green America is asking all telecom companies to commit to 100 percent clean energy by 2025. 

Green America Executive Co-Director for Consumer and Corporate Engagement Todd Larsen said: “Verizon management, shareholders and customers deserve credit for moving in the right direction on renewable energy. The company has gone from a meager commitment of 24 MW of new clean energy for its facilities to a commitment of hundreds of MW meeting 50 percent of its total energy usage.  Consumers are still calling on Verizon to match T-Mobile and commit to 100 percent renewable energy in the near term and put purchasing agreements for wind and solar into place soon. Not only is this achievable, but it is essential for every corporation to take action to address climate change quickly to protect the planet.”  

The telecom sector uses enormous amounts of energy. The four largest companies – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile – collectively use more than 30 million MWh of electric power each year.

“Recent climate reports show that climate change is already impacting communities worldwide. We need bold action from all sectors to cut emissions,” said Beth Porter, climate & recycling director at Green America. “On top of reducing carbon emissions, T-Mobile said it will save $100 million from the shift to renewables. Moving to clean energy is the responsible choice and a sound business decision.”

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.

We work on websites that sell sustainable products, so far this has been in the arena of Fair Trade. I have been involved with Fair Trade for almost 20 years , being the Chair of the Fair Trade Federation for 4 years around 2010. I have a deep interest in advancing the business objectives and success of companies who are doing good in a sustainable way. As a digital online company that does not sell any physical product our environmental footprint is small. We are a paperless business. 

Verizon’s commitment to 50% clean energy by 2025 means a reduction of 2.8 million tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of taking nearly 600,000 cars off the road each year. This is also the equivalent of what 2.9 million acres of forest could sequester in a year. 

This comes after T-Mobile's January commitment to reach 100% clean energy by 2021 (which will reduce over 1.2 tons of CO2). Also earlier this year, AT&T’s announced its acquisition of 830 MW of wind power, taking AT&T up to 30% clean energy and cutting more than 2.6 million tons of CO2 emissions.  

This progress is thanks to Green Americans taking action with our campaign to Hang Up on Fossil Fuels, signing petitions urging Verizon to begin powering its networks and data centers with renewables and directly contacting the company through social media and phone calls.  

Jeff's mission is to help clients feel  competent  and effective about the way they are managing their household finances. We live in distressing times, and he helps fellow human beings reduce financial anxiety, feel empowered, and remain connected to abundance and gratitude. Through clearly articulated strategies and analysis of  global events, along with the development of a personal financial profile, Jeff works to make every conversation educational.

His vision is that the growing power of activist investors will bring a degree of economic democracy to the capital markets.  

For years, scientists have tested how carbon dioxide (CO2) levels affect crops, including whether CO2 affects how fast and tall plants grow, and what the nutritional value is of the harvested crops under study.

It’s not hard to imagine that a warming climate will affect the food supply. Hotter weather and more humidity means more insects. Changing rain patterns mean more droughts, fires, and floods. More frequent and more intense storms will undoubtedly have effects on growing crops and raising livestock. But rising temperatures will also affect the food itself, causing staple crops like rice, wheat, corn, and soy to lose nutritional value because of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

While a drop in food nutrition may be scary, it’s not a change that is set in stone. Regenerative agriculture provides interconnected solutions: restored soils grow healthier plants while also drawing down carbon in the atmosphere. Drawing down carbon prevents dangerous warming and reduces risks to crops—both from extreme weather and reduced nutrition.

The Science Behind It

One of the first things we learn in biology class is that people breathe in oxygen and breathe out CO2, but plants “inhale” CO2 and “exhale” oxygen during photosynthesis. While an increasing amount of CO2 is bad for many natural processes and for people, it’s actually good for crops—to a limit, of course.

This year, scientists conducting a multi-year study of the impact of a warming climate on 18 rice varieties in Japan and China published their findings in Science Advances. They observed averages of a ten percent drop in protein, eight percent in iron, and five percent in zinc, which they also discovered correlates with an accompanying rise in CO2 levels. Several B vitamins also fell between 13 and 30 percent. 

“Overall, these results indicate that the role of rising CO2 on reducing rice quality may represent a fundamental, but underappreciated, human health effect associated with anthropogenic climate change,” the scientists write.

On another note, a 2016 study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies showed that staple crops soy, wheat, corn, and rice, grew better at higher temperatures when the CO2 levels in the air were also higher. When the temperatures increased and CO2 stayed the same, crops grew less well. 

Delphine Deryng, the lead author on the NASA study, also confirmed that nitrogen, a main ingredient in synthetic fertilizer used widely on conventionally grown fields worldwide, is itself a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. But, she says, there is no simple solution regarding nitrogen, because it is an essential element for plant growth. 

That leaves scientists and farmers stuck between a rock and a hard place, wondering: Can plants be grown on a large scale without vast use of synthetic fertilizer, and can we afford to risk the Earth as we continue to use it?

“The biggest question is how can we sustain and ensure the soil is still nutrient-rich to produce the crops that we need while reducing emissions,” Deryng says. She explains that regenerative agriculture practices like cover cropping and crop rotation can mitigate farmers’ reliance on high-emissions fertilizers. 

“There are soil-management practices that can compensate for the use of fertilizer, by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere to the soil, using management practices like mixed cropping systems where you mix crops with legumes that can use nitrous oxide to fertilize the soil. [Regenerative agriculture] is a practice that offers win-win solutions,” she says. 

Who Will Be Affected

For those who eat a diverse diet, whether omnivorous or vegetarian, food losing its nutritional value isn’t that concerning. Less protein in rice means you can just eat more protein from other sources. But this becomes an environmental justice issue when you consider the two billion people on Earth who rely on rice as their primary food source, and one billion people who are considered food insecure. Not all people who rely on rice are also food insecure, but staple goods like rice make up a large part of the diet of folks who are regularly hungry.

Deryng explains that those who are already likely to go hungry will be the most affected, while folks who currently have money and access to healthy foods may just rely on vitamin supplements. 

“In developing countries, there’s clearly a need to get enough food on the plate,” she says. “The question is how to ensure people have enough food that is nutritious.”

Eating in a Warming World

To feed the 9.8 billion people on Earth in 2050, the world must increase food production by 70 percent from 2005 levels, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. But as food production is rising, so are global temperatures, by 0.13 °C per decade since 1950, now at 0.2°C per decade. 

A 2016 study from the European Geosciences Union shows that if average temperatures rise by 1.5˚C over pre-
industrial levels, corn, wheat, and other crops will be much less affected than if the Earth gets 2˚C warmer. The Paris Agreement of 2016 states that countries should aim for emissions low enough so global temperatures only rise to 1.5 C. 

“The main difference between a 1.5 and 2 degree rise is extreme rainfalls, which will particularly affect regions that are already at the limit of extreme,” Deryng says. “For regions in the tropics that already have a high-temperature climate, they would step into higher levels, which would be fatal to crops, and we see more extreme precipitation patterns and heavy rain that can affect agriculture.”

Some scientists are looking to genetic engineering of crops to solve this problem. Make plants hardier in the face of drought, heat, and CO2, and there will be enough for folks to simply eat ten percent more rice. But we know that’s not the solution, because genetic engineering generally requires increased applications of pesticides and herbicides, eventually resulting in dead soils that won’t be able to grow much of anything.

By looking to regenerative methods to restore soil health and make farming as chemical-free and low-emission as possible, we will be saving lives in the process.  
 

In a greenhouse in Santa Cruz, CA, tomatoes are bright red, lemons look a little orange, and green basil has a definite pink glow. This isn’t a genetic modification project, but it is a science experiment. These plants are growing in the tinted light of a greenhouse made of magenta solar panels. The techniques the gardeners use to grow their produce also help regenerate the soil beneath. 

This structure is just one example of dual-use farming, a growing practice of incorporating solar-energy collection and regenerative farming or gardening in the same places. This practice will combat climate change on multiple fronts: water, soil, and energy, allowing the same patch of land to provide clean energy and more food to feed a growing population, while the healthier soil is able to hold more water and sequester more carbon than chemically farmed soil.

Solar Above, Soil Below

In Bluffton, GA, Will Harris has been regeneratively farming his White Oak Pastures ranch since 1995 (see p. 16). He’s one of the farmers who has been teaching others how to achieve his success with regenerative agriculture through our Carbon Farming Network, part of Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions. And, he’s currently in talks to be a land manager for Silicon Ranch, a solar company that just bought up 2,000 acres of land abutting his 3,200-acre farm. 

Will Harris with some of his animals in a pasture at White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA. Photo by Angie Mosier.

Through the arrangement, Silicon Ranch will pay Harris to manage the land under and around their solar panels (about 800 acres under, and 1,200 around) using his regenerative practices, which include laying down compost; planting diverse species like legumes and grasses; and grazing his animals: cows, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs,  ducks, guinea fowls, and rabbits.

Solar companies typically tear up and level the ground underneath arrays in the process of installing solar panels, and once they’ve finished construction, they limit vegetation because they don’t want their panels to be shaded by overgrown grass or trees. Normally, solar farms use chemical pesticides to keep the weeds underneath their panels in check, and they hire landscapers to keep vegetation short. 

“The engineering feat of building mechanical panels that will harvest the energy of the sun and send it down a wire to your home is just an act of brilliance by engineers,” Harris says. “But those people cannot be expected to know about the balance and biological science that occur in a well-managed ecosystem. For a [solar engineer], it’s all about building from the ground up with no consideration from the ground down.”

But with Harris’s help, Silicon Ranch’s array in Bluffton will be pesticide-free, and the land underneath the company’s equipment will be put to good use growing food, rather than just sitting fallow. Harris sees collaboration between farmers and solar utilities as a natural partnership that will benefit people, the land, and ecosystems.

When asked what benefit he’ll see with this collaboration, Harris responds that he simply wants to grow the regenerative ecosystem in his region. He explains that his is one of 20 holistically-managed farms certified by The Savory Institute, an organization that works with farms to make the change to regenerative agriculture and then uses those farms as working classrooms for teaching others. He prides himself on making healthier land, raising animals in a way that mimics how they would be in nature, and teaching people about regenerative agriculture.

Harris’s plan is to regenerate the soil under and around Silicon Ranch’s solar panels enough to one day use the space to grow certified organic crops. Since the land where the array will be hasn’t been managed regeneratively before, the White Oaks Pasture team’s first step will be laying down compost and planting a mix of grasses, legumes, and pollinators, which will begin to draw down carbon and attract microorganisms. Once those plants get going, the land can be used for grazing animals. The animals’ droppings will also help the land be restored. Eventually, it will be suitable for growing certified organic vegetables. 

“In a healthy ecosystem, you have many cycles going on at one time: carbon cycle, water cycle, energy cycle, mineral cycle, microbial cycles,” Harris explains. “Under a normal solar-voltaic array, those cycles would be broken—the effort is to limit the vegetation; no care has been given to keep the cycles cycling. When the cycles are operating properly, they pull carbon and other greenhouse gases into the soil through photosynthesis, and it’s sequestered there.”

Silicon Ranch and White Oak Pasture’s dual-use space is projected to be online in the next several years.

Growing in Magenta Light

In the magenta greenhouse on campus at University of California–Santa Cruz (UCSC), professor and plant physiologist Michael Loik and his lab is running tests to see just how well hothouse plants can grow under solar panels. The lab workers use regenerative growing techniques.

Loik got started on his project after his colleagues Sue Carter and Glenn Alers developed the magenta solar panels. Unlike conventional panels, these Wavelength-Selective Photovoltaic (WSPV) systems let sunlight on certain parts of the visible light spectrum pass through, while collecting green- and blue-colored wavelengths to generate energy. The pair asked Loik to test the impact of growing plants under the WSPV systems. 

The pink glass of the greenhouses at the University of California–Santa Cruz allow sunlight in and perform double duty as energy-generating solar panels. Photo courtesy of Michael Loik.

Greenhouses currently cover 9 million acres on Earth, which means the WSPV technology could mitigate reliance on dirty energy to power the agriculture industry. If the world doesn’t work quickly to restore soils, desertification and degradation may make less land available in the future for agricultural purposes, which may mean an increased reliance on greenhouse-grown foods.

What the lab found was that its 20 varieties of tomatoes, along with cucumbers, lemons, limes, peppers, strawberries, and basil, thrived (and without pesticides) under the pink roof panels. The plants all grew just as quickly and well in this less bright, cooler setting, and tomatoes ended up using five percent less water than they would in a typical clear greenhouse. Because of the relative shade of the greenhouse, water stays in the soil longer before evaporating, which accounts for that change. 

But dual-use farming doesn’t always look like growing plants in a magenta greenhouse. In fact, it rarely looks like that. More often, it looks like the setup that Greg Barron-Gafford works on at University of Arizona in Tuscon, and at Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ.

Farming Under Solar Panels 

A 2016 study from University of Maryland and University of Arizona shows that large solar farms tend to store heat, both in the panels themselves and by trapping hot air under them. Arizonans, Barron-Gafford found, were particularly concerned about how solar farms might heat up their already sweltering communities. He explained that land being sited for new solar arrays was often in historically agricultural communities, and families were hesitant to let the industry in if it meant abandoning their farming heritage and heating up their region.

Those ideas inspired a project at the University of Arizona called “agri-voltaics,” a term that combines the words agriculture and photovoltaics. 

“We wondered if you could co-locate agricultural production and solar installations. Could you allow for this green energy source, but allow for the agricultural lifestyle to stay within the community?” Barron-Gafford says. 

To find answers to these questions,  Ph.D. students, undergrads, and professors got to work planting on 60-foot by 30-foot plots (about the size of a community garden), which they’d located both under solar arrays and in regular sunny conditions. It was important that they set up the voltaics to a height where tractors could drive underneath, making the plots below usable on a large scale, so the panels are set up 15 feet off the ground.

He goes on to explain that on the plots they test, they use several regenerative farming techniques: people power, compost, no chemical inputs, and a diversity of plants species to grow an understory that attracts pollinators and deters herbivores. 

“Beyond making more use of our lands, reducing irrigation use due to lower evaporation rates [thanks to the shade the panels provide], and boosting renewable energy production, our dual-use or ‘solar sharing’ approach speaks to multiple core principles of regenerative farming.”

