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Cathy Cowan Becker, a co-founder of the environmental group Save Ohio Parks, said the Facebook ads were “misleading” and may have tricked people into submitting a pro-fracking comment to state regulators.

Cathy Cowan Becker, a co-founder of the environmental group Save Ohio Parks, said the Facebook ads were “misleading” and may have tricked people into submitting a pro-fracking comment to state regulators.

September 15 marks the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a celebration of Hispanic and Latin Americans’ history and culture and an opportunity to recognize the important contributions made by those in the communities. This year’s theme is “Latinos: Driving Prosperity, Power, and Progress in America.” Hispanic Americans are the largest racial or ethnic minority in the United States, constituting 19% of the total population.  

The specific start date of this observance carries important historical significance, the countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua declared their independence from Spain on the same date in 1821. Several more national independence days are also celebrated during National Hispanic Heritage Month, including Mexico on September 16, Chile on September 18, and Belize on September 21. 

The theme of this year’s National Hispanic Heritage Month highlights the substantial positive impact that Hispanic and Latin American communities bring to life in the United States. The Hispanic community is a key force in America’s financial prosperity, contributing 2.8 trillion dollars to the economy in addition to being the number one job creators in the country. The 19 million Hispanic and Latin American essential workers push to keep America running. 

The community of Hispanic people in the United States is often reduced to a simplistic and unfair depiction of the multidimensional and diverse array of individuals within. A 2022 report states that current data collection methods critically generalize and misrepresent the vibrant range of Hispanic identities which can lead to studies and policies that negatively impact the community. 

The nuanced diversity of the Hispanic and Latin American communities is a key factor in the meaningful influence they carry. The dynamic range of cultural practices and beliefs within these communities allow for not only a powerful sense of identity and fellowship, but also the ability to illuminate the surrounding world. Hispanic and Latin American culture continues to diversify and brighten American culture through countless avenues including arts and entertainment, food, science and technology, sports, and holiday celebrations. 

As the fastest growing segment in the United States, the future is Hispanic. The community’s impact on the country through prosperity, power, and progress is inspiring and deserves celebration beyond just this month. National Hispanic Heritage Month highlights the crucial influence that the Hispanic (meaning Spanish-speaking) and Latin American (meaning from Latin America) populations in this country has, driven by their histories, cultures, and determination.  

To help enhance your celebration with content you can use all year long, Green America is pleased to share National Hispanic Heritage Month resources that highlight accomplishments and the justice still needed in society, the economy, and the environment. We do this as a reflection of our vision: “to work for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the abundance of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come.”   

Together, let’s celebrate and recommit ourselves to acknowledging the important contributions of those around us and building a just, equitable, and inclusive society. 

Holiday background and social justice 

National Organizations  

President Biden's proclamation on Hispanic serving institutions   

Official Hispanic Heritage Month page 

History Channel: Origins of Hispanic Heritage Month 

This survey shows that the way people may think about Latinx Americans doesn’t account for the mult-dimensional population 

Economy  

Latino Justice  

Video on Latinx Communities and Economic Justice from houselessness nonprofit, Family Promise 

AFL-CIO: Latina Equal Pay: Campaigns for Economic Justice Continue Beyond Single Day of Action 

Environment 

National Parks Service History and Celebrations 

Learn about or join the Latinx Chapter of the Moms Clean Air Force—Eco Madres—video in English and Spanish 

Climate Change and Latinos Fact Sheet—How climate change disproportionately affects Latinos 

Honoring Latinx Resilience by Making Progress on environmental justice 

Latino Climate Justice Framework 

Green Latinos: Resources 

In person events

Join Green Latinos at events in Washington, DC, on September 25-28 

Events in Washington DC  

Virtual events 

Sept 15- Hispanic Heritage Month Opening Ceremony with nonprofit Hispanic Star 

Take a self-guided virtual tour of Casa Azul, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo’s house\ 

Take a virtual tour of the National Museum of the American Latino 

See even more virtual museum exhibits here! 

Books 

• The Undocumented Americans 
• I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter 
• Alma and How She Got Her Name (Children’s book)  

From the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, Latin America is a region of the world with a multitude of traditions and cultures. Despite any differences in the clothes they wear, traditions they value, or daily life they experience, the majority of the region speaks the same language: Spanish. This is followed by Portuguese and hundreds of Indigenous languages, including Quechua, Mayan languages, and Gurani.

According to the U.S. 2020 Census, about 18.5% of people in the United States are of Latino/a/x, Hispanic, or Spanish origin. As a part of National Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States, take a look at the influence that the Spanish speakers in Latin America have on trade to the U.S. In particular, explore some of the fair trade goods that help workers in the region. 

Fair Trade

Why should we buy fair trade goods? Because they provide disadvantaged farmers and artisans livable wages and sustainable livelihoods. Many businesses sell and produce fair trade items in Latin America, with some items more common than others. If you are looking to buy some goods in the region, Latin America is great for finding fair trade coffee, chocolate, and textiles. 

Coffee

To begin, coffee is a popular product from the region that one can find fair trade. A large majority of the world’s chocolate comes from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, for Honduras, Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala are some of the largest exporters of coffee beans in the world. Much of the coffee is produced in tropical highlands spanning the region, and coffee from the Cordillera, a region that goes from Mexico to Peru, is known for its focus on the quality rather than the volume of coffee beans. 

Velasquez Family Coffee is a Green Business Network {GBN} member with roots in the region. The coffee travels from Comayagua, Honduras and is fair trade. Guillermo and Cathy Velasquez import these beans in order to roast and sell them in Minnesota. The family farms they work with in Honduras have a livable income and help protect the ecosystem of the mountains around the farms.

Maximo's French Roast Coffee (dark) — $10

Chocolate

Chocolate has been in the Americas for a large part of its history. The ancient Mayans and the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico are some of the oldest creators of chocolate. Back in ancient times, cacao was used as a bitter beverage. The Mayans used it in every meal, along with during celebrations on important transactions. Later on, the Aztecs used cacao as a currency considered more valuable than gold.

La Chiwinha {GBN} sells chocolate products from Alter Eco {GBN}. La Chinwinha is a store from Puerto Rico focused on selling fair trade and eco-friendly goods. Alter Eco works not only on fair trade but on the environment. They are carbon neutral and use recyclable or compostable packaging. The chocolate below comes from cacao farms in Ecuador and is vegan.

Alter Eco Quinoa Crunch organic dark chocolate bar — $3.99

Textiles

While there are multiple textile traditions throughout the region worth highlighting, the Andes are particularly historic. The Andean region has one of the best-preserved textile traditions in the world. This region in the mountains of South America has produced weaving, dyeing, knotting, and plaiting techniques that are still used today. People in the region often made textiles from cotton and wool from animals such as alpacas and llamas. 

Inspired Peru {GBN} is a great source for rugs, hats, gloves, throw pillows, stuffed animals, and more made in the Andean region. It is 100% owned and operated by Peruvian artists who create handmade, fair trade goods. When you buy here, you buy directly from the artisan!

Peruvian Frazada Rug — $250

Outside of the Andean region, A Thread of Hope (GBN) is a good source for Guatemalan fair trade apparel. You can find scarves of every color that artisans wove by hand in Guatemala. They work with other fair trade businesses as well, such as UPAVIM {GBN} and Mayan Hands {GBN}. 

Purples, Lilac, Violet - Lightweight Bamboo Handwoven Scarf 8 x 68 — $45

For other fair trade textiles options, check out Maggie’s Organics {GBN}. They sell fair trade socks, clothing, accessories and home goods from Argentina, Peru, Tanzania, and India.    

To find more Latino/a/x or Hispanic owned businesses, take a look at Green America’s Member Profiles. 

In a signed letter to Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, 22 groups including Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, Fight for the Future, Green America, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Friends of the Earth, and Accountable Tech ask the Senate to find ways to ensure that AI’s carbon impact doesn’t undermine the fight against climate change.

San Francisco assemblyman Phil Ting is leading this charge, using statistics from Green America to say at a press conference in May that receipts come at the expense of “3 million trees, 10 billion gallons of water, 302 million pounds of waste on the backside.”

“Let’s reinvigorate this garden.” 

Before head gardener Dave Ardnt peered between tall fencing, the Locust Point Community Garden sat in disrepair.  

Started by a former-resident and Under Armour (UA) employee, UA initially granted the land to local employees for use and later opened to Locust Point residents in 2018. When the pandemic hit, the garden became home to overgrown weeds and rotting food. 

Wisconsin raised, Ardnt moved to Locust Point in fall 2020 and longed for a slice of green amongst hard, grey concrete.  

“I’d walk by this plot of land and see vegetables just kind of hanging there and rotting on the vine,” Ardnt said. “That was really kind of disturbing to me because I see all this stuff and hard work that people put in and nobody’s tending it at all.” 

Ardnt and 13 others were granted stewardship and added 10 new plots in 2021, and by 2022 expanded another 20 plots. 

Now, creeping vines, grand leaves, and vibrant flowers interlock through the fence of the Locust Point Community Garden. Between the flowers, fruits, vegetables, and trees, bees from the on-site hive gather pollen; butterflies feed on nectar; and gardeners wipe dirt off their pants. 

Revitalizing the Garden with Sustainable Practices

US city planners love building concrete jungles. More likely than not, the most natural green a city kid ever sees are the weeds poking up from cracked sidewalks. 

Community gardens change that, but they don’t sprout overnight. 

As Baltimore industrialized, little space was set aside for greenery. Wetlands and streams were drained and paved over to make way for industry, and in their place the harbor was built. 

The garden, located at 1134 Hull Street South Baltimore, required hard work to replenish the soil. Using sustainable practices, Ardnt hopes to counteract impenetrable city building. In an email correspondence, Ardnt wrote about the strict guidelines all gardeners and LPCG enjoyers follow. 

“We do encourage using mulch and our compost mix (which we supply) and I never have seen anyone turn over their plot,” Ardnt wrote. “Some people do plant cover crops in the winter, while others plant cold tolerant plants such as garlic, onions, parsley, flowers, and cabbage.” 

Rules and regulations for garden interactions are listed on the LPCG site. The garden has a clear no- tolerance policy for synthetic fertilizers and non-organic pesticides, vaping and smoking, or dumping kitchen waste. 

The World Health Organization writes that pesticides have negative consequences for humans and animals. Using pesticides and synthetic fertilizers to preserve foods has acute and chronic health effects. In small-time operations such as the LPCG, cultivating a healthy garden to build a healthy community means creating and following necessary precautions. 

Growing Neighborhood Recognition

From the beginning, Ardnt sought for the community garden to give the neighborhood what it needs. Beyond setting fruits and vegetables in baskets out front for the taking, he believes community gardens need to be a space for community building from the youngest residents to the oldest. 

“We actually have a big dirt pile in the garden,” Ardnt says. “We’ve got kids, especially in the springtime, when we have get-togethers that are just playing in the dirt pile.” 

Beyond playing in the dirt, the LPCG makes a point to teach biodiversity by hosting Girl Scout events and other public school teach-ins. 

By centering the garden as a focal point in Locust Point, Ardnt believes it’s given people a true sense of community.  

“You’ve got people with community,” Ardnt says. “They want to get together and have parties, get together and know their neighbors, spend time with other people, some people just want to be out in greenspace.” 

Many are still dealing with the ramifications of forced isolation post-COVID. A 2023 study from the National Institute of Health reports that people are feeling lonelier now than before the pandemic. 

Watching the LPCG thrive, Ardnt says that community gardens provide a sense of belonging and purpose that most didn’t know they needed. 

A Tumultuous Future for Locust Point Community Garden

Like many community gardens around the country, Locust Point is facing opposition. As Under Armour plans to move its headquarters from Baltimore to Port Covington, MD, it’s selling much of its Baltimore land to developers — including the LPCG. 

The news came as a surprise to Locust Point residents. Ardnt says although UA appeared willing to help relocate the garden, communication quickly disintegrated. 

“It’s really a lot of frustration and anger and disappointment,” Ardnt says. 

Calls and petitions have been placed, asking UA to consider donating the land to the neighborhood or city trusts like Baltimore Green Space.  

Ardnt argues that to a large corporation such as UA, keeping the lot or donating it would have little impact on its long-term revenue.  

Apart from being a social epicenter, LPCG is critical to the local ecosystem, making its permanence even more important to Ardnt. 

“We’re surrounded by impermeable surfaces, and we’ve got bigger rain events, so we’re actually getting some flooding in our area,” Ardnt says. “The garden plays a vital role in stormwater retention and getting rid of the big flooding that could happen.” 

While its future remains uncertain, its importance is clear. The Locust Point Community Garden plays a central role in the social and natural ecosystem of Baltimore harbor. Until Ardnt receives a notice of closure, the LPCG plans to remain a safe haven for the neighborhood. 

Read Green America's Op-Ed Supporting Locust Point Community Garden.

“We wouldn't have things like the Willow Project or Line Three” — an oil drilling project in Alaska and a pipeline from Canada to Wisconsin, respectively — “if we didn't have these big banks underwriting them by lending them all this money,” said Cathy Becker, responsible finance campaign director for Green America, a nonprofit.

There are relatively simple ways you can move your finances away from fossil fuels. Nexus Media News spoke with several advocates and financial experts about how to decarbonize your money. 

The Green Business Network^® at Green America is home to both rising social and eco enterprises and to well-established green businesses, including food products. We provide the resources to help business and entrepreneurs with strong social and environmental commitments thrive in today’s competitive green marketplace.

A key benefit of membership is our certification program. This guide provides an overview for achieving our certification for businesses in the Food Products sector. If your business meets the criteria in this guide, we encourage to join the Green Business Network and apply for certification. If awarded, we will promote your business to the public and to Green America’s 250,000+ green consumers looking for businesses like yours!

How To Get Started as a Green Business in the Food Products Sector

The food products industry is an important sector that impacts the day-to-day life of consumers and workers, as well as the environment. The food products industry, with its wide array of goods, can have significant environmental impacts from carbon emissions and packaging waste to negative impacts on worker health and wellbeing. Follow the guidelines below to get started on being a green business in this sector. At the Green Business Network, “green” always means social justice and environmental sustainability.

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Into the Weeds Ticket Giveaway 2023 

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.  A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. THIS SWEEPSTAKES IS INTENDED FOR PLAY IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY AND WILL BE GOVERNED BY U.S. LAW.  DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE (AS DESCRIBED BELOW) AND LOCATED IN ONE OF THESE COUNTRIES AT THE TIME OF ENTRY.   

1.  Eligibility: Into the Weeds Ticket Giveaway 2023 (the “Sweepstakes”) is only open to: legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are at least eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry.  Employees, contractors, directors, officers, and agents of Green America (“Sponsor”), and its affiliates, subsidiaries, and related entities and members of the immediate family (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where the reside) and household of each such employee (whether or not related) are not eligible to enter or win.  

This Sweepstakes is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations and is void where prohibited.  Participation constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and Sponsor’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters related to the Sweepstakes.  Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein.

