This is a guest blog from Green Business Network member Longwave Financial.

Tax season is often a time of year that can bring complexity and stress to even the most spirted and seasoned entrepreneurs. Yet, amid the pressure and seemingly endless paperwork, there’s an opportunity to turn challenges into strategic advantages, especially for those committed to sustainability. There are specific strategies you can undertake to capture tax benefits in areas aligned with the values shared by your organization and stakeholders. Here’s a few tips to help your business pave the way towards a successful and socially responsible future.

Green Business Credits

Federal and local governments reward businesses actively engaged in sustainability through green tax credits. These incentives, designed to recognize eco-friendly initiatives, can be leveraged for investments in energy-efficient equipment, renewable energy projects, and green certifications. You can utilize these credits strategically to not only reduce your tax burden, but also underscore your dedication to socially responsible business practices.

Energy-Efficient Investments

The heartbeat of many businesses lies within their places of work. As a sustainable business, you can capitalize on the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) to capture potentially significant tax benefits, particularly for solar panels and other renewable energy practices such as LED lighting and even energy-efficient appliances. Beyond the immediate financial incentive, incorporating renewable energy projects into your business model can help position your organization as a leader in sustainability within your respective industry.

Home Office Deductions

It’s no secret the rise of remote and hybrid work environments is here to stay. These workplace settings have recently brought attention to home office tax deductions for the many out there who blur the lines between living rooms and headquarters. Designating a home office not only qualifies for tax benefits but also reduces the need for daily commuting, reducing the need for everyday transportation and potential carbon emissions.

Employee Incentives

Whether you’re in the process of building your dream team, or already have employees, you can foster a culture of sustainability by offering benefits for environmentally friendly commuting. Consider providing incentives such as public transportation passes or bicycle programs. Certain employer sponsored programs for green commuting can qualify for tax benefits for both you and your employees.

As sustainably focused principles become an integral part of everyday business operations, incorporating these strategies into your business’ tax planning is a natural progression. Leveraging the various tax incentives for green practices gives you a distinctive opportunity to weave your commitment to the planet into the financial picture of your organization. These strategies can help further lay the groundwork for a future where prosperity is measured not only in the bottom line, but also in the positive impact you have on the world.

Brennen Ramos is a financial advisor and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™ Professional at Longwave Financial. He works with clients in the NY region as well as throughout the country. He lives in Harrison New York with his fiancé Taylor and his puppy Stella. Growing up in the Hudson Valley has made him an outdoors fan for life and when he’s not working, he’s hiking or fly fishing. If you have any questions or would like to know more, you can reach him directly at Brennen@longwavefinancial.com or connect with him on LI.

Securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network®, member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser. Additional advisory services offered through Longwave Financial LLC are separate and unrelated to Commonwealth. Commonwealth Financial Network® and Longwave Financial do not provide legal or tax advice. You should consult a legal or tax professional regarding your individual situation.

420 Lexington Avenue, Suite 845 New York, NY 10170 212-279-9121

Green America Offering New Gardening Resources and Free Webinars to Welcome Spring.  

WASHINGTON, DC – March 11, 2024 – As spring approaches, Green America’s Climate Victory Gardens campaign is offering new tools and information to help beginner and advanced gardeners gear up. Climate Victory Gardens help fight climate change through regenerative agriculture techniques, an approach to gardening that fosters healthy soil that can draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Restored soil can capture 25-60 tons of atmospheric carbon per acre.

Nearly 25,000 gardens already have been tracked on Green America’s interactive map. For new climate victory gardeners, Green America is holding a series of free webinars featuring Perla Sofia Curbelo-Santiago, Ocean Robbins and the TransPlanter Rafaela Crevoshay, and Ashlie Thomas “The Mocha Gardener.”

Emma Kriss, Food Campaigns Manager at Green America, said: “Climate Victory Gardens offer a rewarding way to support endangered pollinators, heal the planet by sequestering atmospheric carbon, and grow food that’s more nutritious than typical store-bought produce. They’re also a great way to seed cross-generational relationships. As a variety of factors continue to reshape the housing market and the economics of cohabitation, fostering conversations about climate victory gardens on shared spaces opens opportunities for parents, children, landlords and tenants to work together for the good of people and the planet.”

Green America’s Climate Victory Garden resources cover 10 carbon-capturing practices:

1. Grow Edible Plants - Grow food, not just grass and ornamentals. This decreases your grocery bills, encourages seasonal eating, and helps you and your family establish a closer relationship with your food.

• Keep Soils Covered - Protecting soils is the first step to improving their health. Physically covering exposed ground in your garden decreases water needs, curbs erosion, maintains topsoil, and protects soil microbes.

• Compost - Organic materials combined with healthy microbes create a strong fertilizer. This reduces waste going to methane-releasing landfills (greenhouse gas), increases your soil quality, and improves nutrition levels in the foods you grow.

• Encourage Biodiversity, Above and Below Ground - Diverse plants support diverse soil communities and make for beautiful gardens. Biodiversity helps your garden grow nutritious food, create habitat and balanced ecosystems, and keeps pests in check.

• Plant Perennials - These crops reduce soil disturbance and save you time, because they do not need to be replanted each year. Perennials protect your garden from the elements, control weeds, and provide habitat.

• Ditch the Chemicals - Synthetic chemicals like herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers kill beneficial organisms in the soil. Gardening chemical-free reduces your input costs, ensures safety for you and your family, and decreases pollution—from factory production to run off.

• Integrate Crops and Animals - Plants and animals evolved to coexist. Having animals in your garden or yard—like chickens, goats, or pigs—helps decrease pests and allows for natural fertilization. You may even get some eggs or milk out of the deal! If you can’t have animals, consider adding manure to your compost. Encourage pollinators and birds to enjoy your garden.

• Use People Power, Not Mechanization - Ditch the machines and use your hands! It’s hard work, but this helps reduce your dependency on fuel, decreases emissions, and lessens your costs. It eliminates the possibility of your soil being contaminated by spilled oil. And, you can build human relationships by asking for help from others.

• Rotate Plants and Crops - It’s important to move crops around in your garden and plant new varieties each season. This confuses pests, ensures soil nutrients stay balanced, and reduces your need for chemical inputs.

1. Get to Know Your Garden - This goes beyond simply familiarizing yourself. Studying your garden helps you identify planting zones and determine how water, inputs, and other management can be applied most efficiently.

“As we learn more about the dangers of pesticides present on many fruits and vegetables we purchase at the grocery store, planting a Climate Victory Garden gives consumers a way to grow food they know is safe,” said Todd Larsen, Executive Co-Director of Green America. “And foods grown regeneratively are shown to have higher nutritional value as well.”

Climate Victory Gardens were inspired by the “Victory Gardens” campaigns during WWI and WWII that produced 40% of the fresh produce consumed in the U.S. at the time, and they empower Americans to grow gardens with regenerative agriculture techniques to help address the climate crisis. To add your own Climate Victory Garden to the map, visit: https://greenam.org/garden.

ABOUT GREEN AMERICA

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

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

Hours: 32 hours/week, flexible 4-day work week (full time)
Salary: $95,000-$105,000
Benefits: Excellent benefits package, including health insurance, dental and vision coverage, paid leave, socially responsible retirement plan, and a friendly and collaborative work environment with an option to work remotely.
Supervisor: Director of Development & Organizational Advancement

Organizational Background

Green America harnesses economic power – the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace – to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.  Our niche is economic action, and we work to shift our economy to one that works for all people and our planet. Our economic strategies deploy solutions to our society’s most pressing problems – from climate change to social injustices.

We direct our efforts within three strategic hubs: 1) our Consumer & Corporate Engagement Programs where we activate individual consumers and investors to create change within corporations and economic systems; 2) our Green Business Network which was the first network of businesses in the US focusing on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit; and 3) our Center for Sustainability Solutions which brings together diverse stakeholders through Innovation Networks that aim to shift entire industries towards sustainability and solve for supply chain and other economic system issues that no one business or organization can solve alone. Active networks and key initiatives within the Center include the Soil & Climate Alliance, Soil & Climate Initiative, and Clean Electronics Production Network.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

We are searching for a dynamic senior level development professional with an entrepreneurial spirit and partnership development experience to join our team.

The Grants and Partnerships Director will play an essential role in supporting various programs and projects within Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions, with a primary focus on grants and partnerships management. 

Responsibilities will span the entire spectrum of grants and partnerships management, from identifying new funding and partnership opportunities, to participating in the development of project concepts and plans, to submitting proposals and impact reports. Specific duties include:

• Lead the management, cultivation, and stewardship of the Center’s foundation supporters and partnerships, grow the pipeline for all revenue streams, and manage a portfolio of $3.5M+ in active grants
• In concert with the President & CEO and the Center’s senior staff, assist team with developing new programs and initiatives as relevant funding opportunities are identified, moving from basic concept to full plan and proposal
• Identify and build both the potential partnerships and program concepts that can attract new sources of funding
• Maintain and build on relationships with current funders via tailored outreach, program update meetings with Center staff, and impact reports
• Identify and work to develop relationships with prospective foundations, government funders, corporate donors, and other partners related to funding
• Ensure the timely submission of grant reports, financial updates, and renewal proposals for active funders
• Craft and submit grant proposals and letters of inquiry for new sources of foundation and corporate support to help meet or exceed the Center’s financial goals
• Attend Center and Development team meetings, lead fundraising-focused meetings, and serve as Center liaison to rest of Development Team
• Participate in cross-departmental teams [such as our Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) team, May Retreat planning team, Holiday Party team, etc.] as time and interest allows.

Desired Skills and Experience

• You have an entrepreneurial and curious spirit.
• You thrive working with continuously evolving and growing programs that spawn new initiatives on a regular basis.
• You can play a leading role in program strategy discussions and develop detailed action plans and funding proposals.
• You have exemplary communications and interpersonal skills, and experience building long-term relationships with senior foundation executives, business leaders across a range of sectors, nonprofit allies, and other potential partners.
• You possess a Bachelor’s degree and 8+ years of foundation and corporate/business  fundraising experience.
• You can demonstrate a track record of meeting 7-figure annual fundraising goals.
• You always meet deadlines, have strong project management skills, and possess competence in working with constituent relationship management software (Raiser’s Edge and Sales Force familiarity a plus).
• You can craft compelling, effective messaging for letters of inquiry, proposals, sponsorship requests, and progress reports.
• You possess funder research skills and the ability to effectively identify, segment, and prioritize prospective supporters.
• You are able and willing to travel: The position involves travel time of up to 25% for network meetings, conferences, meetings with funders, and other purposes.
• You have a passion for creating a more socially just and sustainable society, including personal interest and/or experience in Green America’s issue areas.
• Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) certification a plus.

How to Apply:

Send your resume, a cover letter, and a writing sample to: partnerships@greenamerica.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

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

Public discourse around the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 put corporations in the spotlight for their failure to address systemic issues like workplace discrimination and racial inequities.

In response, many corporations came forward with public statements on anti-racism, pledging to fight discrimination and prejudice within and beyond their workforce. As a first step, AirBnB, Uber, TikTok, Amazon, Intel, Netflix, Peloton, and many other companies made donations to anti-racism-focused nonprofit organizations like Equal Justice Initiative and Minnesota Freedom Fund. They also made commitments to pursue anti-racist policies and increase diversity in the workplace.

Research shows that such commitments, if fully realized, would represent a boon for corporations. Diversity—racial, ethnic, ability, gender, and more—is linked to more creative and innovative workplaces. As You Sow’s November 2023 report, “Capturing the Diversity Benefit: Workplace Diversity Linked to Financial Performance” demonstrated that diverse management outperforms all-white management on eight key metrics related to companies’ financial health.

Workplace diversity also increases profit margins. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal found that the top 20 companies with the most diverse employee populations in the S&P 500 index had higher operating profit margins compared to the 20 least diverse companies.

Given both the ethical and financial reasons for companies to pursue greater workplace equity, how have US corporations performed on their diversity commitments?

While some companies have made progress, there is much to still be done. As You Sow’s September 2023 Racial Justice Scorecard evaluated companies on five key areas of their racial-justice efforts:

1. publishing a prominent racial justice statement,
2. corporate responsibility by the CEO and inclusion of diverse voices within the company,
3. acknowledgement of systemic racism (and other key concepts related to racial justice),
4. presence of a functioning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) department, and
5. collection and disclosure of DEI data.

The scorecard shows that improvements have not been consistent and most companies have provided limited disclosure of the steps they have taken. Across all sectors, As You Sow determined that utility and communications services companies were performing best, while the energy sector performed worst.

Overall, As You Sow found that most corporations studied were not taking an active stance on racial issues, either verbally or in practice. Alphabet, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, McDonald’s, and Nucor Corp. received the lowest possible scores for their operations having disproportionately negative effects on BIPOC communities.

Corporations can have outsized impacts on racial justice due to their size and influence. It’s important to pressure companies to adopt clear racial justice commitments, stick to them, and disclose their outcomes transparently.

If you own shares in a company that is lagging on racial justice, voting your proxies is an excellent way to exercise your voice on any racial justice or diversity measures that appear.

If you buy from a company or use their services, your voice as a customer matters as well. Consider contacting companies that need to hear about their customers' concerns about racial justice, and provide them with information about how making a commitment to workplace diversity is not only the right thing to do, but also can have a positive effect on their bottom line. Rally your faith group, school group, or neighborhood to demonstrate collective consumer power with companies that need to improve. Your voice can make a difference!

Extreme weather events such as 10-foot blizzards in California and 70-degree days with overnight tornadoes in the Midwest – all in the past week -- demonstrate the fact that climate risk is financial risk.   

That's why Green America was pleased to see the Securities and Exchange Commission take up a climate disclosure rule. Consumers, investors, and retirement savers have made it clear that under the current voluntary standards, public companies are not providing them with transparent, reliable, and comparable information on climate-related financial risks and opportunities.  

Last year more than 15,000 Green America members and supporters signed our petition supporting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s draft rule requiring companies to disclose their carbon emissions. 

Unfortunately, due to pressure from dark money front groups and fossil-fuel interests that oppose investing that includes environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors, the SEC’s original proposal has been so watered down that it could cause companies currently disclosing emissions to backslide.

Here are three areas where the final climate disclosure rule falls short: 

Scope 3 emissions. While the proposed rule required disclosure of Scope 3 emissions (or emissions from the supply chain and customer use) when material, the final rule removes Scope 3 emissions altogether. This is problematic because Scope 3 makes up 70% of the average company’s greenhouse gas emissions at the root of the climate crisis – and up to 90% of emissions for fossil-fuel companies whose customers burn their products, and Wall Street banks that lend billions of dollars for fossil-fuel projects. 

Scope 1 and 2 emissions. While the proposed rule required disclosure of Scope 1 (direct emissions from company operations) and Scope 2 (emissions associated with the purchase of energy) in all cases, the final rule requires this disclosure only if the company deems these emissions to be “material.” This ill-defined metric opens the door to endless greenwashing, which consumers and investors are already complaining about and which the climate disclosure rule was supposed to solve.  

Who must disclose what and when. While the proposed rule required all publicly traded companies to disclose emissions, the final rule requires only large companies (known as large accelerated filers and accelerated filers) to disclose only Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and only if they deem these emissions material. Thousands of smaller companies are exempt -- and some companies that were issuing voluntary disclosures may cease doing so. Further, it requires financial reporting only for physical risk – the cost of extreme climate events – and not the risks to their business from the transition to a low-carbon economy. Finally, it phases these requirements in over time, with some reports not due for another 10 years.  

It is unfortunate the SEC is bending to pressure from corporate interests to substantially weaken the climate disclosure rule. Legal experts have made it clear the SEC has the legal authority, granted by Congress in the 1930s, to require reliable and consistent disclosures that investors can use to compare companies, including disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Opinion polls show American consumers and investors support strong and transparent climate disclosure requirements. A recent survey by Data for Progress and Unlocking America’s Future finds that two-thirds of voters -- including 80% of Democrats, 65% of Independents, and 55% of Republicans – support the strong SEC rule as originally proposed.  

Finally, a weakened climate disclosure rule puts the United States out of step with other major global economies, including California, the European Union, Canada, Japan, India, China and Singapore -- all of which have climate disclosure rules that include Scope 3 emissions. Because the requirements in these jurisdictions affect the majority of U.S. companies, it makes no sense for the SEC to create a patchwork of regulations by significantly departing from the direction the rest of the world is going. 

Due to all these shortcomings, the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule can only be seen as a first step to providing the transparent, reliable, and comparable information that consumers and investors deserve. We look forward to working with the SEC, investors, unions, retirement and pension fund managers, and other stakeholders to strengthen and improve the climate disclosure requirements in the future.

A groundbreaking label from Green America’s Soil & Climate Initiative (SCI) will soon arrive in grocery stores, and with it an inspiring vision of a thriving, sustainable future for our food system.

“The Soil and Climate Health Initiative Verified label represents a measurable commitment to farming systems that seek to restore the land that feeds us,” said Adam Kotin, Managing Director of the SCI.

Green America has been working toward this moment over the past three years, and is excited to announce the first products to successfully complete the independent verification process. These products are made using ingredients from farms with confirmed commitments to actions to implement regenerative agriculture—a farming approach that prioritizes healthy, living soil.

Farmers in the Soil Carbon Initiative are taking action to:

• Capture carbon in soils, helping the climate crisis
• Build biodiversity above and below ground
• Reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides
• Improve water retention in soils

In order to earn verification, farms track soil health outcomes, use practices that protect and nourish the soil, and commit to continuous improvement.