The Results

The garden plots in Arizona grow ingredients for salsa—tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, and onions. Like Loik’s lab, Barron-Gafford kept looking for the downsides to the project but found none.

He found that when vegetation was present under solar panels, the warming effect Arizonans were so worried about disappeared. With a garden below, conditions under the panels are much cooler, partially because of the shade, and partially because of the way plants “sweat” and create moisture in the process of transpiration. The cooler temperature under the panels causes evaporation to slow by about 50 percent, which means the team can water the plants every other day instead of once a day, as they’d have to do in the sun. 

Barron-Gafford’s lab’s preliminary research shows the significant cooling benefits workers (or livestock, should they be present) as well, as tests have recorded skin temperatures up to 20°F cooler under the array. In addition, though the panels cut back the gardens’ sunlight exposure by half, doing so has only cut the plants’ maximum potential by ten percent. 

And like the work on Harris’s farm, planting crops underneath these solar panels gives life in a place that would typically have none, especially in the region Barron-Gafford is working in, where people are having to choose between holding onto less productive agricultural land and a steady income from a solar utility that might be interested. Like Harris, they can have both.

Solar Symbiosis

These instances of dual-use, regenerative spaces do not stand alone. At research universities from Minnesota to Massachusetts, California to Germany, studies are showing that not only does solar energy not hinder plants, but the two can often have a symbiotic relationship. Studies are also being done with livestock, testing how sheep and chickens can coexist with renewable-energy generation, and holistic farmers like Will Harris are putting those ideas into practice.

“Every little wedge we can put into societies’ use of energy that reduces how much we rely on burning coal or oil to generate electricity, then all the better,” Loik says. “Some of the work that we’re doing is developing these wedges—little technological things to reduce our greenhouses gases.”

Students from Manzo Elementary School in Tucson, AZ, study regenerative gardens planted underneath solar panels—a University of Arizona experiment in dual-use farming. Photo by Moses Thompson.

The University of Arizona has replicated the agri-voltatics project at two local elementary schools, where kids are involved in planting, collecting data about the growing plants, harvesting, and selling their goods at a bi-weekly farmer’s market to benefit the gardening program. Barron-Gafford said last season, the kids harvested so much basil that they worked with the school’s kitchen to make and sell seven gallons of pesto that was “solar-shaded and kid-powered.”

“Part of what makes it fun for me is not only making new discoveries but working with kids who are so excitable and interested,” he says. “They understand what kind of future they’re going into. They hear about climate change and drought enough living around here. They see this as playing their part to fix it.”

Even if you’re not a farmer or a corporate CEO, you can take part in the effort to regenerate our soil and reverse climate change. All you have to do is garden. 

Americans planted Victory Gardens during WWI and WWII to feed their communities and families at home, as part of supporting the war effort. (That way, more food from farms went overseas to feed soldiers.) By 1944, nearly 20 million Victory Gardens produced nearly 8 million tons of food.

Green America is asking Americans to garden for the common good once more. By planting what we call a Climate Victory Garden, all of us have the opportunity to use our gardens to fight global warming. 
To grow a Climate Victory Garden, all you have to do is shift to regenerative gardening practices. You’ll regenerate the soil in your corner of the country, allowing it to sequester more carbon. 

Use the techniques listed below to grow a Climate Victory Garden during your next growing season. (Note: You don’t have to use all of the techniques. Even using some of them will help regenerate your soil and fight the climate crisis.)

Jes Walton, Green America’s food campaigns manager, is an avid gardener-turned-Climate Victory Gardener. “Climate Victory Gardens gives individuals a chance to engage with regenerative agriculture in their own backyards,” she says. “They represent a very real, tangible action that anyone can do to support and take part in the fight against climate change. And that’s just the beginning. Gardening gets people outdoors, engaging with their natural surroundings, creating community, and eating fresh foods. It’s a win all around.”

Learn more about the Climate Victory Gardens program, learn regenerative gardening tips, and have the opportunity to add your garden to our Climate Victory Garden Map.

If you're a climate victory gardener looking for a community, you can request to join our Facebook group of Climate Victory Gardeners, and join the folks you see below!

Tom Brodersen, a Climate Victory Gardener from Prescott, AZ, encourages other gardeners to grow edible plants. “Eat your vegetables! Save the world!” he says. 

Integrate Crops and Animals: Jes Walton, Green America’s food campaigns manager, allows her chickens to roam about her yard and garden. Their manure naturally fertilizes the soil and feeds the microorganisms that sequester climate-warming carbon. 

Jes wants people to know that even if you don’t have chickens, you can still climate garden.“This year, we had 1,000 Climate Victory Garden join our movement,” she says. “Of those gardens, 215 of them were brand new gardens, which gives us so much hope for the future of climate change mitigation through regenerative gardening. Currently, these gardens cover over five million square feet or around 90 football fields.” 

Jes and her backyard chickens.

Encourage Biodiversity: This summer, Cynthia Schaefer completed a 30-day Eat Your Yard Challenge, where she only ate what she grew in her Davie, FL, garden. Cynthia is committed to organic gardening with a wide range of edible plant types. She says, “I’ve found that if you feed the soil and cultivate biodiversity, the system will find solutions. It’s my lazy way of gardening....”

Photo by Cynthia Shaefer of her garden salad

Grow Edible Plants: John and Holly Trimble ripped out their front lawn in northern Utah and replaced it with raised garden beds, on which they grow organic produce. 

“We have transformed our own landscape into climate victory gardens we also call ‘foodscapes,’” says John. “ We also started a small volunteer group, Foodscaping Utah, that helps people near us foodscape their front yards. ... We believe people would love to grow some of their own food if they had some help getting started. Homegrown fruits and vegetables taste amazing, are incredibly nutritious, and bring beauty to our surroundings.”

Holly and John of Foodscaping Utah.

John and Holly's front yard climate victory garden.

Ron Finley is an urban gardener and fashion designer using regenerative agriculture to increase access to healthy food and bring neighbors together in his South-Central Los Angeles community. He has traveled to Denmark, England, Greece, New Zealand, and Brazil; spoken at conferences including the American Public Gardens Association; and delivered a 2013 TED Talk that garnered 3 million views on the platform website to date—all to share the story of how starting his own urban garden planted a transformative seed in his South-Central Los Angeles neighborhood. 

Recently, he starred with actress Rosario Dawson in a short video for Green America’s Climate Victory Garden effort. Produces with our ally Kiss the Ground, the video touts the benefits of starting a regenerative garden.

Regenerative community gardens, he says, can provide fresh food for communities where there’s a dearth of healthy food stores. They can bring community members together to work toward a common purpose. And they can also help cool the climate and ensure your local soil is fertile enough to feed future generations. 

Community gardens, he says, are “about sharing and realizing that there’s enough for everybody. This is about feeding communities, cities, and each other and realizing there’s so much we can do collectively.” 

"Gangsta Gardening”

In 2010, long before he was the quintessential “Gangsta Gardener,” as he calls himself, Finley was just trying to maintain his yard while regrouping from the Great Recession of ’08 and ’09. 

Tired of traveling 40 minutes outside his South-Central neighborhood to get fresh produce, Finley decided to plant on his own land. After taking a University of California Cooperative Extension gardening class at L.A.’s Natural History Museum, Finley began gardening on his parkway—a 10-foot by 150-foot-long strip of land between the sidewalk in front of his home and the street that most passersby didn’t pay much attention to. 

When his swaths of celery, tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, melons, and eggplants sprouted, Finley’s neighbors took delight—and the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services took action. 

While Los Angeles residents have the responsibility of maintaining their parkways along with their yards, the City of Los Angeles owns them, and Finley’s food forest was a bit taller than the city’s 36-inch height limit for parkway plantings. So, an enforcement officer told him he would have to cut the excess vegetation or get a $400 food-planting permit. 

Back in 2003, before Finley had ever envisioned an urban gardening movement, he’d planted banana trees on that same strip. A neighbor had reported him to the city, and he’d been forced to remove the banana trees. When asked why he decided to plant on the parkway again in 2010, given the ordeal he went through in 2003, Finley said, “because it was still right.” 

This ordinance is why Finley calls L.A. and other cities “food prisons,” as he does in the 2015 documentary Can You Dig This: “You can grow things in a desert. In a prison, you need permission to do everything. That’s why growing food in the city is so defiant, because you’re disrupting a system in place.” 

In round two of his battle against the City of Los Angeles, Finley decided not to cut down the food forest, and he solicited the support of 900 petition signatories to fight L.A.’s parkway ordinance. Finley found allies in Steve Lopez, a Los Angeles Times writer who documented these events in his regular column, and Councilman Herb Wesson, who argued alongside Finley that South-Central L.A. is vegetable-poor and that Finley’s garden brought much-needed access. 

Though it took Finley an arrest warrant, two court dates, and a public hearing, all over the span of two-and-a-half years, the city overturned the ordinance in 2015, officially allowing L.A. residents to garden on their parkways. 
Since then, Los Angeles has developed plans to grow more urban farms and marketplaces to increase food access, which is exciting, but the question remains: Why is it still so difficult to get fresh, organic produce in South-Central Los Angeles anyway? 

A Paradise within a Desert 

South-Central Los Angeles is a food desert: a geographic location where access to healthy food options are extremely limited or nonexistent. There are currently 23.5 million people living in food deserts in the US. And cities with high African American and Latin American populations, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, and New York City, regularly top the list of those hit hardest by food scarcity. 

South-Central L.A. has higher obesity rates than more affluent neighboring communities like Beverly Hills, Glendale, and Pasadena, which are only a few miles to its north, according to a 2011 study conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

L.A. residents get their hands dirty at DaFunction, a community event held by the Ron Finley Project to celebrate urban gardening. Photo by Jim Newberry.

There may not be a definitive answer for the stark difference in food access between South-Central L.A. and its neighbors, but studies like one conducted by the Associated Press found that out of 2,434 US grocery stores that opened between 2011 and 2015, only 250 of those stores opened in food deserts. So South-Central L.A., like other cities across the country, has likely been overlooked by supermarket developers that anticipate lackluster profits from low-income communities. 

What isn’t hard to find in South L.A. is a surplus of fast food restaurants, liquor stores, and vacant lots, which Finley says are part of a larger design he talks about often. His work, he says, aims to give people the tools to turn food deserts into good food oases. 

“This work isn’t just about the garden or food; it’s about freedom, and beyond that, it’s about people,” he says. “I want to show people how to be free from the designed paradigm in which they think this is the only way they can live.” 

Following his success overturning the gardening ordinance, Finley turned to his life’s work: teaching people organic urban-gardening basics to create a source of fresh food for their community. In 2012, he launched the Ron Finley Project—a nonprofit combining education, business, and community bonding to nurture the people of South L.A. through regenerative, organic urban gardens. 

Regenerating South-Central L.A.

“HQ,” short for the headquarters of the operation, is also the Ron Finley Project’s flagship garden, which is located on Exposition Boulevard and is adjacent to Finley’s own home. Taking up about 150 feet, HQ is lush with numerous fruits, veggies, and herbs including, lettuce, broccoli, eggplants, potatoes, collard greens, tomatoes, pears, bananas, basil, sage, and mustard, to name a few. Ten-foot tall sunflowers and graffiti murals collaborate in creating a soulful neighborhood paradise.

At HQ, Finley and the Ron Finley Project staff lead gardening classes for the adults and kids he’s recruited from the neighborhood. 

A panoramic view of the Ron Finley Project headquarters. Photo by Jim Newberry.

In addition to regenerating the area, Finley and HQ’s gardeners are also regenerating the soil. In his gardening practice, Finley abstains from pesticides and fungicides, and keeps soil covered with plants, which helps improve water infiltration. He also embraces hügelkultur-styled raised soil beds, in which mounds of logs, branches, and compost are topped with soil. As the wooden materials decay, they provide nutrients to that soil and greater aeration over time. 

Finley says he’s grateful to participate in a larger ecosystem as a gardener and has witnessed bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds return to his neighborhood. Though regenerative agriculture may be a fairly new term, Finley says he’s been doing it all along but calling it “biomimicry.” 

“The forest does regenerative agriculture by itself. So what I’ve done is replicate the forest by doing biomimicry,” says Finley, meaning that he tries to mimic natural growing cycles in his gardens. For Finley, regenerative gardening starts and ends at the soil. For example, he’s devoted to composting—the process of taking plant material like trimmings, grass, old plants, twigs, leaves, and food scraps and allowing them to decompose. 
“One of the things I learned gardening and working with compost is that we’re carbon, and we’re part of the soil,” he continues. “If you look at compost, a collection of things that were supposedly dead, and then see the heat produced from it, it makes you question where the heat comes from. It shows that we’re energy, and energy never dies; it just transforms, and gardening makes you understand that.” 

Paying It Forward 

Finley says he has no idea how many gardens he’s helped plant, and though it would be nice to know, he isn’t concerned with numbers. What he says is most rewarding is seeing how far his message has traveled and inspired people around the world.  

“It’s crazy how many people have gotten into [urban gardening] after saying they’ve heard me speak,” says Finley. “I was in New Zealand recently, and Maori elders told me they’ve been following my work for years, and I was like damn. I get to see the fruit of the seed I planted in real time, and I’m honored by that. I don’t have the words to express how that makes me feel.” 

Currently, Finley has plans to bring the ultimate garden experience to life by finding a larger location where he can include not just the garden but a café,  a greenhouse, and a food stand where people will be able to trade their extra produce. The Huffington Post originally reported on Finley’s plan to build a garden behind one of L.A.’s Carnegie Libraries in 2014, but he says government bureaucracy is halting the process, so he’s exploring private funding options. 

And he continues to encourage people across the US to embrace regenerative “biomimicry” techniques in their gardens. 

“We have communities nationwide that are food prisons that could be producing their own organic food while addressing climate change,” said Finley in the video. “By educating the public about regeneratively homegrown food, Climate Victory Gardens are raising awareness about one of the biggest global challenges of our time and showing Americans how they can make a difference for themselves, their households, and their communities. Soil equals life.” 