2. Sponsor: Green America, 1612 K Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington DC 20006

3.  Sweepstakes Entry Period:  The Sweepstakes begins on September 8, 2023 at 10:00am EST and ends on September 18, 2023 EST at 11:59pm (the “Sweepstakes Entry Period”). All entries must be received before the Sweepstakes Entry Period end time/date to be valid.  

4. How to Enter:  During the Sweepstakes Entry Period, enter the Sweepstakes by: 

(i) Follow Green America's Instagram account @GreenAmerica_ and Into The Weeds Instagram account @intotheweedsdoc. Or Follow Green America's Facebook account @GreenAmerica and Into the Weeds Facebook account @intotheweedsdoc.

(ii) Create a comment on Green America’s Post about the giveaway tagging a friend or family member.

(iii) Share Green America's Post about the giveaway on your Instagram or Facebook feed.

All entry steps must be completed during the Sweepstakes Entry Period to be valid. Entrant must perform ALL entry steps including without limitation and comply with any applicable restrictions or requirements set forth herein to be valid. Entrants must agree to these Official Rules to receive an entry into the Sweepstakes. Limit: One (1) entry per person into the Sweepstakes during the Sweepstakes Entry Period. You must have a personal relationship with any person that you tag in the Sweepstakes Post.

You must have an Instagram or Facebook account to enter this Sweepstakes. If you do not have an Instagram or Facebook account, you can create one for free by visiting Instagram.com or Facebook.com.  By creating an account, you agree to such social media platform’s terms and conditions and guidelines. Your Instagram or Facebook account must be set to public in order for Sponsor to connect with potential winners; if your account is not public, you will not receive entry into the Sweepstakes.

Individuals who do not follow all of the instructions, provide the required information, and/or abide by these Official Rules or other instructions of Sponsor may be disqualified. Other entry methods than those outlined above are void and will not receive entry.

Automated entries are prohibited and any such use will cause disqualification.  Entrants may not enter with multiple email addresses/Instagram or Facebook accounts nor may entrants use any other device or artifice to enter multiple times or as multiple entrants.  If it is discovered that you have entered or attempted to enter the Sweepstakes multiple times using multiple identities, Instagram accounts, Facebook accounts, or email addresses, or that you submitted or attempted to submit more than the entry limit provided, all of your entries will be declared null and void, and any prize you might have been entitled to will not be awarded.  Presence of an garden on the Sponsor’s website is not a confirmation, representation, or warranty by the Sponsor or any of its representatives that the entry is compliant with these Official Rules.  Sponsor’s decisions with respect to whether an entry complies with these Official Rules are final and binding and may be made by Sponsor at any time.  

5. Grand Prize Drawing:  On September 19, 2023, Sponsor will randomly select five (5) winners from among all eligible entries received during the Sweepstakes Entry Period.  Odds of winning a prize depend on the number of eligible entries received. 

Potential prize winner must have a public Instagram/Facebook profile and will be notified on September 19, 2023 via a direct message at the Instagram account or Facebook account used to enter the Sweepstakes.  Potential winner must respond to such message within 3 business days of it being sent and must provide a valid email address. Sponsor will then email the potential winner with prize instructions, which potential winner must respond to in three business days, giving their first and last name and the AMC, Cinemark, or Regal theater they want to redeem their tickets at. Potential winners must meet all eligibility requirements, including timely replying to the notification and response email and execution and return of all releases and documents (if any) required by Sponsor, within the timeline allotted. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth in these Official Rules. Limit one prize per person/Instagram/Facebook account. 

Potential winners will be disqualified, the prize will be forfeited and an alternate potential winner may be selected if (all as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion): (i) any prize notification is returned as undeliverable; (ii) a potential winner declines his or her prize or any portion thereof; (iii) a potential winner is found not to be eligible or fails to comply with any of the Official Rules; (iv) a potential winner does not respond to direct message notification or the email within the timeframe provided; and/or (v) a winner cannot be verified or is otherwise unable or unwilling to accept and claim the prize as stated.  Sponsor is not responsible for any change or issue with any email address, mailing address, Instagram or Facebook account, and/or telephone number of entrants.  The decisions of Sponsor in all matters regarding this Sponsor are final and binding.

Winner may be required to complete, sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility/Liability Release, and, where lawful, a Publicity Release, within the timeframe set forth in the document or prize may be forfeited.  Prizes won by an eligible entrant who is a minor in his/her state or province of residence will be awarded to minor’s parent or  legal guardian, who must sign and return all required documents.  

6. Prize (1): Five (5) winners will receive two (2) tickets to see the film Into the Weeds at AMC, Cinemark, and Regal theaters. Prize is non-transferable and no cash equivalent or substitution of prize is offered, except at the sole discretion of the Sponsor.  If prize, or any portion thereof, cannot be awarded for any reason, Sponsor reserves the right to substitute prize with another prize of equal or greater value.  Prize winner will be solely responsible for all federal, state, provincial and/or local taxes, and for any other fees or costs associated with the prizes they receive, regardless of whether it, in whole or in part, is used. Tickets are available to redeem at AMC, Cinemark, and Regal theaters.

7. Release: As a condition of entering, entrants (or their parent or legal guardian if an eligible minor) agree (and agree to confirm in writing): (a) to release Sponsor, its affiliates, subsidiaries, retailers, and agents, and each of their officers, directors, employees and agents, Meta, and Instagram LLC (“Promotion Parties”), from any and all liability, loss or damage incurred with respect to the awarding, receipt, possession, and/or use or misuse of any prize; (b) under no circumstances will any entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and entrant hereby knowingly and expressly waives all rights to claim, punitive, incidental, consequential, or any other damages, other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses and/or any rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased; (c) all causes of action arising out of or connected with this Sweepstakes, or any prize awarded, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action; and (d) any and all claims, judgments, and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred (if any), excluding attorneys’ fees and court costs.  

8. Publicity: Except where prohibited by law, winner grants (and agrees to confirm this grant in writing, if requested) permission for Sponsor and those acting under its authority to use his/her name, photograph, and/or likeness, for advertising and/or publicity purposes in any and all media now known or hereinafter invented without territorial or time limitations and without compensation.

9. General Conditions: Sponsor is not responsible for lost, late, misdirected, undelivered, incorrect, or inaccurate entry information whether caused by Internet users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Sweepstakes or by any technical or human error which may occur in the processing of the entries.  Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Sweepstakes, or any part of it, if any fraud, bugs, virus, technical failures, or any other factor beyond Sponsor’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Sweepstakes, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion.  In the event of cancellation, Sponsor will randomly award the prizes from among all eligible, non-suspect entries received prior to cancellation.  Sponsor is not responsible for computer system, phone line, hardware, software or program malfunctions, or other errors, failures or delays in computer transmissions, the website, or network connections that are human or technical in nature.  Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process, the website, or the operation of the Sweepstakes or to be acting in violation of the Official Rules of this or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.  Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision.

10. Governing Law & Jurisdiction:  Except where prohibited by law, entrants agree that: (i) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with the Sweepstakes or any prize awarded will be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action and exclusively by the appropriate court located in Washington, District of Columbia; (ii) any and all claims, judgments, and awards to entrants will be limited to actual out of pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with participating in this Sweepstakes, but in no event attorneys’ fees; and (iii) under no circumstances will entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and entrant hereby waives all rights to claim, punitive, incidental and consequential damages, and any other damages other than for actual out of pocket expense and any and all rights to have damages multiplies or otherwise increased. All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules or entrants’ and/or Promotion Parties’ rights and obligations in connection with the Sweepstakes are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington, District of Columbia, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules.

B. In the event of any conflict with any Sweepstakes details contained in these Official Rules and Sweepstakes details contained in Sweepstakes materials (including, but not limited to social media advertising and other promotion media), the details of the Sweepstakes as set forth in these Official Rules shall prevail.

12. Entrant's Personal Information:  Please see the privacy policy located at https://www.greenamerica.org/privacy-and-policy for details of Sponsor's policy regarding the use of personal information collected in connection with this Sweepstakes. If you are selected as a winner, your information may also be included in a publicly-available winner’s list.

13. Winner’s List: For a list of winners, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: 1612 K Street NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20006.  Please specify “Into the Weeds Winners List.”  Requests must be received by October 8, 2023.

This Sweepstakes is no way endorsed or sponsored by Instagram or Facebook (or by Meta Platforms, Inc.).  All questions should be directed to the Sponsor and not to Instagram or Meta.

Adamah Farm is a regenerative homestead located at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. It consists of 20 acres of farm fields, orchards, and pasture. Per Adamah:

Adamah Farm is a living, dynamic Jewish community. But it’s truly for everyone. It takes a holistic approach to both its farming operations and its way of creating community. In addition to offering a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), they offer a 3-month educational fellowship where participants learn about the connection between Judaism and agriculture.

They demonstrate a commitment to social justice by offering their CSA on a sliding scale and allow people to purchase a share in installments, to ensure everyone has access to healthy foods.

Adamah’s vegetables and value-added products (e.g. sauerkraut, maple syrup, etc.) are certified organic, in compliance with USDA standards for organic foods, proving that they use zero manufactured chemicals or fertilizers. They go beyond the requirements of certification with regenerative practices that include:

Connecting with their Jewish Heritage

They know that their Jewish ancestors thought about the world in many of the ways we do now.  For example, how do we feed the world without draining the planet of its resources? They also observe Schmita, the practice of letting the land rest and repopulate once every seven years, however, not in the traditional way. It isn’t practical if the rest of the world doesn’t observe it as well. Instead, at any one time, 1/7 of their land is at rest.

Each day, over 100 pounds of food scraps are composted from the retreat center dining hall. The compost is sufficient for the whole farm and it feeds their 50 laying hens. This is one of the ways they engage visitors in their farming practices, in addition to education and using the produce grown on the farm to cook nutritious meals in the dining hall.

Food Sovereignty

Food access is important to those at Adamah Farm. They want to make good, nutritious food available to everyone, even to those with lower incomes. To do so, they created a Food Access Fund, which anyone can donate to, where they donate the amount of food covered by the funds raised to local food pantries; and the kitchen at the retreat center utilizes produce grown on the farm.

Social justice is core to their work, though they are not particularly concerned with labels. Their approach to social justice is through a framework of living in a Jewish community and food sovereignty—a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. Growing in sustainable, responsible ways is important to them. And they believe there is a long way to go before all humans are treated equally, and that it’s the work of all of us to make that happen. Farming is an important part of that work.

To learn more about Adamah, visit their website.

Explore more Soil Superheroes here.

Salary:  $60,000 - $63,000 
Benefits: Excellent benefits including health care, dental care, paid leave, socially responsible retirement plan, friendly work environment, 4-day work week (32 hours/week)
Reports to:  Soil & Climate Alliance Director, Jessica Hulse Dillon

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

Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions focuses on bringing together focused multi-stakeholder innovation networks with the objective of making significant, industry-wide system change.

Our Soil & Climate Alliance (SCA) is the Center’s innovation network focusing on regenerative agriculture.  SCA’s mission is to advance a resilient, equitable, and inclusive agriculture system that regenerates soil health, sequesters carbon, and revitalizes farm and rural economics, while improving water quality, biodiversity, food security, and nutrition.

We are seeking a dynamic program coordinator, with excellent project and stakeholder engagement skills to support SCA and all of the SCA working groups, including Nutrient Density, Policy & Advocacy, Supply Chain Development Groups, and Justice, Equity Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI).  Our Supply Chain Development Groups include Kansas Regenerative Wheat and Regenerative Transition for Plant Based Products.  

SCA team members can choose to work remotely or in our Washington, DC office. This position will involve occasional travel including to Network meetings, conferences and business cultivation meetings, staff training, Green America’s annual staff and board retreat and other stakeholder engagement meetings.  Most travel will be domestic, but there may be one or two international trips each year. 

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

Communications & Research

• Support and engage in the development of key project deliverables, including preparing meeting materials and notes, compiling summary reports, and other outputs. Ensure that these deliverables are planned and produced in a timely manner with a high level of attention to detail.
• Keep members informed of upcoming member meetings and events via email, outlook calendar, Eventbrite, SharePoint, survey software, and event websites. Respond to member inquiries in a professional and timely manner.
• Support the full SCA team in the development and maintenance of social media accounts to share relevant information as needed.
• Quick turnaround on research projects focusing on urgent and emerging needs ranging from identifying specific experts and speakers for consideration by the team to specific current and historical data needed for decision making and advocacy as well as other developing needs.

Meeting Planning & Logistics

• Support logistics related to planning network meetings, roundtables, webinars and other related events for up to 150 participants held virtually, including: setting up registration systems and monitoring registration, communicating with meeting participants, and coordinating technology needs among participants.
• Support logistics related to planning in-person network meetings including securing meeting venues, hotels, meals, and staff transportation; communicating with event participants; procuring A/V and meeting materials; and ensuring many other aspects of event production are implemented flawlessly so meetings flow seamlessly for participants. Support full team in the execution of hybrid meetings.
• Support and engage in the development of meeting materials and event website including daily updates as the meeting progresses.
• Support the Directors and Program Manager in research and outreach for potential speakers and panelists. Assist with session development for virtual and in person meetings.
• Support team travel and logistics to other conferences and promotional events including but not limited to Natural Products Expo West and East.
• Manage and update the meeting budgets; keep Director apprised of budget status throughout the planning process.
• Manage invoicing process for generating and secure participation fees including: regular invoicing of participants, working with accounting department to create and send customized invoices, track payments, communicate with participants to secure commitments and maintain and update participant records. Coordinate with subsidized participants to process reimbursements.
• Coordinate regular communication among team members including scheduling regular meetings and supporting seamless technology connections as needed.
• Ensure that knowledge gained is converted into “knowledge capital” for the Center for Sustainability Solutions by documenting work processes involved in managing Innovation Networks and successful strategies.
• Provide operational support to the Center for Sustainability Solutions, as needed. Assist where needed in hosting working group sessions that involve industry stakeholders across the spectrum of Regenerative Agriculture, from policy to regulatory to consumer spaces.

Cross-Departmental Teams

• Participate in Green America staff meetings and processes and other duties as required.
• Participate in Green America Cross Departmental Teams: The success of our organizational work includes the voluntary participation of staff members from all levels of the organization in cross departmental teams addressing a range of issues to strengthen our impact and planning, as time and other work commitments allow.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Demonstrated project management skills, with experience managing several projects simultaneously.
• A passion for and strong knowledge of environmental sustainability and/or agriculture.
• Written communication and research experience; able to take notes during calls including technical content.
• Strong verbal communication skills.
• Strong technology skills, including videoconferencing via zoom, Square Space, newsletter email software, outlook, etc.
• Background researching event related needs, including venues, restaurants and catering, and AV needs.
• Experience with creating and tracking event budgets a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree required.

Please note, we recognize that experience doesn't always look the same – skills are transferable, and passion is important. Please tell us how your experience can lead to success in this position.  

How to Apply

To Apply: Please email your resume and cover letter to mbouffard-briglia@greenamerica.org by September 13, 2023.

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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.

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Check out more gardening resources here.