PACHA, a buckwheat bread company based in Vista, California, uses sprouted buckwheat and sea salt with organic herbs and spices to make their vegan and gluten-free products. PACHA sources its buckwheat from verified regenerative farms for all four of their hearty Sourdough Bread products including Buckwheat Loaf, Garlic Rye, Cheesy Herb, and Buckwheat Buns.

“PACHA is dedicated to nourishing the health of people and our planet through regeneratively grown foods. We are so grateful for the farmers making changes to provide our buckwheat, and for SCI’s work that is making our mission a reality,” said Maddie Hamann, director of marketing and co-founder of PACHA.

Roots Chips, a family-run farm-to-bag potato chip company based in Aberdeen, Idaho uses simple and natural ingredients for its farm-fresh products. Roots Chips sources its potatoes from their very own SCI-Verified regenerative farms for all five of their savory kettle potato chip flavors including: sea salt, barbecue, purple sea salt, jalapeño, and sea salt and vinegar.

“The SCI team has developed an amazing regenerative framework for both farmers and brands that we are thrilled to be a part of. We look forward to this tremendous opportunity to work side by side in this initiative,” said Ladd Wahlen, CEO of Roots Chips and fourth-generation potato farmer.

With more brands and farmers currently working toward verification, look for the Soil & Climate Health Initiative Verified label on additional products at your local grocery store later in 2024!

From the most recent issue of our magazine, Green American, where we update readers on the progress we've made over the last quarter on climate, finance, food, labor, social justice, and more.

Green America’s New Verification Label: Regenerative Agriculture Hits the Grocery Aisle

A groundbreaking label from Green America’s Soil & Climate Initiative (SCI) will soon arrive in grocery stores, and with it an inspiring vision of a thriving, sustainable future for our food system.

“The Soil and Climate Health Initiative Verified label represents a measurable commitment to farming systems that seek to restore the land that feeds us,” said Adam Kotin, Managing Director of the SCI.

Green America has been working toward this moment over the past three years, and is excited to announce the first products to successfully complete the independent verification process. These products are made using ingredients from farms with confirmed commitments to actions to implement regenerative agriculture—a farming approach that prioritizes healthy, living soil.

Farmers in the Soil Carbon Initiative are taking action to:

• Capture carbon in soils, helping the climate crisis
• Build biodiversity above and below ground
• Reduce the use of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides
• Improve water retention in soils

In order to earn verification, farms track soil health outcomes, use practices that protect and nourish the soil, and commit to continuous improvement.

PACHA, a buckwheat bread company based in Vista, California, uses sprouted buckwheat and sea salt with organic herbs and spices to make their vegan and gluten-free products. PACHA sources its buckwheat from verified regenerative farms for all four of their hearty Sourdough Bread products including Buckwheat Loaf, Garlic Rye, Cheesy Herb, and Buckwheat Buns.

“PACHA is dedicated to nourishing the health of people and our planet through regeneratively grown foods. We are so grateful for the farmers making changes to provide our buckwheat, and for SCI’s work that is making our mission a reality,” said Maddie Hamann, director of marketing and co-founder of PACHA.

Roots Chips, a family-run farm-to-bag potato chip company based in Aberdeen, Idaho uses simple and natural ingredients for its farm-fresh products. Roots Chips sources its potatoes from their very own SCI-Verified regenerative farms for all five of their savory kettle potato chip flavors including: sea salt, barbecue, purple sea salt, jalapeño, and sea salt and vinegar.

“The SCI team has developed an amazing regenerative framework for both farmers and brands that we are thrilled to be a part of. We look forward to this tremendous opportunity to work side by side in this initiative,” said Ladd Wahlen, CEO of Roots Chips and fourth-generation potato farmer.

With more brands and farmers currently working toward verification, look for the Soil & Climate Health Initiative Verified label on additional products at your local grocery store later in 2024!

Clean Electronics Production Network Develops Chemical Safety Trainings

Green America’s Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN) has begun work on a new project to develop chemical management and safety trainings that protect the health of workers in electronics supply chains. The trainings will be provided to facilities that may not have previously had access to such health-and-safety information, and will provide workers with crucial guidance on how to protect themselves and their coworkers from harmful chemicals.

CEPN will seek commitments from companies to support deployment of the trainings to both workers and management at electronics component manufacturers and final assembly facilities and will make training materials available publicly on the CEPN website.

The project is funded by a grant from the Initiative for Global Solidarity, a program of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. CEPN is seeking further funding for the next phase of the project: direct deployment of trainings for as many as 30 facilities in Vietnam and Malaysia.

The Faces of Green America

We’re excited to launch this new Q&A series profiling the talented Green America team enacting our green-economy mission. First up is Cathy Cowan Becker, Green America’s responsible finance campaign director, who brought her valuable expertise and thought-leadership on green and equitable finance to the development of this issue of the Green American.

What excites you most about responsible finance and community investing?

Responsible finance is an opportunity to use your money not just to stop doing harm but to actually do good. Take the financial commitments you probably have anyway: a bank account, credit cards, insurance, and retirement plan. What if you could use these everyday instruments to build a more sustainable and equitable world? The good news is, you can!

What challenges are you facing in this work?

The first challenge is a lack of knowledge. Many people don’t know how to find a community development bank or credit union, responsible credit card issuer, regional mutual insurance company, or social investment fund. Once you learn about these solutions, it’s a process to move your money to align with your values. It’s very personal—this is your money! But once you learn how to pull your own money out of a system designed to prop up climate chaos and racial inequality and move it into building community, you can help others—including any institutions you are part of such as a house of worship or nonprofit board.

What would you say to someone who’s on the fence about moving money to align with their values?

First, understand this is a process. Take our 10 Steps to Break Up With Your Megabank—it will take a few months to go through that process, and the same is true for moving your credit cards, insurance, and investments. Start with research for where you want to move your money to—Green America has resources to help such as our Better Banking map, a series of responsible finance webinars starting in April, and a responsible insurance directory coming soon. You can also consult a socially responsible financial planner or financial-services member of our Green Business Network.

What are the most powerful actions people can take with their money/investments?

No one thinks that moving your personal bank account, credit card, insurance, or investments out of fossil fuels will by itself bring about the end of the fossil fuel era. But what it will do is make continued investment in fossil fuels by big banks, insurance, and investment firms less socially acceptable—it’s one more step in pushing big financial players to do better and removing Big Oil’s social license to operate. Plus, it builds your local community—a win-win for everyone!

What do you enjoy doing when you are not at work?

I’m a founding board member for Save Ohio Parks, which fights fracking in our state parks, wildlife areas, and public lands. I swim five to six miles per week, go to an occasional concert or show, and I like lounging around with my husband and two cats.

Green Americans imagine a future where all people have enough, communities are healthy and safe, and the abundance of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come. Responsible entrepreneurs—including a recent spike in African American business owners—are working towards that future now, growing sustainable and inclusive companies that build social impact for their communities, both locally and abroad.

Black Entrepreneurship on the Rise

Over the last few years, entrepreneurship by Black business leaders has boomed.

Many people lost their jobs during the pandemic and were unsure of when their industry would bounce back. Some decided this was the time to become their own boss—new business applications increased more in 2020 than they had in the past 15 years, according to data from the US Census Bureau. Black entrepreneurs accounted for 26% of all new microbusinesses (businesses with ten employees or fewer), up from 15% pre-pandemic.

In 2020, the city of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority gave out 350 loans—nearly half of which went to Black-owned businesses. This is a huge spike compared to previous years, when 30 to 50 loans a year overall was the average. It’s a trend that is appearing across the country—between February 2020 and August 2021, African American business owners increased 38%, according to research from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

In fact, Black entrepreneurship has doubled since 2019, according to the Small Business Association. There are currently more than 2 million Black-owned small businesses in the US.

Brewing Bold Change

It wasn’t just the pandemic that triggered change for businesses after 2020. The spotlight that the Black Lives Matter movement shone on racial injustice put pressure on corporations. Many of the country’s largest corporations pledged to do better and work toward racial justice and established Black-owned businesses reported experiencing a surge of support after the murder of George Floyd.

African American entrepreneur Margaret Nyamumbo says she noticed the change in 2020, when she says her company’s coffee became the first from a Black-woman-owned business to appear on the shelves at Trader Joe’s. Her direct-trade company, Kahawa 1893, sells African coffee beans grown and harvested by African women producers.

More recently, with the awareness-raising of 2020 receding into the past, Nyamumbo says she has detected a decline in support. She is hopeful that support for Black businesses will become stronger over time, while pointing out that Black communities shouldn’t have to experience trauma for Black-owned businesses to be seen as valuable.

To further build support, Kahawa 1893 participates in the 15% Pledge, an organization working to promote Black-owned brands beyond 2020. The idea is that, since African Americans make up 15% of the population, 15% of shelf space at retailers should be dedicated to Black-owned brands. Macy’s, West Elm, and Nordstrom, and several other large retailers have committed to the pledge, stocking their shelves with Black-owned brands like Kahawa 1893. Green America has supported this pledge via outreach to retailers like CVS and Target who subsequently engaged in dialogue with the 15% Pledge.

Nyamumbo has high hopes for the growth of her business, especially after securing a deal from the sharks on Shark Tank in 2023.

"Respect the drip:" Margaret Nyamumbo (front) with a Kahawa employee serving coffee (in truck). Coffee beans come from a plant that has its origins in ancient forests in East Africa. Kahawa 1893's name combines "kahawa," the Swahili word for "coffee" with the year East Africans began commercially selling coffee into the global market.

The Scoop on Social Impact

Small businesses, including Black-owned businesses, are uniquely positioned to give back to their communities, and may model their business with this in mind. For example, for Nyamumbo, it’s important for Kahawa 1893 to give back to the continent that birthed coffee and the women producers that cultivate it. Every bag of Kahawa coffee has a QR code, which buyers can scan and send tips directly to women coffee producers.

Similarly, Kai Nortey, co-founder of kubé, built an ice cream brand based on her own values and vision for a healthier society. Nortey and her husband are both lactose intolerant, a fate they share with 65% of the US, according to the National Institute of Health. But when looking for dairy-free ice creams on grocery shelves, the Norteys discovered that many of them contain GMOs. So together, they created a creamy vegan ice cream, made from scratch with organic ingredients, so that vegans and lactose-intolerant folks can enjoy ice cream again.

“Kubé is really a story about food justice and the realization of how ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’” says Nortey.

Nortey chooses whole-plant-based foods for kubé's ingredients and refuses to use any chemicals. The coconuts, which are the basis for the full-fat coconut cream in the ice cream, are pressed in-house at a shared commercial kitchen facility. The same can be said for the variety of flavors they offer, from key lime to coffee, which are extracted from organic fruits and plants.

Investing in wholesome ingredients is just as important as investing in people and community for Nortey. In 2023, Nortey hired formerly incarcerated mothers and survivors of domestic violence to make the ice cream, paying $22 an hour.

“Social impact looks like giving people economic opportunities for them to thrive,” says Nortey. Such opportunities are incredibly valuable to the more than 1 million people employed by Black-owned small businesses.

What is more, on average, nearly 53% of dollars spent at a local independent business is recirculated in the local economy, compared to less than 14% at chain stores—that means money you spend at a local independent bookseller is used for employee payroll, which may go to groceries from a local farmers market, and so on, enriching the lives of the everyday American.

For Nortey, not only does that look like hiring locally from underserved populations, but it also means giving to local food producers. Coconut shreds are a byproduct of the production process and are a great addition to soil. Nortey donates coconut shreds to Deep Medicine Circle, a nonprofit with several urban farms, and Planting Justice in east Oakland, which grows food for low-income families.

For now, kubé ice cream can be purchased in California at the Grand Lake Oakland farmers market in the summer months, where you can buy directly from Nortey herself. Kubé ice cream is also stocked on the shelves at Berkeley Bowl West and Mandela Grocery Cooperative in the Bay Area.

Struggles for Black Business Owners

Despite the positive statistics, the United States has a long history of racism that cannot be dismantled in a short time. Kubé has not been spared from this fact.

“A CEO of a popular plant-based food company… asked me if I would work for his company. He offered to pay a high salary to do product development, because I’ve created such a phenomenal product,” recalls Nortey. “And I said, ‘Why don’t you just invest in my company?’ They love what I’m making, and they intentionally choose to try and take what I have … it’s a form of sexism and racism because they think I’m designed to build their empire.”

Systemic racism within financial circles results in inequities for African American customers. Redlined communities remain to this day a result of housing discrimination, where neighborhoods were divided by race when banks denied mortgages to Black homebuyers. When it comes to starting a business, Black borrowers are still rejected at higher rates than white borrowers. Black entrepreneurs therefore often rely on personal savings and funding from family and friends instead of seeking a loan from financial institutions.

For example, in 2018, Nortey and her husband raised over $100,000 to purchase industrial ice cream machines on crowdfundmainstreet.com, a public benefit corporation that shares projects in need of funds from startups. She recommends small businesses raise capital on regulation investment crowdfunding sites like crowdfundmainstreet.com, which attract everyday investors. This option allows Nortey to keep control and leadership of kubé, which wouldn’t happen if the company was bought outright.

One day, Nortey envisions kubé as a storefront, maybe next to another Black-owned restaurant, “where trusted relationships can flourish again, where people can feel dignified and honored because they can finally access vibrant and delicious ice cream that respects their allergies and food restrictions,” she says.

Racial Equity in the Hands of Consumers and Investors

Nortey and Nyamumbo agree that people can best support their companies by purchasing their products. They point to how the original Buy Black movement during the Great Depression worked because it sustained emerging Black businesses when the economy sank. Nortey also states that because building capital is the toughest challenge small businesses face, supporters should consider investing in Black-owned businesses. Take these steps to support and invest in Black entrepreneurship:

Patronize Black-owned businesses: Look for businesses in your community to support! Find more Black-owned businesses from these directories:

• EatOkra.com, for finding Black-owned restaurants.
• BlkGrn.com, for hair- and skin-care products, and wellness and home-cleaning items.
• GetTheBag.biz, for subscription boxes of products from mostly Black-women-owned brands. (GetTheBag recommended Kahawa 1893 and kubé for this article.)
• Coastapp.com/shopblackowned, for Black business directories in Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Seattle.
• Miiriya.com, an app for finding Black-owned fashion, home décor, beauty and hair-care products, and art.

Invest in Black-owned businesses: For as little as $100 or so, crowdfunding sites like crowdfundmainstreet (which helped fund the kubé launch) offer opportunities to invest in startups. That seed money is crucial for Black businesses that are skeptical of lending with banks. Additionally, banking with community development banks and minority depository institutions can help fund Black-owned startups. It’s often part of the mission of these financial institutions to support Black entrepreneurs through low-interest loans and financial resources.

Ask retailers to commit to the 15% pledge: Ask the owners and managers of companies where you shop to increase the representation of Black-owned businesses on their shelves. Call or write to other businesses and take the pledge yourself using 15% Pledge’s consumer commitment guide.

It’s a long road to racial equity in our society and we all have a role to play in lifting up historically marginalized communities. Black business-owners like Nyamumbo and Nortey are doing their part, by helping African farmers reach American markets, and hiring from within marginalized communities. Green Americans can do their part as well, by supporting these and other Black-owned businesses.

If you own shares in publicly traded companies, you can use your investor power to shape corporate policy for the better.

As an owner of the company, you have the right to use your voice—and vote—through the shareholder resolution process to direct company management to make change.

When you vote in favor of social and environmental progress at the companies in which you own stock, you are joining powerful shareholder allies who have a track record of shifting the priorities of corporate America.

While companies were once resistant to even examining their social and environmental effects, increasing shareholder and consumer focus over time on such issues has made the issuance of a “corporate social responsibility” report commonplace in 2024. Shareholders have demonstrated succcess in persuading companies to address issues as varied as product safety; waste management; the climate crisis; and diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities.

Every proxy season, Green America tracks resolutions for environmental, social, and governance matters. We compile these so our readers that happen to also be direct shareholders can learn more about what is on their proxy ballot.

So, what happened in the 2023 season?

The State of Climate

Climate resolutions have become more ambitious in scope in recent years, consistent with the scale of the problem, pushing companies to do more than just issue reports, but to actually reduce emissions, strengthen their climate risk management, or begin phasing out their reliance on fossil fuels overall.

Climate-related resolutions were the biggest category of resolution filed in 2023; shareholders voted on 60 resolutions. Notable successes included 47.4% support for a resolution asking PACCAR Inc., the commercial truck manufacturer, to issue a report on how the company’s climate lobbying aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change; and 36.6% support for a resolution asking ExxonMobil to measure its methane emissions.

Heidi Welsh, founding executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute—a nonprofit research firm analyzing organized efforts to influence corporate behavior—says that historically, ambitious resolutions that require a serious change to a company’s business model may take longer to achieve majority support.

Welsh cited a resolution asking JP Morgan Chase to restrict lending to fossil-fuel companies as an example.

“You’re asking companies to completely restructure their lending portfolios to phase out a cornerstone of the current modern economy, which is based on fossil fuels,” says Welsh, who points out that more modest resolutions also took time to build support in the past. To plan for a fossil-free future, it remains important for shareholders to keep pushing for their clear vision of corporate transformation on climate issues, year after year.