Dr. Kofi Boa, 63, lives in the town of Toase in Ghana, a country on West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea. When he was a kid, his mother’s cocoa farm burned to the ground because of a poorly managed slash-and-burn on neighboring land. From then on, Boa was interested in fighting the slash-and-burn tactics that many farmers in the region used, and in finding practices that worked better for the long-term health of farms in the community. When he grew up, he studied agronomy at the University of Nebraska, then took his education home, where he started the Centre for No-Till Agriculture (CNTA). Dr. Boa is also a member of the Soil Committee, overseeing the design of our Soil Carbon Initiative standard, a joint project of Green America and The Carbon Underground. 

The CNTA was created with support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and is supported in its work in the Foase area of Ghana’s Atwima Kwanwoma district by Grow Ahead, a nonprofit and Green America ally that helps bridge the financing gap for small-scale family farmers worldwide as they address the challenge of climate change in their communities. Grow Ahead’s fundraising and revolving loan programs are especially critical for farmer organizations in the developing world, which historically have had limited access to capital for growing their organizations beyond their day-to-day needs. 

Here’s Dr. Boa’s story, in his own words, with thanks to Alex Groome at Grow Ahead.  

Green American: How did you become interested in farming? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: My parents were farmers, and when I was a young child at age six, they had to take me to the farm on weekends and school holidays. Just like all the children in the village, I only knew the school and the farm. I liked the farm because there was always so much to eat and a lot of space to play. This got me interested in farming, and I wished every day was a weekend or holiday.

Today, I am a farmer and educator. I grow a wide variety of food and cash crops, including trees, vegetables, grains, and cover crops. I grow more than ten different crops on six different farms (a total of 25 acres) scattered around my village.

Green American: When did you learn about the importance of soil health and begin farming regeneratively?  

Dr. Kofi Boa: My father died when I was ten years old. When I was 12, my mother’s cocoa farm—our family’s main source of income—was burned by a neighboring farmer who had set fire to his field to prepare for planting corn. From that day on, I pledged to fight slash and burn, a method used by farmers to prepare their fields for planting, which gives crops an initial nutrient boost but kills the soil life necessary for sustained, healthy farmlands. 

I spoke to elders in the village when I was 12 and learned that, rather than use fire, they used to cut vegetation, leave it on the ground for a year, and then come back to plant crops—especially cocoa—when it had decomposed. This technique was called proka in the local Akan language. I started practicing proka at that age and have adapted it by planting in the mulch immediately after slashing, without the one-year waiting period (which was to allow enough time for the cut vegetation to settle and decompose, so farmers could easily move around to work on the field.)

Dr. Kofi Boa stresses the value of cover crops for building soil health to a group of visitors to the Centre for No-Till Agriculture. Photo courtesy of the Centre for No-Till Agriculture

Green American: What inspired you to continue no-till farming for so many years? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: Human population has dramatically increased in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past two decades, resulting in increasing demand for food. While the number of people that need to be fed is rising, the arable land area suitable for producing food is declining. This is due to enhanced desertification, flooding, accelerated urbanization, and unfavorable farming practices—especially land preparation methods. 

I am inspired by the regenerative power of agriculture to build healthy soils, increase organic matter and nutrient levels, enhance soil life, and improve soil structure to meet rising demands for food. 

The practices I use and advocate for allow for continuous and intensive farming in an environmentally friendly and profitable manner, whilst satisfying human needs for food and/or income. This is all possible because of soil health. I believe these practices help balance production, costs, environmental considerations, and economic sustainability. 

Green American: What regenerative growing practices do you follow? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: Everything I do on my farm is guided by a goal to regenerate the soil:  

1. Minimal soil disturbance through no-till and/or reduced tillage practices such as planting directly on the mulch-covered field. 
2. Permanent soil cover by retaining crop residue on fields after slashing, or using cover crops if there is no residue. 
3. Crop diversification through crop rotations. 

Green American: Tell us about the Centre for No-Till Agriculture (CNTA) and the outcomes you witness when regenerative agriculture is adopted by the communities you work with. 

Dr. Kofi Boa: I founded the CNTA to show the benefits that come from conserving and regenerating the soil. I had been using these farming practices on my farms as an example, where farmers could see results. I began to teach others, and farmers were getting interested, so I started the Centre. 

At CNTA, I teach farmers about forest productivity, fallow land (Fallow means land that has been left uncropped for one or more growing seasons.), and how to replicate healthy soil conditions on arable lands using the principles I mentioned earlier. I build farmers’ confidence with interactive and visual evidence on demonstration plots and other farmers’ fields. Once farmers become confident that the approach works, they complete hands-on practical training so they feel comfortable implementing on their own lands.  

With healthy, productive soils, farming can be a real business and an assured means of livelihood. Outcomes are visible in the community, with farmers no longer starting bushfires, year-round food security, and the creation of wealth among vibrant youth in rural areas.

Green American: What are the biggest challenges in getting farmers on board? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: The benefits of building soil health are slow to come into effect, and no-till practices are not widespread. There is a lack of support and promotion around regenerative agriculture. 

Financing is needed for creating additional learning and demonstration plots for farmer training. Farmer-to-farmer extension services (education and mentorship) are very important, but the lack of incentives for getting outstanding smallholder farmers involved continues to hinder the spread of regenerative agriculture. Inadequate inputs and market access is also limiting and slows more widespread adoption of these practices. 

Green American: When people are resistant to adopting regenerative practices, what changes their minds? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: I work with smallholder farmers who mostly would not have much formal education to be able make meaningful conclusions and inferences from written research results and scientific presentations. The numerous talks and the volumes of published materials available on regenerative agriculture continue to have no impact on this group of people who continue to produce the bulk of food in Africa.  

For them, seeing is the truth, and so what really turns them around into trying on their own fields is on-farm visual evidence. This requires creating opportunity for them to be part of the establishment of a field demonstration (learning plot) or to create the chance for them to see a field demonstration repeatedly. 

Green American: Do you have a good story about how someone saw benefits and got excited after being skeptical? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: I know a man named Kwame Anane in Amanchia, Ghana. When I met Kwame over ten years ago, I realized that he was a hardworking farmer, but he was not getting much yield from his efforts. I talked to him about regenerative agriculture, but he was not in any way prepared to accept me.  

He finally agreed to try it on a field that he had been monocropping maize on continuously and was experiencing declining yields. Two years later, Kwame now has several regenerative farms scattered in the village, and he uses his farms to teach other farmers.  Kwame practices no-tillage, crop residue retention, and rotations involving food crops and cover crops. He has experienced a complete change in life and is well-respected in the village. Now he works with me to continue to show regenerative ag to farmers.

One more benefit Kwame saw that motivated him was that he didn’t have to spend so much time and effort to plow and make ridges to plant vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers. He invested the free time to work on his cocoa farm, which had not been receiving that much care for lack of time.

Green American: How can people who aren’t farmers support regenerative agriculture and your work? 

Dr. Kofi Boa: Rising consumer demand could trigger more interest in products grown regeneratively, which in turn would drive the recognition and adoption of soil-conserving practices at the farm level. This would greatly support our initiatives at CNTA. Rising consumer demand for these products will have positive impacts on the changing climate, as more environmentally friendly production practices are employed.  

Learn more about Dr. Boa and the Centre for No-Till Agriculture. Learn more about Grow Ahead’s work with farmers like Dr. Boa.
 

above: Will Harris, owner of White Oak Pastures ranch in Bluffton, GA, has been farming regeneratively since 1995. See the inspiring video about his ranch, 100,000 Beating Hearts. Photo by Angie Mosier.

Back when I first started at Green America, in 2000, I remember our president/CEO Alisa Gravitz often cautioning those of us on the editorial team against using the term “end” when it came to climate change. There simply wasn’t a solution available that would “end” or “stop” the climate crisis, she would say. The best the world could hope for was collective action that would curb the worst of its effects. We’d get excited about a set of climate solutions and write that they could help “end global warming,” and Alisa would shake her head sadly and ask us to strike the word “end” for accuracy. 

That’s not to say that she wasn’t optimistic about the potential of renewable energy—particularly solar—to make a dent in climate change. Or that she wasn’t hopeful that businesses could come up with some powerful innovations. Or that homeowners could cut their energy use in half through efficiency measures. But “ending” climate change simply wasn’t in her vocabulary. 

So imagine my surprise when she started talking about something that would “reverse the climate crisis”: regenerative agriculture. 

Regenerative agriculture is a set of farming techniques that help regenerate the soil. It’s not the same as organic. It includes organic steps, but its focus is on improving soil health. Even farms that aren’t yet organic can add in more practices that heal the soil. In fact, if you have a yard, you can regenerate your soil, too.

When you over-farm soil and douse it in chemical fertilizers and pesticides, you kill soil microbes and fungi. On the other hand, rich, healthy soil has microorganisms in it that consume carbon and sequester it. If society can convert a good portion of the world’s agricultural land to regenerative practices, we could heal the soil enough that it could start sequestering a whole lot more carbon—enough to actually reverse climate change. 

Today, Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions is helping US farmers and major food companies make the switch to regenerative agriculture through our Carbon Farming Network, a working group of scientists, experts, farmers, food-industry titans, and others.

Alisa’s right in the thick of the Center’s efforts to catalyze a widespread shift in the US to regenerative agriculture. And whenever she talks about their work, her hands start flying around, and she talks a mile a minute, eager to pass on her excitement over the potential for us to heal the soil, heal the Earth, and, yes, end climate change. Really.

As Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist and world-renowned food activist, writes in her book Soil Not Oil (North Atlantic Books, 2015), “Rebuilding soil fertility is the very basis of sustainable food production and food security. There is no alternative to fertile soil to sustain life, including human life, on Earth. It is our work with living soil that provides sustainable alternatives to the triple crisis of climate, energy, and food.”  

Green America's CEO/President, Alisa Gravitz. Photo courtesy of Bioneers.

Green American/Tracy:  What was your “a-ha!” moment about regenerative agriculture? What made you realize it was such a powerful solution?

Alisa Gravitz: Soil scientists have always known that healthy, regenerated soil is key to solving the climate and water crises. We’ve been so badly degrading the soil we rely on for food, particularly over the last 50 years, with chemical agriculture. UN FAO [the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization] released a report in 2017 that said depending on where you live and the conditions of soil there, the world has about 30 to 60 years left in our soil unless we take action. This soil and food crisis is exacerbated by the interrelated climate and water crises.

But until the past four of five years ago, not many people were listening. They call it “the soil scientists’ lament.” If scientists as a group get 15 minutes of fame, 14 minutes go to climate scientists, and one minute goes to hydrologists. None goes to soil scientists.

In recent years, there have been more and more soil scientists looking at the question of, “How do you more quickly regenerate soil?” And they began to really talk about soil’s ability to help with the climate and water crises. 

As soil scientists began to tell their story through those lenses, many people—including me—began to go, “Whoa! This is our superpower to not only mitigate the climate crisis but actually to reverse it—while feeding the world.”

Green American/Tracy: How does regenerating soil help the climate and water crises? 

Alisa Gravitz: No matter which lens you look through—a climate lens or a water lens—you need to regenerate the soil. You’ll capture more carbon, because the microbes in healthy soil eat and sequester carbon. And healthy soil can hold more water, which is good in drought—more plants survive. It’s equally good in case of a flood, because rather than having everything erode, the soil is able to absorb more water, and the roots in healthy soil’s organic matter can hold it in place. Regenerating soil better equips it for the ability to grow food, as well. The soil has more nutrients, so it naturally fertilizes crops.  

Green American/Tracy: What would it take to reverse climate change? How big of a switch are we talking? 

Alisa Gravitz: Scientists agree  that our goal is to draw greenhouse gases in the atmosphere down to pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million [ppm] of CO2-equivalent. That assumes a fossil-free energy system and no new CO2 emissions by 2050, so then we can begin drawing down legacy carbon that’s currently in the atmosphere. In 2017, the world passed 410 ppm. If we shift land use to more regenerative practices, we could sequester enough carbon to get back to 280 ppm. 

Green America is working with a team of scientists and other experts who have done the math, using data from the UN FAO, and we’ve found that we’d need to convert 58 percent of the world’s current farmland and 42 percent of our current forests to regenerative practices. 

How long our goal will take to achieve will depend on the speed and scale of the strategies/actions deployed. Dr. Rattan Lal, the world’s preeminent soil scientist on soil-carbon sequestration, says we need to start by increasing the carbon in the world’s soils to at least two percent, which would offset 100 percent of all greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere. In the US, the average is less than one percent.

This kind of scale is totally doable. But we need to move quickly. 

Green American/Tracy: The UN also just released a report saying that we have about 12 years to keep world temperatures from rising further and catalyzing the worst effects of climate change. Can we regenerate the soil quickly enough? 

Alisa Gravitz: We can. For the last five years or so, soil scientists have been looking into how we encourage soil’s natural abilities to go further faster. How do we regenerate soil faster so it can sequester carbon faster? 

The great news is that the potential to increase carbon in soil is much higher than two percent. Leading US regenerative farmers and ranchers have increased the carbon in their soils to six to eight percent. 

New research from soil scientist Dr. David Johnson shows that introducing super-compost, which he calls “inoculants,” along with the most regenerative practices, can shoot soil carbon to ten percent and cut the time for restoring degraded soil from 10 to 15+ years to four to five years.

These scientists are finding that under the right regenerative conditions, soil can sequester up to ten times more than anyone thought it could.

But back to the overall work of reversing climate change. When it comes to climate, we have two tasks: 1) Stop putting fossil fuels into the atmosphere, and 2) draw down the legacy carbon already there. 
We can stop using fossil fuels. It’s not just Green America’s climate team saying that, but scientists at Google, at MIT, are saying, “We could get to where we’re not putting new carbon into the atmosphere by mid-century, maybe even 2030.” 

Yet, even if we did that tomorrow, we’d still have the legacy carbon wreaking all this havoc, like with Hurricanes Michael and Florence, and other big storms. 

It’s possible to get legacy carbon down to 280 parts per million if we stop putting carbon in the atmosphere and change land use to regenerative, higher carbon-sequestration practices. In fact, 280 is a conservative number. We can sequester even more carbon. That’s what got me really excited about regenerative ag.

Green American/Tracy: This is much more optimistic than I’ve ever seen you about climate change! 