He’s called the “Transformpreneur℠” and he’s here to make your business and endeavors thrive. With Going Beyond Sustainability, having a business or project be both profitable and good for the planet—in ways you’ve never considered—is the goal. 

Shel Horowitz, the “Transformpreneur℠” himself, grew up an activist, not a businessman. Yet, with no relevant experience and almost no capital, he started his own business at age 24. 

His mom volunteered for the Urban League, an advocacy group working for Black Americans and other underserved urban residents to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights. The political landscape was a familiar one to Horowitz. He went to his first political rally in 1969, for peace in Vietnam, when he was just shy of 13 and listened to activists speak, altering the course of his life. 

“My first awareness of the power of consumers to affect business was the United Farm Workers grape boycott in the late 1960s, early ‘70s.” 

Horowitz’s professional life settled in marketing, but he remained an activist over the years, until, after founding a successful movement to protect a local mountain that used all his marketing skills as well as his activist background, the idea came to him to combine the two. 

He realized the potential impact businesses could have on progress and change in the world, from the climate crisis to poverty and beyond. 

“This is good for business. Business does well when it builds on ethical support systems,” Horowitz explains. 

Going Beyond Sustainability is a one-stop shop, offering services beyond marketing and consulting, from speaking engagements to trainings on topics like employee engagement in social change and business organization. 

One of the core tenets of his business as a marketing consultant is that best practices change—just because businesses have operated one way regarding sustainability and ethics doesn’t mean it’s the best way to operate. 

A technique he practices with clients adheres to this way of thinking: guerrilla marketing. 

The author Jay Conrad Levinson coined the team in 1984 with his book Guerrilla Marketing. This approach to marketing borrows from its namesake of “guerrilla” warfare to communicate with audiences through the element of surprise.  

A famed example of guerrilla marketing was 1967 when activist Abbie Hoffman led a group into the New York Stock Exchange and threw dollar bills from the visitors’ gallery onto the floor, interrupting trading and garnering numerous headlines.

Horowitz practices guerrilla marketing in his consulting and even co-wrote two books with Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World and its predecessor, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green. 

“Heal-the-world guerrilla marketing sharpens the focus to look at how a business can profit as it actually improves our physical and social environment—and how to tell your green/social equity story so effectively that the world begins to seek you out,” Horowitz writes on his website. 

That’s the goal, a cyclical process benefitting both businesses and consumers. And the stats don’t lie—a 2023 survey showed up to two-thirds of consumers will pay more for sustainability. By giving consumers what they want, i.e., products and services that benefit the planet, businesses engender loyalty and profitability. 

Horowitz knows this work can be hard, frustrating, and oftentimes demoralizing—something as great as bettering the world will always have setbacks, but the important thing is that we try.  

Sometimes the needle will only move a fraction, but if it doesn’t move at all, or moves backwards, progress will always remain out of reach. And by showing business how building environmental and social justice into core products, services, and company mindsets can be profitable, Horowitz has created a platform to influence the business community to move the needle faster and farther. 

Horowitz has several freebies available to Green America readers. And for Green America members, instead of the 15-minute freebie consultation on how your particular business can combine profitability with environmental and social good, Horowitz will offer a full half-hour at no charge. 

Note: This blog is a crossposted blog from Green Business member Beneficial State Bank.

Founded with impact in mind

In 2007, Beneficial State Bank co-founders Kat Taylor and Tom Steyer set out to design a new kind of community bank. Rather than serving the single bottom line of profit, as do most traditional businesses, we equally prioritize the three goals of:

• Serving our communities (people),
• Supporting positive environmental outcomes (planet), and
• Achieving long-term financial sustainability (prosperity).

Today, we practice Beneficial Banking™, in harmony with nature, to help more people and help people more.

Partnerships that deepen our impact

We believe that collective efforts are required to make the planet healthy and livable for the next generation. We are proud to be part of the Green Business Network, the first, largest, and most diverse network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses in the country. The Green Business Network is a program of our client Green America®, the nation's leading nonprofit organization working to build a green and just economy. The Green Business Network Member Directory showcases hundreds of businesses that have a shared goal of positive environmental impact.

Green Business Network members can apply for certification in more than 40 industries (included with membership). Only certified members are listed in the Green Pages, a place for consumers to look for products and services. By leveraging third-party certifications and benchmarking models, we ensure our positive impact is significant, meaningful, and measurable. We report our impact annually to demonstrate that we walk our talk and ensure we meet the highest banking and business standards.

Banking that nurtures the planet

Beneficial State Bank is one of the leaders of a growing movement toward more ethical and inclusive banking. We are committed to running our business in a sustainable way, but we don’t maximize profits at the expense of our customers, our communities, or the planet.

We are proud to be part of the Green Business Network and encourage other businesses and financial institutions to join us.

We need a new economy built for all of us. We vote every day with our choices, our voices, and our wallets. By casting our collective votes for better banking, we are making our vision a reality. When you bank with Beneficial State Bank, your deposits support a lending practice that serves our communities and the planet.

A survey from Green America found that 89% of US consumers want retailers to offer both print receipts and digital receipts sent via email. With that in mind, you might want to purchase a receipt printer and printing paper. This way, you can give shoppers the proof of purchase they prefer. 

Creating receipts also generates more than 4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide pollution, which greatly contributes to the overheating of our planet, reported the L.A. Times, citing a study by advocacy group Green America.

As one hemisphere prepares for the chill of winter and the other swaps coats for bathing suits, it’s time to look at how you use energy in your home.

How we use energy at home is a major factor in the fight against climate change. The residential sector accounts for roughly a fifth of the total energy usage in the US, with more than half of that used for heating and cooling, and using traditional systems, greenhouse gases are a significant problem.

It may seem like your single home won’t have a big impact, but the more people commit to energy efficiency, the more power we have to combat the rapid warming of our planet.

You’ve Heard of Solar…

Once, the idea of solar-powered energy systems seemed cutting edge, but it has become more common and affordable in addition to reliable and efficient.

According to the US Department of Energy, “The amount of sunlight that strikes the earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world’s energy consumption for a full year.”

The energy from solar can generate electricity, be stored in batteries, and/or heats a home’s hot water, all while reducing carbon in our atmosphere and, in the long run, saving you money.

You might be surprised to learn when the first solar panels in the United States appeared—1884, on a New York City rooftop. More than a century later, it’s easier than ever to get solar installed.

According to the Center for Sustainable Energy, residential solar panel systems run from $15,000 to $25,000. Those are big numbers, but there are multiple ways to invest in and benefit from solar at more affordable prices.

Whether you live in a home you own, rent an apartment, or somewhere in between, you can benefit from solar and this guide will help you do that.

Now, Try Heat Pumps

Solar and wind aren’t the only games in town providing sustainable energy.

Heat pumps are a great option on the market and are increasingly popular.

Even better, they can work with your electricity-generating solar panels to make your home the über-sustainable residence.

Using sustainably sourced electricity, heat pumps transfer heat collected from air, ground, or water outside the home to both warm and cool your home. The key here is that heat pumps don’t generate energy, they simply move already existing energy from one space to another. Heat pumps work best in warmer climates where winters are mild; for cold climates, you’ll want a dual heat pump, which relies on gas furnaces on particularly cold days.

There are several types of heat pumps, depending on which element you draw from, how much you’re willing to spend, and the size of your property. You can contact your local home improvement or heating/air companies or hire a local contractor. When researching contractors, look for accreditations like North American Technician Excellence or HVAC Excellence.

Air-to-air heat pumps are smaller and more affordable options, typically ranging from $3,500 to $7,500. It’s also an easier option if you already have ducts in your home. By simply transferring air between your home and outside, taking heat from a cool space and moving it to a warm place, you’ll save on energy bills in the long run.

Or you can go with a geothermal heat pump. This system transfers heat from ground and water sources near your home, benefiting from more consistent temperatures than outside air. Geothermal pumps cost more—between $6,000 and upwards of $30,000. They're also a bigger spatial commitment and the installation will tear up your yard.

The benefits of both options are big.

According to the Energy Department’s guide on heat pumps, geothermal ones “can reduce energy use by 30%-60%, control humidity, are sturdy and reliable, and fit in a wide variety of homes” and air systems result in 50% energy reduction. And they’ll last for over a decade with minimal maintenance.

An Energy Efficient Home Wins with the Inflation Reduction Act

Solar panels and heat pumps are now more accessible than ever, thanks to President Biden’s signing of the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s what to look forward to:

30% annual tax credit for certain energy efficient home improvements, such as doors, windows, roofing, etc.
100% credit for installation of energy-efficient water heaters, heat pumps, central air conditioning systems, etc. with a $1,200 annual limit.

30% credit for installing qualifying systems that use solar, wind, geothermal, biomass or fuel cell power to produce electricity, heat water or regulate temperature.

Rebates for low- and middle-income families who purchase energy-efficient electric appliances, including $8,000 for a heat pump.

No Matter the Structure, Make Your Home Efficient

Though this type of infrastructure should be government-provided in the efforts to fight climate change, progress is often slower than we’d like, and bigger and costlier projects like these won’t work for everyone.

For those that can realistically get solar panels or a heat pump, they’re both great investments—for everyone else, you can still do your part through smaller choices like lightbulbs and composting bins, or if you rent, engage with your landlord about purchasing solar or join a community solar project.

Whether you’re a college student, newly minted graduate, or relatively fresh addition to the work world, finances are likely top of mind. If money management feels overwhelming, know you’re not alone: The Investopedia Financial Literacy Study found only 46% of Generation Z (ages 18 to 25) is confident about their financial understanding.

Luckily, many great resources—many a simple web search away—exist to help you feel financially on track. Learn how you can lay the groundwork now for a more secure and sustainable financial life.

Start with the Basics.

To build financial confidence, pick up the lingo. Boosting your financial literacy will not only strengthen decisions you make down the line, but help you resist bad money moves now.

The Financial Literacy Study indicates that Gen Z leans on technology to deepen their knowledge of all things money. Mix financial tips into your feeds by following One Big Happy Life, The Financial Diet, and Nate O’Brien on YouTube and @pariibafna, @pricelesstay, and @seth.godwin on TikTok. For a list of fundamentals, check out “The Ultimate Guide to Financial Literacy” by Investopedia.

And when you’re comfortable with the basics, start thinking about the long-term impact of your dollars. Read about socially responsible investing online via Athens Impact and Hansen's Advisory Services, Inc.

Racial justice through finance is a burgeoning topic with lots of resources from Adasina Social Capital. Green America's Guide to Socially Responsible Investing and Better Banking has articles for people from beginners to advanced on banking and investing topics.

Pick a Bank That Supports Your Values.

Steer clear of corporate mega-banks. Instead, seek out a nonprofit credit union or community investing bank, where you may find lower fees and more personalized customer service. According to NerdWallet, credit unions often boast better savings rates. They may also offer special account perks for students, like no minimum balance and no maintenance or overdraft fees.

Ditching mega-banks can also steer your money toward green solutions and communal good. While many conventional big banks propel environmental damage (for example, by supporting fossil-fuel expansion), credit unions and community investing banks pursue local impact by expanding economic opportunity.

Don’t Miss Out on Financial Aid.

Financial aid is awarded to more than 83% of first-year undergraduates enrolling for the first time, the Education Data Initiative reports. So, your chances are good! Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the annual deadline to be considered for loans, which require repayment; grants, which don’t; and work-study eligibility. Apply for external scholarships and report previously satisfied course credit to save even more dough.

In Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties, author Beth Kobliner urges readers to “pay off…high-rate loans” with available savings before heavy accrual kicks in. Meet with your financial-aid provider to pick the appropriate payment plan for you.

Budget, Budget, Budget!

Keeping track of your assets and setting spending limits can feel daunting. “I try to budget, but it's hard to remember what my budgets are if I'm not constantly looking at them,” says Michelle Ott, a 24-year-old graduate student. The good news? There’s an app for that! Mint, Goodbudget, and similar software analyze money flow and visualize your budget (so you don’t have to).

A useful framework to follow is the 50-30-20 rule. To the best of your ability, commit about half of your post-tax earnings to “needs,” 30% (or less) to “wants,” and 20% to savings. Still, given sky-high rent and grocery costs, this method may feel more ideal than attainable for many. To set more young Americans up for financial success, systemic change is necessary.

For the most accurate read on your spending habits, CNBC finance correspondent Sharon Epperson suggests ditching money-transfer applications like PayPal and Venmo for a few months. Without blind spots on your transaction history, you can better determine how much you’re sinking into what.

Be a Smart Spender.

Honor the value of your dollars—and the planet—by saying no to waste. Did you know Americans collectively dispose of hundreds of thousands of dollars in food each year, per a Pennsylvania State University study?

Researchers found that a typical household’s food-waste rate hovers around 30%. Purchase only what you need and keep stock of perishables. Resist impulse buys that could also end up trashed later.

As for “must haves,” shop secondhand and look for student groups that help connect people with necessities. Drive down your community’s net waste and find reduced prices along the way. And don't forget to flash your student ID to claim student discounts.

Optimize your Credit.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s National Financial Capability Study, the majority of Americans don’t weigh options when obtaining a credit card. This is problematic, as selecting the right card takes effort.

Request bank recommendations, ask if student cards are available, and review everything from interest rates to spending thresholds on each.

Once you receive your card, sidestep interest by spending within your means and paying back what you owe monthly. You'll want to maintain a healthy credit score, too. To elevate your score, meet bill due dates (Kobliner endorses autopay) and—as Epperson recommends—cap spending at 10% of your credit limit, if you can.

Prepare for Emergencies.

Securing health insurance, Kobliner writes, “should be…your number one financial priority.” If a medical emergency hits, it could spare your savings.

To take financial security a step further, establish an emergency savings fund. Investopedia proposes stashing roughly “three to six months’ worth of expenses,” and Kobliner advocates for automatic savings plans.

Putting Your Financial Knowledge to Work.

Managing money effectively requires planning with intention, engaging institutions you trust, and asking questions as they arise. But while financial practices like budgeting and saving are critical, it's not realistic to expect to out-strategize a system built to benefit people with preexisting wealth.

Pets make loyal companions, at your side through all seasons of life. But can they accompany you on the path toward a greener existence?

Yes! Taking steps toward sustainability now can make miles of a difference in the long run. First, adopt—don’t shop, and spay or neuter your pets.

Below, we answer common questions about eco-friendly pet ownership.

How should I handle waste?

Pick up after your pooch—even in your yard. Pet waste, if not properly disposed of, can threaten public health by wandering into waterways.

One approach is to bag and trash the doo. DC’s Department of Energy & Environment recommends “reusing old bread, produce, or newspaper bags.” While tossing biodegradable bags may sound greener, if they are headed for a landfill, they’ll get cut off from the oxygen they need to break down properly.

If you have the time and means, “a much better solution is to compost,” veterinarian Richard Pitcairn writes in Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats. Karl Schrass, founder of Annapolis Compost, agrees it’s feasible, but safety must come first. Seek expert advice on properly composting dog waste. Don’t “use that compost on plants that you will be eating,” Schrass warns. Pitcairn also suggests septic-style digesters like Doggie Dooley.