The State of Diversity

Bank of America, Ford Motor, and Target all faced resolutions requesting these companies to report on the success of their diversity programs; all resolutions were withdrawn prior to a shareholder vote. Welsh notes that withdrawal is usually a positive outcome.

“A withdrawal in almost every instance comes because the proponent and the company have sat down to talk about the issue,” says Welsh. “The company has agreed to do enough to persuade the proponent that the company is moving forward and doing at least some of what the proponent has asked for.”

The shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow, which tracked the resolutions’ progress, reports that for each proposal withdrawn, filers and the company reached an agreement on next steps.

Welsh notes that investors are interested in making decisions based on hard data, which, in the case of diversity-related resolutions, demonstrates that a commitment to company diversity will pay dividends for investors. For example, a 2020 McKinsey report demonstrated that companies committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in management are more profitable. Similarly, a November 2023 As You Sow report, which analyzed more than 1,600 publicly traded US companies, found greater diversity in corporate management to correlate with many benefits to the company, including income after taxes, and long-term growth.

“Simply put, a diverse workforce led by a diverse management team performs better financially,” said Andrew Behar, CEO of As You Sow.

The State of Racial Justice

Shareholders at Alphabet, Amazon.com, AT&T, Bank of America, Altria, and BlackRock filed resolutions requesting that these companies report on racial justice impacts and plans. None of these resolutions achieved majority support, and some did not appear on the ballot.

However, a resolution doesn’t need to win the majority to provoke a company to respond with improvements.

Cathy Cowan Becker, Green America’s responsible finance director, says that a resolution that garners at least 20 to 30% support could lead to company to take action anyway. While not a majority percentage, such a vote still represents millions or billions of dollars of investor leverage, and companies are likely to listen.

For the racial justice resolutions that did make it to the proxy ballot (AT&T, Amazon.com, and Altria), they garnered between 21% and 30% of the shareholder vote. With votes like that, companies may recognize that concerns about their racial justice outcomes will not go away and will consider ways to enact new policies.

Looking Ahead to the 2024 Season

As You Sow’s 2024 Proxy Preview and Green America’s look at shareholder resolutions will be released in March. Use these resources to find information on upcoming resolutions; if you are a shareholder, you have the opportunity to vote.

Already one 2024 development reflects the recent ESG backlash. In February, ExxonMobil filed suit against investors who proposed a resolution calling on Exxon to reduce its emissions. Exxon’s unusual lawsuit alleges that the resolution is driven by an “extreme agenda” and does not serve investors’ interests. “This amounts to tactics of intimidation and bullying” of investors, said Natasha Lamb, chief investment officer at Arjuna Capital, which filed the resolution.

Most importantly, however, Welsh reminds us that making change in the shareholder arena is a long game, and in that long game, shareholders are powerful, “There are trillions of investor dollars behind efforts to get companies to do the right thing.”

HopeWorks Station in Everett, Washington, has been drawing attention for its multiple areas of socially conscious innovation. The LEED Platinum-certified development integrates 65 affordable apartments for low-income households and those recovering from addiction alongside supportive services, job training, a child-care center, and community meeting space. People who were once homeless and struggling with alcohol- or drug-related issues live on the upper floors and go downstairs to work at Kindred Kitchen, a catering business and community café, or at the business next door, RENEW Home & Décor—all within the same complex.

The innovation behind HopeWorks extends to how it was financed. Affordable housing is usually funded by multiple sources, including large investment companies through Low Income Housing Tax Credits and other federal programs. HopeWorks was financed through a mission-driven nonprofit organization, Enterprise Community Partners, which included financing from its Enterprise Community Loan Fund, a community development financial institution (CDFI).

Individuals interested in investing in innovative projects that reflect their values, like HopeWorks, can do so through financial products offered by CDFIs, like Enterprise. Enterprise's Community Impact Note helped finance the HopeWorks project. Proceeds from the Impact Note support the organization’s general lending work (about 70% goes to affordable housing), with money loaned to nonprofit and mission-aligned for-profit developers.

HopeWorks Station represents a meaningful case study to Anna Smukowski, director of the Enterprise Community Loan Fund, because it shows how CDFI funding works alongside other more conventional sources of capital from Enterprise. “We’re providing funding to communities but also allowing individual people to get more invested in their communities, people who want to live their values through their investments,” Smukowski says.

Investment in the Enterprise Community Impact Note is open to people around the country, for a minimum investment of $5,000. However, many CDFIs and community-focused lenders offer even lower entry points for their financial products—including as little as $20 (see box on p. 21).

The Role of CDFIs and Community-Focused Lenders

Environmental and social impact investing has become part of the investment mainstream recently, and CDFIs have an important role, according to the “CDFIs and the Capital Markets” white paper, cowritten by Smukowski, alongside other writers from Enterprise and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

“CDFIs now have the opportunity to position the industry as the ultimate impact investment, capable of addressing key social and environmental issues like the acute affordable housing crisis; persistent racial health, wealth, and opportunity gaps; and environmental sustainability measures in low-income and historically underserved communities,” Smukowski and her co-authors say. CDFIs are required to report on impacts on a regular basis, an opportunity to tell the stories about how communities are affected by these investments.

When you invest in community-focused products like the examples in this article, you can earn a rate of return for yourself, while also supporting important community-building projects. For example, the Connecticut Green Bank, which accepts minimum investments of just $100, works with families, businesses, houses of worship, and other community groups to develop clean-energy solutions from solar photovoltaic installations to energy-efficiency retrofits and green-building projects.

The Benefits of Impact Investing

With socially responsible investing, you can align your investments with impacts you care about whether it’s creating affordable housing, mitigating climate change, or supporting business owners who have been left out of conventional lending. Sometimes multiple issues that investors care about intersect in one responsible project, such as the HopeWorks project combining affordable housing, sustainable design, proximity to transit, job training, and reducing homelessness.

Brady Quirk-Garvan of Natural Investments, a social investing advisory group, described how he has helped some investors combine their interest in affordable housing with a desire to support business ventures led by women, such as Shortstack Housing in Portland, Oregon: “It’s woman-owned and run and focuses on ‘missing middle’ housing [such as duplexes and townhomes] … that is affordable, near public transit, and that will remain affordable for decades.”

How to Get Started with Impact Investing

An easy first step for getting involved with community investing is to first open a checking or savings account with a CDFI or other responsible bank or invest in a certificate of deposit (CD).

As a next step, consider investment vehicles with lower minimum requirements, like the Community Investment Note, issued by Calvert Impact Capital, a community development organization that supports and partners with CDFIs. This gateway investment for individuals getting started with impact investing offers an entry point of just $20. In Calvert Impact’s 2022 survey of their investors, 54% said it was their first cause-based investment.

Capital from the note has supported a wide range of projects including Artspace, affordable live-work spaces for artists across the US; Central City Concern, which offers housing, health, recovery, and employment support in Portland, Oregon; and Self-Help Enterprises, which provides home-ownership support to farmworkers and other hard-working families in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

The Connecticut Green Bank’s Green Liberty Bonds and Notes—inspired by Green America’s Clean Energy Victory Bonds campaign—offers similarly accessible investments priced at $100 and $1,000, to fund local clean-energy projects. The Enterprise Community Impact Note is another effective way to get started investing with a community development financial institution.

Finally, if you have the means, and wish to directly invest in specific responsible community-building projects, consider consulting an individual investment advisor, like Quirk-Garvan at Natural Investments, who can match options with your values and the amount you plan to invest.

Whichever vehicle you choose, you can feel confident when you seek out a mission-focused financial product that your investment dollars are doing good in the world.

In 2023, the United States experienced a record number of weather- and climate-related disasters that each caused $1 billion or more in damages: 28 severe storms, floods, wildfires, winter storms, hurricanes, and droughts, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Since 1980 the United States has experienced 376 of these billion-dollar+ events, with damages totaling $2.6 trillion, and tragically, 16,340 associated deaths.

The insurance industry stands on the front lines of this climate crisis. Every time a climate-related fire, flood, or storm damages or destroys an insured person’s home or business, they expect their insurance policy to help foot the bill for repairs and rebuilding. Unfortunately, as climate events become more common, major insurance companies have begun to cancel or restrict coverage in climate-vulnerable states.

In May, State Farm—the largest insurer in California—stopped accepting new applications for homeowners insurance in the wildfire-prone state due to “rapidly growing catastrophe exposure.” In June, Allstate followed suit. In July, Farmers Insurance stopped offering home and auto policies in hurricane-prone Florida, forcing 100,000 ratepayers to find new insurance.

As major insurers limit coverage, prices continue to rise for everyone else. In California, State Farm has raised prices for the homeowners policies it still holds by 20%. In Florida, the average homeowners insurance premium is now $6000—up 200% from 2019.

In fact, according to the 2023 Policygenius Home Insurance Pricing report, the cost of homeowners insurance has risen for 94% of people surveyed. Premium costs are now 35% higher nationally compared to two years ago for all homeowners, whether or not they live in an area with heightened climate-related risk.

Underwriting and Investments

Unfortunately, despite the insurance industry paying policyholders for an increasing number of climate disasters and then passing these costs onto policyholders, many of them continue to support one of the chief causes of the climate crisis: the burning of fossil fuels.

Major insurance companies continue to support the fossil fuel industry in two ways, according to Insure Our Future, a campaign comprising environmental, consumer protection, and grassroots organizations that hold the US insurance industry accountable for its role in the climate crisis:

• By underwriting—that is, insuring—new fossil fuel projects
• By investing billions of dollars in fossil fuels

In fact, US insurance companies invested $582 billion in fossil fuels in 2019, the most recent year for which composite figures are available. However, the International Energy Agency has since stated that investors must not finance any new coal, oil or gas projects if we are to hold the rise in global temperatures under 1.5ºC. The Paris Climate Agreement set 1.5ºC as the goal for limiting global warming to prevent catastrophic and irreversible climate damage.

While most of the large US insurance companies tracked by Insure Our Future have set restrictions on underwriting coal, few have restricted underwriting conventional oil and gas projects. Three of the top eight US insurance companies—Berkshire Hathaway, W.R. Berkley, and Starr—maintain no policies whatsoever to limit underwriting and investment in fossil fuel projects, whether coal or oil and gas.

Berkshire Hathaway is especially notable: It fully owns 11 coal plants, partially owns 13 more, and ships millions of tons of coal by rail. Its CEO, Warren Buffett, has said climate change should not be a factor in the company’s decision-making.

Underwriting Notorious Fossil Fuel Projects

Without insurance, fossil fuel companies cannot get loans or investments for their notoriously risky projects. At the same time, the riskier the project, the higher the premium—and resulting profits—for the insurance company involved.

The market intelligence firm Insuramore estimated gross direct premiums from insuring the fossil fuel industry at $21.25 billion in 2022. Top US fossil fuel insurers include Chubb, which took an estimated $700 million in fossil fuel premiums, Zurich (parent of Farmers), which took $600 million, and AIG, which took $550 million.
While it is difficult to find out which companies underwrite which projects, climate activists have uncovered the insurers of two of the most notorious fossil fuel projects:

• Freeport LNG—This Texas facility will be capable of exporting 15 million tons of liquified natural gas per year when it is fully online. The plant has been cleared for full operation in 2024, following a settlement with the EPA in Dec. 2023 related to an explosion at the plant. AIG, Chubb, and Liberty Mutual, among others, insure Freeport LNG.
• The Trans Mountain Pipeline—When fully operational, this pipeline will ship 590,000 barrels per day of tar sands oil to British Columbia. Chubb, AIG, and Liberty Mutual insure this pipeline.

Investing in Climate Chaos

Insurance companies do not simply insure fossil fuel projects; they also invest billions in fossil fuel companies, according to the Investing in Climate Chaos database by Urgewald, a German environmental and human-rights NGO.

Berkshire Hathaway, the parent company of Geico, invests the most in fossil fuels, compared to all US insurance companies. The company has invested more than $9.4 billion in coal and $45.7 billion in oil and gas. Berkshire Hathaway is the top investor in Chevron.

State Farm is second in fossil fuel investments among US insurance companies, with $18.2 billion, including $7.9 billion in coal and $10.3 billion in oil and gas. It is the 12th-largest investor in Exxon.

“It seems nonsensical at best—and complicit at worst—for State Farm to carefully factor climate risk from wildfires into its homeowner’s insurance policies, refusing in some cases to provide such policies at all, while apparently ignoring the heightened climate risk that its investment portfolio is helping to create,” Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D, RI), Ron Wyden (D, OR), and Bernie Sanders (I, VT) wrote to State Farm in June.

Popular home and auto insurance company Amica has invested $86 million in fossil fuels, not enough to appear among the top investors, but still significant.

What Can Policyholders Do?

The good news is that it is possible to find alternatives to the largest insurance companies that continue underwriting and investing in fossil fuels, and to take action to push the worst companies to improve.

Take Action! Tell over 70 executives at Berkshire Hathaway/Geico/Guard, State Farm, AIG, Nationwide, Allstate, Liberty, Mutual, Travelers, and The Hartford to insure our communities, not fossil fuels!

Seek out regional mutual insurance companies: The best option for ratepayers seeking a more responsible company for home or car insurance is to shop in your local area. Call three independent insurance agents and ask them to quote costs and coverage for policies at regional mutual insurance companies, or speak with companies directly.

Different agents work with different companies, so talking to more than one will give you a fuller picture of what is available in your area. Regional insurance companies are no more risky than large insurance and could save you money on your premium for the same coverage.

Examples of responsible regional mutuals include American Family Insurance based in Wisconsin, Grange Insurance based in Ohio, and Utica Mutual Insurance based in New York. Be sure to ask about a company’s holdings and policies before purchasing an insurance plan.

Push the biggest companies to do better: If you hold an insurance policy with a company that may be underwriting or investing in fossil fuels, call them up, send a letter, or otherwise make your disapproval of fossil-fuel investing known. Explain how your concerns are in the insurance companies’ best interest, given their exposure to the effects of climate disasters.

Stay tuned! While several resources list alternatives to megabanks that fund fossil fuels, no such directory exists for insurance—yet. Green America and Rivers and Mountains GreenFaith have begun working to close that gap. We are conducting research and compiling a responsible insurance list that we will release as a directory later this year.

The insurance market is just the latest financial sector to hear from Green Americans, climate advocates, and others about the need for change. The same strategies that have shifted other industries—speaking up for improvements, boycotting irresponsible companies, and organizing with others for change—can shift the insurance industry as well.

What is the largest part of your carbon footprint: Is it a) your car, b) your furnace, c) your stove, or d) your bank account?

If you bank with or use credit cards issued by one of the four biggest US banks—JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, or Bank of America—or other conventional banks, the answer is likely your bank account.

That’s because these four banks have plowed $1.37 trillion—that’s trillion with a T—into coal, oil, gas, fracking, pipelines, and other dirty fossil fuel projects since the Paris Agreement in 2015, as documented by the “Banking on Climate Chaos” report. This report—researched by seven climate-finance organizations—has been endorsed by more than 600 groups including Green America.

If you hold a balance of $1,000 at one of these banks, the resulting annual carbon emissions are equivalent to those generated by flying from New York to Seattle. If you hold $62,500 in one of the Big Four banks, your money is producing as much carbon as all the driving, heating, cooling, cooking, and flying the average American does in six months.

Want to stop your bank from using your deposits to fund climate-destroying projects that go against your values? Get a better bank and better credit card.

Finding a Better Bank

Green America’s “Get a Better Bank” map can help you find a bank that will not only minimize the carbon emissions associated with your account, but also actively use your money for good. The map’s more than 6,000 bank and credit union locations nationwide follow a social-justice mission to invest in low- to moderate-income people, serve communities of color, or finance sustainability projects, among other positive goals, rather than prioritizing lending to the fossil fuel industry or other polluting mega-corporations.

To appear on the Green America map, banks and credit unions must be confirmed to be at least one of the following:

• Federally certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI)
• Member of Inclusiv, a group of community development credit unions
• Member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV)
• FDIC-identified Minority Depository Institution
• Certified by the Green America Green Business Network

Other organizations offer similar better-banking directories. For example, Bank for Good and Bank.Green list 30 to 50 banks and credit unions that have signed a fossil-free pledge, and Mighty Deposits uses federal reporting data to pinpoint the percentage of investments a bank or credit union is making in its local community.

By using a mix of these resources, while keeping in mind the services you need, you can find a bank or credit union that’s right for you, your community, and the planet.

Finding a Better Credit Card

Your credit card purchases also make a difference, and can do harm or good, depending on the activities of the underlying bank. To understand how, it is helpful to know how credit cards work.

Credit card issuers make money—which they may invest in projects you don’t support—in three ways:

• The annual fee. Credit card annual fees can run $100 or more and may include perks like travel assistance. Not all credit cards have an annual fee.
• Interest payments. If you carry a balance on your card, you know how exorbitant interest rates are. Credit card debt in the United States is a serious problem, totaling over $1 trillion at the end of 2023, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
• Transaction fees. Even if you have a card with no annual fee, and you pay your bill in full every month, your purchases will still earn the credit-card issuer the majority of each transaction fee. This fee—usually around 3%—is deducted from the payment to the merchant for each credit card charge.

Next, it’s important to understand the difference between the branding of a credit card and its issuer. The branding is the name on the front of the card. The issuer is usually on the back in small print. The issuer is the financial institution that receives your monthly payments.

Sometimes the branding and issuer of the card are the same—such as when a bank or credit union issues its own card. If your responsible bank or credit union issues its own card, then you can use that card knowing the fees you pay will help the institution invest for good.