Alisa Gravitz: Yes! I believe that we really can solve it. Science keeps making new discoveries that give us even more hope. For example, because oceans are acidifying and temperatures are rising, we’ve had global collapse of seaweed forests. The seaweed industry farms it for food, fillers, and cosmetics. Most is raised by small farmers off the coasts of the Philippines or Malaysia. Seaweed has collapsed by about 50 percent because of warming oceans, so these farmers’ earnings have been cut in half, and their communities are in desperate need as a result.

If we can regenerate seaweed forests, we not only sequester huge amounts of carbon, but it also revives the economy in those farming communities, and that regeneration can help the land. New studies show supplementing cow feed with seaweed greatly reduces methane from cows. And seaweed fertilizer can speed up remediation of the soil.

I’m also excited because soil and climate work is coming together. Let me tell you about Will Harris, a fifth-generation rancher who participates in our Carbon Farming Network. Will converted his Bluffton, GA, ranch to regenerative agriculture starting in 1995. I’ve seen his ranch, and it’s so healthy. It’s for real. Not only that, but his daughters loved what he’s doing and came back to the ranch after leaving it. And business is booming, so he’s hiring more people. 

Just north of his ranch, there’s another 2,000 acres where a solar company came to put in a solar farm. They asked Will if he would be willing to manage the land, so they could have a regenerative solar farm. On solar farms, weeds can grow between  the solar panels, and the companies often put chemical weed killer, glyphosate, on them. But this company wants to work with Will to allow him to use the land to graze underneath the panels. 

I’m seeing more and more of these types of solutions as people catch on to the benefits of regenerative agriculture, and our work at the Center brings these solutions to more farmers and companies. Green America members will hear more of these stories when we launch our Soil Heroes campaign next year.  

Green American/Tracy: Are there any naysayers who don’t believe regenerative agriculture can cool the climate?

Alisa Gravitz: You will find some people saying, “Oh, no no no, carbon will not be sequestered in soil because there’s a carbon cycle, and it will respirate back out.” It’s true that some of it does. But what the new research has shown is that a lot of the models are based on degraded soil.

Again, the average amount of carbon in agricultural soils is less than one percent. In the current research, when carbon in soil approaches three percent, you have enough diversity in the microbial community where you go from sick soil conditions to a healthy enough soil to really start regenerating and rebuilding the soil. And that sequesters more carbon that stays sequestered. 

The three percent tipping point is also when the soil microbial and fungal community just takes off. The things that they do! The networks that form with the root system can literally signal for miles what kind of nutrients a plant needs and can call those nutrients from great distances. When soils are healthy, single-cell microbes act as a unit that then can do a lot more. They can be a lot more regenerative. They can protect soil and plants a lot better from diseases and invaders, just like the human immune system. It’s just so cool. 

Which is also why, if you can regain soil health, you can have amazing yields, too. We can save the world and feed the world. 

Green American/Tracy: So regenerated soil sounds like it doesn’t need chemical fertilizers to feed the world? 

Alisa Gravitz: That’s true. Soil itself fights diseases, and it can give plants the nutrients they need without synthetic fertilizer and other chemicals. People like Will Harris, who have spent 20 years making their fields really healthy, show that even if you know nothing about regenerative agriculture, you walk onto these fields, and you know there’s a difference. There are butterflies; there are bees. You can see the healthy, diverse plant life above ground, and it’s reflective of the diversity below it.

In fact, one of Will’s problems is that he’s made his land so healthy—without chemicals—that the eagles know it’s a great place to hang out, so they like to go after the chicks on the ranch. The adults only eat what they need, but the juveniles go in and destroy a whole pasture full of chickens. That’s why he thinks farming among solar panels would be great because chickens can hide under solar panels. 

It’s kind of like the early days of solar, where even if you don’t believe in the climate crisis, it has other benefits. Regenerative agriculture will also increase biodiversity, create more jobs, and make soil more flood-resistant and more fertile, so we can grow more food. 

Green American/Tracy: So much behind-the-scenes work is happening through our Center for Sustainability Solutions. Can you tell us more? 

Alisa Gravitz: Basically, the Center established a goal to reverse the climate crisis through agricultural carbon sequestration while restoring soil health, water quality, and ecosystem biodiversity, and providing global food security. Our core metric is to reduce atmospheric CO2 from 410 ppm to below 280 ppm by 2050. So we don’t have a small goal! . 

Our work includes: 

1. Identifying a suite of financial benefits for farmers, so doing regenerative agriculture is more cost-effective. There are number of federal grants and certain farm credit bureaus that will give you a reduced rate on loans for organic and regenerative practices, but not everyone knows those are available. 
2. Putting together farmer-buyer innovation forums. We’re getting the farmers who are doing regenerative ag together with the companies that want to purchase regeneratively farmed foods, so they can do business together. 
3. We’re also putting together a database of agencies that can provide technical assistance with regenerative agriculture. Our database will help farmers  learn where they can go for regenerative information and technical assistance. 
4. The Soil Carbon Initiative: We’re developing this standard, along with our partners, The Carbon Underground, to provide assurance that farmers are actually doing regenerative agriculture. So if a company says, “Yeah, I’ll buy your food, but I need to know you’re doing it,” our standard will provide proof. 
5. Help Build It! This work will help investors learn what they need to know, so investors can invest more in regenerative agriculture. And we’ll help project developers know how to speak “investor,” so they can better encourage people to invest. 
6. Roots in the Ground: We have two initiatives to encourage farmers to put regenerative farming into place. Rotating crops is a big part of regenerating the soil. So our Midwest Grains Initiative aims to put 5 million more acres to work growing a rotation of barley, oats, and other small grains. We’re developing markets and putting together a list of buyers for those crops, to reward farmers that make the switch.
   
   And our Drawdown Dairy initiative is creating a model dairy that can be regenerative, rather than a greenhouse-gas emitter. Cows alone represent huge methane emissions. But there are a range of solutions that can make a dairy a net carbon sequesterer—even accounting for the methane cows emit—by growing food in a regenerative way, giving cows better diets and more grazing opportunities, and finding better ways of holding manure.  
7. Soil Heroes: We’re generating movement momentum by telling stories of what’s happening and who is doing it. Consumers don’t really know about the soil connection to climate and water. It’s like fair trade 25 years ago, when Green America staff knew about it, but most of our members didn’t, so we went into high gear to educate people about fair trade.

Green American/Tracy: There are some big companies involved. Are any of them willing to be named?

Alisa Gravitz: Danone and Ben and Jerry’s are very involved in working with us to switch their supply chains to regenerative agriculture. General Mills is involved. Several companies in our network that are not household names are important to the supply chain. 

Green American/Tracy: Why are you so hopeful that the world can act fast enough with regenerative agriculture to end (Yay!) the climate crisis? 

Alisa Gravitz: There are three reasons: 

1. The focus on regenerating soil is spreading rapidly in farming communities. I have seen that shift since the Center first started this work in 2013. At first, farmers would say, “No way am I joining them.” Now they’re asking to take part. 
   
   For example, farmers call me because they hear what Danone is doing, and they want to be part of the Danone supply chain. If farmers call you early in the morning, that’s very specific and real proof that they know something good is happening.
2. Companies are actually ahead of consumers on the soil health question, and how loss of healthy soils impacts their supply chain. Not all, but many companies recognize they have a food security problem due to widespread soil degradation, and they have to start addressing it. 
3. Also, companies have made big, public climate commitments they need to meet. For a food company, at least 50 to 70 percent of the climate problem—and therefore, the opportunity to meet those commitments—is in their agricultural supply chain. All of these things are pushing big food companies to look at what’s going on in soil. 
4. There’s really a fourth. Around the world, there’s now global attention on climate. We’re the last of the climate denier countries. The rest of the world is really looking at these climate questions, and, more and more, they’re having these soil conversations. France has a plan to increase its soil carbon content, for example.

I just got an e-mail today from Finland, where they’re doing a research project with 100 farms, providing full public funding for a transition to regenerative agriculture in a pilot program, and, after this program, they’ll spread regenerative ag country-wide. They’re looking into using our Soil Carbon Initiative as the standard.

The switch to regenerative agriculture is happening, and it’s happening fast. Our job is to get the US on board. We can reverse the climate crisis. The answer lies beneath our feet. 

In October, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a historic report estimating that governments only have 12 years to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. While government action is critical to meet this goal, citizens can also help. When many of us take action together, it’s powerful. 

One way individuals can help cool the climate is by going vegan or vegetarian, or eating less meat. A 2016 Oxford University study found that vegetarian and vegan diets can reduce food-related emissions by 63 percent and 70 percent, respectively, as compared to what the researchers called a “business-as-usual diet” with high amounts of red meat.

You can support plant-based eating with more than just your fork, however. Socially responsible investors are getting in on the act, too, by supporting plant-based businesses with their portfolios. 

Plant-based and alternative meat businesses are booming: From 2013 to 2017, plant-based product purchases increased by 62 percent, and in 2017, sales of vegan or vegetarian food totaled $2 billion US dollars, according to Innova Market Insights and Statista, respectively. 

Enter plant-based investing—a new, promising strategy within the larger socially responsible investing (SRI) movement that supports a global transition from animal- to plant-based products.

Innovative plant-based “meat” start-ups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have been the darlings of the venture-capital set for the past few years. (Note: Some of these companies, including Impossible Foods, use genetically modified ingredients.) But you don’t need millions to get involved in the plant-based investing movement, just the know-how. 

Plant-Based Investing 

Plant-based investing goes by many names; you might hear it called vegan investing, humane investing, or cruelty-free investing. What all of these approaches have in common is the intention to support plant-based industry as a means to transition away from practices that either harm animals or promote unsustainable animal agriculture. Green America uses “plant-based investing” as a blanket term to best explain this movement. 

Plant-based investors may do one or more of the following: 

• Seek out investments in businesses that offer plant-based products, as well as plant-based alternatives to common animal-based products.
• Exclude investments in companies involved in animal slaughter, abuse, testing, and exploitation from portfolios.   
• Participate in shareholder activism to spur positive changes in companies regarding animal welfare.

Since plant-based investing is still new, what each term means varies among investment managers and advisors, says Brenda Morris, a vegan financial planner and founder of Humane Investing LLC. 

“At Humane Investing, we may invest in a retail company that sells fur, but we’d advocate for changes in their practices so that they stop selling fur,” says Morris. “Excluding any company that sells products affiliated with animal exploitation—for example, airlines with leather seats on the planes—will have very little impact on the company’s behavior.  I will not go that far because I believe engagement is a more effective strategy.”

How to Do It    

If you’d like to try plant-based investing on your own, here are a few ways you can take to get started. 

Screen for plant-based companies

You can positively screen for companies that are on the cutting edge of plant-based products. And, you can screen companies that are involved with animal exploitation and abuse out of your portfolio. 

To do so, you can do your own research, or find a socially responsible investment advisor to help. Any SRI advisor is well-versed in screening for social and environmental issues, and some now specialize in plant-based investing. 

To help his clients, Tom Nowak, founder of the investment advisory firm Quantum Financial Planning LLC, says he develops a portfolio of about 30 stocks that are screened based on the criteria laid out in his book, Low Fee Vegan Investing (CreateSpace, 2014). Like many advisors, Nowak’s screening criteria isn’t available to the public, but for those who like to do their own research, he recommends CrueltyFreeInvesting.org, a nonprofit website where over 4,000 companies have already been screened for animal abuse and exploitation.

He cautions that just because a company is listed on the site doesn’t mean it’s an ethical company across the board: “A socially responsible investor may avoid [some of the companies listed on the site] because of their governance or hiring practices,” he says. “Still, it’s a great start because it allows advisors like me to show clients a list of stocks that have already gone through the cruelty-free filter, and now we can apply other filters to it.”

Check out the US Vegan Climate Index

The US Vegan Climate Index debuted in June 2018 on Bloomberg under the ticker VEGAN. Created by Beyond Advisors, a vegan investment products company, the Index is a collection of US large-cap stocks that have been screened according to environmental and anti-animal-abuse principles. Since extracting and burning fossil fuels continues to spur global warming, the Index also excludes oil and gas companies. 

“I’ve never met a vegan who’s a climate change-denier,” says Claire Smith, CEO of Beyond Advisors. “So we’ve combined those two elements and called it Vegan Climate because animal agriculture is an enormous contributor to climate change.” 

While you can’t invest directly in an index, Beyond Advisers has created an exchange traded fund (ETF) that mirrors the US Vegan Climate Index. The ETF is currently pending SEC approval and is expected to launch in January 2019. 

Use your shareholder power

Shareholder activism is already making a visible impact on the American food industry. 

In September, the New York State Pension Fund, which owns at least $344 million worth of shares in McDonald’s, made headlines when comptroller Thomas DiNapoli wrote a letter to McDonald’s imploring the fast food giant to adopt a more humane chicken welfare policy. Groups like the Humane Society charge that chickens from McDonald’s and other fast food companies are bred to grow at an unnatural pace and live in overcrowded conditions. Since Aramark, Burger King, Kraft Heinz, and Subway have pledged to give chickens more floor space by 2024, McDonald’s is considered the laggard in the industry.

In response to the letter, McDonald’s announced commitments this fall to improve chicken welfare, including raising chickens in safe environments that promote natural behaviors, implementing monitoring systems, and embracing third-party audits, as reported by an October 2017 company press release. 

Also, in 2016, Green Century Capital Management, a Boston-based SRI firm, filed a shareholder resolution at Tyson Foods, the country’s second largest processor of chicken, beef, and pork, calling on the company to produce plant-based eating options. Following that resolution, as well as a robust grassroots campaign by the nonprofit Mighty Earth, Tyson became an investor of Beyond Meat and started a $150 million venture capital fund supporting alternative protein development. 

Though Jared Fernandez, shareholder advocate at Green Century, says he can’t say for sure that Tyson made the investments solely because of Green Century’s efforts, it does seem that the shareholder resolution, coupled with the consumer campaign, nudged the company in the right direction. 

Fernandez notes that the dialogue with Tyson started around the notion that going plant-based is good for business. “Ultimately, if you’re not addressing a burgeoning market like this, you’re restricting your own access within the greater market,” he says. “That can impact a company’s bottom line and make a company seem like they’re not exploring all the opportunities for growth they could.” 