As for cat waste, some compostable litters do exist, but start by transitioning away from common materials like clay, which is sourced through strip mining, sustainability site Treehugger explains, and does not decompose.

Line cat boxes with bio-friendly corn, grass-seed, or walnut litter instead. If not composting with expert oversight, seal and trash used litter in a brown paper bag. It should not be composted normally because the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis is sometimes present in cat feces.

Can I make my pets greener eaters?

A 2017 UCLA study found cat and dog food is responsible for a quarter to a third of the environmental impact of meat consumption in the US. Churning out animal products—including resource-intensive pet food—strains Mother Nature. But is turning your pet vegan a safe solution?

For Pitcairn, the answer is (usually) yes. “For dogs, it is not only possible to eat much lower on the food chain, it’s a good idea,” he writes. He mentions Bramble, the collie whose intake of lentils, vegetables, and brown rice—among other vegan foods—helped her hit 25 years.

With cats, some maintain that a part-meat, part-plant diet is choice. But Pitcairn takes a different view, claiming that vegan diets designed to include synthetic supplemental nutrients can suit between 60% to 85% of felines.

Check out Animal Essentials treats and supplements. Remember: dietary switches require veterinary oversight.

Are there environmentally friendly toys?

According to an Integrative and Comparative Biology study, the majority of pet-care commodities involve single-use plastics. And given that America’s pet-product industry raked in nearly $100 billion last year, these goods definitely propel plastic overflow.

Cut down trash by curating your toy stash thoughtfully. Prioritize durable, plastic-free, and upcycled items.

Check out P.L.A.Y. and Purrfectplay for your toy and accessory needs.

What about bugs?

Disconcertingly, many EPA-approved pet pesticides contain perilous ingredients, according to the National Resources Defense Council. Products can stoke brain, organ, skin, or stomach issues. Plus, Pitcairn reminds us, toxins bleed into our biosphere.

Pitcairn endorses “nontoxic options for flea control, body care, and other household products.” Try Wondercide‘s natural flea and tick sprays and collars.

Leave only paw prints

Join other Green Americans in working toward eco-friendly pet ownership. Cutting back on plastic and toxic products not only benefits the earth but positions your pet to lead a healthier and happier life.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the wedding industry’s commitment to sustainability.

According to a 2017 Stanford Mag article, the average carbon footprint of an American wedding is 56 tons. In 2022 alone, 2.5 million weddings are expected to take place, producing 140 million tons of emissions.

Don’t panic–your day can be glamorous without harming the planet.

Cheers to Catering

One of the worst offenders of wedding waste is catering. In 2017, UK supermarket Sainsburys found a tenth of all wedding food is thrown away and a fifth of guests said they didn’t eat the late-night reception food.

Ahead of the big day, research organizations to compost or donate leftovers, like FoodCycle in LA or the nationwide Food Recovery Network.

It’s also good to think about sustainable food and dishware options.

If you splurge on local and organic catering, you’ll avoid pesticides and transportation costs. If you’re in the DC metro area, try Green Plate Catering. Picking a seasonal menu will also support local farmers.

When sipping the signature cocktail or eating that vegetarian ceviche, don’t use plastic dishware. Consider, instead, renting or thrifting dishware. There are rental companies across the country, with pieces ranging from .50 cents to several dollars.

Be careful if you want to use crystal glassware. Bonnie Gringer, founder of the secondhand shop Share the Lovely, told Insider that such antiques “were likely made using outdated safety standards” and could contain harmful substances like lead.

Say “I Do” in a Thrifted Outfit

Looking and feeling your best is one of the great joys of a wedding, whether your own or someone else’s. And you don’t need a brand new outfit—someone’s something old can be your something new.

Whether it’s a dress, suit, or bell-bottomed disco jumpsuit, try giving an outfit another life. Thrift or buy/rent from one of the many secondhand sites like StillWhite and Rent The Runway. Want to try your outfit on first? Look for consignment bridal stores like Something Bridal in Oklahoma.

If you buy something new, consider a sustainable clothing company and donate your outfit after the big day.
The same goes for your guests. Instead of a strict dress code, encourage your guests to thrift or re-wear what makes them feel fabulous.

Yes, You Can Be a Flower Child!

Florals are a staple of weddings and, unfortunately, terrible for the environment. Arranged florals pollute the planet through greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and refrigerants. In 2018 alone, the International Council on Clean Transportation found that flying imported roses into the US emitted 360,000 metric tons of CO2.

When it comes to decorating, consider alternatives, like DIY décor; from flowers made of recycled paper to bouquets made out of book pages, and potted plants guests can take home.

If you want a more traditional floral display, work with a sustainable florist like New York-based Good Old Days Florist and ask about re-using products from another recent event. You can also donate florals to hospitals, assisted living facilities, and places of worship after.

The Theme Is: Sustainability

Details make your wedding feel unequivocally yours. Don’t forget to go green with the little things amid everything else:

No rice, glitter, or confetti—they're difficult to clean up, potentially harmful to local wildlife, and often not biodegradable. If you need to make it rain, hole-punch some leaves for nature’s confetti!

Swap the stationery for e-invites and online RSVPs or print on recycled paper.

Ditch the plastic favors for something edible, or let guests take home the décor.

Include a charity on your registry.

Your big day is a celebration of love. Use these tips to show your love in a sustainable way.

What about Rings?

Classic, romantic, and timeless—like the love you share with your person. That’s what wedding rings are all about! Finding a ring that symbolizes your love without harming the planet isn’t as tough as you might think.

Recycled gems: Finding recycled gems prevents the need for further mining. Ask your jeweler if they have “reclaimed” and “recycled” gems, or search antique, vintage, and estate sales.

Recycled gold: Whether yellow, white, or rose, opt for recycled. Like recycled gems, recycled gold is simply gold from other jewelry remelted into the perfect ring. There’s also recycled platinum, titanium, and sterling silver, if gold is not for you.

Family heirlooms: Why purchase a ring when there’s a beautiful heirloom in the family? This is a planet-friendly—and sentimental—way of sharing your love by declaring it with a ring passed down to you. If you don’t have a family heirloom, visit antique and vintage stores.

Wood rings: Unique and beautiful, wood rings speak volumes of your love for your person and the planet. Naturaleza Organic Jewelry makes custom wood rings from foraged wood, recycled metals, and unique gems.

“From family heirlooms, to trees in a yard, to reclaimed Bourbon barrels from Kentucky, trees and their wood have a lot of meaning and symbolism in our lives,” says Amy Shelton, who co-owns Naturaleza with her husband Marlon Obando Solano. “We welcome our customers to provide wood or other materials that are meaningful to them to create their custom wedding rings.”

Naturaleza also invests in reforestation projects in Nicaragua to combat climate change, rooting your ring in stewardship of the Earth.

The Dirty Diamond

Some people prefer the classic diamond, but there are some important things to look out for. Mined diamonds are responsible for erosion, dangerous working conditions, and human rights abuses. The most infamous of gems are “blood diamonds,” called that because they financed civil wars in African countries, where many minerals are mined. Fortunately, blood diamonds are rarely in the market nowadays after the 2006 movie Blood Diamond shined a light on these atrocities.

When searching for rings with diamonds, the keywords to look for are “conflict-free,” “recycled,” and “vintage” diamonds, which means your purchase will not finance a war. Lab-grown diamonds are indistinguishable from a mined diamond—but many are made using high-pressure, high-temperature technology run on fossil fuels. New technology has made it possible to create diamonds from extracting CO2 in the air, and some companies are using renewable energy to fuel this process, reducing the overall impact. The best option of all is used and recycled diamonds, which require no further energy to grow or mine. When purchasing, it’s always good practice to email or call the company to verify its claims and ensure it is not greenwashing.

Regardless of what ring you choose, aim for one that is good for people and the planet as well as your loved one.

As children, it almost felt like a punishment—receiving a wrinkled shopping bag of haphazardly folded hand-me-downs from distant cousins or…don’t even say it… older brothers. But now, as retro trends are dominating the fashion scene, grandma’s closet might be a goldmine.

When 74% of consumers say that secondhand apparel is more socially acceptable—and even braggable—than it was five years ago (according to thredUP’s 2022 Resale Report), sporting lightly loved fashion is undoubtedly having a renaissance. And while we love the circular economy of donating and thrifting, just because you want to wear secondhand doesn’t mean you have to buy it. Instead, shop in the closets of friends and family! On average, people tend to wear only half of their closet, so why not do a clothing swap and let someone else rock the things that you've outgrown?

To help kickstart a kind of circular closet economy, try out our vintage scavenger hunt and seek out these 70s, 80s, and 90s trends that are back in high style and just waiting to be found and flaunted.

Bells: Whether they’re bell-bottom jeans or bell-sleeved blouses, you can’t help but groove with bells on.

Platform Boots: Boots are no longer reserved just for winter months, especially when they come with a few extra stylish inches. And white boots? They’re good to go-go.

Corduroy: Jackets, pants, skirts, even hats—the soft-to-the-touch grooves of corduroy are back in style all year round.

Crochet: From halter tops and sweaters to skirts and vests, the world is telling us to crochet every-which-way.

Tinted Glasses: Indoors, outdoors, all year long, tinted sunglasses shout stylishly mysterious.

Puffs and Ruffs: From shoulder pads to puffy sleeves and ruffled fabric, textured blouses and blazers are back.

Belt Bag/Bum Bag/Fanny Pack: Call them what you will, but the brilliance of hands-free fanny packs has rightfully enlightened another generation.

Bike Shorts: In honor of the ever-popular fashion icon, celebrate Princess Di’s iconic style with the retro high-waisted bike shorts and oversized sweatshirt combination.

Power Suits: This comeback trend has been around for a while, but that doesn’t mean that your old power suits are behind the curve.

Bomber Jackets: The incomparable sheen and puff of bomber jackets are practical statement pieces that really never seem to slip from the spotlight.

Scrunchies: The bolder and bigger the better these days to tie a whole outfit together.

Button Downs: Business blouses, casual tops, cardigan sweaters—pullovers are out and button downs are in.

Overalls: They come with pants, shorts, and skirts, single clasp and double, wear over camisoles, T-shirts, or turtlenecks—the options are endless!

Bucket Hats and Bandanas: For blocking the sun’s rays or tying back those fly-aways, 80s headgear is still functional and fashionable.

Cargo Pants: Simply said—can you ever have too many pockets?

In a world of fast fashion that screams, “New is always better,” just remember that what goes around comes around… and around and around again, and hand-me-downs are up-and-coming.

Green America’s Skip the Slip campaign has inspired a proposed Skip the Slip law in California that is making its way through the legislature! Assemblymember Phil Ting (D- San Francisco) is sponsoring the legislation that gives customers the option of getting a non-toxic paper receipt, getting an e-receipt, or getting no receipt at all at most businesses in the state.

The bill has passed the Assembly and the Senate Judiciary and Environmental Quality Committees, and next it heads to the Appropriations Committee. We’re working with allies in California to make sure it gets to the Senate floor and then becomes law.

Assemblymember Ting was inspired by our campaign Skip the Slip and originally introduced a bill in 2019. After listening to the input of businesses and consumers, the bill is back. Thanks to all of you who have taken action on this campaign and look for more updates and action alerts soon.

Learn more about our Skip the Slip campaign.

An HEV is an excellent avenue to better fuel economy if you want to keep things simple and less expensive at the point of purchase. Green America says the improvement over an ICE alone, on average, is somewhere between 20% and 35%. On the other hand, if you are willing to spend more for the purchase and deal with plug-in recharging to obtain up to 20-30 miles of electric-only travel each day, a PHEV is for you. In either case, a hybrid will save on gasoline.

We manufacture compostable foodservice and packaging products and give 25% of our profits to social and environmental organizations to further their work in creating a better world.

Leading Green Economy Group Defends Freedom to Invest Responsibly, Offers Data and “Foundational Truths” Ignored in Highly Politicized GOP Report.

WASHINGTON, DC – July 12, 2023 – This morning, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices at 10 a.m. Today’s hearing is the first of a series of hearings scheduled for July designed to attack ESG investing and shareholder proxy voting on political grounds.

Green America is the nation’s leading green economy organization with 300,000 individual members and supporters as well as nearly 2,000 companies in its Green Business Network and has educated the public on responsible investing for 40 years.

In anticipation of the hearing, and in response to the preliminary report attacking ESG by the Republican ESG Working Group, Green America submitted a letter for the record to Members of the Committee supporting ESG investing and shareholder proxy voting, backed by real data.

Cathy Cowan Becker, Responsible Finance Campaign Director at Green America, said in the letter:

We would like to challenge several underlying assumptions in this report and other memos from the majority, and clarify several important foundational truths:

• ESG performance is on par or better than conventional investing, especially in the long term.
• Environmental, social, and governance considerations are material and pecuniary, not political.
• The shareholder proxy voting process gives retail investors a critical voice in corporate governance, and reforms suggested by the majority would stifle, not promote, that voice.

Multiple research studies show that returns on socially responsible investing are on par or better than investing not based on ESG principles, especially over the long term. For example:

• According to Morningstar’s 2022 Sustainable Funds US Landscape Report, most sustainable funds delivered stronger total and risk-adjusted returns than their respective Morningstar Category indexes. Over half of sustainable funds finished in the top half of their Morningstar Category, led by equity funds. Data for the previous five years showed even better results – the returns of 74 percent or sustainable funds ranked in the top half and 49 percent in the top quartile of returns.

• In 2021, the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing released a study, Sustainable Funds Outperform Peers during 2020 Coronavirus. The Institute found that in a year of extreme volatility and recession, funds focused on “on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, across both stocks and bonds, weathered the year better than non-ESG portfolios.” The research analyzed more than 3,000 US mutual funds and ETFs, finding that sustainable equity funds outperformed non-ESG peer funds by a median of 4.3 percent in 2020.

• The NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business released a 2021 meta study, ESG and Financial Performance: Uncovering the Relationship by Aggregating 1,000 Plus Studies Published between 2015-2020. The report found that 59 percent of studies showed that ESG investments had a similar or better performance relative to conventional investment approaches, while only 14 percent found negative results. It also concluded that “ESG investing appears to provide downside protection, especially during social or economic crises.” “Using ESG principles to help inform investing is not a breach of fiduciary duty. On the contrary, not taking all factors related to risk and opportunity into account can be seen as a breach of fiduciary duty. Individual, institutional, and public asset managers should be free to consider all information when making critical investment decisions. This is how the free market works. It is not the role of government on the federal or state level to tell asset managers how to manage investments for their clients.”

Regarding specific claims made by the ESG Working Group’s preliminary report, Becker added:

Shareholder proposals are not a significant burden for public companies.

The only mandatory cost under the shareholder proposal rule is for the company to publish a proposal of up to 500 words on its proxy ballot. All other spending is discretionary, and almost all shareholder proposals are non-binding. The board does not have to do anything in response to a proposal.