If your responsible bank or credit union does not issue its own credit card, then you’ll need to look elsewhere—and the key is to find out which bank is issuing the card (it may be one of the Big Four). You may need to read the fine print in the application, research the card online, or call the phone numbers provided on the application to ask questions. For example, some banks and credit unions have issued credit cards through Elan Financial, which is owned by US Bank, an investor in the fossil fuel industry.

If you hold an American Express card, according to a Forbes article published in January 2024, American Express “does not appear to reflect the investment-heavy models of many banks.” American Express claims to have been carbon-neutral since 2018, and made a public commitment to net-zero operations globally by 2035. However, American Express cards often require a higher annual fee than cards issued by responsible, mission-focused banks.

Some more responsible credit-card issuers include:

• Beneficial State Bank, a Green Business Network member, a B-Corp, CDFI, and fossil-free bank on the West Coast. Their Climate Card offers points that can be redeemed for merchandise, cash back, or charitable donations.
• First National Bank of Omaha, a Green Business Network member and a family-owned independent bank dedicated to investing locally. Their Evergreen card offers 2% cash back.
• Hope Federal Credit Union, a Green Business Network member and a community development bank that invests in under-resourced communities in the Deep South, offers a Platinum Rewards Visa card to members.

In addition, consumers often carry credit cards from other branded categories such as:

• Store or airline cards, which are branded for a merchant where you may do a lot of shopping, or an airline you fly regularly. Many are issued through Synchrony Bank or Community Bank, which specialize in providing store cards and do not invest in fossil fuels. However, some popular store cards are issued through fossil banks. For example, Costco’s card is issued by Citibank, a major funder of fossil fuels. Green America has joined with allies to urge Costo to either pressure Citibank to stop financing fossil fuels or drop Citi as its issuer.
• Affinity cards, which let you support your favorite nonprofit through purchases on your credit card—usually half a percent is donated. It’s critical to know the issuer of these cards. For example, the Green America card (see box at right), is issued through TCM Bank, which is the credit-card-issuing arm of Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). Sadly, some other nonprofit cards are issued through big fossil banks, undermining the very good the nonprofit is trying to do in the world.

Using the information in this article, you can choose a credit card that puts your money to work for your community and the planet. The card does not have to be issued by the bank or credit union where your bank account is—any card issued by a responsible bank or credit union is a good choice.

Adelia Moore, a psychologist and author in upstate New York, chose the Climate Card from Beneficial State Bank. “I’d been casting about for some way to act on my fears for the planet,” Moore said. “It was a small step to get my ‘green’ card, but each time I use it, I am taking action for the climate—and that feels great!”

When you align your banking and credit cards with your values, and move away from the biggest fossil-fuel-investing banks, you’re aligning yourself with a global movement that has divested $40.6 trillion from fossil fuels, according to the Stand.Earth Divestment Database.

Your values-aligned banking makes an impact! When each of us shifts our accounts to support responsible finance, that momentum builds into something big. Together, our collective deposits become an engine for change to propel finance in service of people and planet.

Whether you call it “impact investing,” “socially responsible investing (SRI),” or the more recent term-of-art, “ESG investing” (with “ESG” referring to socially responsible impacts related to a company's environmental, social, and governance policies), investing in positive returns for people and the planet is a topic familiar to many Green Americans.

Responsible investing has been used to pursue positive outcomes for society since at least the 1960s, when conscious investors sought to influence companies in favor of emerging movements for civil rights and women’s equality and against the Vietnam War. The first shareholder resolution focused on social issues came in 1970, when Ralph Nader’s Project on Corporate Responsibility purchased enough shares of General Motors stock to file a resolution calling for a corporate responsibility report.

Other early SRI campaigns included withholding investments from companies making harmful products, such as firearms, tobacco, and weapons of war, as well as the well-known—and successful!—campaign to divest from companies supporting the apartheid government in South Africa.

As the power of responsible investing has grown, its strategies have become more accepted in the mainstream, and investors have extended the scope of their ambitions (such as pushing companies to pursue workplace diversity and mitigate the climate crisis). As a result, the “ESG” movement has experienced a backlash.

A 2023 Congressional resolution—supported by 50 senators and 216 House members, but vetoed by President Biden—would have prevented pension-fund managers from considering critical factors such as companies’ effects on the climate crisis, worker safety, and other environmental and social issues in their investment decisions. At the state level, legislatures in Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas succeeded in enacting their own anti-ESG bills, with other states—including Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Carolina—pursing similar bills in 2024.

The good news is that a broad coalition of investors and activists—including Green America—are pushing back to protect everyone's freedom to invest as they see fit. As an individual interested in responsible finance, you still have many options for how to use your banking and investing dollars for good.

Among the strategies Green America recommends are to:

Move your money to a better bank: your checking and savings accounts (and even your credit cards!) can be tools for positive progress.

Screen your investments and divest from unsustainable industries: Add positive industries like renewable energy to your portfolio, and remove sectors like the weapons and fossil-fuel industries. A socially responsible financial planner can help. Divestment is a powerful and growing responsible-finance tool, with institutional investors committing to divest more than $40 trillion from fossils fuels as of December 2023.

Align your banking and credit card with your values

Invest in communities: Find inspiration on how you can invest in people and the planet (for as little as $20!) at the local level. Investment options include CDs, money-market funds, community investing loan funds, and community development venture capital funds.

What responsible investing can do

Vote your proxies: If you own stock directly in publicly traded companies, you have a say in how they are run. Use your proxy ballots to vote on issues you care about at companies in your portfolio to improve their ESG records.

The state of shareholder activism

Invest directly in responsible diverse businesses: Small businesses are a crucial and innovative part of our economy. You can help entrepreneurs underserved by conventional banks finance their businesses and achieve their responsible-business dreams.

Supporting Black entrepreneurship

Consider the impacts of your insurance policies: Insurance is the newest emerging responsible-finance arena. Individuals can push back on conventional insurance companies that are financing or underwriting the climate catastrophe and seek out companies that better match your values.

The next frontier in climate finance: property insurance

Inspire others! If you are already well into your responsible investing journey, please use the ideas and resources on these pages to get others involved in investing for a better future.

Whatever strategies you choose, your banking, investing, and other financial decisions will always affect the world around us—paying dividends for people and planet, as well as for your pocketbook. To ensure a positive return for communities, the environment, and a sustainable future, consider getting involved in one or more of these strategies today.

13% of Americans reported facing economic hardship due to climate change in 2022, according to “The Impact of Climate Change on American Household Finances,” a recent US Department of the Treasury (DoT) report. Americans experienced these challenges during a year in which DoT calculated the cost of climate and weather disasters in the US to have totaled more than $176 billion—the third most costly year on record.

With climate hazards projected to get worse in the coming years, it is more important than ever for all of us to prepare our household finances for the possible effects of climate change—and find ways to help our neighbors.

Financial strain on households can lead to especially negative outcomes for vulnerable and marginalized communities—including BIPOC, lower-income, disabled, and older individuals. These communities are most susceptible to post-disaster financial hardship, often due to their historic location in areas already suffering environmental degradation.

So, where to start?

Needs of the Neighborhood

The DoT report identifies awareness-raising about local and regional climate risks as one of the first steps. While it is important to understand the range of climate threats that affect us across the country, it is even more crucial for each of us to know the dangers most likely to impact our specific area, such as flood exposure in Appalachia, wildfire exposure in the West and in border regions near Mexico, and heat exposure in the plains and Mississippi River areas.

“Climate Mapping for Resilience & Adaptation” helps you understand climate risks for your area. Use their address search tool to get historical data and find major climate risks for your household.

The related “US Climate Resiliency Toolkit” offers more resources like nationwide climate mapping, case studies of community resilience projects, and step-by-step guides for boosting climate readiness skills for those with influence in state, local, and Tribal governments, nonprofits, and the business world.

Between both sites, you can map risks for your location, learn how others have increased resilience, and build your capacity to prepare. They make climate adaptation practical and accessible.

Once Aware, Time to Prepare

Once you’ve built up your knowledge on the most pressing climate risks for your household, what’s next? Here are some steps you can take to address the concerns outlined by the DoT report and fortify your household’s finances in case of future emergency:

Make a plan.

Having a plan in place for your household in the event of a climate hazard can reduce real-time panic and ensure that you are as ready as possible to respond to anything that may come your way. Ready.gov provides an entire “Make a Plan” section that includes resources for building financial readiness, assembling a physical preparedness kit for your home, and planning for an evacuation, among other steps. The tool includes customized resources for older adults, people with disabilities, and households with pets and animals.

Review your property insurance.

Property, auto, and flood insurance can provide a safety net in the event of a future climate hazard. However, standard home insurance policies often will not cover flooding, earthquakes, or landslides and may also exclude coverage for other specific disasters, so it is crucial to investigate your current coverage to find out what may be missing.

The Insurance Information Institute, an insurance industry association, provides helpful resources for consumers to better understand how their insurance works, industry trends relative to the climate crisis, and further resources on disaster preparedness.

Get your home to do the saving for you.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) created tax incentives that can provide benefits for eco-friendly home upgrades. For example, the DoT report recommends pursuing available tax rebates for installing solar panels or upgrading heating-and-cooling systems to reduce energy and utility bills when faced with rapidly rising temperatures. The upgrades help mitigate rising greenhouse gas emissions and the cost savings can help build your financial resilience for the future.

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) also provides financial assistance for energy upgrades to qualified households.

Seek further support.

Several assistance programs exist to help your household with climate-hazard recovery and resilience. Some major programs and resources to look into appear in the box below.

Using these strategies for disaster preparedness can help protect your finances and alleviate some of the potential climate-consequences on household financial security.

Plastic pollution is everywhere—in waterways and oceans, in food chains and the atmosphere, and even in our own bodies.

The Ocean Conservancy confirms that single-use plastic consumption is on the rise, growing at an estimated 2.7% per year, and the advocacy group Beyond Plastics says this rise is intentional. Fossil fuel companies are ramping up production of plastics, to counter wider use of renewable energy and electric vehicles. “Plastics is Plan B for the fossil fuel industry,” says Judith Enck, founder and president of Beyond Plastics.

If we don’t counter this push and reduce demand, the result would be nearly six billion metric tons of single-use plastic between now and 2050.

This enormous amount of trash is a huge problem for both people and planet. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), current trends indicate that by 2040, we will see a 50% increase in macroplastics leakage, one of the leading causes of water pollution (30 million tons per year).

Humans ingest plastic pollutants in the form of microplastics—tiny particles of plastic less than 5 millimeters in size—from contaminated seafood, tap and bottled water, salt, and even the air we breathe. And plastics production alone accounts for more than 3% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (1.8 billion tons, and set to more than double by 2060).

What is more, recycling remains an imperfect solution for dealing with plastic waste—one that the plastics industry promotes, while knowing that many plastic products cannot (or will not) be recycled. Different municipalities have adopted various systems of recycling, making it complicated for the average person to effectively recycle their waste. Instead, most plastic ends up in landfills or in the ocean and takes years to degrade while leaking microplastics and toxins into our water and food.

Learning about your municipality’s recycling system is a good start, as is finding reuse options for items before they go into your recycling bin. Even better are options for avoiding plastic purchases altogether, and the following tips can help.

Laundry

Many conventional detergent products result in plastic waste. For example, conventional detergent containers are often made with plastic, while conventional dryer sheets are often made from non-recyclable polyester.

Laundry day, therefore, often involves using far too many non-biodegradable and non-compostable products.
Green Eco Dream has everything you need for the next laundry day: detergent powder and strips, two of the most sustainable detergent options, and dryer balls, which are crafted from natural and organic materials like wool, can be used multiple times, and are compostable.

Washing clothes also comes with the unfortunate side effect of shedding microplastics. Washing synthetic clothes in home washing machines account for 35% of the global release of microplastics, according to the International Union of Conservation of Nature.

You can reduce these plastics by investing in clothes made of plastic-free fabrics, like organic cotton or linen, and by using products like the Cora Microfiber Laundry Catching Ball, which you can also find at Green Eco Dream, or the Lint LUV-R Filter at Environmental Enhancements. According to a 2019 study by the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy in Marine Pollution Bulletin, these items reduced an average of 26% and 87% of total microfibers, respectively, keeping fewer of these particles from entering wastewater.

Food Storage and Cleanup

In the kitchen, it’s easier than ever to avoid chemicals from plastic contaminating your food.

The chemicals included in many conventional kitchen products, like bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS), can leach into food and ultimately our own bodies, when released by heat or even rough treatment from a sponge or dishwasher. When storing food, you can avoid plastic by investing in glass or bamboo containers. If you need to cover a bowl with no lid, or wrap leftover produce, consider plastic alternatives like Bee’s Wrap or Food Huggers, rather than plastic wrap.

For kitchen cleanup, basic sponges are often made with plastics (or at least come in plastic packaging) and conventional household cleaners are sold in plastic packaging.

Shop the sustainable retail stores at the Green Pages online to find plastic-free cleaning products, including biodegradable and compostable Swedish dish cloths, walnut scrubber sponges (reusable and washable, made of plant-based cellulose, recycled fibers, and crushed walnut shells), and more.

You can also make your own cleaner with water, castile soap, vinegar, and essential oils and keep it in a glass bottle.

Reuseable Water Bottles, Cups, and To-Go Containers

A new study published in January 2024 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) revealed a startling new statistic. Researchers found water from single-use plastic bottles can contain from 10 to 100 times more nano-plastics than previously estimated. When we drink from plastic-bottled water, these nano-plastics enter our bodies, and can migrate into our lungs or bloodstream.

If that’s not reason enough to avoid plastic water bottles, according to a 2023 report from the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, one million plastic bottles of water are sold every minute globally. These sales resulted in 25 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, and 85% ended up in the landfill, where they can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Plastic bottles also accounted for 12% of plastic ocean waste in a 2021 study.

That’s why it’s so important to care for reusable water bottles throughout their lives—to avoid sending even more unwanted items to join plastic bottles in the landfill, or in our oceans.

To keep your reusable bottle clean, consider regular overnight treatments with natural ingredients: one-part vinegar and one-part water. Then, rinse the bottle thoroughly with warm water and let it dry fully. There are also several sustainable cleaning tools you can use—check out Bottle Bright natural cleaning tabs or a wood bottle brush.

Remember to also bring your own coffee cup, sustainable straws, and reusable to-go containers to your local café or restaurant for take-out items.

Note: Reusable water bottles depend on a reliable, clean water source, making them less useful for some communities and why we need to fight for accessible clean water for all.

Bath Products

The bathroom, like the kitchen, is another area full of plastics, from shampoo and lotion containers to cleaning products.

Consider ditching the shampoo bottle and body wash container and switching to good, old-fashioned bars.

Tangie offers zero-waste shampoo, conditioner, shaving, and soap bars, as well as a drying disk to keep your bars hygienically in the shower—wet soap can be a breeding ground for bacteria and allowing soap to dry between uses extends its lifespan.

Lobby Business Owners and Legislators

Don’t let businesses using too much plastic off the hook.

A powerful way to take on plastic pollution is by demanding less plastic usage from business owners or lobbying legislators to recognize the problems with plastic pollution and then to act.

The next time you’re at your favorite bar or restaurant, talk to a manager about making the switch to more sustainable materials for straws, bags, to-go containers, or other items. Ask them to switch to plant-based materials (bamboo, reed, mushroom), glass, and bags made of natural fibers, and note that you’d be willing to pay a little extra for them. (Check out Holy City Straw Company, which helps restaurants upgrade to greener materials.)

Then get in touch with your city council and encourage them not only to adopt a single-use plastic ban, thereby mandating businesses make changes, but also to enforce such bans. Provide evidence to support your requests—statistics on the damage plastic is doing to our planet—while offering sustainable alternatives.

Finally, consider contacting your US senators and representatives about the federal Break Free From Plastics Act, introduced in both the House and Senate in October 2023. This bill would ban certain single-use plastic products (including those that are not recyclable), establish minimum recycled content requirements for plastic packaging, and prohibit plastic waste from being shipped to developing countries, among other provisions. Green America is working with other NGO allies to support this bill.

Your choices on how to engage with plastic, both at home and in your community, matter. Together, we can reduce the plastic in our lives, and surround ourselves with natural, sustainable, reusable, less-polluting alternatives.

Plastics is Plan B for the fossil fuel industry.

Judith Enck, founder and president of beyond plastics

My goal as a Certified Financial Planner is to simplify my clients’ lives by organizing their financial matters so that they can live their lives fully and enjoy every moment. Areas of my expertise include ESG and impact investments, retirement and legacy planning, college planning, investment management, and insurance.

First Two Food Brands Achieve Soil & Climate Health Initiative Verification

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 28, 2024 – A groundbreaking label is about to arrive in grocery stores, and with it an inspiring glimpse at a thriving, sustainable future for our food system. PACHA and Roots Chips will be the first two companies to carry the Soil & Climate Health Initiative Verified label and will be available in stores nationwide. Over the next 12 months, a growing selection of Soil & Climate Health Initiative Verified products are also slated to hit grocery shelves.

Adam Kotin, Managing Director of the Soil & Climate Initiative (SCI), said: “The Soil & Climate Health Initiative Verified label represents a holistic, science-based commitment to farming systems that seek to restore the land that feeds us.” 