To support change within companies, voting during the upcoming proxy season for resolutions demanding plant-based food products and an end to animal abuse and exploitation is a gradual but promising strategy. To see if there will be shareholder resolutions in 2019 asking companies to address animal cruelty or offer plant-based products, check out Green America’s shareholder focus list, which is updated annually shortly before the spring shareholder season. 

Seeds of Change  

The shift to plant-based eating is a global movement: 70 percent of the world’s population is currently opting for less meat or no meat at all, according to GlobalData. 

The rise in plant-based eating is on track to influence more corporations to develop alternative meat products and more financial institutions to create plant-based investing products. For example, in September, a New Zealand-based investment management company, Pathfinder Asset Management, announced that it will remove companies involved in animal testing and animal products from its stock portfolios. And in 2017, Walmart asked its suppliers to identify products that could be marketed to vegan and vegetarian consumers. 

Actions like these anticipate a change in consumer sensibility—even a small, personal choice like buying a soybean burger can be a form of investment in our planet’s future.

“Meat and dairy are huge parts of our everyday lives, and there’s a huge infrastructure in place to deliver them,” says Nowak. “But if consumer preference changes and consumers want plant-based products that factory farms aren’t designed for, [those farms] could turn into stranded assets,” i.e. assets that have lost their value.  

INVESTOR RESOURCES

• Cruelty Free Investing (CFI): A nonprofit developing investment resources that protect animal rights. Publishes lists of dedicated plant-based investment advisors and programs on its website, CrueltyFreeInvesting.org. 
• ShareholderAction.org: Green America’s Shareholder Focus List is our annual list of social and environmental shareholder resolutions to watch, including any on animal rights. 
• GreenPages.org: Green America’s directory of green businesses includes SRI advisors who can help you get started with plant-based investing.

Composting is no longer just a way to reduce the amount of organic waste headed for the landfill—although that’s a great benefit. Farmers and gardeners who use regenerative agricultural practices know that composting is key to building healthy soil, as it provides food to soil microorganisms that improve plant health and sequester carbon. The world needs more composters to keep our soils healthy—which is critical if we want to feed the world and cool the planet. 

In fact, a worldwide switch to regenerative agriculture, including robust composting, could actually reverse the climate crisis, according to the scientists and other experts participating in the Carbon Farming Network of Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions.

While the idea of composting for the climate might appeal, perhaps you’ve yet to give it a try. Or, if you do compost, maybe you have a friend or family member who isn’t following your stellar example.

To help you or your neighbors overcome your organic-waste fears, here are Green America’s best suggestions for overcoming common barriers to composting. 

“I’m interested in a compost bin, but there are so many to choose from!”

It’s true: there’s a wide variety of compost bins out there. Green America has an article called “Pick a Composter, Any Composter” on our website that details some of the most popular options in detail, but here’s the quick version:

• Holding bins: You can build or buy a low-maintenance, open-top wooden or plastic bin, or build your own. It’ll keep your compost pile out of sight, and the open top allows you easy access to turn your compost.
• Tumbling barrel composters: Smaller than the open-air versions, these bins are basically barrels that rotate easily with the turn of a hand-crank, nicely aerating smaller batches of organic waste. You’ll need to pay extra attention to getting the mix of brown and green waste balanced to achieve fast results, or you may end up with a bit of a backup. 
• Multi-tiered composters: These composters are basically a series of shallow bins stacked on top of each other. As your organic waste decomposes, it falls into successively lower bins until it comes out of the bottom as finished compost. The smaller bins help the compost cook faster than a big pile or bin, but their stacked nature means they can hold as much waste as a large bin. 

“Can I compost without a bin?”

Yes! Many people just find an out-of-the-way area in their yard and start piling their organic waste there. In fact, my family has a small patch of woods in our back yard, so we just take our organic waste to a spot hidden in the trees, and we rotate it with a shovel occasionally. 

Keep a roughly 50/50 mix of green waste (think fruit and veggie peels) to brown waste (think leaves, grass clippings, and coffee grounds), and turn it occasionally to aerate it, as organic waste needs oxygen to decompose aerobically and turn into compost. You’ll soon have a nice pile of nutrient-rich humus (i.e. soil filled with plenty of dark, naturally decaying organic matter) to use on your garden or your house plants. 

Or, if you don’t have a garden and would rather keep things really simple, dump in a remote corner of your yard and let nature do its thing without you. Keep in mind that a compost pile with food scraps may attract rodents. We have woods behind our house, so we’re able to set our pile several feet away from our home. If you want to avoid rodents, an enclosed bin or a simple fence with chicken wire around your pile will help.

Priscilla Woolworth, a Climate Victory Gardener from upstate New York, put together a simple compost pile near her garden, which she enclosed inside a fence she made of chicken wire and branches. She says of her pile, “It’s working perfectly and slowly filling up with vegetable garden detritus and leaves. I hope that beneficial insects will enjoy it as well.”

“I have a bad back. Turning compost would be difficult for me.”

You have a few different options to make composting gentler on your spine and joints.

As noted above, a tumbling barrel composter lets you easily aerate small batches of compost with the turn of a hand-crank. Or, try a worm bin for the fastest results and smallest batches. (See below for more on the latter.)

Or, you can combine the simplicity of a pile with the ease of a tumbling barrel with a Compost Crank. Sold by Lotech Products, a family-owned green business in Tucson, AZ, the Compost Crank looks like a giant corkscrew. You just stick the Crank into your compost pile and turn it with the ergonomic handle, and your compost will be mixed and aerated without your ending up in bed for days. In fact, inventor Charlie Ambrose handcrafted his first Compost Crank when his own bad back made turning compost a challenge.

“I don’t have a yard.”

Sure, gardening stores often showcase spiffy composting bins or rotating barrels with plenty of bells and whistles, but you need a place to put a bin or barrel first. And that’s easier said than done if you live in an apartment or a place with a lack of outdoor green space. 

Our solution: Try worm composting. Also known as vermicomposting, this type of composting is as simple as 1-2-3: 

1. Place a five- to ten-gallon wooden or plastic bin under your kitchen sink or in another place that’s warm and dark. 
2. Buy some red worms, also known as Eisenia foetida and Lumbricus rubellus. If you don’t have a local bait shop or worm farm, you can mail order them from businesses like Gardener’s Supply. 
3. Put the worms in the bin with some damp strips of newspaper to provide a nice, cushy (and edible) bed. Then, all you have to do is dump in your fruit and vegetable scraps, and the worms will turn them into rich compost. 
4. The 50/50 rule applies for worm bins, too, so make sure to resupply the newspaper (brown waste) as the worms eat through it and your produce peels (green waste). A proper balance will ensure that your bin doesn’t smell. 

One big benefit: worms will process your organic waste quickly. Red wiggler worms will recycle half their weight in 24 hours. 

For more information on worm composting, see our articleWorm Composting, All-Natural Recycling."

For an even easier option, a growing number of municipalities offer drop-off composting or may even pick it up curbside for processing at a municipal composter. Call your local waste authority to see if this service is available to you. 

In addition, local businesses are popping up across the country that offer compost pick-up services, where they’ll collect your organic waste and turn it into compost products that they sell. Or local community gardeners or farmers may accept organic waste from you to turn into compost for their plants. Check your local business listings and ask around to see if you can find someone willing to take your organic waste. 

“I live in a cold climate. Can I still compost in winter?” 

Along with oxygen, your pile of brown and green organic waste will need heat to turn into compost fairly quickly. If you don’t have the heat, your compost won’t “cook.” 

If you live in a snowy climate in winter, you can buy insulated composters that will keep your compost pile decomposing. It won’t cook as quickly in cold weather, but you’ll likely get some results. 

If you have a compost pile out in the open, there’s no reason you can’t keep contributing organic waste to it in the winter. It may end up feeding animals versus turning into compost, but isn’t that better than sending that waste to a landfill? They’ll consume your scraps, eliminate some as waste, and that waste becomes natural fertilizer for the soil come spring. Mission accomplished. 

“I’d like to compost fish, dairy, and meat. Is that possible?” 

You can’t put fish, dairy, or meat into a traditional compost pile or bin without disrupting the composting process. 
They’ll will attract flies and maggots, and cause your compost to smell.  

Note that unlike home bins, municipal composters are designed to break down meat, fish, and dairy (in addition to things like compostable plastics that won’t decompose in your home bin), so don’t feel bad about sending those curbside if your city has compost pick-up and says they’re okay. 

You can compost meat, fish, and dairy anaerobically; the Bokashi One-Bucket method of composting works in this manner. Bokashi (meaning “fermented organic matter” in Japanese) composting requires a plastic bucket with a spigot at the bottom. You put your organic waste, including meat and dairy, and a fermenting powder (usually a mix of bran and anaerobic bacteria) in, and the waste ferments. You’ll end up with liquid and a smaller amount of organic waste that you can then bury in the soil. 

However, there’s a downside: Well- aerated organic waste decomposes aerobically, meaning that microorganisms that need oxygen to survive assist in the decomposition process. Without oxygen, your pile will decompose anaerobically, meaning bacteria that don’t need oxygen help it decompose. Unfortunately, anaerobic bacteria release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as they work.

Your best bet for the climate? Compost aerobically with a pile, bin, or a worm bin, and take steps to reduce food waste overall, especially when it comes to foods like meat, fish, and dairy that can’t be composted at home. 

A widespread switch to regenerative agriculture won’t just heal the soil. At scale, it can actually reverse the climate crisis. 

Jeff has been managing investment portfolios and doing finacial planning for thirty years. He was looking for socially responsible investments back in the days when Ben & Jerry's seemed to be the only company on that path. Now that there is a wide variety of SRI/ESG/Impact investments to choose from, it is his mission to help bring this approach to retail investors. Jeff manages discretionary portfolios of ESG mutual funds and ETF's and does retirement planning for families and business owners.

As buildings impact all aspects of society, we address them all........again, as a client chooses.  We present issues to address, give pros and cons, and leave our clients in freedom to determine the positive change they want to be a part of.

"The mission for daiseye is to offer unique earth-friendly and/or fair trade products to our customer while educating shoppers about the importance of global responsibility." daiseye is an eclectic marketplace offering fair trade & earth-friendly products, clothing, accessories and gifts to enhance you and your living space. Here you will find treasures of simple beauty created from materials such as reclaimed wood and tin, recycled glass, and organically-grown herbs and fibers. In everything daiseye does in our daily life and offers as products to our customers we adhere to our core principles. daiseye’s 7 core green principles that must be met by daiseye and our vendors: 1 - must be socially & economically responsible 2 - must NOT exploit children or any person 3 - must use energy efficient practices 4 - must use recycled content & reclaimed materials 5 - must support sustainable forestry 6 - must use organic and natural ingredients, including hemp 7 - must NOT test on animals

Green America’s work to promote socially responsible investing strategies, including portfolio screening on social, environmental, and corporate governance issues; community investing and banking; and shareholder action has helped drive the increase in SRI assets. The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investing (US SIF) reports that assets under professional management in the US have grown from $8.72 trillion in 2016 to $12 trillion in 2018.

• Sustainable, responsible and impact investing (SRI) assets have expanded to $12.0 trillion in the United States, up 38 percent from $8.7 trillion in 2016.
• The top five issues for asset managers and their institutional investor clients are climate change/carbon, tobacco, conflict risk, human rights, and transparency and anti-corruption.
• Community investments that support low-to-moderate income communities grew from almost $122 billion in 2016 to $185 billion.
• Shareholder action continues to focus heavily on “proxy access” (the ability of shareowners to nominate corporate directors); corporate political spending; and climate issues.

You're in your underwear almost all day, every day, and it's right up against your most delicate skin. Doesn't it make sense to be green there, where you don't want toxic pesticide residues, or anything less than the best? We get asked all the time about brands for green underwear, and we've answered.

Cotton bikini by Blue Canoe

Choose cotton over conventional with Blue Canoe. The San Francisco company offers women’s underwear in six different styles, ranging from bamboo-based thongs to aubergine hip huggers. One of the simplest styles, however, is the Cotton Bikini. Available in three colors, this pure panty is made in the USA of 100% organic cotton.

Panties by Natural Clothing Company

From patterned boy shorts to lacy low-rises, Natural Clothing Company offers a sizable selection of undergarments. In a sea of underwear options, its Comfort Intimates line, made of viscose from bamboo, are among the softest. The bamboo used to make the textile bears rapidly renewable qualities and delivers a smooth and silky texture. Processed in a Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) factory in China, the underwear is available in four colors.

Boxer by Amren Tulano

Amren Tulano, a woman-owned, Los Angeles-based company, offers a medley of organic cotton-based underwear. A sexy staple to its six-style selection is the lace that adorns the waistband of the women’s styles, including the Black Organic Cotton Hipster with White Lace. For men, the company offers a Black Organic Cotton Boxer. Its underwear is all fair trade and made in the USA.

Boxer brief by WAMA Underwear

Given hemp’s natural anti-microbial, anti-odor, and anti-bacterial properties, WAMA Underwear opted to use textiles derived from the plant as its primary underwear material. The company developed a hemp-cotton-spandex blend for all its undies that softens with every wash. WAMA only works with suppliers that adhere to the Supplier Code of Conduct, ensuring safe and fair labor practices. You'll be comfy in a pair of WAMA underwear.

The Original Un-bra by Decent Exposures

In the market for an eco-friendly bra that’s custom to your needs? Try the Original Un-Bra in Organic Cotton from Decent Exposures. This oh-so-soft piece pulls on like a sports bra, though you can customize it by adding a front closure, if you prefer. Its wide straps help ease shoulder pressure for curvier women. The Un-Bra comes in a wide variety of colors with a racer back or scoop back, and breastfeeding moms can add nursing flaps as well.

Find more green underwear companies by searching our directory of Green Business Network certified businesses, the GreenPages.org.

Nontoxic clothing is but one topic Green America tackles—we also care about labor practices in the supply chain that make clothing and where that clothing goes once donated. Keep up with us by signing up for our newsletter.

Skip crowds at big-box stores or the mall and shop with certified green businesses that are committed to environmental and humanitarian missions. When you buy green gifts, you’re supporting small-business owners and getting high-quality sustainable gifts made from natural and sustainably-sourced materials.