Shareholder proposals constitute a small percentage of overall proxy votes each year. According to the Council of Institutional Investors, most public companies do not receive any shareholder proposals. On average, 13% of Russell 3000 companies received a shareholder proposal in a particular year between 2004 and 2017. In other words, the average Russell 3000 company receives a shareholder proposal once every 7.7 years. For companies that receive a shareholder proposal, the median number is one per year.

Raising thresholds for ownership and resubmission would squash the voice of small investors.

Currently, in order to file a shareholder resolution at a given company, a person must have owned at least $2,000 of company securities for at least one year. The working group proposes raising that threshold to continuous ownership of at least $2,000 of the company’s securities for at least three years; continuous ownership of at least $15,000 of the company’s securities for at least two years; or continuous ownership of at least $25,000 of the company’s securities for at least one year.

Such revisions would hamper the participation of small and diverse investors in the shareholder resolution process. These smaller investors can have a great impact on corporate practice. According to data compiled by the Sustainable Investments Institute, 176 resolutions on social and environmental topics came to a vote at U.S. companies in 2019. Many were filed by investors with small ownership thresholds. The proposals received an average of 25.5% support, demonstrating that proposals of interest to a large portion of a company’s shareholder base can originate with smaller investors.

Likewise, the working group proposes raising the voting thresholds needed to resubmit a shareholder resolution from 3%, 6% and 10% in the first, second and third year respectively, to a vote of 5%, 15%, and 25% in order to resubmit a shareholder resolution the following year. Again this would squash the voice of small and diverse investors, especially as concerns emerging issues.

In some cases, it can take years for issues such as climate risks, human rights assessments, and governance reforms to be recognized as important to a company’s returns. Through long-term investor engagement and education, corporate boards and shareholders often eventually do adopt proposals that had less support at first but are now seen as best practices.

In 2020, the SEC raised ownership and resubmission thresholds to respond to pressure from corporate trade associations, presenting significant hurdles to filing and resubmitting shareholder proposals. Raising these thresholds again would shut out small investors and leave emerging issues unaddressed.

Proxy advisory firms do not wield excessive influence over investors.

Many pension funds and other institutional investors review research and recommendations from proxy advisors but vote according to their own guidelines and policies. According to proxy advisor ISS, 85% of its top 100 clients use a custom voting policy.

Institutional investors do not “robo vote” proxy advisor recommendations. An NYU-UPenn study finds that the impact of recommendations by ISS is significantly reduced when company-specific factors are taken into account. The proposed curbs on proxy advisors could undermine the voice of investors by limiting the information available and further tilting votes on key proposals in favor of management.

To speak with a representative of Green America, contact Max Karlin at (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.

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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

July is Disability Pride Month, a time to celebrate the experiences and achievements and honor the history and struggles of the disability community. It is a group that anyone could find themselves joining at any moment in time, due to birth, illness, or accident, and yet people with disabilities have been historically marginalized, underestimated, and underserved.

July was chosen as disability pride month as it marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which passed in 1990 and was a landmark civil rights law meant to prohibit discrimination and make sure those with disabilities have the same rights and access as those without. Disability Pride Month celebrates people like Judy Heumann, the “mother of the disability rights movement” who was the first wheelchair user to teach in the state of New York and helped develop legislation to improve inclusion and access for disabled people around the world, including the ADA. Another champion, Alice Wong, is the founder of the Disability Visibility Project, which collects oral histories of people with disabilities in the US. She edited a moving book of first-person stories told by people with a wide range of disabilities called Disability Visibility.

There is so much work left to be done to fully include, and create access and equity for, the estimated 27% percent of Americans who live with disabilities, including those affecting mobility, cognition, hearing, vision, and independent living, according to the CDC. Reading (or hearing, or watching) stories about the experiences of people with disabilities can help those without to understand what barriers people with disabilities face and aim to build a society that can truly work for everyone.

To help enhance your celebration with content you can use all year long, Green America is pleased to share Disability Pride Month resources that highlight accomplishments and the justice still needed related to disability and our work with society, the economy, and the environment. We do this as a reflection of our vision: “to work for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the abundance of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come.”

Together, let’s celebrate and recommit ourselves to building a just, equitable, and inclusive society.

Image used above is the Disability Pride Flag, designed by Ann Magill.

Holiday Background & Social Justice:

What is Disability Pride ? / What is Disability Pride Video

Why and how to Celebrate Disability Pride Month 2023

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally

Disability Pride Flag Meaning

Why Disability Justice is Crucial for Liberation

When I Grow Up, I Want to Be a Chair: (Book)

British Vogue Magazine: Nothing Is More Fashionable than Visibility

Economy:

Economic Justice Is Disability Justice

(Video: Audio Described) Economic justice & disability, ft Dessa Cosma, Detroit Disability Power

Podcast: Understanding An Intersectional Framework of Economic Justice for People Living With Disabilities

Environment:

Why environmental justice research needs to include disability

Indigenous People With Disabilities Are on the Front Lines of the Climate Crisis

Disability Rights Is a Climate Justice Issue. Here’s Why.

Video: Environmental Justice and Disability with Pauline Castres

In Person Events:

Disability Parade, Chicago (July 22^nd)

Pop- Up Shop supporting Disabled -Owned Businesses (DC)  (July 15^th)

Disability UNITE (In-Person & Virtual Event, July 16^th)

Virtual Events:

Documentary: "Neurotypical" (July 24)

Virtual Teen Comics Chat - Disability Pride Month and Summer (July 27)

Disability UNITE (In-Person & Virtual Event, July 16^th)

There has been a steady rise in pesticide use across all cocoa producing countries from Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to Indonesia.

Alarmingly, children have been exposed to agrichemicals at a similar increased rate from 5% in 2008 to 24% in 2019. Yet, it is entirely possible and desirable to have a world without hazardous agrichemical with certified organic cocoa.  

Pesticide Harm

Learn More

Achieving Traceability

Learn More

Pesticide Exportation

Learn More

Cocoa-growing regions around the world are experiencing dangerous levels of deforestation.

Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire are two of the largest cocoa producing countries. Over the past 30 years, Ghana is estimated to have lost 80% of its forest cover, while Côte d’Ivoire has lost around 94% of its forests.  

Ending Deforestation

Learn More

Achieving Traceability

Learn More

Promoting Agroforestry

Learn More

WASHINGTON, DC — JUNE 21, 2023 — Green America is proud to announce Dr. LaKeisha “Keisha” Thorpe as its new executive co-director for culture, planning & green business development. Dr. Thorpe brings a wealth of experience that promises to help take Green America’s operations and green economy programs to the next level.  

Dr. Thorpe’s doctoral dissertation focused on food and culture, she’s served on the board and executive board of the Bethlehem Food Co-op in Pennsylvania, and she’s always made justice and equity a major focus in her work. She has served in JEDI leadership roles at four colleges and universities, most recently, Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, creating better campus experiences for students, faculty, and staff. 

Dr. Thorpe also brings some 16 years of experience in human resources, fundraising, and public education to Green America. 

“Keisha’s brilliant strategic thinking, heart-centered organizing and deep experience in justice, equity and inclusion will create continuity from Green America’s current work and a bridge to our future,” said Alisa Gravitz, president and CEO of Green America. 

“The gratitude and excitement I feel at joining Green America are immeasurable. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work in tandem with folks who consider JEDI work not only a necessity, but a norm,” said Dr. Thorpe. “I cherish the work surrounding sustainability and social justice. I am looking forward to continuing the work I believe in so deeply within the mission of Green America."  

“We are really excited to welcome and work with Keisha at the Board level. She brings an exciting and fresh perspective to our organization. Dr. Thorpe’s professionalism, experience, energy, and leadership skills are exactly what Green America needs to help us continue to grow and make the planet a better place for all,” said Deepak Panjwani, co-chair of the Green America Board of Directors. 

Dr. Thorpe will take the reins from Fran Teplitz, Green America’s executive co-director of business, investing & policy, after 23 years of remarkable service to Green America. During her time at Green America, Teplitz shaped the organizational culture, including its focus on JEDI across programs; advanced socially responsible investing and better banking practices for individuals and organizations; steered the Green Business Network; and led organization-wide collaboration on planning, development, and budgeting. She earned the respect and admiration of everyone she worked with—from the staff team, board, individual and business members to the organization’s green economy allies. Teplitz now moves into what she calls her “rewirement.” 

“It has been my honor and joy to work with Green America’s staff, board, individual members, the members of our Green Business Network, and allies, to propel the green economy forward,” said Teplitz. “I am grateful to have shared this journey with all of you and will forever remain a Green American! I’m thrilled to pass the baton to Keisha as we expand our next generation of leadership.”  

“Fran Teplitz has been instrumental throughout the past 23 years in furthering Green America's stature in the green business community throughout our country. Her collaborations with other organizations have netted win-win situations for all involved, most importantly strategies for helping businesses do both well and good. Her recent leadership focus in JEDI throughout Green America established a strong foundation for this most important work to continue. We will miss her greatly, however we will feel her presence through her accomplishments and organizational planning for years,” said Julie Lineberger, co-chair of the Green America Board of Directors. 

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, (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.

**********************************************************************************

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.

Timeline: Temporary (Roughly 20 hours per week for 5 weeks – schedule is negotiable) 
Payment: $5,000 
Location: Remote 

Green America is a national, nonprofit, membership organization dedicated to creating a socially just and environmentally sustainable society by using economic strategies to help solve the many challenges facing our country and world. Green America's unique approach involves working with consumers, workers, businesses, investors, and supply chain stakeholders to build an economy that serves people and the planet.     
 

Background:  

Green America's labor program highlights labor abuses that affect workers throughout the world. We mobilize consumers to pressure businesses into adopting fair labor practices. We also help consumers find fair and sustainable shopping alternatives. The Toxic Textile campaign under the Labor Program specifically tackles industry-wide abuses that harm workers, the planet, and consumers. Building on our 2019 report and subsequent scorecard that focused on the toxic chemicals used in the manufacturing process, Green America successfully campaigned for companies such as Carter’s to adopt better chemical management practices.  
 

Description:  

Green America seeks a writer and researcher with a background in corporate sustainability, worker rights, and the fashion supply chain to collaborate on our 2023 Toxic Textile Report and scorecard which will expand our scope from toxic chemicals and build on the 2019 report to address the following questions: 

1. What are the top 3-5 most “toxic” aspects of the apparel industry? i.e. Chemicals, tannery, landfill/incinerator, labor abuse, etc. 

2. How does each toxic aspect impact workers, environment, and consumers? 

3. What advocacy tools are effectively being used, by whom? i.e. Accord, union contract, MRSL, Due Diligence, ESG, Social audits, etc. What tools do we need to advocate for each of the toxic aspects?  

4. Who and what do we need to make change? (Specifically breaking it down for consumers, investors, policy makers, workers orgs, and prefer using tools like infographic, scorecards, and other easy to digest graphics or 1-pagers) 

5. Which companies are leaders and laggards regarding the aspects/elements documented?  

The report will be approximately 20 pages long (including citations) and written for a general audience (including media and social media distribution). The scorecard would fit on one page and spotlight online retailers and athletic/athleisure brands. Both the report and scorecard will further our campaigns to get companies to improve their corporate social and environmental performance.
 

Process and Timeline: 

You will provide research and writing to Green America’s Labor Justice Campaigns Director who is overseeing research and development of the Toxic Textile campaign. The contractor will have an initial scope meeting to build on the existing outline for the report, as well as take part in weekly check-ins with the Labor Justice Campaigns Director to ensure the project is moving forward on schedule and that the contractor has the resources needed to advance the work. The work will begin in July and should be completed by September and your name will be listed as an author and researcher in the published report.  
 

To Apply:

Please send your resume and two published pieces in which you contributed writing and/or research to Jean Tong (she/they) at jtong@greenamerica.org by June 30, 2023.  

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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 works to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society and we value justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

WASHINGTON, DC — JUNE 21, 2023 — Green America is proud to announce Dr. LaKeisha “Keisha” Thorpe as its new executive co-director for culture, planning & green business development. Dr. Thorpe brings a wealth of experience that promises to help take Green America’s operations and green economy programs to the next level.  

Dr. Thorpe’s doctoral dissertation focused on food and culture, she’s served on the board and executive board of the Bethlehem Food Co-op in Pennsylvania, and she’s always made justice and equity a major focus in her work. She has served in JEDI leadership roles at four colleges and universities, most recently, Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, creating better campus experiences for students, faculty, and staff. 

Dr. Thorpe also brings some 16 years of experience in human resources, fundraising, and public education to Green America. 

“Keisha’s brilliant strategic thinking, heart-centered organizing and deep experience in justice, equity and inclusion will create continuity from Green America’s current work and a bridge to our future,” said Alisa Gravitz, president and CEO of Green America. 

“The gratitude and excitement I feel at joining Green America are immeasurable. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work in tandem with folks who consider JEDI work not only a necessity, but a norm,” said Dr. Thorpe. “I cherish the work surrounding sustainability and social justice. I am looking forward to continuing the work I believe in so deeply within the mission of Green America."  

“We are really excited to welcome and work with Keisha at the Board level. She brings an exciting and fresh perspective to our organization. Dr. Thorpe’s professionalism, experience, energy, and leadership skills are exactly what Green America needs to help us continue to grow and make the planet a better place for all,” said Deepak Panjwani, co-chair of the Green America Board of Directors. 

Dr. Thorpe will take the reins from Fran Teplitz, Green America’s executive co-director of business, investing & policy, after 23 years of remarkable service to Green America. During her time at Green America, Teplitz shaped the organizational culture, including its focus on JEDI across programs; advanced socially responsible investing and better banking practices for individuals and organizations; steered the Green Business Network; and led organization-wide collaboration on planning, development, and budgeting. She earned the respect and admiration of everyone she worked with—from the staff team, board, individual and business members to the organization’s green economy allies. Teplitz now moves into what she calls her “rewirement.” 

“It has been my honor and joy to work with Green America’s staff, board, individual members, the members of our Green Business Network, and allies, to propel the green economy forward,” said Teplitz. “I am grateful to have shared this journey with all of you and will forever remain a Green American! I’m thrilled to pass the baton to Keisha as we expand our next generation of leadership.”  

“Fran Teplitz has been instrumental throughout the past 23 years in furthering Green America's stature in the green business community throughout our country. Her collaborations with other organizations have netted win-win situations for all involved, most importantly strategies for helping businesses do both well and good. Her recent leadership focus in JEDI throughout Green America established a strong foundation for this most important work to continue. We will miss her greatly, however we will feel her presence through her accomplishments and organizational planning for years,” said Julie Lineberger, co-chair of the Green America Board of Directors. 

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, (703) 276-3255 or mkarlin@hastingsgroupmedia.com.

For the health of people and planet, people are reevaluating relationships with work and productivity, and pushing for a 4-day work week.

“No one on his deathbed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on my business,’” said lawyer Arnold Zack to his friend with a cancer diagnosis. The quote has since been repeated by uncountable people who relate—that their life is about more than their time at the office.

“Employers understand they can work differently, employees recognize they want to work differently, and everyone realizes they can and should advocate,” explains Charlotte Lockhart, co-founder and managing director of the non-profit 4 Day Week Global.