PACHA, an organic food company based in Vista, California, uses sprouted buckwheat and sea salt with organic herbs and spices to make their vegan, gluten-free breads. PACHA sources its buckwheat from verified regenerative farms for all four of their hearty Sourdough Bread products including: Buckwheat Loaf, Garlic Rye, Cheesy Herb, and Buckwheat Buns.

Maddie Hamann, Director of Marketing and Co-Founder of PACHA, said: “PACHA is dedicated to nourishing the health of people AND our planet through regeneratively grown foods. We are so grateful for the farmers making changes to provide our buckwheat, and for SCI's work that is making our mission a reality!” 

Roots Chips, a family-run farm-to-bag Idaho potato chip company based in Aberdeen, Idaho, uses simple and natural ingredients for its farm-fresh products. Roots Chips sources its potatoes from their very own SCI Verified regenerative farms for all five of their savory kettle potato chip flavors including: Sea Salt, Barbecue, Purple Sea Salt, Jalapeño, Sea Salt and Vinegar.

Ladd Wahlen, Co-Founder of Roots Chips and fourth-generation potato farmer, said: “The SCI team has developed an amazing regenerative framework for both farmers and brands that we are thrilled to be a part of. We look forward to this tremendous opportunity to work side by side in this initiative!” 

The Soil & Climate Initiative (SCI), a project of the non-profit Green America, is excited to announce the first products to successfully complete the independent verification process. These specific products are made using ingredients from farms practicing regenerative agriculture – a farming approach that prioritizes healthy, living soil to drive powerful outcomes in carbon drawdown, biodiversity, climate resiliency, and farm prosperity. To earn verification, farms track soil health outcomes, use practices that protect and nourish the soil, and commit to continuous improvement over the long-term. An independent third-party verifier confirms that on-farm activities and monitoring meet the requirements of the program.

Farmers worldwide are on the frontlines of climate change, as they face increasingly erratic weather patterns and shifting temperatures. At the same time, we face stunning losses of the fertile topsoil that sustains food production.

Restoring soil health and its natural ability to draw down atmospheric carbon is a critical step to addressing these climate and soil crises. SCI’s science-based commitment and verification program gives food producers and manufacturers the ability to measure soil health improvements and works to empower the entire food supply chain to scale the transition of acres under regenerative agriculture management.

SCI’s partner program, the Nutrient Density Alliance, will soon launch a report this March focusing on recommendations for food and agriculture brands to make verifiable nutrient density claims related to their use of regenerative agriculture practices.

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ABOUT

Soil & Climate Initiative (SCI), a project of Green America, is a holistic program that empowers and incentivizes farmers and the food supply chain to scale the transition of acres under regenerative agriculture management in order to maximize regenerative outcomes. www.soilclimateinitiative.org  

Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Founded in 1982, Green America provides economic strategies, organizing power and practical tools for businesses and individuals to solve today’s most pressing social and environmental problem. www.greenamerica.org

Nutrient Density Alliance (SCA), a project of Green America, is a program focused on making meaningful nutrient density metrics widely and directly accessible to everyone — from farms to families — that will drive demand for a healthy food system by deepening awareness that human health, including the wellbeing of the soil, water, biodiversity of life above and below the ground, and the welfare of the human beings growing our food. www.nutrientdensityalliance.org

At PACHA, we consciously pick ingredients that contribute to soil health. We chose buckwheat for its deliciously hearty flavor, its numerous health benefits, and its utility in regenerative farming. As a cover crop it helps to prevent erosion and is tilled back into the earth to become fertile soil. Its numerous flowers also promote biodiversity and allow farmers to cut out pesticides.  www.livepacha.com

Our focus at Roots Chips is on regenerative potato farming. Since our first year farming, we have focused on practices that are beneficial to soil health. We are continually improving our sustainable and regenerative practices on our farm. www.rootschips.com  

MEDIA CONTACT: Max Karlin, (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.

From retirement accounts to insurance companies, are you putting your money in accounts that care about people and the planet?

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

Green America Joins 30+ Organizations to Demand Urgent Action

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 20, 2024 - On this World Social Justice Day, the Campaign to End US Child Labor calls for justice for the hundreds of thousands of children across the United States who are forced to work, often in hazardous conditions. Since 2015, US child labor violations have increased 300 percent and in the last three years alone instead of protecting children 28 states have sought to roll back child labor laws. More than 30 organizations including community organizations, human rights and faith groups, think tanks, and trade unions have come together to say enough is enough, launching the Campaign to End US Child Labor to demand that urgent action be taken to protect children across the United States. The Campaign’s Shared Agenda is available here.

Todd Larsen, Executive Co-Director for Consumer & Corporate Engagement at Green America, said: “Green America, which represents over 250,000 US consumers, has a long history advocating for an end to child labor in cocoa-producing countries such as Ivory coast and Ghana. Very sadly, we now must do the same right here in the United States.”

In the last two years, awareness of child labor has surged in public and political debate highlighted by alarming and tragic stories of children, some as young as 10, found working in fast food franchises, performing hazardous work in meat-packing facilities, auto supply factories, and prohibited roofing jobs, among other industries. Behind the headlines are deep-rooted, interrelated injustices keeping hundreds of thousands of children working legally and illegally in exploitative child labor conditions.

The rise in violations uncovered in recent years can be attributed to increased enforcement.  However, currently there is only one inspector for every 230,000 US workers thus making it challenging to reach those children still being exploited and send a stronger signal to employers.

In numerous states the response to this crisis has been to sacrifice children’s interests by weakening protections.  New state laws and proposed legislation across these states make it easier to hire children regardless of interference with schooling, remove requirements for employers to verify workers’ ages, and further put children at risk by allowing them to perform hazardous work.

Jean Tong, Labor Justice Campaigns Director at Green America, said: “A sustainable and equitable economy cannot be built off the backs of children, especially the exploitation of migrant children. We have learned that consumers will pay a fair price for child-labor free chocolate. Hence, companies can and must take the high road to drastically eradicate the worst form of child labor right here in our own backyard.”

The Campaign is calling for these commonsense actions from federal and state government and other relevant stakeholders:

• Protect unaccompanied minor children
• Close child labor loopholes between agricultural and non-agricultural work
• Increase enforcement and establish stronger consequences for child labor violations
• Create legislation that holds corporations to account
• Develop stronger labor rights laws and working conditions
• Establish a social protection system which prevents all children and families from falling into poverty

We must acknowledge our child labor crisis across the United States.  Now is not the time to take us back to the days when it was commonplace for children to be toiling on farms and in factories. “There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children,” said Nelson Mandela.  This Campaign seeks to make the world’s wealthiest country provide basic protections to all the children within its borders.  

For more information about the Campaign to End US Child Labor, please visit www.enduschildlabor.org

Members:

ORGANIZATIONS

100 Million Campaign US

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

Center for Law and Social Policy

Child Labor Coalition

Children's Advocacy Institute

Department of Latin American and Latino Studies at University of Illinois Chicago

Economic Policy Institute

Fair Labor Association

Farmworker Justice

Florida Policy Institute

Food Empowerment Project

GlobalWorks Foundation

Global March Against Child Labor

GoodWeave International

Grace Farms

Green America

HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP

Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation US

Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University 

Media Voices for Children

National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

National Consumers League

National Education Association (NEA)
Phoenix Zones Initiative

School Sisters of Notre Dame Collective Investment Fund

Shine Global Inc.
Tendai Initiative

The Centre for Child Rights and Business

The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati Immigration and Ending Human Trafficking

     Justice Circle

United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS)

Verité

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy

Women’s Refugee Commission

Individuals (affiliations are listed for identification purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement from their affiliated institutions)

Soledad Alvarez Velasco, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago

Mark Anner, Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, and Political Science;

     Director, Center for Global Workers’ Rights, The Pennsylvania State University

Xóchitl Bada, Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Department of

     Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Illinois Chicago

Dr. Linda Forst, Professor Physician, University of Illinois Chicago

Professor Jonathan Fox, Accountability Research Center at American University

Judy Gearhart, Research Professor, Accountability Research Center at American

     University

Shannon Gleeson, Faculty, Cornell University

Shareen Hertel, Wiktor Osiatyński Chair of Human Rights & Professor of Political

     Science, University of Connecticut

Linda Schmid, International Development Adviser, Trade in Services International

Dr. Stephen Silvia, American University

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

ABOUT GREEN AMERICA

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

CAMPAIGN TO END U.S. CHILD LABOR: A SHARED AGENDA

This is an abridged version of the Shared Agenda. Download the full Shared Agenda with detailed recommendations here.

Child labor in the United States has made national and international headlines due to a massive increase in federal child labor violations, state-level roll-backs in child labor protections, and media investigations showing that many children who enter the US unaccompanied are compelled to become child laborers. In mid-2023, the shocking deaths of three children doing hazardous work kept child labor at the forefront of public and political debate.

Behind the headlines, however, are deep-rooted, interrelated injustices driving the surge in illegal child labor and allowing hundreds of thousands of children to work in legal child labor conditions. Central to these are longstanding and discriminatory inequities between laws governing agricultural and non-agricultural work at the federal level, and major gaps in child and social protection measures, particularly for unaccompanied children.

Some policymakers want to turn the clock back a hundred years and expand the child workforce, at the expense of children’s safety, education, and childhoods. No child should be working long hours in dangerous conditions for low pay, but the children who take these jobs do so out of necessity. Overwhelmingly, children involved in child labor are surviving on low-incomes, whether they are unaccompanied migrants or from families experiencing economic hardship. They are disproportionately children of color.

The state-level scramble to create a bigger and younger child workforce, allowed to work longer and later hours, will - at best - deepen educational, economic, and racial inequalities. At worst, it puts more children’s lives in jeopardy. The evidence for this is clear because it is happening in agriculture - which already has lower minimum ages for work and hazardous work, and no restrictions on the number of working hours. 

Our shared agenda calls for:

• The protection of unaccompanied migrant children by ensuring all children have attorneys, are protected by social services, and have access to general assistance programs; and by ending legislation which encourages children being separated from their families in the first place, and enhancing humanitarian pathways and processing. 

• The closing of child labor loopholes between agricultural and non-agricultural work, and regularly reviewing and updating hazardous order regulations. 

• The establishment of stronger consequences for child labor violations and increased enforcement of child labor laws by increasing the capacity of the federal government to enforce the law, holding all companies which benefit from child labor accountable, and substantially raising the level of fines for violations to act as true deterrents. 

• The creation of strong legislation to hold corporations to account for child labor law violations, and for corporations to fund mechanisms to eradicate child labor from supply chains. 

• Stronger labor rights and conditions by raising the minimum wage, ending discrimination against farmworkers, regularizing the status of the current immigrant workforce, protecting the right to organize, and preventing states from eroding labor standards. 

• A social protection system which prevents all children and families from falling into poverty, and which includes undocumented migrants and unaccompanied children. 

This shared agenda has been compiled by representatives of  non-profit organizations, academic institutions, and trade unions working in the fields of child labor and exploitation, labor rights, unaccompanied children, and children’s rights. Critically, it includes the perspectives of survivors and people from impacted communities. It provides clear recommendations to end child labor in all its forms,and will be a critical tool for legislators and practitioners at local, state, and national levels.

This is a guest blog from Green Business Network member Longwave Financial.

Love is in the air, and while hearts flutter, finances can often be a cause of stress and concern for couples in all stages of life. As Valentine’s Day approaches, I can share a personal reflection on the intersection of love, money, and values. Recently engaged myself, my partner Taylor and I have embarked on an exhilarating journey, not just into wedding planning, but also into candid discussions about our shared financial future. We’ve found ourselves navigating the delicate balance between love and the reality of financial responsibility. It's been a revelation, exploring how our shared values shape our financial aspirations.  

These conversations inspired me to curate our best financial tips to people of all ages, because whether you’re in the bloom of youth, navigating adulthood together, or savoring the golden years, making sound decisions around your money can ensure a lifetime of financial harmony.  
 

For the younger lovebirds: Build your financial foundation  

1. Communicate and plan together: Openly discuss your financial goals, savings plans, and investments. Communication is key for any couple, and being on the same page with your money will strengthen both your relationship and financial wellbeing.  

2. Define your investing priorities: One of you may agitate for social justice while the other may want to take a strong stand against fossil fuels. Both of you may want to put investment dollars towards corporate transparency. The best way to be aligned about the “how” is by discussing the “why” and identifying areas of common ground. You can have an annual “state of the (financial) union” meeting to review and adjust if needed. 

3. Start investing early: Getting a head start on your investing journey can make a meaningful impact on your financial future. Take advantage of the "snowball effect" of compounding interest and impact by investing in ESG-focused index funds or ETFs as early as you can. Since your returns and impact not only grow on your original investment but also on the accumulating earnings, time and consistency work for you.    

4. Budget wisely: Track your expenses jointly and cultivate mindful spending habits that fit into your budget and align with your values. Make a shared effort to engage with local businesses, second-hand item platforms, and ethical brands.  

For the seasoned romantics: Solidify your financial stability  

1. Establish an emergency fund: Life often throws the unexpected our way. Setting aside 3-6 months-worth of expenses in a community bank or credit union can put your mind at ease in case of an unexpected expense.  

2. Plan ahead: Strategize for life’s pivotal moments – retirement, your children’s education, and future healthcare costs – utilize tax-advantaged accounts like 401(k) plans, 529 plans, and Health Savings Accounts to optimize your savings in a way that aligns with your long-term goals.  

3. Have protection in place: As you enter your prime earning years, it’s important to protect yours and your loved ones’ financial wellbeing. Consider reviewing your insurance coverage – life, health, and disability – to safeguard your nest egg in the case of unforeseen circumstances.   

For the boundless soulmates: Preserve your financial serenity  

1. Have a spending plan in place: The first time you no longer receive a paycheck after retirement can be a real shock to most people. When you start to rely on your investments for income, determine how much you can take out of your retirement accounts each year to ensure your money lasts as long as you do. Consider factors like life expectancy, healthcare expenses, philanthropic goals and your desired lifestyles together. Sticking to an annual withdrawal plan can allow for a secure financial future. 

2. Stay vigilant of healthcare costs: Healthcare expenses can be a significant burden during your retirement. Review your Medicare coverage and consider supplemental plans to fill any gaps. It’s also important to stay proactive about your health and wellness to minimize potential impacts of medical expenses in the future.  

3. Plan with purpose: Estate planning starts to become top of mind as you get older. If you haven’t already, engage with an estate attorney to draft documents like your will, power of attorney, and healthcare proxy, so your legacy follows your wishes without interruption.  

In every stage of life, weaving love with a financially responsible lifestyle adds a beautiful melody to life’s journey. Whether you are embarking on budding romances, enduring partnerships, or cherishing timeless connections, embracing an open dialogue around your finances can enrich your lives and relationships. Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Brennen is a financial advisor at Longwave Financial, with offices in NYC and the Hudson Valley, and clients throughout the country. He prides himself on his innate attention to detail, empathy, and professionalism to deliver exceptional service to clients. An ideal day for Brennen is one spent outdoors; some of his favorite activities include hiking, fly fishing, and the occasional round of golf. As a native of the Hudson Valley who grew up swimming in the river, Brennen developed an interest in sustainability. This motivated him to complete his ESG certification through Columbia Business School Executive Education, to learn how impact investing can drive change. Combined with his Certified Financial Planner™ designation, Brennen supports clients in making financial life decisions through the prism of their values. 

Investments are subject to risk, including the loss of principal. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria is based on a set of non-financial principles in addition to financial principles used to evaluate potential investments. The incorporation of non-financial principles (i.e. social, environmental, political) can factor heavily into the security selection process. The investment’s social or environmental focus may limit the investment options available to the investor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. 

Securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network®, member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser.  Additional advisory services offered through Longwave Financial LLC are separate and unrelated to Commonwealth. 

Longwave Financial 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 845 New York, NY 10170 212-279-9121 

Green America's Green Business Network is the first and most diverse network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses in the country. Now one certified Green Business Network member, Natural Investments, is taking this a step further, by reorganizing as a perpetual purpose trust.

In taking this step, Natural Investments was inspired by Patagonia, which made headline news in 2022 when its owners, Yvon Chouinard, his wife, and two adult children, transferred their ownership of the company – valued at $3 billion – to a special purpose trust and nonprofit organization.

The idea was to preserve Patagonia’s independence as a for-profit company while ensuring its profits – about $100 million per year – are used in perpetuity to fight climate change and conserve undeveloped land around the world.

“Hopefully, this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,” Chouinard told The New York Times. “We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet.”

In 2023 Natural Investments became the first financial services company to transfer its ownership to a perpetual purpose trust.

“It’s an exciting moment in Natural Investments’ history,” writes Michael Kramer, previous managing partner and now trust steward. “Democratizing our ownership structure empowers new decision-makers, facilitates gender and racial equality in determining the priorities and direction of the company, assures a careful and gradual leadership succession, and yields wider economic benefits.”

Why restructure company ownership?

Natural Investments was founded in 1985 as one of the first socially responsible investment advisors in the United States. The founding partners started revolving loan funds and pushed for divestment from companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. They educated people about finance as a way to make change in the world, writing three books on socially responsible investing.

In 1992, Natural Investments launched its Heart Rating, the first rating system to compare environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria used by mutual fund managers to select funds.

As the field of sustainable investing grew, Natural Investments grew with it, hiring more – and more diverse – financial advisors who managed increasing assets. What started in the 1980s as $50 million under management by a handful of co-owners grew into $1.8 billion under management by 20 financial advisors at the end of 2023.