Buying green gifts is also a great way to introduce friends and family to the ideas of living green and voting with your dollars. When they ask where you got their present, tell them where and why you shop green! 

What's better during the holidays than a delicious, hot cup of coffee? A delicious, hot cup of coffee flavored like the spirits of Kahlua and Irish Cream laced with Gran Marnier! You can get a bag of Velasquez Family Coffee's Drunken Uncle Holiday Coffee ($7.50) in regular or decaf, and whole bean or ground.

 Dream of warmer months with the 100% Organic Cotton Kiawah Beach Towel ($49.99) from Delilah Home! This plush, soft, luxurious towel is made from organic Turkish cotton and is highly absorbent.

These darling Triceratops Felt Baby Shoes ($26), sold by Fair Trade Winds, are made with fair trade practices from wool, making them natural and eco-friendly. If your baby or toddler is not a dinosaur fan, Fair Trade Winds has more than a dozen other adorable animal slipper styles.

Cozy up with Big Dipper Wax Work sculpted candles! From pinecones to songbirds and pumpkins to Abraham Lincoln, these delightful candles come in various sizes and are all under $25.

Gift some lovely jewelry for the holidays this year! These Kantha earrings ($15) from World Finds are made from recycled Kantha textiles, meaning each pair of earrings will vary in color and design, making them one-of-a-kind!

The US-made Ultra Suede Neck Wrap pillows ($39.99) from Hot Cherry can be heated or chilled to provide comfort to sore muscles or a just some soothing aromatherapy. They’re filled with clean, hollow, heat-retaining cherry pits, a by-product of Michigan’s cherry industry—so the pillow smells like cherry pie when you heat it up!

Try cooking in a new way while camping or in your backyard. Sunflair’s Mini Solar Oven Kit ($104.99) comes with a solar oven, thermometer, trivet, collapsible silicone pot, and stuff bag. It uses no electricity and doesn’t give off sparks or flames, so it’s very safe, making it a great option for emergencies, too.

For your favorite foodie with a sweet tooth, what else would do besides organic, fair trade chocolate? The five chocolate bars in Seattle-based Theo Chocolate’s Fantasy Bar Collection ($15) come in unique and interesting flavors: Bread & Chocolate, Hazelnut Crunch, Root Beer Barrel, Grapefruit Ginger and Cinnamon Horchata. Packs with more traditional flavors are also available.

This hemp and organic cotton women’s Crewneck Sweatshirt ($84) is light enough for wearing year-round. From sustainable and ethical fashion brand OOLOOP.

Max Green Alchemy Scruff Rescue Face Scrub ($9.99) uses finely ground walnut shells and gentle lactic acid to clean and buff skin, all with a woodsy and citrus scent. Daily use will also help reduce ingrown beard hairs. Unlike conventional scrubs, it’s paraben-free, micro-bead-free, and vegan. 

Bismark Kpabitey is a 33 year old dynamic agroforestry cocoa farmer from Ghana, where farmers typically earn $0.84 per day. Bismark has been practicing dynamic agroforestry for three years on seven acres to support his 16 family members. He sells his cocoa to Kuapa Kokoo, a Fairtrade-certified cocoa farmers organization. 

In an interview with digital regenerative agriculture crowdfunding platform Grow Ahead, Bismark shares the story of how he discovered dynamic agroforestry and his vision for the future of agriculture in Ghana. We learn that, while deforestation is causing climate change in Ghana and making it increasingly challenging for farmers to predict when to plant their crops, dynamic agroforestry presents a regenerative solution that promotes food security and climate resiliency. Bismark warns that if Ghanaians continue to farm conventionally, soon the land will not be able to support its people. He calls for large-scale farmer training in dynamic agroforestry. 

The actions of farmers like Bismark and support from the international community are what’s needed to transition agriculture from a cause to a solution in the fight against climate change. 

How did you become interested in farming?

BK: Both of my parents are farmers, they’ve been in the farming system since I was born. It was through farming that I was able to obtain a Bachelor of Business Administration in Human Resource Management. I’m glad to be a farmer because I’ve seen how agriculture has helped me, my siblings, and family.

Not many people your age are farming. What is the trend with youth and farming in Ghana? 

BK: Youth don’t get involved in agriculture here. The moment they complete high school, they leave their villages and go to big cities in search of jobs. Young people have the perception that those who are elderly or uneducated should farm. Not only the illiterate can farm, anyone can manage a farm. And if you manage your farm well, you become one of the richest people in your community. I’m hoping to provide an example that farming can be a great livelihood for anyone, regardless of age or education. 

Tell us about agriculture in your region in Ghana. 

BK: From what I’ve experienced, agriculture has changed considerably in the past 30 years. Output and productivity are decreasing unless you apply chemicals or other substances. Our forests are turning into grasslands. Our land is degrading. We are fortunate that a new system, dynamic agroforestry, is being introduced by our farmer cooperative Kuapa Kokoo.

When did you first learn about dynamic agroforestry?

BK: In 2015, the Sankofa project of Kuapa Kokoo, which provides support for agroforestry projects for farmers, came to our region and connected with my uncle John Narh. We visited their agroforestry demonstration plot, and we were inspired to do something similar. 

When we first began installing our agroforestry system, we didn’t understand the approach—it was odd to us. As time went on, we began to understand and see the positive changes. We got to know that dynamic agroforestry respects every species. There’s nothing like a bad weed or an unwanted weed. We respect every plant. 

Can you give us an example of that?

BK: With dynamic agroforestry, we leave the weeds to help with regeneration and stratification of the system. Stratification refers to the importance of having many levels of trees and crops to create a harmonious growing environment that mimics natural forests. 

The amount of effort we apply in the field has reduced drastically. We used to weed more than 10 times per season when we were farming conventionally, and now we do it maybe 2-3 times per year. We used to consider elephant grass harmful, but in dynamic agroforestry, we cut it and cover the soil with it to hold in moisture for the crops during the dry season. 

Why is agroforestry important for the future well-being of Ghanaian cocoa farmers, society, and the environment? 

BK: On my farm, we are almost in our third year since starting dynamic agroforestry, and things are gradually starting to change. Dynamic agroforestry has enabled us to grow our own food in addition to generating revenue by growing cocoa. There are 16 of us in my family and we farm on seven acres, with that said we are able to get almost all of our food crops from our own field. Conventional farmers practice monocropping, and when their crop is finished, they have to go buy other food crops to support their families. We get ginger, tomato, eggplant, and most other perishable food crops from our field. 

For society, we are helping change and regenerate a degraded system, showing people the importance of dynamic agroforestry. People are becoming interested in it and are understanding its essence. 

And for the environment, we used to not plant timber trees in our cocoa fields but now--with dynamic agroforestry--we are trained to plant timber trees, which drawdown carbon to help our climate and will help in the future for other developmental projects or infrastructure. We are now regenerating the organisms in the soil to create new biodiversty, which makes healthy crops. We don’t burn the bush, and we don’t clear the land, both of which are better for the environment. 

How is climate change affecting farmers in your region? 

BK: We used to have seasons where we expected rain, but that is no longer the case. We know that these changes come due to environmental degradation and the way we treat our natural resources. Deforestation has really changed our local climate. Trees are cut down without replanting or afforestation and when dry season comes, the sun is dangerously hot for farmers and crops. If a farmer doesn’t have money for irrigation, they will suffer. We are coming to expect the unexpected, but it’s difficult to know what to plant and when because the rain and the sun are irregular. 

What is the future of agriculture and how can the international community support smallholder farmers?

BK: If we continue with the conventional system, within 15-20 years we will have degraded land that won’t be able to produce much. This would really affect the people in this region. However, with dynamic agroforestry, even land that has lost almost all of its nutrients is able to re-establish its soil health for increased crop yields. 

The future of agriculture depends on widespread adoption of regenerative, dynamic agroforestry. This could be supported by the international community with massive trainings for farmers. Trainings should be done in the communities, face to face, and teach the essence of changing from a conventional system into dynamic agroforestry that protects soil health long into the future. 

Is there anything else you’d like to add? 

BK: With the little experience I’ve had in my recent transition to dynamic agroforestry, I advise neighboring farmers and everyone I get in touch with to practice this system so that it will help our community, our society, and the country itself. 

Learn more about Kuapa Kokoo: https://www.kuapakokoo.com/

Learn more about Grow Ahead: https://growahead.org/ 

While everyone can waste less, we can’t all do it the same way. This work starts with individual action, then we join hands with neighbors to form and improve communities. Our communities can work together to hold companies and government accountable.

But local action starts with individuals. Here are six ways to recycle more and create less waste.

1. Identify things you only use once before throwing away or recycling. For example: grocery bags, plastic utensils, takeout cups and boxes, straws, shipping boxes, cans and bottles, plastic/foil wrap, printer paper. Some of these items are commonly used for only a few minutes until they’re thrown out. 
    
2. Think of how you could reduce your reliance on single-use items. Buy reusable shopping bags and utensils, and make sure they’re always in your car or purse. Keep your reusable mugs clean and toss them in your bag when you’re headed to the coffee shop. Buy in bulk (or larger sizes) when possible so your goods use less packaging. Can you kick your canned soda habit and try a soda-maker or homemade fruit-infused water instead?
    
3. Consider how you can reuse what you have. Can you double up on an object’s original use, like reusing a shipping box or shopping bag? Or can you reuse in a creative way, like turning an old wooden ladder into a plant stand. 
    
4. Recycle right. Do you know what can be recycled in municipal bins and what can’t? Find out by contacting your municipal waste authority. For things that are not recyclable in your city’s bins, there might still be an answer for you—Earth911.com has recycling options for nearly every product imaginable, and maps of recycling resources around the country! Search by zip code and the item you’re looking to recycle. 
    
5. Rethink the way you consume. One reason recycling isn’t valued as highly as it should be is because there’s simply not a high demand for recycled products in most cases. If you can afford to pay a little extra for a product made from recycled materials, it’s a vote with your dollars for a world in which recycled plastic has value and there’s a closed waste loop for products.

   Buying fewer products overall helps reduce waste. With plastic products that you use for a long period of time (e.g. pens, Tupperware, hairbrushes, cutting boards, flip-flop sandals, etc.), treat them (and all possessions) well, so they will last a long time.  

6.  Don’t give up when you slip up. We’ve all read the articles about people who create one tiny bag of waste in a year. That takes a lot of effort and probably many years of reducing their consumption. While they’re great models to aspire to, keep in mind that nobody’s perfect: if you leave your reusable mug at home or buy something you realize is way over-packaged, forgive yourself, and try to do better next time. 

What will you do as an individual, and as part of the global community, to reduce your waste this year? Learn more about zero-waste, the buy-nothing movement, and moving beyond the Walmart economy.

Green Americans are interested in green living. Many of you want to help others learn how to create a sustainable, fairer world too. To help you do that, we've put together this list of ten high-impact actions for social justice and environmental sustainability. 

While these categories don’t encompass all the things you can do to help create a better future, our Green Living blog is full of more ideas and resources.

When Green Americans across the country take individual actions, they add up to a lot of change. Please share this list of sustainable living tips with your friends, family, and social networks today!

Green Living Tips:

1. Save Water

According to the EPA, the average American family typically uses over 300 gallons of water every day. With climate change causing droughts across the nation and around the world, it’s critical to save water whenever you can. And while US drinking water is safe for most people, toxic runoff from agriculture, industrial pollution, fossil fuels, and degraded lead-pipe infrastructure has put thousands of communities at risk. Take care not to toss chemicals down your drain at home, to avoid polluting local water tables, and to conserve water whenever you can. 

2. Go Nontoxic at Home

You’ve probably heard the statistic from the EPA about indoor air being up to ten times more polluted than outdoor air, due to the toxic chemicals often found in conventional cleaners and other products. If you haven’t yet done anything about it, make this the year to start. When you choose eco-friendly, less-toxic cleaning products, detergents, fragrances, candles, body care, and more, you keep your indoor air cleaner and make your home healthier for yourself and your family.

3. Green Your Closet

Americans buy too much clothing, and it’s glutting landfills. In addition, donated clothing often winds up being sent to developing countries, where it’s overwhelming local economies. The prescription for all this waste? If you want to live sustainably, buy less, and when you do buy, buy organic and green clothing that lasts longer than flimsy “fast fashion” pieces. 

4. Green Your Energy Use 

If you really take advantage of all of the opportunities to amp up the energy efficiency of your home and office, it’s possible to shave your energy bill in half. And then, green the rest of your energy use to reduce your carbon footprint even more. 

5. Bank and Invest Responsibly

Your money can do good in the world, if you put it in the right places. By choosing socially responsible bank accounts and investment products, your finances can work for you and for people and the planet. Right now, more than $8.7 trillion under professional management is invested responsibly, adding up to a lot of economic power pressuring corporations to clean up their acts. 
 

6. Choose “Good Food” 

At Green America, we work towards a world that has organic food, planted and harvested fairly in ways that don’t exploit farmworkers, and isn’t cruel and inhumane to animals. Lately, we’ve also started including food grown using regenerative farming methods, as well. Regenerative agriculture heals the soil, so it can better act as a carbon sink. Studies like those conducted by Rodale have found that a global switch to regenerative farming could actually reverse the climate crisis. 

7. Build Green

Buildings—new and existing—have a huge impact on the environment. By implementing green features and using renewable or recycled and salvaged materials, home and building owners can live more sustainable and greatly reduce a building’s impact on the environment and the climate. 

8. Reuse and Recycle

Reusing products instead of buying them new—whether you find innovative ways to use things you already own, or swap, buy, or barter for someone else’s items—helps save energy, curb global warming emissions, and preserve the Earth’s precious resources. Choosing reusable products instead of single-use throwaways (bottled water, anyone?) curbs waste and reduces the burden on landfills, as well. 

And, whenever possible, recycle unwanted items that can’t be reused to preserve resources. 

9. Green Your Transportation

Transportation is one of the world’s largest sources of global-warming pollution. Walk, bike, or take public transit instead of driving. You’ll cut down on air pollution and help reduce emissions that are contributing to the climate crisis. 

10. Travel Sustainably

Air travel in particular contributes to climate change, and so do all of the vehicles on roads worldwide. Whenever you can, walk, bike, or take public transportation to curb air pollution and global warming emissions. And when it’s time to go on vacation, choosing locally owned hotels, organic restaurants, and green businesses can help minimize your travel footprint.