The organization’s goal is reducing working hours while maintaining pay to prioritize the wellbeing of workers, the planet, and business success.

In 1926, Henry Ford dropped his company’s work week from six days to five. Four years later, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted a 15-hour work week in the future. Clearly, that hasn’t happened, even as productivity during a 40-hour week has risen significantly without corresponding pay increases.

“Burnout culture cannot be sustained,” says Dr. Wen Fan, a sociology professor at Boston College. “Employers need to find a way to recruit and retain. One option is to increase salaries, but not all businesses have that capacity—an alternative is more benefits, like a schedule change.”

Rejecting Burnout, Embracing Life

Some employers permanently reduced working hours long before the four-day work week concept gained traction—indeed, Green America has had a four-day work week since 2001; leadership had been considering it and made the decision to adopt it in the aftermath of 9/11, due to the pressures and uncertainties of those times.

Since helping implement a four-day work week at Green America for the past two decades, human resources director Dennis Greenia has seen why it’s a favorite benefit among staff.

“Recognizing that everyone on staff has a whole and complete life outside of work has helped us recruit and retain,” he says. “It provides the capacity for people to enjoy a fuller life over time.”

Ginger Leib, coordinator for Green America’s Soil & Climate Alliance and Clean Electronics Production Network agrees: “The four-day work week has been crucial to my mental health and well-being. It allows me time to get outside, rest, or spend time with loved ones.”

This experience is not unique to Green America. Research shows that a four-day work week creates benefits for employees and employers alike around the world.

Results from the most recent and biggest study yet, the UK’s four-day week pilot, were released in 2023. The research organization Autonomy, along with 4 Day Week Global, spearheaded the program.

This UK study, which both Lockhart and Fan worked on, ran for six months in 2022 involving 57 companies and 2,548 employees. Across the board, the study’s results showed promise.

Tyler Grange, an environmental consultancy firm and study participant, reported a 22% productivity increase. Most study participants agreed—78% found no change in workload, while 62% found their work pace increased but only 13% reported an increase in stress.

“More employers are recognizing the economic benefit, too, of a healthy workforce,” Lockhart says.
These economic benefits were present in the study results, including increased revenue (+34.5% compared to a previous, similar six-month period) and decreases in resignations and absences.

What researchers and activists are most excited about, however, is the impact on quality of life.

“My favorite one is the insomnia statistic,” says Lockhart, referring to 46% and 40% of employees reporting reductions in fatigue and sleep difficulties. “There are many reasons why we don’t sleep well—stress, poor eating, no exercise.”

Added time in a person’s week, to spend how they choose, can help holistically, suggests Lockhart and the study.

Mary Meade, editor and digital content manager at Green America, agrees: “Work-life balance is very important to me. I use my three-day weekends to take mini trips. It’s the perfect amount of time to get things done: Friday is for errands, Saturday is for fun, and Sunday is for relaxation. I am truly able to unplug from work with three days.”

By the end of the UK study, 92% of the participating companies continued with the program, 30% confirmed a permanent shift, and most employees said only a significant pay increase would get them to go back to a five-day work week.

Not Just People: Is the Four-Day Work Week Better for the Planet, Too?

There is research to suggest reduced working hours will benefit the planet, with an important caveat: intentionality.

Reducing commuting distance (691 million miles a week with a four-day work week, per one UK white paper) could be canceled out if people start jetting off on their three-day weekends. The UK study showed 52% of employees did increase leisure travel during the six-month period.

Where experts believe a four-day work week or similar reduction in working hours could help the planet is in people’s daily habits.

“There’s no denying the amount we’re working now is bad for the planet,” Lockhart says. “I’m looking at you, UberEats. How environmentally unfriendly is it to have a single meal delivered because you didn’t have time to grocery shop and make dinner.”

During the 2020 covid lockdown, research showed more people adopted more eco-friendly practices like recycling when at home and working less. This is the consistent intent required to maintain the climate benefits of decreased business traffic rather than offset them.

Data from the US Energy Information Administration shows potential positive outcomes with a reduced working week—Americans burn 10% less fossil fuels on weekends. Increasing a person’s weekend to three days, then, has the potential to significantly decrease fossil fuel emissions if people have more time for and choose low-carbon activities like hiking, gardening, or cooking for your friends and family.

It should be a communal effort, though, says Anupam Nanda, urban economics and real estate professor at the University of Manchester, UK: “Eco-friendly facilities and neighborhood green spaces should be created across urban areas in order to encourage people to spend their free time in a sustainable way.”

The Gift of Time Is Justice

“As business leaders, we need to remember that we borrow people from their lives,” Lockhart states.
People are more than the money they bring in or work output. Giving back time to workers to be with friends and family, cultivate hobbies, contribute to their communities, supplies not only benefits, but justice. People will get to define what productivity means to them, like pursuing education or volunteering, which is down in the US year over year since 2019, according to Gallup.

Some may discover justice in other areas. Following the UK trial, 21% of employees reported a decrease in childcare costs and more men than women reported an increased involvement with childcare duties. In the US, where childcare costs and gender roles are huge challenges to family life, such benefits could be life-changing.
It is also important to recognize who will benefit from reduced working hours.

“Typically, already advantaged organizations and sectors are more likely to be part of these trials,” Fan explains. “We also see an over-representation of highly educated workers.”

Fan says companies should work to extend these models to all employees, primarily less educated, marginalized, and immigrant workers, as well as non-office workers. Solutions could look like tax incentives for smaller businesses, and acknowledging this work is not one-size-fits-all. Some industries—hospitals or restaurants, for example—will need to hire more employees or reduce hours in other ways, like shorter shifts across five days.

Rep. Mark Takano’s (D-CA) solution is to make the four-day work week federal law with the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act.

“We have before us the opportunity to make common-sense changes to work standards passed down from a different era,” he said.

Organizations like Green America, or New Zealand’s Perpetual Guardian, which adopted a permanent four-day work week in 2018, have already seen and felt such increased happiness—it just might be time for more employers to follow suit.

For 40 years, Green Americans have been supporting workers. You’ve signed petitions to pressure and change companies with poor worker safety practices. You’ve joined picket lines with loud voices and poster board to spare. And you’ve incorporated activism into your own workplaces. Safe and healthy workplaces that pay good wages are essential to building a green economy. There are so many ways to support workers today, whatever you have to spare (time, money, or energy), and wherever your talents lie, we can all play a role in creating a healthier, safer, better-paid workforce. Here are eight ways to build a better world of work.

1. Buy from Unionized Shops

Unionized stores and union-made products mean workers have more power over their pay, safety, and other important issues. Many big box supermarkets are unionized and label local foods—which are more likely to adhere to safe labor standards than products made in other countries. While no union is perfect and even good working conditions can be improved, supporting unions provides a way for workers to establish a better balance of power for their protection and rights. Green America supports striking Starbucks workers, who have made a map of unionized and non-unionized shops—check that out at everyunionstarbucks.com.

If you are curious about whether a store is unionized nationally or at a local chain, do an internet search of “[store name] union,” and that should help you out. Of course, many stores don’t have unions because they may not have enough employees, they may not yet be organizing, or not yet successful in forming a union. Many corporations actively fight against unionization, but when you have a chance, choose unionized. Use Labor411.org to find unionized shops across industries.

2. Support Union Efforts

When workers go on strike—listen to them and support them with your dollars. That means lately, shopping at locally owned coffee shops when Starbucks is striking (or ones that have unionized). When Amazon workers are striking, do your best to avoid shopping from there. In fall 2021, Kellogg’s workers went on strike, so that would have been a good time to try a different cereal brand. After 11 weeks, 1,400 affected workers came to a new five-year contract with the company, which meant a successful strike, as it increased wages and benefits for the workers.

Whether a local or national company, always avoid crossing a picket line—crossing a picket line means going into the places that have striking workers and spending your money there anyway, which communicates not agreeing with what workers are asking for.

If you want to elevate your support, talk to people in the picket line and volunteer your time to join them if you can—adding your voice to the choir is free! If you have money but not time to contribute, dropping off snacks, water, hand warmers, or sunscreen will help those on the picket line stay stronger, longer.

“You can even participate in a community delegation to tell management the concerns from a community/consumer perspective,” says Jean Tong, Green America’s labor campaigns director. “It’s powerful stuff. Strikes have been won with that strategy.”

3. Share Information

When you hear of a worker strike or a petition to improve conditions for workers, share that information. Use social media to share posts, or bring up worker concerns and strikes in conversation. Many people may not know the what of a particular strike—what the workers are facing and fighting for. Sharing this information is a powerful way to get more people to support workers.

4. Ask Where Your Officials Stand

Elected leaders have an outsized say on state and local labor laws. Write an email, make a call, or go to a town hall with elected leaders and ask where they stand on labor issues, like union pushes and fair wages. If they answer in support of workers’ rights, hold them accountable when they get a chance to take action on these topics. If they answer in a way that is more supportive of corporations than workers, it may be time to start a pressure campaign to get them to reconsider their stance.

5. Vote Your Proxies

If you own stocks in individual companies or through mutual funds, you receive a proxy ballot every year to vote in advance of the annual shareholder meeting. Check those proxies for labor-related and other green issues and make sure you or your financial manager vote to voice your opinion. Many shareholders calling for labor rights can work.

6. Make Calls to Companies

When you learn that one of the companies you regularly purchase from pays low wages or treats workers poorly, make a call or write a letter. Let them know that you’ve been a loyal customer, but that you won’t return until they change their practices.

7. Buy US-Made, When You Can

“One of the most important ways to support workers and the labor movement is to know the workers as part of your community, that way when there are issues, it is not just a worker issue but a community issue,” says Tong. “The other huge benefit of supporting local-made is obviously reducing carbon emissions.”

Of course, innumerable amounts of goods are manufactured abroad and shipped to the states. But when possible, buy products that were manufactured in your community, your state, or your local region. The US has stronger labor laws than some (but not all) other countries, which means workers are more likely to be paid fairly, have the right to strike, or at least speak their mind. The extra expense of US production is a major reason why many companies outsource, but it is also a reason that workers might be treated more fairly. And, of course, when workers in your community are looking for support in seeking justice or better conditions, you’ll be more likely to hear about it and be familiar with it, to support them from the start.

When buying from overseas, look for credible certifications, from Fair Trade America, Green America’s Green Business Network, and World Fair Trade Organization. For larger apparel companies, look for companies that take part in the International Accord.

8. Buy Green

Green businesses represent the next evolution of the economy—they are designing products, services, and workplaces with people and the planet at the forefront. Green America works to create a supply of businesses worthy of the green economy—both by pressuring bad actors to do better and by uplifting small green businesses through our Green Business Network. The Network provides resources for businesses, has certification standards across over 30 industries, and provides media coverage to small businesses around the world.

In Latin American countries and lower-latitude communities around the world, researchers are finding a rise of chronic kidney disease in outdoor workers—a consequence of persistent dehydration.

“There are researchers who are saying this is the first epidemic of climate change,” says Dr. Kristina Dahl, a principal climate scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists. In the US, Dahl says, this reality may not be far off for our own outdoor workforce.

In 2006, California became the first state to pass heat protection standards. In the 17 years since, only three other states have adopted outdoor workplace heat standards: Oregon, Washington, and Colorado (in Colorado, for agricultural workers only).

From farmers to construction workers, landscapers, garbage collectors, airport tarmac workers, emergency responders, and so many more, our country depends on the outdoor workforce, so why don’t we protect them when it comes to heat?

Dahl is focused on outdoor workers, climate, and bridging science with policy. In the next 30 years, she says, the frequency and severity of extreme heat will rise across the country, bringing with it an increase of heat illness and heat-related deaths for workers and worsening historic inequalities for this under-valued workforce. While average temperatures rise nearly every summer, we can start protecting our workers today by passing worker-safety laws and enforcing heat-protection standards and practices.

The State of Heat Standards

Adopting heat protection—for outdoor or indoor workers—involves a knotted web of factors, from policy to implementation. Currently, there are no federal heat protection standards in the US. While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a rule that states employers have a duty to ensure a healthy and safe work environment, heat is not specifically mentioned. This means that basic standards for outdoor workers’ health may not be met, such as ample and accessible shade, cold and clean water, and cooling breaks, according to Dahl.

Even in states with protective regulations, when it comes to enforcement, Dahl has heard farm workers say: “There’s one law on the books and there’s another law in the field.”

In California, for example, science-informed heat protection standards do exist; however, implementation varies from employer to employer, field to field. Employees may not be informed of the laws protecting them or the signs and symptoms of heat illness, or employers may not offer that information in the appropriate languages. Some workers may have more incentive to stay quiet than advocate for their rights, like those who are paid by the pound of produce picked, for whom an increase of water and shade breaks would cut into earnings. Undocumented immigrants may fear deportation for speaking up, others may not have the resources to support their advocacy and feel the effort is in vain.

“It’s not a group of people that has been empowered in the past—quite the opposite,” Dahl says. Therefore, even with decent laws, employers must be the ones to hold themselves accountable to provide shade, water, and rest for their workers.

When people with little power, desperate to keep their jobs can’t speak up, it’s called a “lower-archy,” according to Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, co-executive director for the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH).

“Heat is exactly the same scenario as all other poor conditions that workers face,” Goldstein-Gelb says. “Having the least voice is often equivalent to a death or harm sentence.” And so the system snowballs: when workers can’t speak up, harm and abuse go unreported, and policy is at a standstill.

How We Can Support Outdoor Workers

Build Power from Worker Voices

As with any demand for change and justice, it’s critical to engage with the affected communities. Organizations like National COSH develop campaigns based on a network of community-based worker organizations that speak directly with outdoor and indoor workers operating in extreme heat environments, asking about symptoms but also what would make their lives safer, then encouraging employers to take the steps to protect their workers.

“Without the workers being the eyes and ears on the ground, then it’s all going to be meaningless,” Goldstein-Gelb says. “You can have all the laws you want, but unless there are workers using them and taking action and speaking up, they’re just pieces of paper. Our role is to support workers in building their voice, power, and collective action.”

Advocate for Federal Standards

OSHA has announced that it has begun a rule-making process to regulate protections and enforcement; however, it may be years before we see finalization and real-world implementation.

While state policies and protections are important, federal standards are critical, as they can set protections based on human tolerance and health (compared to varying state-by-state in accordance to how people have acclimated to temperature).

“This is based on health, science, and research about what our bodies can take and can’t take,” says Dahl. “All people in all states deserve to be protected by standards and the only way we’re going to get there is with federal standards in place.”

Then comes on-the-ground enforcement: checking in on employers, reviewing their plans for providing education in multiple languages, and inspecting the quality and temperature of available water and access to ample shade. Goldstein-Gelb adds unionization, collective bargaining agreements, and strong worker committees are equally critical for this vulnerable workforce.