“As we brought on additional advisors in the past 16 years, our long-term plan was always to pass on firm management and ownership to younger advisors,” Kramer explains. The way this typically works is for older retiring partners to sell ownership shares to younger advisors who buy into the partnership.

But as so often in life, things did not go according to plan. Because of Natural Investments’ exponential growth, the cost of shares in the business had skyrocketed, putting ownership out of reach for younger advisors, many of whom are women and people of color. 

The firm had to find another solution that would ensure leadership succession to people who shared the founders’ core purpose, values, and management style. Enter the perpetual purpose trust.

How does it work?

A perpetual purpose trust is a non-charitable trust established for the benefit of a purpose rather than a person or persons, according to the Purpose Foundation. Unlike most trusts, perpetual purpose trusts can operate indefinitely. Their purpose is defined in a governing document called a Trust Agreement and overseen by a board called the Trust Stewardship Committee.

In the case of Natural Investments, the trust’s stated objectives are:

• Sustain our fiduciary duty to clients.
• Aim for a budget that reasonably balances the firm’s operational reserves, expenditures, and profit distribution.
• Provide infrastructure and ongoing regulatory, legal, and administrative services that bring value to advisors.
• Share economic rewards equitably among all advisors.
• Operate responsibly and equitably for the benefit of advisors, staff, clients, communities, society, and the environment.
• Promote an inclusive sharing of power in firmwide decision-making.

Decision-making authority moved from a few managing partners with varying levels of ownership and voting power in the firm to a Trust Stewardship Committee comprised of seven representatives, each with equal voting power. Other than one manager with a permanent seat on the committee, trust stewards are elected by advisors and their staff and serve staggered three-year terms.

“Establishing a Trust Stewardship Committee with 43% women and 29% people of color has also instantly changed our gender and racial leadership composition, as we had been 80% to 100% owned by white men for the past 38 years,” Kramer says. “This change is an important reflection of our ongoing internal justice, equity, diversity and inclusion commitments that are championed by our Race Equity Team and integrate the suggestions in a race equity audit we conducted with consultants.”

Best of all, no one had to go into debt buying ownership shares to take a leadership position.

Legal matters

Among the key advantages of a perpetual purpose trust are succession planning, asset protection, and flexibility, attorney Matthew Erskine writes in Forbes. Among the disadvantages is complexity and cost. Documents must be drafted for each business, and most states have no guidelines for governance.

To address this, Natural Investments worked with Purposed Owned, a consultancy for succession planning using purpose trusts, to convert their Colorado-based LLC to a Public Benefit LLC registered in Delaware, which has legislation that oversees tracking and reporting of benefits. They then borrowed a small percentage of the firm’s sale price from a longstanding community development financial institution (CDFI) to pay retiring partners for a portion of their ownership shares.

“To those of us who’ve been here for 20+ years, this graceful transition was far more important than maximizing our own personal profit,” Kramer says. “We have had many offers from larger firms to fully purchase or take equity positions that would have been more lucrative for exiting partners, but we opted to preserve the firm’s autonomy and identity while maintaining complete internal control.”

As the experience of both Patagonia and Natural Investments shows, the perpetual purpose trust is a viable option for responsible businesses whose managers want to ensure they can continue to make a positive impact on society while giving employees an equal voice for as long as the company exists.

Together we can put our money to work for good. Find a list of socially responsible financial planners and investment consultants, including Natural Investments, in Green America's Fossil Free Financial Products and Services pages, or in the Green Business Network's directory of Financial Advisors and Planners. You can also find mission-driven community development banks and credit unions in Green America's Get A Better Bank map.

The 1^st of February signifies the commencement of Black History Month, a time to honor and emphasize the importance of learning and celebrating Black history and culture. This year’s theme is “African Americans and the Arts.” While Black History Month takes place in February in honor of the birthdays of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, the observation is a call to engage in a deeper understanding of Black history – one that highlights the entirety of the Black community and culture and subsequent infinite contributions to the world beyond the simplified study of only a few vastly known heroes. 

Black History Month began in 1926 as a week of education and recognition initiated by Carter G. Woodson, co-founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH). His call to spend a week invested in a full education of Black history was met with an overwhelming supportive response. This week of pinpointing the significance and value of acknowledging the past as well as supporting the present and future of the Black community was extended into a month-long event in 1976 by President Gerald Ford.  

“There is no American history without African American history.” This statement by Executive Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center Sara Kaplan embodies why the month’s call to action for widespread public education on Black history and culture is so important and points to the critical failure of both the American educational system and society as a whole to adequately recognize the history of minority-identified communities – at worst, complete erasure, and often times at best, a misrepresentation of the past so rushed and whitewashed it may be even more harmful.  

An accurate viewing of the history of America reveals the countless (and often unrecognized) ways members of the Black community have forged the past, present, and future of the country. Despite the foundational economic growth traced directly to Black labor – both pre- and post-emancipation – African American workers were only introduced as a category to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1972, 88 years after the bureau’s creation. Black communities battling systemic environmental racism were simultaneously leading many of the fights for positive environmental change and forming the modern environmental justice movement.  

Dr. Danielle Morgan, Assistant Professor at Santa Clara University, pointed to Mike Pence’s 2017 address in which he introduced the beginning of Black History Month with the story of Abraham Lincoln as a perfect example of why the awareness and public call to action incited by this month remains as important as ever: “A month celebrating the accomplishments of Black people was introduced by a vice president celebrating the accomplishments of a white man. I guess even Black History Month isn’t safe from appropriation.”  

The vastness of underrepresented cultural and historical topics within the broad category of Black history Informs the most crucial aspect of Black History Month: it shouldn’t just be a month. Even then, the core message of Black History Month is to inspire continuous education and activism in all areas of life – the classroom, the home, the workplace, and beyond – to cultivate widespread public understanding and recognition as well as repair the disastrous erasure and misrepresentation of Black history. The very fact that Black history is often isolated within an “official” time span not even 30 days long is representative of the issue on its own. 

Holiday background and social justice: 

The Importance of BHM/ NPR 

Black Women Who Made History 

Black History Month: A Legacy of Social Justice  

Why we still need Black History Month in the US  

NMAAHC Celebrate Black History Month 2024 

American Descendants of Slavery: Black Agenda 

Economy: 

Black History Month: At EDA, Equity is Our Number One Investment Priority 

Black History Month: Reflecting on Money Milestones 

African American Workers Built America 

Celebrating Black History Month: The history and future of African-American wealth 

Green America Black-Owned Businesses Greenpages 

The Greenlining Institute 

Environment: 

The Environmental Justice Movement Is Rooted In Black History  

Black History Month: 10 Environmental Justice Groups & Leaders We Celebrate Today—& Every Day 

Environmental Organizations to Support for Black History Month 

What is Environmental Racism? 

In person events: 

DC: Black History Film Festival 

Black History Month Smithsonian 

Historically Black Phrases Live! In DC 

NY: Harlem Chamber Players 16th Annual Black History Month Celebration  

Virtual events: 

BHM: Virtual Festival 

Black History Month: Insights on Tracking African-Diasporan Roots 

Black Open Mic – Black History Month 

Books: 

The 1619 Project By Nikole Hannah-Jones 

You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays By Zora Neale Hurston 

A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story By Elaine Brown 

The Color Purple By Alice Walker 

Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston 

Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison 

The Vanishing Half By Brit Bennett 

The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness By Michelle Alexander  

Shopping at small and local businesses is good for the circular economy and a best practice for supporting people and the planet. This is doubly true for businesses owned and operated by diverse leadership, especially those who have been kept from wealth accumulation. Patronizing Black-owned businesses for Black History Month—and beyond—is smart way to Vote with Your Dollar and uplift those who have been historically marginalized. 

There are numerous proven benefits to shopping from Black businesses, including helping close the racial wealth gap, fostering job creation, encouraging access to communities most in need, and more. 

To help get you started, consider shopping these Black-owned green businesses that are part of the Green Business Network at Green America. 

Wooden Element 

Wooden Element {GBN} is a sustainable jewelry and accessory shop, specializing in wooden watches, sunglasses, jewelry, and more. 

Husband-and-wife duo Natalie & David Akerele founded the company, based in Peoria, IL, to foster a love of sustainable fashion and give back to their local economy and community, as well as issues that are close to their hearts. A portion of the sales support Easter Seals, Best Buddies International (IL Chapter), and Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) - Egbe Revitalization Project West Africa, as well as Aletheia School in Peoria. 

Wooden Elements products are made with Forest Stewardship Council certified sourced wood and the sunglasses feature recycled plastic and biodegradable cellulose acetate frames. The jewelry, meanwhile, features PETA-approved vegan cork jewelry & accessories. 

For a loved one’s next birthday or holiday gift, consider some truly unique wooden and sustainable accessories. 

Mirrors Decorated 

Tuesday Winslow started Mirrors Decorated {GBN} based on her love of recycled paper art. A self-described creative & innovative papier-mâché artist, it all began with cardboard sheet inserts from her father’s boxed dry-cleaned shirts. 

Now, Winslow creates truly unique art pieces, from papier-mâché wall mirrors, ornaments, and wood mirrors in various shops that can fit any room and aesthetic. 

Leading with sustainable practices, all Mirrors Decorated items are made from the old and discarded, including recycled office paper, newspaper, egg carton and paper bags. 

Get the Bag 

Gloria Ware’s Get the Bag {GBN} offers a fun and easy way to support Black women entrepreneurs with a quarterly subscription box. 

The box features all types of products from Black-owned brands, primarily sourced by Black women-owned brands. Each box has a theme and 4-6 high-quality items from the following categories: 

• Financial learning opportunity or tool 
• Food 

• Beverage (tea, coffee or a supplement mix) 
• Business, leadership or self-care book 
• Office swag 
• Self-care item 

Plus, each box also comes with subscriber-only access to webinars, "office hours,” talks with investors, lenders, grant-makers, brands and successful entrepreneurs. 

4 Elements Bath Products 

At 4Elements {GBN}, there are two main goals: taking care of the self while taking care of the planet. 

The online store offers a variety of products to up your self-care game, from body products to hair care and essential oil blends. There are items for everyone and every part of your body, including men and gender-nonconforming people with facial hair. 

How are all the body oils, soaps, lip balms, and more made sustainably? 4Elements sources organic and wild harvested products and the only preservatives used are natural and extracted from plants. Further, essential oils are extracted at “key times in the growing cycle of plants." 

For your next at-home spa day, consider 4Elements for all your needs. 

SMB Essentials 

Keep the self-care going with Lake Louise’s SMB Essentials {GBN}. The “SMB” stands for skin, mind, and body, with Louise believing that championing green beauty through inclusivity and responsibility is the way forward. 

SMB Essentials is comprised of two different brandsm, with more on the way: 

• Lotus Moon Skin Care: This plant-based skincare line draws from an Ayurvedic (ancient Indian system of natural healing) and aromatherapeutic approach to provide therapeutic and sensory effects. 
• Plain Jane Beauty: An eco-beauty color cosmetics line, “inspired by nature’s brilliant colors,” is a line that celebrates people of all shapes, sizes and skin tones.

Greening the economy is an important element of taking care of our planet. Join millions of Green Americans by shopping the Green Pages of the Green Business Network. 

Green America strives to provide informative and engaging webinars that help individuals make positive changes in their daily lives. Join us as we explore ways to create a more sustainable future for ourselves and the planet.

Many large insurers are scaling back coverage and raising rates, all while insuring fossil fuel projects and investing in fossil fuels.

Trader Joe’s received one of the worst scores on Green America’s retailer chocolate scorecard; it shares very little information about what they are doing to address child labor and deforestation in the chocolate from which it profits.

Specialized, the cycling company, likes to position itself as a green company, but there is nothing green about the fact that workers who make Specialized clothing are being cheated out of wages.  

Tell your House Representative: Protect my freedom to invest responsibly by joining the Sustainable Investment Caucus.

It’s a new year and excitement is high for what’s ahead—what we all wish to accomplish, to experience, to pursue as we prepare for another orbit around the sun. One area to think about in a world that demands us to consume is shopping. These ethical shopping resolutions can help anyone become a more conscientious consumer, even in the faces of capitalism and greed. 

Learn Greenwashing Terms 

It is no secret anymore that companies participate in the deceptive tactic of greenwashing, boasting claims of hard-to-verify or outright false sustainability practices, and it’s time customers take a stand. 

The first step is a crash-course in what greenwashing is and how to avoid it. Terms like “all-natural” or “biodegradable” are thrown on products a lot these days, enticing shoppers with imagery of plants and green fonts. Unfortunately, these words and marketing ploys are most often just that: ways to get consumers to buy without arousing suspicion. 

Losing customers is the easiest way to put pressure on a business and let them know you’ll no longer be buying their products if they continue to greenwash and don’t adopt true sustainable practices. 

Look for Certifications 

One quick tool in your arsenal to fight back against greenwashing is looking for certifications. There are many kinds, and they can quickly tell you if a product and its company have been vetted by a third party for various standards. 

The Green Business Network’s “environmentally ethical and socially responsible” certification is one such option, showcasing three areas: environmental responsibility, social equity, and accountability. 

There are several others, covering everything from sustainability to animal testing and beyond. Here are some to learn about and look for: B Corp, 1% for the Planet, Non-GMO, USDA Organic, Leaping Bunny, Cruelty-Free, and the Vegan trademark. 

Get Your Finances in Ethical Order 

To consume is, often, to spend. In a world where inflation rates can change on a dime, wages continue to stagnate, and money is stressful, however, it can feel impossible to navigate how to spend your money, where to keep it, and beyond. 

That’s why it’s so important, before you go out into the world as an ethical consumer, you get your finances in order. 

No matter your age, you can start learning about or participating in socially responsible investing, and for those just getting started in adulthood and independence, there are ways for you, too, to get your finances on track from the jump. 

Become more financially empowered with Green America 

Shop from Diverse-Owned, Small Businesses 

BIPOC communities make up about 40% of the US population, but only account for 20% of the country’s small business owners. Entrepreneurship is a way of building wealth in this country, something from which marginalized communities have long been excluded. 

Green Americans can help combat this, and close the racial gap, by intentionally shopping at diverse-owned businesses and voting with their dollar. 

Anyone can browse the thousands of Green Business Network members using the Green Pages online, including shopping specifically from diverse-owned businesses. Within the Green Pages, customers can filter by businesses with diverse ownership, including AAPI, Black, people with disabilities, Latinx, LGBTQ, veterans, women, and workers. 

The types of businesses run the gamut and offer everything for every type of shopper. 

Sustainable Threads, an AAPI-owned business, boasts an array of fair trade, handmade items, while Eco Dog Care, which is disability-owned, offers all the ethical, natural and sustainable grooming products you need for your furry friend. 

Demand Better from Your Favorite Establishments 

Don’t underestimate the power of individual, collective action—but also don’t let the powers that be off the hook. 

A powerful way to take on corporate misdeeds is by demanding better from businesses or lobbying your local legislators to recognize it and act. 

The next time you’re at your favorite bar or restaurant, talk to a manager about making the switch to more sustainable materials and that you’d even be willing to pay a little extra for them. Or, if you spot greenwashing, get in touch with the company and tell them why it’s an issue and why you won’t be shopping from them anymore. 

You can also contact your city council and encourage them to adopt and enforce sustainable legislation, such as single-use plastic bans or ethical labor practices. 

Now that you have these ethical shopping resolutions in your repertoire, it’s time to get out in the world and make this year the one where you, the consumer, are in charge. 

Read about the 2024 green resolutions for business owners. 

The holidays are officially on our doorsteps and with them, a rush to get our loved ones the perfect gifts—or ourselves! Why not save money and show kindness to the planet by shopping eco-friendly holiday sales? 

Save on everything from fair trade jewelry to plant-based skincare and organic pet products.

Every sale recommended in this article comes from our thousands of certified Green Business Network members, which meet or exceed Green America’s standards for social and environmental responsibility. 

Up to 60% Off Beds, Bedding, and Mattresses 

Looking to upgrade your bedroom, or gift someone a luxurious bedding set? Then check out PlushBeds’ sales for the holidays.

Here are the details of the company’s sale on sustainable and organic bedding products: 

• $1,250 off Bedroom Mattresses + Receive $599 in Free Bedding with Purchase (Free: 2 organic pillows, organic sheet set, organic mattress protector) 
• 25% off sitewide 

Get Free Goat's Milk Soap with $75 Purchase

Luxe out your bathroom with goat's milk soap from Be Green Bath + Body! 

• Free goat's milk soap and free shipping with $75 purchase (thru 12/11/23)

25% off Sitewide for Fair Trade Products 

The fair trade green business WorldFinds is running a holiday sale to encourage more conscious shopping amongst consumers. 

• Get 25% off sitewide with code GREEN25 (thru 12/31/23)

Get 10% Off Fair Trade Jewelry 

Dunitz & Company offers beautiful, fair trade jewelry made of fused glass, laser art, and more.

• 10% off sitewide with code HOLIDAY23 (thru 12/25/23)

Up to 50% Floral Ointments, Cremes, and More

Use the power of florals with FES Flowers' tinctures, cremes, and more to treat everything from muscle tension, sleep difficulties, and beyond.

• Up to 50% off on various products (thru 12/17/23)

10% Off and Free Shipping of Fair Trade Woven African Baskets 

Give the unique gift of woven African baskets from the fair trade business Baskets of Africa. 