We hope these ten green living suggestions illustrate how you can live a sustainable life and adopt earth-friendly habits. Please share this post with friends and family!
 

When we think of foods that are healthy for us we often think of fruits and berries, superfoods like nuts, vegetables like kale, and proteins like meat. We don’t necessarily think about grains. Maybe we don’t think about grains because nowadays 1 in 5 people can’t tolerate them. And maybe that is a societal thing where grains aren’t trendy, maybe its corporate America confusing us with all their labels and questionable health claims, or maybe we are just not educated enough on grains in general. Are grains healthy? What are the different types? Is there a difference between ancient grains and modern grains?   

Food-as-Medicine Movement

The food-as-thy-medicine movement has been around since the beginning of time but is now gaining ground as we are seeing physicians and medical institutions incorporate food as a formal part of treatment for a range of illnesses, and not relying solely on medications. By prescribing these nutritional changes they're trying to prevent, limit, or even reverse diseases by changing what patients consume. We are learning that ancient wheat can be a part of a healing diet.

Modern wheat has gotten a bad reputation and has been linked to symptoms or illnesses like bloating, IBS, fatigue, stomach pain and others experienced by patients with celiac disease and gluten intolerance are attributed to the consumption of wheat products. The blame is placed on gluten, which is a protein in wheat. More and more people are reporting being gluten intolerant these days and having wheat sensitivities. People with general wheat sensitivities vastly outnumber those with celiac disease, which affects less than 1% of the population. Could their sensitivity to wheat be tied to modern strains of this grain? It has been suggested that ancient grains show lower immunogenic properties and therefore can be introduced in the diet of gluten intolerant individuals (non-celiac).

So, what is the difference between ancient wheat and modern wheat? The answer is simple: genetic manipulation. In the 1950’s and 60’s wheat was cross-bred to increase yields and to make harvesting, transportation, and storage uniform for industrial purposes.  Further, modern milling methods have exacerbated the problems of modern wheat. Industrialized techniques separate of the parts of the kernel – leading to the “white flour” that is in most baked goods. The downside to these innovations, is that modern wheat is proving to be less healthy than ancient varieties.

Recent studies have shown that those who have incorporated ancient wheat like KAMUT® brand khorasan into their diets have seen total cholesterol decrease on average 4.0%, and with that those who suffer from chronic inflammation diseases saw their markers drop a significant amount. In addition, another study tested patients with diabetes. Those patients not only showed reductions in bad cholesterol, but those individuals blood insulin levels fell 16.3% and their glucose levels decreased 9.1%. 

Ancient grains, like KAMUT® wheat, have many beneficial properties. They are rich in fiber, iron, potassium, magnesium, and protein. Whole grain KAMUT®  wheat is much richer in polyphenols and fatty acids as well as minerals (which we often don’t think about) like selenium which helps support a healthy immune system. In addition to helping reduce inflammation in the gut.  As Bob Quinn, PhD, president and founder of Kamut International states “As a country, we are well-fed, but not well nourished.” An important step to changing that is to change the grains we eat, and going back to healthy varieties of the past.

By Ayate Temsamani, Green America's Climate Fellow

A few years ago, a young boy named Kevin Brown made national news after pollution from an industrial factory near his home triggered repeated asthma attacks. Kevin was going to emergency rooms week after week. His mother, Lana Brown, said, "I would look outside and I would see him just leaning on a tree or leaning over a pole, gasping, gasping, trying to get some breath so he could go back to playing.” The Chicago neighborhood where Kevin grew up has some of the country’s most polluted air. Across the country many industrial facilities, including fossil fuel powered generators, are located in lower-income communities. Residents often seek help from activist groups and non-profit organizations to strengthen their voice and fight back against polluters, but these environmental justice groups are often under-resourced and can’t fight all the companies that poison low-income communities.  

Unfortunately, Kevin's case is not uncommon in low-income communities of color, specifically in Black and Latino neighborhoods where the asthma rate is extremely high. In the United States, asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood as it affects more than 6 million or 8.3% of the United States’ children. However, Black children are disproportionately affected compared to white children, as Black children are “79% more likely to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger.”  

Impacts from fossil fuel plants are suspected contributing factors to higher mortality rates in these communities as they are more exposed to pollution. According to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) report, “68% of African Americans live near a coal-fired power plant”. Latinos are also disproportionately exposed to these toxic chemicals. A 2016 report from the Clean Air Task Force states that “the air in many Latino communities violates air quality standards intended to protect human health” and Latino children are more likely to die from an asthma attack than white children.   

Fortunately, there are environmental justice solutions ready to be implemented to protect the planet and the most vulnerable communities burdened with fossil fuel effects. Let’s explore the problems, solutions, and how you can get involved.  

How Fossil Fuels Damage Communities 

The combustion of fossil fuels releases fine particles and ground-level ozone, which are harmful pollutants. Carbon dioxide and other gases emitted in this process amplify the greenhouse effect and spur climate change. The combustion of oil and coal releases nitrogen oxides, sulfur and carbon as well as hydrocarbons, lead, soot and heavy minerals. Surface mining of coal through destructive practices (e.g. strip mining and mountaintop removal) is responsible for releasing toxic chemicals including heavy metals and arsenic. These chemicals pollute waterways, contaminating community groundwater.  As for natural gas extraction, and in particular fracking for natural gas, the chemicals used are hazardous, and are usually stored in open-air waste pits, releasing toxins in the air. These toxic chemicals affect human health causing not only physiological damages to the lungs, kidneys and blood streams but also damages to the brain as well.  

Particles from burning fossil fuels may exist in the air for several weeks at a time and can travel miles. When we breathe, toxic particles invade the lungs and get carried into the bloodstream. The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide 1.6 million people die from lung cancer each year. In the US, heart disease, stroke, cancer and respiratory illnesses are among the leading causes of deaths, and toxins released through the combustion of coal are directly linked to these diseases. A United Nations organization has calculated that global climate change is already the cause of 400,000 premature deaths every single year; recent reports show that pollution kills three times as many people as AIDs, tuberculosis, and malaria combined. These health risks extend from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels. In 2017, 31.8% of energy came from natural gas, 28% from petroleum and 17.8% from coal, whereas energy produced by renewable energy was only 12.7%. Major users of electricity like the telecoms sector should be purchasing and demanding clean energy sources.  

The Role of the Telecom Industry in Environmental Justice 

The burning of fossil fuels presents a significant environmental justice issue: harming public health and contributing to premature deaths in our country. Switching to renewable energies would decrease air pollution from energy sources and the risks associated with it.  In identifying sectors which lag in clean energy use, the telecommunications industry stands out as a large entity with significant influence on the climate with its use of over 3 million megawatt hours (MWh) of energy usage, mostly from fossil fuels. This industry emits 16 million tons of CO2 every year from its heavy reliance on dirty energy.  

AT&T and Verizon, the two leading US companies in the industry, have a combined electricity usage that could power 2.6 million homes for a year. Most of the sector’s energy use goes to maintain networks and data centers. The telecommunications industry relies heavily on these centers and access networks running 24/7 so we can stay connected. That connectivity comes at a high environmental and human health cost as data centers and networks serving the telecom industry are powered by fossil fuels.  

One of the effects of climate change is an increase of intensified storms that pose severe threat to human life and widespread devastation. Natural disasters leave in their wake destroyed communities and costly recovery efforts that are both labor and resource intensive. Telecom companies, particularly Verizon, call attention to the assistance they lend to impacted areas. These efforts are commendable, however when companies fail to take direct action to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions, they are neglecting the most impactful way they can curb climate change.  

Consumer interest and pressure urging these telecom giants to move to renewable energy sources is having an impact. In just the past year, T-Mobile committed to 100% renewable energy and AT&T has made commitments to purchase wind power that equal about 30% of its energy use.  But, Verizon, which is the largest player in the industry, only gets 2% of its energy from renewable sources, and is only committed to doubling that, to a paltry 4%, over the next few years.  And Sprint derives less than 1% of its energy from renewables. As the demand for energy from telecoms grows, they need to do more.  All telecom companies in the US need to commit to reaching 100% renewable energy by 2025. 

Environmental Justice: Pushing for Equitable Solutions  

The long-term consequences of pouring greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants into our atmosphere are dire, and there are also immediate impacts, which often afflict the poorest people worldwide. Studies have shown that the effects of climate change affect communities differently, and that minorities and marginalized groups are the most affected. The question of environmental justice then becomes that of the distribution (among individuals, social groups, countries) of the burdens related to environmental policies (risk prevention, changes in practices, restoration of degraded environments). Who will pay for the environmental degradation? and how? The burden is usually felt by the most vulnerable, known as "frontline communities". We could prevent 7,000 deaths a year caused by heart disease just by cutting pollution in communities of color to the same level of white neighborhoods. There are many climate justice organizations including Hip Hop Caucus, California Latino Water Coalition, Center of Race Poverty and the Environment, Indigenous Environmental Network, among others fighting daily for equal protection against climate change.  

Fossil fuel projects impact communities nationwide, including both “Red” and “Blue” states. This is a problem that cuts across political party lines. In 2016, the state of Maryland issued a permit for the construction of a new power plant in Brandywine, rural southern Prince George’s county, which is a majority Black community. The Panda Mattawoman power plant would be a new gas-fired power plant expected to increase the already high level of air pollution in the area, where a total of five power plants will be operating by 2019. According to the American Lung Association, Prince George’s county violates air quality standards, mostly due to the highly polluted air in Brandywine, where power plants are clustered. A coalition of environmental groups and activists are outraged by the state’s decision to permit another power plant to open near their homes. Residents of Brandywine filed a federal civil right complaint as they believe state legislators discriminate against their community, where 72% of residents are Black. Kamita Gray, president of the BTB Neighborhood Coalition stated, “we deserve a healthy quality of life, and we don’t deserve to be disproportionately and adversely impacted in our daily lives as it pertains to air quality, traffic and noise.”  

Legislators of Prince George’s county firmly believe that the new power plant will raise millions in tax revenues and will be economically beneficial for the state, ignoring the community's concerns altogether. The neighborhood coalition has taken action refusing to be the victims of another fossil fuel power plant’s hazard, and has partnered with Earthjustice to assess the impacts the project will have on their community. Most importantly, the power plants are clustered around an elementary school that suffers from the pollution and is surrounded by heavy black smoke. Brandywine’s residents count on the members of the BTB Neighborhood Coalition and nonprofits mainly because the town is not incorporated in Prince George's county and thus, doesn’t have a mayor to advocate for the issue. The situation in Brandywine caught the attention of Thriving Earth Exchange, a non-profit organization that has been helping Kamita Gray and the rest of the coalition collect scientific data on the town’ air quality. Without rigorous scientific data, the EPA and the state won’t consider even looking at the issue.  

Despite the hard work of Kamita Gray and the rest of the BTB Neighborhood Coalition and the help of these nonprofit organizations, lack of funding remains a major roadblock and the ongoing fight between the residents and the power plants is far from ending. Fred Tutman, the head of another nonprofit advocating for Brandywine, says this is an environmental injustice on a vulnerable community that lacks power, stating “by power I don't mean electricity, I mean political power. I mean economic power”. Community-led efforts to block or shut down polluting power plants result in varying outcomes. Unfortunately, these efforts are not always successful in blocking a plant however they can spur companies to retrofit facilities to limit pollutants. But, the health of vulnerable communities should not be compromised in order for us to keep watching our favorite movies or sharing memes.   

The fight over the Brandywine power plant is just one example of the many low-income communities nationwide that are  fighting the impacts of coal mining, gas fracking, power plants, and pipelines that threaten their air, water and lives.  These are the same communities that are often last to benefit from clean energy sources – such as solar and wind – and the well-paying jobs that come with clean energy.   

How You Can Help 

Green America urges large corporations to do their part in shifting away from fossil fuels to clean energy. Our Hang Up On Fossil Fuels campaigns urges the telecom industry to switch to renewable energies and set an emission target, which could have a significant impact in reducing environmental justice issues and human health risks that disproportionately affect marginalized groups. Switching to renewable energies not only fights climate change, it also saves lives and promotes social justice. 

1.  Support the work of environmental justice organizations and search for a local movement near you to support. 

2.  Explore our climate justice resources to learn more about organizations and experts on the frontlines as well as legislation to support. 

3.  Sign our petition urging telecom companies to Hang Up on Fossil Fuels. Take a step further by contacting companies directly via social media or phone. 

4.   Search our Get a Better Bank database to find community development banks and credit unions that support people and the planet. Our Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign  provides resources for divesting more broadly from fossil fuels through your mutual funds and stock holdings, including lists of financial products and service providers who can help create fossil-fuel-free portfolios. 

5. Take action directly by cutting your own carbon emissions through energy efficiency measures and switching to clean energy sources. 

Take an action above to contribute to environmental justice, reverse climate change, and get your telephone company or bank to do more for people and the planet!

The name of Adrienne Catone’s microbusiness – Faerie’s Dance – is inspired by the carefree yet mischievous nature of its namesake, faeries. Following the traditional spelling of the Celtic tales, these woodland creatures live in the heart of a forest and honor the earth they live on. A faerie’s dance is elegant and frivolous, much like its character. Adrienne has built her business to reflect these values. Faerie’s Dance aims to honor the Earth with joy and delight through clothing that leaves a negligible footprint on the planet.

Adrienne fully realized the urgency for sustainability when she encountered a troop of critically endangered silverback gorillas during a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Adrienne realized that detrimental human activity like habitat disruption could be prevented. Upon return, she began to turn to alternative practices and purchases to lower her carbon footprint, including eating vegan; however, she discovered the hardest transition was finding sustainably-made clothing. So, Adrienne solved the problem by creating the solution: Faerie’s Dance.