Educate on Heat Health and Safety

It’s important that workers are well-equipped for the immediate threats they currently face. Employers, employees, and advocates can all contribute to protecting outdoor workers with these steps:

• Support local worker-safety organizations in your state or county who protect workers facing extreme heat conditions. Personal testimony and comments of support carry weight in local legislatures, where even 10-20 people’s voices can sway policy.
• If you’re an employer, speak to your workers about what you can do better to provide a safer and more comfortable work environment.
• Provide multi-lingual (including written and verbal) education on the signs of heat illness, dehydration, and heat exhaustion. The CDC lists tips to prevent heat-related illness, such as wearing appropriate clothing, pacing yourself, and drinking plenty of fluids.
• Advocate or implement buddy systems, so workers can look out for their peers while also being looked out for themselves.

The economy can thrive without harming the environment or the beings that call our planet home. This is at the heart of Green America’s mission and why we work for a green economy. Yet that vision seems hard to reach when good jobs and workers’ rights are pitted against the environment—a narrative that doesn’t have to be true.
Historically, industry has exploited both workers and the environment through poor working conditions and pollution. Yet history also shows that people stand up to right these wrongs—whether that be enacting child labor laws, the Clean Water Act, or unionizing workforces.

Recently, some companies have adopted more just and green policies, helping to lead industry towards better standards, such as the minority-owned SUNS (Solar Uptown Now Services) Cooperative that employs people of color in steady, clean-energy jobs. While state-wide policies are failing the green economy movement, such as Texas’ mandate for fossil fuels over renewables, there is hope in the Inflation Reduction Act and the small businesses leading the charge.

It’s more important than ever that worker-organizers, unions, and organizations like Green America are working collectively towards a future where people don’t have to choose between a good job and a clean environment.

Blue Fenceline Communities

Blue collar workers are among the first people to face the impacts of environmental issues. Many live in fenceline communities—neighborhoods that are near high-polluting warehouse districts, industrial factories, and dumps.

In the north of Birmingham, Alabama, the Bluestone Coke plant (which makes fuel for steel manufacturing) has been polluting historically Black neighborhoods for decades. The EPA has designated it as “the 35th Ave Superfund site.” Arsenic and lead have been found in residential soil due to leaks from the plant, and residents bear the burden of disproportionately high rates of respiratory issues and cancer.

For generations, residents have worked at the coke plant without knowledge of the harm it caused to their health and their communities. As blue-collar factory workers, this circumstance demonstrates the tragic intersection of environmental injustice and workers.

Jean Tong, Green America’s labor campaigns director, says that this issue spans industries, from the 35th Avenue Superfund to southeast Los Angeles, where garment workers make clothes that contain harmful chemicals for low pay.

“Low-wage workers who face poor working conditions on the job are often living in highly polluted fenceline communities,” says Tong. “Low-income working families are also vulnerable consumers to products sold by companies such as Amazon or Shein that may contain toxic chemicals because of their low prices.”

Tong calls these compounded stressors the “triple-whammy”on low-wage workers—unsafe working conditions, high exposure to environmental risks, and limited access to affordable and healthy essential daily products and food. They are the reasons why organizing at the intersection of workers’ rights and environmental justice is so important.

Where Blue Collar Meets Green

With environmental issues affecting blue collar workers acutely, shouldn’t labor groups and environmental organizations to work together? It’s not that simple.

For example, Native American communities led the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline, joined by environmentalists and other concerned citizens. When President Biden canceled the pipeline, it was celebrated as a win among these allies. However, the Laborers’ International Union of the North and more labor unions supported the Keystone XL for its creation of steady union jobs. Today, these same unions applaud Biden’s approval of the long-delayed Willow Project in Alaska, which once again is being fought by local Native American communities and allied environmentalists. While these fossil fuel projects contribute to the climate crisis, they also provide steady good-paying jobs for union workers.

“It’s not fair or practical to ask workers to choose between feeding their families and saving the environment,” says Tong. “The responsibility falls on a comprehensive national ‘just transition’ plan toward green jobs and renewable energy. They are two sides of the same coin.”

BlueGreen Alliance, an organization which unites labor unions and environmental organizations for the shared interest of a clean environment and quality jobs, seeks to create policy solutions to these issues.

“We don’t want folks to have to choose between a good job and a clean environment,” Katie Harris, BlueGreen Alliance’s legislative director, says. “We advocated for the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA]. For the first time, labor standards are attached to clean energy tax credits.” This will incentivize companies to invest in clean energy resources that pay a prevailing wage for the tax credits they will earn—prevailing wage means a basic hourly rate given to people who work the same job, used by the government to ensure that tax credits or dollars only go to businesses that pay workers fairly.

This means that under 2022’s IRA, investments in clean energy must also consider the wellbeing of the workers—a major step forward for energy justice. More than nine million clean energy jobs could be created over the next decade with these rules in mind.

Community in Clean Energy

Responsibility falls on corporations to switch to clean energy and support good jobs. Corporations are responsible for 75% of all energy used in the US, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

Telecom companies are expected to grow in influence as society becomes more dependent on telecoms to communicate and conduct business, according to Green America’s “Calling for a Just, Clean Transition” 2021 report. They have power to influence clean energy investments with their massive energy use and advance energy justice in the workforce by employing underserved communities.

Dan Howells, Green America’s climate campaigns director, says that public pressure is needed to get companies to transition to clean energy. Whether that’s publicly on social media or calling your provider directly, it’s important for the public to take part.

“The inevitable is coming,” says Howells. “We’ve already reached peak-oil, -coal, and the fossil fuel industry is in decline. The next step is, who’s going to build, install, and maintain all new renewable energy infrastructure and systems?”

Howells uses the example of electric charging stations. As electric vehicles grow in popularity, charging stations are built to serve the same function as gas stations—refueling. However, as more stations pop up across the nation, a workforce will have to maintain them. Our report urges companies to employ women and people of color, to protect workers by honoring the right to organize, and offer prevailing wages.

ChargerHelp! in Los Angeles is a company growing this workforce. ChargerHelp! offers electric vehicle supply equipment technician training and certification, re-skilling for workers looking to change fields, and trainings for workforce development organizations.

As companies like ChargerHelp! transition the workforce into an emerging energy landscape, Howells emphasizes how important conversation between communities and companies is to workers.

“It starts with a conversation: companies with market power should consult with communities where they have current or future projects,” says Howells. “And, they should make sure that the good jobs that come along with renewable energy projects benefit those communities.”

Under the IRA, corporations are eligible for clean energy tax credits, which incentivizes them to invest in good jobs for clean-energy workers.

An Energy Transition for Everyone

Historically, low-income communities and communities of color have been the last to see the benefits of energy transitions and the first to experience negative effects—the neighborhoods near the 35th Avenue Superfund site are a prime example of many environmental injustices around the country. But Green America’s telecoms and labor justice campaigns as well as organizations like BlueGreen Alliance are working to make sure history won’t repeat itself in the clean energy transition.

“In the times we’ve had big economic shifts, there are people who’ve been left behind,” says Harris. “There has to be intentional investments in keeping communities whole. We can make sure that the communities that want these investments actually have a say.”

Harris references coal miners in Appalachia that support the transition to clean energy jobs. United Mineworkers Association members urged Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support Biden’s 2022 budget bill for its policies of employing former miners in new industries. With the passing of the IRA later that year, there is $369 billion allocated for the transition to renewable energy, some of which will be spent to bolster a clean energy economy in West Virginia.

“Labor union apprenticeship programs have the power to uplift immigrants and communities of color by providing a pathway toward middle class jobs and access to crucial benefits like affordable health care and pensions,” says Tong.

The US can reach for the new frontier of clean energy without leaving anyone behind by addressing the triple win of a just transition: supporting workers’ needs and rights; safeguarding the environment and tackling climate change; and addressing the communities affected. With these tools, labor unions and environmental groups can work towards a future where good jobs and a healthy environment go hand in hand.

Anna Ortega is a lifelong resident of San Bernardino, California. That city is part of the “Inland Empire” north of Los Angeles, once known for its agricultural industry, now known for being a center for warehousing, trucking, and shipping. In April 2021, Amazon started air operations at the San Bernardino airport. In November of that year, Ortega started working there, sorting packages and braving the sometimes stifling heat. Ortega once dreamed of working her way up the ladder with promotions at Amazon. After finding momentum with an organizing workers’ committee, she is now passionate about making her (in)famous workplace better for her colleagues and community. Ortega shared her story with Green American in April, 2023.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you come to work for Amazon?

I was burning through my savings and I really needed a job. [My mom] was working at an Amazon fulfillment center and I was going to apply to the one she was working at, but when I pulled up the Amazon application website, I saw that there was a sign-on bonus for the airport, so I decided to apply there instead. I was actually scared to work at Amazon because I had heard things from other people that have worked at Amazon about the working conditions and what it was like, and so I was fully prepared to quit after six months. But I ended up liking it because of my coworkers. And especially now—the environment that we’re creating, the culture that we’re creating… I really enjoy it.

How did you become involved in worker justice advocacy?

In 2021, the Amazon building where Ortega works had an unannounced closure. A group of affected workers started a petition asking for back pay and policy change regarding unpaid workdays.

When they approached me with the petition, I was honest with them. I told them, ‘I think what you guys are doing is cool, but I don’t want to jeopardize my chances for promoting.’ I thought anybody who signed it was going to get fired. I was scared, and so I declined. But then, the committee delivered the petition and none of them got fired. They didn’t get back pay, but the company gave us a month where we could pick up all the extra time we wanted.

That sent a message. My coworkers got together, they worked, they told the managers, ‘Hey, this is wrong, and you should fix it.’ And they fixed it. And none of them got in trouble. They’re all still here. I thought that was incredibly powerful and after that, I started thinking, hey, that positive change is good. What more can be done?

What is your role?

My department is called Mez [referring to the upper mezzanine level of the building, according to an Amazon job posting]. We do most of the sorting for the building. Most of the sorting happens manually: we take one package at a time, place it on a conveyor or on a robot, scan it, and the conveyor or robot automatically will take it where it needs to go. I get in at 7 a.m. and I leave at 5:30 p.m.

We’re seeing an influx of being sent out of our department to help another department that’s understaffed. It’s pretty unpopular, because we don’t get refresher training on how to do things, and we have to look to the people near us for help because it’s difficult to track down a management member.

I definitely noticed that whenever we hold a delegation, where a group of us goes to talk to a manager, they never say it but we instantly kind of get penalized for it. [Editor’s note: ‘delegation’ is what the workers call it when members of the organizing committee approach management with complaints or concerns. The committee is not recognized formally by Amazon.] We get back from the delegation and back to working and after a few minutes you know, we get sent out of the department and then down in the other department, they’ll say, ‘Why did they send you?’

After the first big action that I took as part of the committee, the next day not a single manager or PA [process assistant, functionally a manager] said anything to me until after like six hours into the shift. Then they pulled a bunch of us to the side like, ‘We just want to let you guys know like we appreciate you, you are welcome to raise your concerns, you can talk to us,’ but it took them six hours to say that.

Anytime we’re going to do a delegation, with work friends who are not part of the committee usually, I give them this talk: ‘They might treat you differently, you’re not imagining it. They will do that.’

Do you feel safe?

It doesn’t always feel like a safe place, no. There’s definitely times when it feels very hectic and everyone seemed frazzled and stressed. Whenever something goes down or something gets jammed, there’s alarms that go off. In those cases, management will still try and push for productivity over safety. I feel like they tend to forget that we’re actual human beings sometimes.

Tell us about the heat you deal with at work and how you addressed issues with it last summer.

The outside department working directly with the planes, they are outside all day in the sun, breathing in the jet fuel and the fumes. They had to walk and walk to find water and have a cool space to sit down and rest if they needed it. On the inside we were dealing with similar issues. There’s an entire department that works adjacent to outside, so they’re letting out the building’s air-conditioned air. There were no fans for them down there, and they didn’t have water in easily accessible areas. If they left their workstations to go and get some, by the time they’d came back, their supervisors were there asking why they were gone for so long, giving them a hard time, when all they wanted was to go and get water.

We realized, no, this isn’t okay, we shouldn’t be dealing with this, so we did two ‘heat delegations.’ We went up to the building’s manager so that we could share our stories and raise our concerns. After that, we saw some pretty big changes. Outside they started giving them their heat breaks, they got really big misters, more ice chests with water. We saw this push from management, letting us know, ‘Hey, remember, pace yourself; don’t overwork yourself; make sure you’re drinking water; if you don’t feel good, take a break.’ We weren’t seeing that before.

Does this create permanent change?

We definitely still have to keep them accountable, we still have to be the ones to [say], ‘Hey, there’s an issue here.’ It needs to be addressed. And then again, ‘Hey, has that issue that I raised the other day been addressed yet?’ [Heat safety measures have] definitely declined a bit since immediately after they were on top of things. Little by little they decline.

[But our organizing committee meets] with each other very often, talk about the issues to try and come up with ways to solve them. At this point, I consider this committee my family because I know that when I have an issue, as hard as it may seem to me in the moment, I know that at the end of the day, I can talk to any one of them. We can get through this together.

What are your plans for the future?

I’m pretty hell-bent on staying here. My involvement over the past year and a half, it’s definitely changed who I am. I really do hope to make this job a better one, and a good one. A job that someone in this community can go to and be able to support [their] family with.

I was born and raised in this city. This is my community. The people who live here deserve better. I do genuinely want to make this a better [opportunity] for the community.

In movies, robots oscillate between good and evil. Wall-E cleaned up trash on an abandoned planet while childlike M3gan committed murder without remorse.

In the workplace, robotics issues looks more like 2019’s Oscar winning documentary “American Factory,” which shows automation bringing an Ohio glass-making factory back to life, but not necessarily giving a good life to workers in it.

When it comes to workplace robotics, the first equipment was introduced by engineers at General Motors in 1961: a robotic arm that could lift and stack 75 pounds of hot metal at a time. With this, dangerous tasks for people were made safer by a machine.

Jessie HF Hammerling, co-director of the Green Economy program at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center, emphasizes that robotics are not inherently bad or good—we have to ask, how are they being used? The answer has huge impacts on workers and the climate.

Robots in the Workforce

Amazon, known for its cheap finds and speedy deliveries at the expense of workers and the planet, employs about 1.6 million people globally and has deployed more than 520,000 robots in its fulfillment and sorting centers. According to investor and CEO of ARK Invest, Cathie Wood, Amazon is adding about a thousand robots per day, which could lead to robots outnumbering human staff in just seven years.

But robots are making the fulfillment centers less safe. Amazon experiences 5.9 serious injuries per 100 employees at non-robotic warehouses (already double the rate of non-Amazon warehouses), but an astonishing 7.9 serious injuries per 100 employees at facilities with robots.

At the Labor Center, Hammerling and her team’s research shows that robotics and enhanced technologies will have a greater impact on job quality than job quantity for human workers. Their multi-year studies covered five of the most robotized sectors—warehouses, trucking, retail, healthcare, and food delivery.

“Job losses were concentrated in specific occupations and limited in scope, but the consequences for workers’ job quality overall were far more substantial, in ways that can have pretty significant negative outcomes for workers, such as lower wages, de-skilling, work speed-up, loss of autonomy and privacy, and the worst impacts were in particular for women and people of color,” Hammerling says.