• 10% OFF everything and free shipping in the 48 states (thru 12/31/23) 

Get 20% Off Plant-Based Skincare 

Shop functional + plant-based skincare from Lotus Moon at SMB Essentials to address the changes in our skin safely and naturally.  

• 20% off with the code GREEN20 (thru 12/31/23)

Get 25% Off Eco-Friendly Shampoo and Laundry Bars

One great way to adopt sustainable habits at home is avoiding plastic packaging—bars packaged in recyclable materials, for everything from showering to laundry and hand soap, is the new frontier. Tangie is encouraging this with its holiday sale on all products! 

• 25% off all products with code GREEN25 

Daily December Deals on Sustainable Products

Sustainable retail shop What's Good is running daily deals throughout December for the holidays, on everything from shampoo bars and more.

• Various daily deals (thru 12/12/23)

Get 20% Off Ethical Candles

Many candles are made with toxic materials, but not the fun and vast collection of candles at Big Dipper Wax Works. From carved candles to pillar candles in so many scents, you can find a great gift for anyone. 

• 20% Off Winter Holidays & Gift Sets Collection (from 12/5-12/7/23)

Get a Free Gift Certificate or Products for the Bedroom 

White Lotus Home wants to give back to you for shopping eco-friendly bedding this holiday season! 

• Free gifts for shopping at White Lotus (thru December)

Get 20% Off Fair Trade Jewelry and Gifts

Get unique fair trade gifts like jewelry or these mushroom salt and pepper shakes from Lucia's Imports!

• 20% off sitewide with code GBN20 (thru December)

Get 20% Off Bamboo Bed Linens

Enjoy the comforts of bamboo linens for the bedroom with BedVoyage’s holiday sale this year! 

• 20% off sitewide with code GreenBamboo20 (thru 1/1/24) 

Get 20% Off New 100% Natural Organic Hand Towels

Gilden Tree is offering 20% off their new tassel hand towels, made of 100% natural cotton and Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Certified. They're also absorbent and quick-drying.

• 20% off with code TASSEL20 (from 12/10-12/16/23)

Get 10% Off Mrs. Meyers Products and More

Dolphin Blue is offering a 10% discount on various products for the holidays.

• 10% off Mrs. Meyers products, Tree Planting Gift, Eco Coin Purses and Love Letter to the Earth Book with code gbn10* 

Up to 50% Mattresses and Bedding

Make your bedroom the most comfortable room in your house with Keetsa's end of year sales, featuring mattresses and bedding up to 50%.

• Up to 50% various products (thru December)

Get 50% Off Sustainable Jewelry

Gift beautiful, sustainable jewelry for the holidays from Aid Through Trade.

• 50% off sitewide with code GREENAMERICA

Get 10% Off Reusable Food Savers

Make sure none of your delicious holiday food goes to waste with Food Huggers' reusable food savers, allowing you to make everything last longer, from producer to butter and beyond.

• 10% off sitewide and free shipping on orders over $39.99 with code HOLIDAYHUGS10 (from 12/8-12/11/23)

Get 50% Off Egyptian Cotton Baby Clothing

Everyone from one to 83 deserves lush, sustainable, and enjoyable gifts for the holidays. The organic Egyptian cotton clothing at Under the Nile meets all the standards and more.

• 50% off sitewide (thru December)

Get 10% Off Corporate Gifts 

Are you a business looking to get gifts for your employees or clients? Then check out EcoPlum, a B2B (business-to-business) green business, selling everything from customizable apparel to wellness products. 

• 10% off orders of $2500 or more (thru December)

Wherever you go—from your inbox to your favorite radio station—you’re probably hearing a lot about Black Friday. Companies would like you to be thinking about “doorbusters”, sales, and a rush to get the good stuff before it’s gone this shopping season.

Here at Green America, we cringe when we hear “shopping season” because for big box stores and massive online retailers, the winter holidays are a time to get people to spend as much as possible, when stores lure customers in with sales that trick people into spending more than they intended or buy without thinking of what they truly need. 

Here’s why this Black Friday, we’re not buying it. 

Sweatshop labor and worker abuses

From fashion to phones, most items sold on Amazon or in big box stores and department stores are made by people in factories across the globe who are paid far less than what their labor is worth. Being paid just a few dollars a day leaves workers in a cycle of poverty they are not able to escape. This is the case in the US too, where retail workers make far less than the cost of living and retail and warehouse jobs around the holiday season can be punishing to the point of being dangerous.  
 
Remember also, that we have far from eradicated child labor—an estimated 160 million children are victims of child labor and could be the ones making anything from rugs to chocolate. 

For chocolates made without child labor and deforestation, try these A-rated chocolate companies. 

Toxic chemicals

Conventional clothes, furniture, and tech gadgets more often than not have toxic chemical finishes that provide stain-, water-, fire-, or wrinkle-proofing, or make the manufacturing process easier and have been linked to health effects like hormone disruption and cancer.  

The effects of these toxins are the most serious for workers, including those in the factory, warehouse, and retail fronts, as long as they are handling the toxic chemical finishes.

PFAS is among the most harmful that we are currently aware of and has been found on water-resistant and waterproof clothing. PFAS is linked to reproductive issues and birth defects. It persists in the environment for so long that it is also known as "forever chemicals."

Waste

It’s not wasteful to buy things that you need—warm winter boots, a new computer when yours can’t be repaired, toys and books for growing kids. What is wasteful is buying way more than what you need or can use. Presents that end up in the trash next year or fall apart after a few uses just aren’t worth it.

One aspect of voting with your dollar is choosing not to spend when you don’t need to. We think some of the best gifts are the gift of experience, that have no waste—like a dinner at a favorite restaurant, a concert, or gift certificates for services you can give, like baking or babysitting. 

Dirty energy and climate change

Did you know that despite Amazon’s pledge to reduce its climate impacts, its climate footprint is actually growing and is equal to Norway’s?  A lot of that impact comes from all the products Amazon sells, including materials like plastic for toys, cobalt for phone and computer batteries, and all sorts of clothing materials that can have negative impacts on the planet.

In fact, the fashion industry emits more carbon emissions than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

When you can, buy local products made from sustainable materials to reduce your climate impact. Find all sorts of great gifts from certified sustainable and socially just businesses at Green America's Green Pages.

Join us this year. Skip Black Friday.

This year, we encourage you to skip shopping on Black Friday. Instead, take some time to appreciate what you already have, like the items that make your house feel homey or the people in your life you love. 

When you do decide to buy gifts:

• Shop certified green businesses in our Green Pages
• Try these greener alternatives to Amazon
• Support these Black- and women-owned businesses

While we cannot shop our way to sustainability, we can purchase with purpose and vote with our dollars to support businesses who reflect our values and treat people and the planet with true respect.

If your family tradition is to lay your (homemade, secondhand, or recycled content) gifts under a brightly decorated Christmas tree, you’ve likely wondered what the most sustainable option is to keep the festive feel while reducing your impact on the Earth.

Green America is here to help! There are a variety of Christmas tree options and ways you can make the earth-friendly choice for your family to be more sustainable.

Potted Christmas Trees

You can still enjoy decorating a tree and that delightful pine smell by selecting an organic potted tree, available at organic nurseries and some tree farms. Choose a tree that’s right for your climate, and the soil and light conditions where you will be planting it (the folks at the nursery or tree farm can help you with this). Make sure to keep it watered, since young trees are very thirsty!

You can absolutely decorate this tree but try to keep your Christmas lights to smaller and LED bulbs to prevent damaging the tree with heat.

Plant it! You can leave the tree in your house for a week and half, but then move it to the garage or patio for one day after the holiday, so it can readjust to being outside. Then plant your tree outside and water it well once it’s in the ground.

Sustainable Christmas Tree Alternatives

There are many creative ideas you can use to create a tree of your own through recovered or reusable materials. Some great ideas include:

• Using beloved books in your house, stack them in the shape of a Christmas tree and hang ornaments on the book corners.

• Look for sturdy fallen branches around your neighborhood and connect them with colorful ribbon or twine. Hang your ornaments along the branches and rejoice that there will be no need to sweep up fallen pine needles. 
   
• Another fun idea is attaching your ornaments onto a decorative board and hanging it to your wall. This nostalgic ‘tree’ is easy to take down and store to use year after year.

Cut Trees

Almost all cut Christmas trees are harvested from tree farms, many of which are family owned and operated. These farms generally plant about two trees for every one they cut, and often use rocky soil that does not support other types of agriculture. This means that instead of barren land, the farm hosts trees that provide oxygen and combat climate change.

It’s very important to make sure that you obtain your tree from an organic tree farm, as many companies use pesticides which contaminate groundwater and are harmful to wildlife. Check out Local Harvest to find listings for organic tree farms across the country. Many conventional trees are treated with chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin most harmful to children. A cut tree that isn’t organic might still have chlorpyrifos on it when it reaches your home.

When Christmas is over, resist any temptation to burn the tree in your fireplace after the holiday is over, since evergreen smoke will distribute pine tar in your flu and chimney, which can clog the chimney and may even catch fire.

For proper tree disposal, look for local opportunities to recycle and compost your fir friend. Visit search.earth911.com to learn the best way to recycle trees in your town. Some municipalities will accept Christmas trees after New Years for a certain amount of time.

If you have a compost pile, you can compost both organic and conventional trees, since most pesticides rapidly degrade during the composting process and do not persist in harmful concentrations.

Artificial Christmas Trees

Since live trees have the potential to harbor pollens and molds, those who suffer from severe allergies might consider an artificial tree. Artificial trees can be used year after year and are made from a combination of plastic, steel, and aluminum.

The way these trees are constructed make them unrecyclable in your municipal recycling program. Once discarded, your artificial tree will spend centuries in your local landfill. The majority of these trees also come from factories in China, where many workers spend long hours in sweatshop conditions.

While these trees can be used sustainably throughout their lifetime, the creation and disposal of them have severe consequences to people and the planet. If you already have an artificial tree, the most sustainable option is to use it for as long as you possibly can.

As for disposal, artificial Christmas trees cannot be recycled due to their mixed materials. If you need to dispose of it, check with local charities, shelters, and churches to see if they could reuse your old artificial tree. You will have the most luck in November, when thrift stores can resell.

If you’d like to learn more about small steps you can take to greener, happier festivities, check out our Green Holiday Checklist to find more tips for a more sustainable season! 

From the most recent issue of our magazine, Green American, where we update readers on the progress we've made over the last quarter on climate, finance, food, labor, social justice, and more.

Addressing the Climate Crisis

We are working to eliminate the major sources of greenhouse gases—from energy use to refrigerants. Our Cool It! Campaign urges supermarkets to upgrade their refrigerants, and to reduce leaks of highly polluting conventional hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, which are around 1,400 times worse for the climate than carbon dioxide.

VICTORY! We pressured Trader Joe’s to announce that all of its new stores will use more climate-friendly refrigerants. The announcement came after more than 20,000 Green Americans urged Trader Joe’s to take action, and after the Environmental Investigation Agency, a Green America ally, ranked Trader Joe’s poorly on its Climate-Friendly Supermarkets Scorecard.

“Consumer awareness and concern about Trader Joe’s climate emissions is having an impact,” says Dan Howells, Green America’s climate campaigns director. “But Trader Joe’s has a long way to go to catch up with grocery chains like Aldi, Target, and Whole Foods on climate-friendly refrigerants. Trader Joe’s now needs to retrofit its 530 existing stores to use ultra-low Global Warming Potential refrigerants.”

Our campaign to urge the telecom sector to adopt clean energy and support energy justice got AT&T to support community solar and Verizon to add more wind power this year.  And, we mobilized 150,000 people to support a recently issued US EPA rule to slash methane emissions throughout the country.

WHAT’S NEXT: We’ll keep the pressure on Kroger, which operates more than 2,600 stores nationally, with only seven using refrigerants that are better for the planet. And we are expanding our “Hang Up on Fossil Fuels” campaign to get more major players in the communications sector to adopt renewable energy and energy justice. We’re also joining community groups to reduce the harmful impacts of biomass fuels that are destroying forests and damaging communities throughout the country.

Advancing Regenerative Agriculture

Conventional industrial agriculture drives climate change, while also destroying soil health, and depleting the nutrient density of our food. That’s why Green America is leading the way to expand regenerative agriculture practices and help farmers nationwide create healthy soil, sequester carbon, and produce more nutritious food.

VICTORY! This year, we enrolled farms representing a total of 126,000 acres under cultivation in our Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI), a commitment and verification program that supports farmers in restoring healthy, living soil on their land. Healthier soil grows healthier food, so this year we also launched our Nutrient Density Alliance. We’re working with food companies, nutritionists, and the medical community to drive demand for regenerative agriculture, so healthier food will be available in all communities.

Our Climate Victory Gardens (CVGs) Campaign empowers tens of thousands of people nationwide, by providing guidance and resources to new and experienced gardeners. The more than 21,000 CVGs registered on our website drew down 4,740 tons of carbon this year, eliminating emissions equal to 39 million miles driven!

WHAT’S NEXT: We’ll bring more brands on board with our regenerative agriculture work, partner with more farmers of color, and increase our work highlighting the increased nutrition that regeneratively grown crops provide. We’ll also go live with our Soil Carbon Initiative verification, and consumers will be able to see the new “Soil & Climate Health Initiative” label on products in stores.

And we’ll work to increase the number of registered Climate Victory Gardens to 25,000 and grow and expand community gardens throughout the US.

Protecting Workers from Toxic Chemicals

Exposure to toxic chemicals is one of the leading sources of worker injury in the world, and the electronics and apparel sectors are major offenders. Our Clean Electronic Production Network (CEPN)—a multi-stakeholder collaborative network including some of the largest tech companies—runs our “Toward Zero Exposure” Program, a commitment and verification program supporting companies in eliminating priority chemicals from factories, protecting millions of workers. This year, CEPN added 16 more toxic chemicals to the list of priority chemicals for elimination or substitution.

VICTORY! Our Toxic Textiles campaign convinced Amazon.com, one of the largest clothing retailers in the US, to announce its private label brands will comply with AFIRM’s Restricted Substance List (RSL) of toxic chemicals for apparel, accessories, and footwear products in North America, Europe, and Japan. The AFIRM RSL ensures that chemicals of concern are below certain thresholds in products sold to consumers. The move came after nearly 40,000 Green Americans urged Amazon to act quickly on dangerous chemicals.

WHAT’S NEXT: CEPN plans to launch a pilot program in Vietnam to help smaller suppliers (deep in the supply chain where other programs don’t reach), protect their workers from chemical exposure.

Our Toxic Textiles campaign will continue calling on Amazon.com to adopt an official Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) to reduce toxic-chemical exposure in all its supplier factories, and to join The International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry.

“People spending their hard-earned money at Amazon shouldn’t have to worry whether they are exposing their family to toxic chemicals,” says Jean Tong, labor justice campaigns director. “No one wants workers harmed by making these products.”

Also in 2024, we will be releasing a major report on the toxic impacts to workers of leather and alternative leathers and putting pressure on companies that are laggards on leather.

Promoting Responsible Finance

For more than 30 years, Green America has educated the public about how to use the power of socially responsible investing (SRI) to push corporations to address climate, environmental, and social justice crises. Because SRI has been so effective, it is under attack in Congress and many states by protectors of corporate power. So this year, we ramped up our responsible investing work to protect the power of SRI.

VICTORY! In 2023, we successfully mobilized support to protect a US Labor Department rule allowing 401(k) plans to consider environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors. We published a series of blogs explaining federal and state-level attacks on responsible investing and the undisclosed funders of anti-ESG campaigns. We called out the opponents of SRI on social media and in op-eds, and we brought our message directly to Congress through letters for the record at anti-ESG hearings and support for the Sustainable Investment Caucus.

We continued our work to help people transition away from Wall Street banks and into community development banks and credit unions, providing guidance via our 2024 Guide to Socially Responsible Investing and Better Banking and Fossil-Free Investing Guide (with Green Century). And we issued our annual guidance for shareholders voting on key resolutions.

WHAT’S NEXT: We’ll continue to push back on attacks on responsible finance, while educating people on how they can take part. We are working with GreenFaith to develop a curriculum on “Aligning Your Money with Your Values,” covering banks, credit cards, insurance, and investing. We will update our popular “Find a Better Bank” database to include more community banks and credit unions. Together with the US Social Investment Forum, we will update a social investing “how to” course for individuals with useful resources, and we plan to create a directory of fossil-free community insurance companies.

We’ve all been there—a wedding, a job interview, that themed party you want to nail. You have to dress your best… but you’re also on a budget and a sustainable closet is important. Can both realities co-exist?

This was my exact situation in July. My cousin was getting married, and the dress code was “summer elegant.” I rifled through my closet, and nothing felt right or appropriate for the intense SoCal sun. I wasn’t looking to drop a lot of money—groceries were expensive enough with increased inflation—but I wanted to look the best for my beloved older cuz’s big day.

I knew it was time to search for a new outfit.

Fast-fashion companies felt like obvious non-starters. The fast-fashion industry is implicated in a host of environmental and human rights abuses, from over 43 million tons of harmful chemicals used to make our clothing to millions of dollars in wage theft from workers. But painfully aware of my limited funds, I wasn’t sure I could pursue more expensive choices from more sustainable companies or from the cute local boutiques dotted around my home in Los Angeles.

To find a sustainable choice and spare my budget, I turned to a staple of the city—thrift stores—and ended up with an outfit of pitch-perfect summer elegance.