In 2005, Adrienne opened Faerie’s Dance as an online store. The e-commerce business allowed her to cut back on traditional brick-and-mortar expenses on the environment, such as utilities powered by fossil fuels, therefore leaving a smaller footprint on the planet. All of Faerie’s Dance clothing products are made from environmentally-conscious fabrics and dyes, and the company sources from manufacturers that have proven they treat their workers fairly. Additionally, the company donates 1% of its gross income to charities that protect nature. Faerie’s Dance is a certified Green Business Network member.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI)—also called sustainable investing; impact investing; Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing; mission-based investing; faith-based investing; and other names—is a powerful tool more investors are using both to meet their financial needs and to make their money work toward their social and environmental goals. The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF) reported that in 2016 the market for sustainable, responsible and impact investing reached $8.7 trillion in assets under professional management in the US, a 33% increase since 2014. [Update: On November 1. 2018, US SIF reported that SRI assets now total $12 trillion.]

Key concerns of socially responsible investors include climate change, human rights, weapons avoidance, and corporate governance issues.

At Green America, we believe the increase in SRI assets comes as good news for people and the planet. As SRI assets grow and with a significant portion of U.S. households investing in mutual funds, it is important to understand how mutual funds are being evaluated in terms of social and environmental responsibility also called "sustainability". This blog addresses two mutual fund rating systems, one from the leading investment research and investment management company, Morningstar Inc., and the other from the socially responsible investment advisory firm--and Green Business Network (GBN) member--Natural Investments. 

This May, Natural Investments released the report, Rigor In Ratings: A Comparison of Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating and Natural Investments’ Heart Rating, which compares and contrasts the methodologies used by these two firms to evaluate the sustainability of mutual funds.

What Do These Ratings Rate?

As more investors become involved in SRI, it is imperative that everyone, from financial professionals to curious investors, understands how the SRI landscape is evolving. One aspect of this is understanding the difference between various mutual fund rating systems that address the environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors that mutual funds may or may not address, or address to varying degrees.

The key to using mutual fund rating systems effectively lies in understanding what the rating actually evaluates. A key part of  Natural Investment’s Heart Rating is that it considers a fund’s intention to create a more socially and environmentally just  society through actions like shareholder advocacy, extensive company screening, and community investing to support lower income populations. Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating differs in that it uses a best-in-class approach, measuring the overall sustainability performance of the holdings in a fund’s portfolio relative to the fund’s peers, without regard to “intentionality” (i.e. a stated commitment to ESG goals).

Funds in each Morningstar category, such as International Equity funds, are scored based on a bell curve in which those in the top 10 percent of scores (the best) receive five globes and the bottom 10 percent receive only one globe.  Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating uses data from the global research firm Sustainalytics.  That firm scores ESG criteria for over 6500 companies as well as “controversies” or events associated with the company that have negative ESG impacts. Morningstar uses this combination of ESG data and “controversy” data to determine a score and award globes -- the symbol for their sustainability score.

Unlike Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating, the Heart Rating does not use a bell curve but rather scores on “absolute terms of breadth and depth” of a fund’s ESG factors. In addition to awarding extra points for certain sector exclusions such as fossil fuels, the Heart Rating also considers engagement in shareholder advocacy, community investing and research capacity as part of the scoring process which also entails questionnaires and interviews with fund managers. Funds are awarded a score of 1 to 5 hearts depending on their SRI commitment and activity.

GBN spoke with Morningstar Director of Sustainability Research, Jon Hale to learn more about the thought process behind the Sustainability Rating:

“The Morningstar Sustainability Rating came from an idea I had in 2015, that company-level ESG data had become more robust over the past decade but was only accessible to a few asset managers,” says Hale. “I thought it would be useful for investors to use those company ESG scores to analyze the sustainability of mutual funds based on their holdings and do it at scale so that many funds across the world could be compared with each other.” Hale says that anyone using Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating should understand that it is a best-in-class category rating, meaning it ranks companies in the same business sector (i.e., agriculture, finance, retail, entertainment, etc.), by measuring them against each other’s combined ESG and controversy scores as noted above.

 What’s Behind the Scores

The Rigor in Ratings report highlights how the different methodologies used by the Sustainability and Heart ratings affect how funds are scored. Invesco Energy, (FSTEX), a fund with top holdings in fossil fuel companies, provides an example that could be confusing to investors who do not understand what’s behind different sustainability scores. In this example, we have a fund that received 4 out of 5 globes from Morningstar – a good sustainability rating. Many SRI-inclined investors may think a 4-globe rating would mean that this fund focuses primarily on renewable energy companies when it does not. Rather, it receives a high Morningstar rating because of its best in class score among fossil fuel-holding funds. Natural Investments, on the other hand, does not even evaluate this fund because it has no expressed intentionality regarding SRI. Interestingly, a fund dedicated to renewable energy holdings could actually have a low Morningstar score, as Hale notes: “On the flipside, a lot of the funds that do focus on renewable energy don’t get great ratings because they’re not really taking any steps to select particular stocks based on overall ESG performance of the company.”  In other words, a clean energy fund might not pay attention to a range of ESG issues and thereby receive a low Morningstar rating even though clean energy investments are in keeping with SRI values.

For Natural Investments, the intention to make progress on ESG issues is what makes or breaks a fund’s score on the Heart Rating. It’s this intentionality that researchers at Natural Investments believe is a key, missing factor in Morningstar’s Sustainability Rating.  “We don’t recommend that Morningstar only score SRI-mandated funds, we simply suggest that the highest level of their rating system be reserved for those funds that do have an SRI mandate,” says Natural Investments Managing Partner and Rigor in Ratings co-author, Michael Kramer. Kramer added: “SRI managers have explicit exclusionary screens in terms of both sectors and corporate practices and simply won’t hold certain types of companies. This is a higher standard because it takes a stronger stand about what’s ok to own and what’s not.”

Natural Investments recommends that the Sustainability Rating award more points to funds with an SRI mandate, replace the best-in-class approach with absolute criteria for all sectors, and establish minimum requirements for receiving four or five Globes.

Working Toward A Common Vision

Hale points to several significant contributions that the Morningstar Sustainability Rating has made to sustainable investing. First, he notes that the Sustainability Rating has expanded the scope and consideration of ESG criteria by a wider audience: “By in some ways, expanding the scope of what sustainability means in an investment context, I think we’ve helped expand that field for those who may not see sustainability or SRI as something that they want to make a comprehensive orientation but do want to see it reflected in their portfolio.”

The Sustainability Rating has increased awareness of ESG issues particularly among mainstream asset managers who previously, without this tool, were not, or only very minimally, integrating sustainability issues into their work with clients.

A second contribution he cites is validation of intentionally-SRI funds, since the vast majority of SRI-mandated funds receive high Morningstar ratings. Hale believes the Sustainability Rating’s methodology further confirms or validates that SRI funds are indeed walking the talk. And a third contribution is that the development of the Sustainability Rating provides an opportunity for SRI-dedicated firms, like Natural Investments and others, to clearly articulate their stance that funds should not only provide competitive returns but should also benefit society and the environment.

As it turns out, we will actually see more commonality between Morningstar and Natural Investments in the near future, as Morningstar will soon update its database to provide a closer look at what certain intentionally-SRI funds do.

“Right now in our database you can’t find information about what intentionally SRI funds do. So, we’re going to have information for the intentional funds on what screens they use, whether they engage in shareholder advocacy, and if they have any kind of impact orientation. I think that will be a really interesting improvement to our database,” says Hale.

“We’re going into a more granular assessment so people who want to look for funds that are fossil free or are impact-oriented can search for them and get a list. The results would not be an assessment of, for example, what funds are doing impact investing better than others, but it would help investors figure out where to go with intentional funds.”

Both the Heart rating and Morningstar rating provide useful information to investors seeking to better understand their mutual funds’ sustainability scores. What’s crucial is to understand the meaning of these ratings. For Green Americans seeking funds that are “intentionally SRI” and that align with their values and social and environmental goals, the Heart Rating is more likely to meet expectations. Green America is pleased to feature the Heart Rating on our website at www.greenamerica.org/socially-responsible-investing .

To find Socially Responsible Investment firms, financial advisors, and SRI mutual fund companies that are members of Green America’s Green Business Network, visit the Green Pages Online.

If you prefer online reading that feels almost like reading a paper magazine, you've come to the right place. Browse through our current and past publications, including the Green American, Your Green Life, and Guide to Social Investing and Better Banking. For articles that are easier to share online, head to our full magazine archive. 

Program Manager, Clean Electronics Production Network

Hours: full-time (4-days, 32 hours/week) 

Salary: $46,000 - $53,000/Grant Track Position

Benefits: medical, dental, sick days, holidays

Supervisor: Director, Clean Electronics Production Network   

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

The Clean Electronic Production network (CEP) is a multi-stakeholder, cross-industry collaboration (Innovation Network) that launched in 2015. The goal of the network is to move the electronics industry towards zero exposure to toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process.

CEPN is an Innovation Network (IN) of the Center for Sustainability Solutions, which brings all of Green America’s green economy supply-side work into a powerful new flagship program for Green America. The Center convenes multi-stakeholder initiatives dedicated to accelerating the shift to environmental sustainability and social justice, while eliminating environ­mental and human abuses in key areas such as energy, agriculture and manufacturing.

The Center builds on Green America’s work over the years, where we’ve brought together industry groups across supply chains to create major shifts in such areas as solar, community investing, recycled paper procurement, and sustainable agriculture. Our innovation network methodology is effective, compelling, and attracting significant attention as a faster and more effective way to solve some of society’s most challenging and complex problems. 

The CEPN Program Manager is responsible for providing project management, coordination and technical development support for CEPN’s ongoing Initiatives, and assisting with management of biannual Network meetings. The Program Manager also assists the Director in stakeholder engagement and recruiting, working group facilitation, and facilitation design for Initiative Group and full Network meetings.

The position involves travel 2-4 times per year for 2+ days to working group meetings and events, to be negotiated. CEPN is a virtual Network – the position may be housed in Washington, DC at the Green America offices but may also be filled remotely (with a preference for location in the Bay Area if remote).

Duties and Responsibilities:

Communications

1. Participate in new participant and CEPN member engagement, including conducting interviews (and pitch meetings, with Director approval) with potential participants.
2. Work closely with team to ensure that CEPN members are effectively and efficiently engaged in Initiative Group work (and market initiatives, if any).
3. Support and engage in the development of key project deliverables, including prototype tools (e.g. database development, spreadsheet tool production, survey drafting), meeting reports, fundraising materials and other outputs.  
4. Lead and coordinate select Initiative Groups.
5. Assist with content and materials development for CEPN’s web and print presence, and supervise contractor execution of such work.
6. Provide general operations support to Center for Sustainability Solutions as needed.

Meeting Logistics & Team Coordination

1. Responsible for planning CEPN meetings and related events for up to 60 participants in a remote location, including securing meeting venues, hotels, meals, and staff transportation; communicating with event participants; procuring A/V and meeting materials; and other aspects of event production (with assistance from Green America staff).
2. Support program team during all-Network meetings as needed – documentation, site owner communication/coordination.
3. Coordinate the work and participation of contract researchers, designers/developers and facilitators as needed.
4. Support and engage in the development of meeting strategy, design, and tools.

Project Management Support

1. Support the CEPN Director in managing the Innovation Network and its priority initiatives.
2. Support the CEPN Director in securing funding and project commitment from new and returning participants.
3. Assist with coordinating program team and working group meetings.
4. Support the Director in ensuring knowledge gained is converted into “knowledge capital” for the Center for Sustainability Solutions, including documenting work processes involved in managing INs, and successful strategies used in CEPN operations.
5. Participate in Green America staff meetings and processes and other duties as required.
    

Qualified Candidates should have the following skills and qualities:

• Demonstrated project management skills, with experience managing several projects simultaneously.
• A passion for and strong knowledge of sustainability and the electronics industry
• Strong technical skills at a level that enables development of working tool prototypes for Initiative Groups -- i.e. mastery of Excel, proficiency with simple database development familiarity with common web platforms (SquareSpace, Wordpress)
• Strong interest in and willingness to conduct group facilitation
• Strong research and writing skills.
• Bachelors degree required
• Master’s degree in sustainability, engineering or chemistry helpful
• Experience with business development or fundraising a plus.

How to Apply:

Send cover letter and resume to centerjobs@greenamerica.org or to Green America, 1612 K Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20006

No calls, please.

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

WASHINGTON, DC – October 11, 2018 – This Halloween, much of the candy that trick-or-treaters will receive will have been produced by their own peers — child laborers working halfway around the world. More than 2 million children in Western Africa work in often hazardous conditions growing the main ingredient in chocolate, cocoa. That is why Green America updated its Chocolate Scorecard, which grades major candy companies on social and environmental practices, including certifications for forced labor, child labor and discrimination. The Green America Chocolate Scorecard can be found here: https://www.greenamerica.org/end-child-labor-cocoa/chocolate-scorecard.

Only one “F” was assigned in the scorecard and that went to Godiva. Other laggards include “D” graded Ferrero and a “C-” to Mondelez (maker of Cadbury products and the more upscale Green and Black’s chocolate bars). Six companies got “A” grades: Alter Eco, Divine, Endangered Species, Equal Exchange, Shaman and Theo Chocolate.

“Every Halloween, there’s plenty to be scared of in the candy aisle,” said Todd Larsen, executive co-director of Consumer and Corporate Engagement at Green America. “That’s why Green America provides the Chocolate Scorecard, so consumers know which of their favorite chocolate brands are using ethically sourced, high-quality ingredients.”

“Child labor is a global problem, and there is a cruel irony in the fact that it is used to produce candy for other children,” said Caroline Chen, social justice manager at Green America. “When shoppers hit the stores to purchase candy to hand out on Halloween, they should consider the other children of the world that are affected.”

The Chocolate Scorecard identifies ethically sourced, certified sweets. The scorecard will also help consumers understand what the major chocolate companies are — and are not — doing to combat child labor in their supply chain.

The scorecard also identifies which companies have employed innovative programs and projects to address other underlying issues of child labor in cocoa-producing countries. Such programs include:

• Child Labor Monitoring and Remediation Systems, which work with communities and families to address why child labor is happening on farms;
• Farmer income generating programs;
• Traceability mechanisms for fuller supply chain transparency.

Consumer also should consult Green America’s The ABCs of Food Labeling guide, which defines common food labels and identifies those that are authentic, those that are mere marketing tricks, and many that fall in between.

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Green America is the nation's leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America (formerly Co-op America) provides economic strategies and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today's social and environmental problems.