A Growing Industry Waiting for You

Buying secondhand is becoming an increasingly popular option across generations for clothes-shopping.
According to the 2023 Resale Report from ThredUp, an online consignment and thrift store, over half of all consumers shopped secondhand apparel in 2022 and the entire country’s secondhand industry is expected to grow to $70 billion by 2027.

In 2023, younger generations are supporting the secondhand industry in a big way, alongside evolving attitudes towards things like sustainability, waste, fashion trends, and wealth gaps.

While nearly one-fifth of all consumers are “extremely concerned” about inflation, according to the Resale Report, most Millennials and Gen Z shoppers also express concerns about non-sustainable apparel brands and 63% believe they can reduce their individual footprint through actions like thrifting.

As for the stylishness of secondhand clothing, 56% of Millennials and Gen Zers would forego the latest trends for a “one-of-a-kind” look—my own finds are proof of that.

Be Patient and Come Prepared

Thrift stores—in-person or online—can be daunting. Rows and rows of racks of clothing meet the eye, how do you know where to start? Try these steps the next time you go out:

Know how to take care of your clothes.

Before adding more clothes to your closet, try your hand at learning how to mend your clothes. You don’t need to have extraordinary sewing skills to be able to patch that hole in your jeans or learn how to depill your knitwear.

The Green America article “Make Do and Mend” offers tips and tricks on mending clothes yourself or finding companies to mend pieces for you. This is also a good chance to patronize a small business or local tailor.

These skills are handy, too, for that thrifted piece you adore but which has a small tear in it.

Know what you’re shopping for.

When I went thrifting for my wedding outfit, I had the dress code to guide me and the knowledge of how intense Southern California’s summers are, especially for an outdoor wedding. Perhaps it’s not a wedding outfit you need, but to restock your jeans or cobble together an outfit for that holiday-themed party you got invited to.

When you have a mission, it becomes easier to wade through everything that won’t work.

Know your measurements.

One of the biggest roadblocks to thrifting is stamina, especially if you’re also expending the energy to try everything on (if the store allows it). What can help immensely is knowing your clothing measurements—chest, waist, hips, shoulder width, inseam, etc. Then, bring along a tape measure on your outing and you won’t have to worry about various brands’ different measurements.

Depending on your style, ignore the outdated notions of gendered clothing. Knowing my measurements, I was able to shop both “men’s” and “women’s” for the wedding.

When I found the shorts I wound up buying, a men’s size 38, I knew they were larger than my own measurements, but not so big that a belt couldn’t keep them up (and tie into the color of my top).

If you’re a fan of vintage pieces, in particular, knowing your actual measurements will be crucial as vintage clothing runs several sizes smaller than current brands.

Know where to shop.

While Goodwill’s ubiquitousness is handy, if you’re looking for quirkier or more specific apparel, there are many more thrifting and vintage stores available.

Online, websites like ThredUp and Poshmark offer thrifting from the comfort of your own. Several apparel companies also now have their own resell programs: check out Patagonia’s Worn Wear, Lululemon’s Like New, or ModCloth’s ModCloset.

In LA, It’s A Wrap boasts being “the only company on the planet” offering wardrobe from Hollywood’s biggest movies and television shows. Flea markets also house hidden treasures—the Raleigh Flea Market is the biggest one in North Carolina and has over 500 vendors weekly. In Boulder, Colorado, the Greenwood Thrift Shop & Consignment Gallery has the added bonus of proceeds going to the Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.

Now go forth with confidence to be the best-dressed at your next outing, or holiday gathering, all while using your savings to shop new items from sustainable, organic, and Fair Trade businesses.

Imagine if there were a store where all the items on the shelves were free—where you could grab a toaster, a textbook, or even a business suit, all without paying a dime. Sounds unlikely, right?

It’s not a dream. It’s a very real reimagining of our economy, one that centers giving, sharing, and community—a gift economy. Online BuyNothing groups or FreeCycle forums, and in-person Really Really Free Markets and Free Stores are all places where people can offer donations of gently used items, and others can pick up new-to-them items. While the in-person venues may look different—such as an open-air market to improvised shelves on a wall at a street corner or an unused warehouse—the foundational value they all share is care for the community.

Everything in the Store is Free

The idea of a Free Store came to Myles Smutney as a solution to the growing waste left behind by residents fleeing New York City during the 2020 global pandemic. She watched as perfectly good items (like TVs, cabinets, and clothes) were tossed to the curb and lively streets went quiet as businesses shut down—a saddening combination in a once sleepless city.

“I thought, there’s got to be a way to redistribute these goods,” Smutney says.

To brighten up the neighborhood, Smutney wanted to turn closed storefronts into little Free Store hubs, but official requests to storeowners and the city were ignored. So Smutney found her own outdoor space she thought could work well for a Free Store in Williamsburg.

The community immediately responded positively. Not only was the project removing waste from street curbs, perfectly good items were now accessible to folks that wanted and needed them. Soon mutual aid groups were asking Smutney to build Free Stores in their neighborhood.

“I would instruct and guide and teach, because the whole goal of this, for me, has always been and will always be to … strengthen communities through acts of service and teamwork and collaboration,” says Smutney.

The Free Store Project blossomed into a network of kiosks in a short time. In the first year, The Free Store Project distributed thousands of winter clothing articles, sleeping bags, and blankets to unhoused neighbors and community members. It brought 1,224 school supply packs (consisting of crayons, pencils, folders, etc.) to students across NYC. At its highest point, the Free Store Project had a network of 17 locations and 186 volunteers. Now, Smutney operates two Free Stores in the network and there are several unattended kiosks open 24/7.

Smutney’s success with The Free Store Project is rooted in community care—in the gloomy days of the pandemic, people helping people sparked joy.

A “Free Market” That’s Truly Free

Really Really Free Markets (RRFMs) are like Free Stores, except they look more like a yard sale crossed with a farmers market—there are items laid out on blankets, foods on tables, as well as drum circles, and free services like screen printing and haircuts. RRFMs tend to be single-day events in a public park or community center, whereas Free Stores are more permanent fixtures in the neighborhood.

In Portland, Oregon, organizers (who prefer to remain anonymous to not take credit for the community-wide effort) have run a RRFM in Gateway Discovery Park every April-October since 2021. They initially learned about the concept of RRFMs from a TikTok video, and within a month, created signs and guidelines to host the first RRFM in east Portland.

“There are people that just walk up and discover it, and when we explain it to them, they kind of
don’t believe it,” they say. “I probably hear at least five to ten people every market say, ‘I’m so happy
this exists!’”

Goods like clothes, small furniture, toys, and books are generously given and taken among participants. If there’s a conflict over an item, one of the guidelines is to sort it out with Rock, Paper, Scissors, a method that keeps conflict low, and maintains a sense of humor, according to the organizers.

The organizers also say that RRFMs represent a form of community care that directly challenges the capitalist thesis of scarcity and competition. The Portland RRFM takes a stand against consumerism by illustrating the belief that we live in abundance and can freely share goods and services with each other to build community. RRFMs exist all over the country, from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Tulsa, Oklahoma—find them with an Internet search or by consulting with members of like-minded groups like your neighborhood BuyNothing group or Food Not Bombs chapter.

Joy in Community

These realizations of the gift economy—from Free Stores to free markets and BuyNothing groups—are more than a challenge to hyper-consumerism. They offer healing.

Smutney recalls the story of a woman who used goods from the Free Store to repair her relationship with her daughter. She would pick clothes and toys from the store and bring them to her daughter as gifts.

“It was a way for them to rebuild their relationship because she was providing, and she always felt guilty for not being able to give her daughter the things she wanted growing up, but was able to provide for her granddaughter,” says Smutney.

At the Portland RRFM, the organizers emphasize that the person-to-person connection is what’s so important about the market—the items are merely a vector for sharing community joy.

“As long as the community allows it and wants it, [we’ll keep doing it],” the organizers say. “When you have a lot of stuff at your house, the first thing that comes to mind is: I’ll take it to Goodwill. And you just drop it off. But people get a lot more satisfaction from actually seeing the person that’s going to enjoy it.”

Finding joy in community sharing and caring doesn’t mean you have to start your own market or Free Store (although we’d love to hear if you do, see the box below for tips). Simple first steps can include joining your neighborhood’s local BuyNothing Facebook group or FreeCycle group. Whatever option fits you best, give the gift economy a try.

Cathy Cowan Becker, Green America’s responsible finance campaign director, works with an organization in Ohio to stop fracking in state parks. The state-wide Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission that will decide the matter recently held a public meeting in Columbus seeking input from citizens. But in order to provide your perspective as an Ohioan, you had to be there in person.

“For most people, that meant a two-to-three-hour drive,” Becker says. She knew the tactic would impact turnout to voice opposition.

“I set up a carpool page on groupcarpool.com where drivers could post spots in their cars and people could join a car from their area. We got three cars full and a good turnout. The committee tabled the decision, so we get to do it again next month.”

But even aside from carpooling for political activism, ridesharing offers a win-win-win proposition for people, the planet, and your pocketbook. Many cars can seat several passengers, and yet of the 1.1 billion personal car trips each day in the US, nearly half are driven with only one of those seats occupied, according to the US Department of Transportation.

Every empty seat in the hundreds of millions of cars on the road represents a missed opportunity to save money, reduce traffic and pollution, and build community through a shared ride. While the idea of carpooling isn’t new, several resources make it easier than ever to publicize open spots in your car and to safely seek out promising carpool partners.

The Perks of Carpooling

There are several reasons to carpool—a 2018 study cited “cost of gasoline” and “less expensive than driving alone” as the most pressing motivations, but other reasons included “more convenient parking,” “finding good company to ride with,” and “a variety of pick-up and drop-off times.”

Sharing rides also means fewer cars on the road, which has a major environmental benefit. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, transportation makes up nearly a third of the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and a whopping 81% of all transportation is made up of light-duty vehicles and medium- and heavy-duty trucks. For trips where walking, biking, or public transportation aren’t an option, ridesharing is a powerful way to cut down on car miles driven. In many cities, carpooling also allows drivers to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, which may have lower traffic.

Amid the US loneliness epidemic, as detailed in the 2023 US Surgeon General Advisory “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” carpooling also provides a lifeline: social connection.

Scholar of “social capital” Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, has documented that across the population, every ten minutes of additional commuting time is correlated with a ten percent lower level of social connectedness. In a world where isolation poses serious health risks (29% higher risk of premature death, 32% higher risk of stroke), carpooling could literally be lifesaving.

Remember that while ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft may be useful, they are not the same as carpooling. Paying a ride-share service does not remove a car from the road, does not foster the same community connection as developing a cooperative arrangement with other travelers, and does not save money like carpooling.

Share Rides to Work, School, and Worship

If you don’t have a friend or co-worker ready and willing to carpool with you, online tools can make finding carpool partners easy and safe.

The first step is to locate fellow carpoolers, so tap your community. Put out the word in-person at school events, church, or the office breakroom. In the internet age, check out your school or work’s website, or see if they have a Facebook or Nextdoor group, and inquire there.

“Incentive programs help encourage pooling,” says Adam Cohen and Susan Shaheen, members of UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center. “There can be direct cash incentives, free parking, and more, offered or funded by employers and public agencies.”

Companies like RideShare and CarpoolWorld make it even easier, by offering ride-sharing services to
employers, so don’t hesitate to advocate for an incentive program at your workplace.

Share Rides to Events

Next time you’re planning a car trip to a large gathering such as a conference, concert, sports game, festival, or celebration, look for an opportunity to share rides there and back.

SpaceShare.com develops customized ridesharing applications for large festivals, conferences, and
community events.

AlterNetWays provides software to help coordinate transportation, such as a customized ride-sharing application for an event website for $50.

“Think about football games,” muses AlterNetWays’ CEO Mark Evanoff, noting that universities could help organize ridesharing to both home and away games. “Somewhere on the university’s website there will be a link to buy tickets to the game. Universities could add just one more link that says, ‘click here to carpool to this game.’”

For private events like weddings or family reunions, there are a variety of free technologies that can help participants find a ride. Try setting up a spreadsheet online through Google Sheets and create a public URL for the document that you can share with guests by e-mail.

Share Rides in Town

Many local ridesharing resources serve particular metropolitan areas. Many lively local websites, sometimes established by the municipal transportation authority, help citizens share rides.

For example, at Central Texas’ Commute Solutions, neighbors collaborate locally to set up carpools for one-time and recurring car trips.

AlterNetWays also works directly with local transportation authorities to provide a customized application that allows residents to coordinate ridesharing through the city or county’s transportation website.

Across the country, city officials may already offer carpool services you didn’t know about—try searching online for: “[city name] transportation department carpool.” For example, in the Bay Area of California, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) supports carpooling in various ways, providing dedicated drop-off/pick-up zones downtown, parking permits, discounted rates, and more.

Erica Kato, chief spokesperson of SFMTA, stressed the importance of a well-maintained ridesharing service in order to achieve the benefits of carpooling like saving money and reducing emissions: “As folks get used to having car share available and get rid of a personal car (or forego purchase of a new one), having that car share service get less reliable is a bad thing—we don’t want to drive people back to buying their own cars.”

If possible, you can also reduce your environmental impact by walking, scootering, biking to stores, parks, and other recreational areas in your neighborhood. According to a 2021 study in “Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment,” people can reduce their transportation footprint by 67% by choosing a bike over a car for one trip a day.

Share Rides Out of Town

Heading out of town for the weekend? A number of national ridesharing websites help carpoolers find each other for trips between cities. CarpoolWorld offers inter-city rides, as do apps like Hitch or Ridesharing.

Cohen and Shaheen believe carpooling can increase thanks to technology: “Digital matching platforms and rating systems can help enhance trust between carpooling partners and match carpoolers with similar preferences (such as carpoolers with similar interests and/or music preferences, etc.).”

Safety is another ride-sharing concern, and it is always important to practice caution when matching with someone you don’t know to share rides. This can mean making sure someone you trust knows your ride-share details, and you agree on clear guidelines and rules with other participants, including any health concerns, such as agreeing to mask while in a confined space, or keeping a clean car. Let’s Go Smart, a Springfield, MO program encouraging climate-friendly transportation, provides a useful carpool FAQ addressing safety and other concerns.

With all the benefits and increased ease of ridesharing, Evanoff envisions a day soon when cooperatively sharing car rides will become a routine part of planning how to get from point A to B.

Few things bring people together like food. Steaming casseroles, warm noodles, smoked
veggies—and while we all wish we could eat great food every night, the reality is that leftovers can be monotonous, and cooking can be exhausting.

Cooking cooperatives can take the stress out of cooking several nights a week and can bring exciting flavors to the table, often for much lower prices than cooking alone. With today’s hectic schedules and evolving lifestyles, one of the many shapes and sizes of cooking co-ops may fit your unique needs.

Cooperative Cooking for Young Adults

The Southern Scholarship Foundation in Florida has been practicing cooperative living for over 60 years. A nonprofit housing community for college students made up of 26 houses across six universities, all residents are high-achieving students of underserved backgrounds. Every Monday through Thursday, two or three students will cook in bulk and the house will sit down together to have dinner.

One of the joys of cooperative cooking is the chance to try new flavors from different cultures. Julian Romero, a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville and house manager of Williams-Pilot Scholarship House, says that in a single week alone his house has eaten Korean ground beef, chicken casserole, and vegan walnut and lentil Bolognese.

Ja’Chelle Johnson, a student at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and house manager at LaVerne Weddle Pilot Scholarship House, says that “what I like about house dinners is the sense of unity, having dinner together with other people and hearing about their days, it feels like a real family. I enjoy learning about the different cultures of people I live with.”

Cooking Co-ops for Community

Cooking cooperatives do not have to involve living together—neighbors, friends, and families can work together in unique ways to share good food without the same roof over their heads.

For example, in Birmingham, Alabama, a cooking cooperative fed three entire families for ten years— until the families’ kids were grown. Ruthann Betz-Essinger and her friends Leigh Fran and Caroline would each cook a single large meal per week to feed all three families, and package the results into thirds. One share of each big meal would stay home, with the other two portions delivered to to the other families. In other words, through the power of cooperation, each family would cook only once each week, but would receive three fully prepared dinners.

Each Sunday, the group would share the packages amongst each other. Betz-Essinger says the group would provide each other with directions on how to reheat and prepare the meals, and that her family enjoyed the variety of dinners each week’s exchange would provide.

The cooking co-op was most helpful on busy weeknights—instead of having to prepare a meal from scratch after a long day, or resort to quick take-out, Betz-Essinger would simply open her refrigerator to find a meal already assembled. After reheating, her family would enjoy a delicious, healthy, homemade dinner.

“We loved the co-op as it gave us a huge variety of food, tastes, and flavors,” says Betz-Essinger. “I loved the surprise of what was in the bag as well as trying something that I would never have made for myself.”

The cooking co-op phased out as the families began to shrink. All the children who enjoyed their families’ shared meals are now in their mid-20s, married and living in different places across the country. Ruthann, Leigh Fran, and Caroline remain friends, however, and in reflecting on her co-op experiences for this article, Ruthann says she was inspired to give a new version of a cooking co-op a try.

“I think I will call Leigh Fran and Caroline to see if we should start up the co-op again since we are all empty nesters,” says Betz-Essinger. “It would be easier this time as we would be cooking just for six!”

If you like to eat well, save time and money, and build community in the process, consider forming a cooking co-op.