Outsized impacts on women and people of color come because technological changes can worsen existing inequalities. Many front-line occupations like warehouse workers, cashiers, health aides, and nurses are more likely to be women, people of color, or both.

But, Hammerling says, the effects come from how technology is being developed and deployed. For example, tracking devices used by Amazon to track warehouse workers compromise worker privacy and increase work speeds.

But a similar type of technology has been designed for hotel housekeepers, where location tracking can be activated by a worn panic button, which can help staff get quick help in dangerous situations with guests.
As robots aren’t inherently good or bad for labor, so too with climate—it’s all about context.

Robotics and the Climate

People aren’t thinking enough about the climate impacts of robotics, says Dr. Fiachra O’Brolcháin. He does, as a philosopher and professor at Dublin City University. In his paper, “Environmental Impact of Robotics: Ethical Concerns and Legal Alternatives,” published in Springer Nature in 2020, he and his co-author say that sufficient attention has not been paid to environmental concerns.

“There’s a huge sort of techno-philic attitude in Western cultures—we’re always very excited about new technologies and equate that with progress,” O’Brolcháin says. “Insofar as there’s a focus on the downsides, that I’ve come across, it is the focus on labor and the potential huge loss of jobs from AI and robotics. The environmental aspect has been overlooked.”

The paper brings light to a multitude of issues that should be addressed as robotics are developed and popularized: e-waste, raw materials and chemicals in supply chains, energy use, and environmental justice. For example, if robots become consumer products (as they already have, with robotic vacuums and autonomous vehicles), they might become quickly obsolete status symbols that constantly are tossed away and upgraded, instead of well-fabricated, durable machines meant to be used and repaired for a long life cycle.

Workers really need to have a voice in the processes of technological change, whether it’s climate-related or not.

— Jessie HF Hammerling, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Like many products, the issue with robotics is that the environmental impacts—using a green and just supply chain, with fair pay and without polluting marginalized communities—are often only examined after they have happened. O’Brolcháin says there is a need for governments to consider environmental impacts and create regulations to make products in a green way.

“You’d hope that governments would regulate the market so that we are protected from the more pernicious effects of robots. But with governments, it depends on who you vote for and what sort of lobbies are there,” O’Brolcháin says.

Policymakers in the European Union are starting to look at potential issues, with The Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI, and GDPR, a data protection act, but while those do reference human rights, they are not designed to address environmental concerns.

Many roboticists are looking to create climate good with their technologies, which can take on dull, dirty, and/or dangerous tasks—for example SS MAPR, an autonomous boat that can be used to check river pollution and collect data at multiple depths, which could drive stronger pollution laws. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working on developing robots to repurpose retired electric vehicle batteries to be used as energy storage for buildings—using robots for this can reduce human exposure to toxic chemicals and high voltage.

What’s Next

What’s clear from both Hammerling and O’Brolcháin is that robotic technologies have potential to better human lives and the environment. Tech companies, governments, and potential purchasers of robotics need to participate in ensuring that outcome.

Both experts hope a change in perspective could be what’s next.

“Is it progress to develop a huge number of robots, if they’re very detrimental to the planetary system that we rely on for survival?” O’Brolcháin asks. “Or should there be some notion of a collective good for us all [including nature]?”

Hammerling says for any type of technological change, as workers’ processes change, their feedback needs to be considered.

“Robotics is just one of many types of technological change. The transition to a low-carbon economy is also a form of technological change,” Hammerling says. “Workers really need to have a voice in the processes of technological change, whether it’s climate-related or not.”

At the end of the day, she says that comes down to soliciting feedback from workers and allowing organizing among workers as their workplaces change.

Technology continues to advance, with robotics in the past, present, and future. To ensure that they contribute to an environmentally sustainable society and people-first economy, we must institute technologies while considering the collective good of workers and the planet.

Pressure is rising, creating real progress. Workers are pushing for unions and an end to poor treatment at some of the country’s most recognizable companies. Meanwhile, workers in every sector of the economy are recognizing a need for work/life balance and interest in the four-day workweek is growing.

At the same time, there have been alarming setbacks. Arkansas passed a law making it easier for children to work grueling jobs and other states are following suit.

Needing to push against child labor, organize in protest of poor working conditions and advocate for shorter work weeks… we feel like we’ve seen this before. With this issue, we explore the challenges and victories that workers face today, which are iterations on justice and equity issues from the past. We delve into the power of collective action, the potential of a just transition when it comes to climate solutions, the challenges of facing profit-driven corporations, and the tragedy of kids working dangerous jobs.

Workers across the labor force—whether doing manual labor, employed in the service industry, or sitting behind computers everyday—are feeling discontent and ready to do something about it. National Labor Relations Board chairman and professor Mark Pearce says that the pandemic was the wakeup call and catalyst—for people asking the question, “Is there another way to work and live?” Vulnerable workers in the pandemic were “not only scared, they were pissed,” Pearce said to CNBC.

With companies pivoting and shuttering, work looks and feels different since the start of the pandemic. Jobs and paychecks disappeared for the estimated 9.6 million workers who lost their jobs in the first three quarters of 2020. Some social systems provided support, such as stimulus checks and paid sick leave, and other systems failed, as up to 14% of families didn’t have enough to eat at the peak of the crisis.

After the pandemic laid bare the problems with work across the economy, people want a better way forward—and ways to build our communities to help ourselves. For ideas about how to do that, turn the pages to read more about workers organizing with new momentum, the rise of the climate-labor connection, and the growing interest in the four-day work week.

We also explore those areas where system change is most needed—and the most difficult. People who are already marginalized due to systemic racism and inequality are too often stuck in low-wage jobs and in workplaces where it is unsafe to demand change. Consider, for example, children workers and outdoor workers.

In 2022, Americans witnessed, and some participated in, union resurgences across the country, along with the highest approval of unions since the major labor organizing in the 1960s. At the same time, we are seeing a corporate backlash to worker power with companies engaging in massive layoffs and outright denial of poor treatment.

Labor victories happening right next to attacks on labor organizing and laws is why we need governments at all levels, companies of all sizes, and communities everywhere to create a culture, alongside policies, that values workers in the long term.

Green America’s labor campaigns director, Jean Tong, reminds us not to forget that each worker we meet in these pages or hear about on the news is a member of a community—maybe yours. As we support a local union or call for better safety standards, we lift up our communities. As we build greener, more just workplaces, we make our cities, towns, and country stronger, too.

In March 2020, our country experienced a profound shift. Streets emptied, classrooms turned virtual, office buildings closed—and a spotlight turned brightly on a workforce that had been historically overlooked and undervalued.

“For the first time ever, frontline workers were a central part of the picture,” says Gina Falada, associate director of advancing worker justice at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).

At the onset of covid-19 and in its aftermath, labor issues like paid sick leave and workplace health and safety have come to national attention, including to investors.

“The pandemic created an opportunity to shine a light on all these issues,” says Falada.

But we shouldn’t have to wait for a crisis to address glaring problems.

ICCR is a shareholder advocacy group which organizes institutional investors to use their power to push companies towards better policies through shareholder proposals and resolutions. Gina Falada and Nadira Narine, senior director of strategic initiatives at ICCR, help guide and inform investor-members so that their shareholding power uplifts workers and their basic human rights every day.

“Shareholder resolutions are intended to benefit the company and its shareholders by encouraging the company to employ high-road employment practices: preventing discrimination or harassment, respecting workers and their freedom to join trade unions, adopting health and safety protections, and more,” explains Brandon Rees, deputy director of corporations and capital markets for AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions that represents nearly 17 million workers.

Shareholder Resolutions on Labor Rights

Currently, freedom of association and collective bargaining, the protected rights of unionizing employees, are gaining significant momentum among shareholders. After votes last year at Amazon and Tesla, ICCR is now tracking 12 resolutions demanding that company policies protect worker leadership and unionizing efforts, especially at Starbucks, Amazon, and other major corporations.

For example, Starbucks, as well as Apple, both had high-profile cases of suppressing staff organizing efforts. Hyewon Han, director of shareholder advocacy at Trillium Asset Management, is working with investors on shareholder resolutions that call on these companies to examine their commitment to human rights—particularly, the right to form trade unions. Han says the first step is for companies to hire independent auditors to assess a company’s alignment to its own commitments and incorporate workers’ experiences into the analysis. Apple agreed to hire an independent firm to do this audit, so shareholders withdrew their resolution.

AFL-CIO also protects working people by filing resolutions such as a Wells Fargo resolution on freedom of association that received 34% of the shareholder vote in April. Rees says he is hopeful Wells Fargo will take action, “given the significant percentage of shareholders that supported the proposal.” Another resolution at Amazon encourages the board of directors to consider all company employee pay when setting CEO targets. Amazon famously has the highest CEO-to-worker pay ratio of all S&P 500 companies, Rees says, with the CEO making more than 1,000 times the median employee’s compensation.

Other pro-worker resolutions in 2023 address paid sick leave, gender and racial pay disparities, and workplace diversity. According to the 2023 Proxy Preview report, about 50 shareholder proposals asked about fair pay, working conditions, and benefits.

Everyone Benefits When Investors Stand with Workers

Responsible investors don’t want to profit from exploitation. Many investors have already aligned their portfolios with their values via divestment, shareholder resolutions, corporate discourse, and community development investments to further workers’ rights, green manufacturing, racial and economic justice, and other issues benefiting workers and communities.

For the investors who are only interested in maximizing their profits, what is their incentive to care about workers?

Han looks at the example of union-busting tactics used by corporations historically and in the present, like at Amazon and Starbucks. Old-school management tactics say that unionized workers cost the company more, but Han points out the additional resources needed to put out legal fires and handle a PR crisis, plus the hit taken to morale of all employees.

“There’s research showing that if you develop high-quality partnerships between labor unions and management, you can have productivity gains, among other benefits,” Han says, referring to process improvements, higher morale, and less turnover.

In addition, ICCR points to the recent wave coined as The Great Resignation where people are walking away from poor treatment.

“If [companies] want to be able to grow and sustain themselves as a business, they really have to take a deeper look at what it means to ensure that workers walk in the door and stay there,” says Narine. “I think investors are recognizing that and signaling it in their vote support.”

Whatever is holding national attention—whether that be the pandemic, an investigation, debate, or exposé—is an opportunity for shareholders to enact policy change that reflects their values.

In the exasperated words of Dolly Parton, “Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living!”

The world of work is evolving, such as strictly in-office workspaces becoming hybrid-remote, to robots in the workplace. Many of today’s workers seek to bring personal interests and causes to their job.

It is possible to bring these interests in environmental and social issues to nearly any job, even if “climate” or “justice” isn’t part of the description. More than 60% of workers want their employers to act on issues like climate change, equality, and poverty, according to a 2021 study by Atlassian. Though, unfortunately, in many parts of the nation, policies or cultures can make it dangerous or even illegal to fight back against racism or speak up on climate.

If you can bring your interests to the workplace, it’s important that you do. The climate crisis is affecting people around the world and social tensions are at a high. Learning how to address these issues as best you can in your current role is a great place to start.

Start Where You Are

Ask yourself: how can you align your job with climate and social justice goals?

Look for places to make change. If you work in finance, can you move the company’s finances towards sustainable investments or switch to a community development bank or credit union? If you work in human resources, could you offer greener benefits like socially responsible retirement plan options or add goals to job descriptions that seek climate and social justice outcomes? Communications teams can help translate complex climate language into something that makes sense for their audience. Supply chain managers can seek partnerships with manufacturers that treat their warehouse workers fairly.

“Legal teams inside companies are often the liaison with the board of directors and we need ESG [environmental, social, and governance] outcomes tied to executive compensation and tied to board performance,” says Jamie Alexander, director of Drawdown Labs at Project Drawdown, a nonprofit providing science-based climate solutions to help the world reduce and draw down greenhouse gas emissions. “The more legal teams can [make] carbon reductions and other climate outcomes legally binding within the company is hugely important.”

You don’t have to work at an office to make a change. Hair stylists can recycle foils and use vegan products as Head Case Hair Studio does in Dallas, Texas. Coffee shops are hubs for conversation, so baristas can support climate conversation by putting up flyers in support of local climate events, making vegan milks the default, and providing discounts for customers that bring in reusable cups.

Some actions require approval from management. With your request, point to a 2021 report from GreenPrint that says 66% of people are willing to pay more for sustainable products. It may not be so hard to convince your boss when profits might increase. Just make sure that the products you offer are truly sustainable—do your research.

You don’t have to stop there. Addressing social tensions is possible when leading with empathy.

Listen, Amplify, and Represent

Matt Scott, director of storytelling and engagement at Project Drawdown, suggests listening to those that are historically excluded from social justice conversations. Amplifying marginalized voices forwards representation, says Scott, who knows first-hand as a Black, queer storyteller featuring underrepresented voices in the series “Drawdown’s Neighborhood.” Sometimes that may be amplifying coworkers of color, low-wage workers without safe workplace conditions down the supply chain, or interviewing underrepresented voices in an article.

“Open up those lines of communication and have conversations that allow you to better understand,” says Scott on connecting with marginalized groups. “What would be best for business and most impactful at the same time? How could you leverage your superpowers as an organization, as an employee, to make an impact?”

As a writer or filmmaker, how could your story benefit from an interview with marginalized groups? Workers in government and community affairs can look towards how a company can use its influence to support social justice policy that is informed by affected groups. Human resources professionals can offer workplace diversity trainings. Clothing and handmade goods could come with tags that say the names of artisans. Bookstore clerks can put anti-racism and local history books on display.

Mitigate Risks Through Community

No matter your role, anyone can work towards building a vibrant workplace. Conversations in the break room or check-in questions at meetings are all pulse checks on what co-workers are interested in, whether that’s a conscious choice or not. Bringing social and climate justice issues into these conversations helps normalize these topics.

“This work is hard to do alone. There’s this fear of, ‘What will my supervisor say if I try to make these changes?’” says Alexander. “Having a solid group of people who are working on this together and have one another to learn from—strength in numbers is really important.”

No one should lose their job for bringing up their concerns, but it could be a risk, depending on management, and what and how you ask. Start pragmatically by outlining the benefits to the company. For example, purpose-driven companies have 40% higher workforce retention than competitors, according to a 2020 report from Deloitte. If leadership learns that climate action and social justice results in improved profits, customer loyalty, and more, they are more likely to agree.

“Center the why” when presenting arguments, says Scott. Personal examples and science-based ones appeal to the emotional and analytical sides of people. “[Make sure] folks will understand the benefit. When it comes to diversity, for example, studies have talked about and continue to talk about how diversity leads to more creative organizations and leads to more profitable organizations,” he says.

In the workplace, this may look like developing a pitch for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice trainings—you don’t have to work in human resources to ask for this. Use science-based research like the 2021 report from Catalyst that states empathetic workplaces have stronger cultures and productivity, as well as personal examples of reduced burnout and increased morale.

However, if that doesn’t work, and you opt for collective action approaches such as walkouts and strikes, developing a community is vital.

“Having folks you can turn to for support and just validate your work or speak up for the efforts you are trying to forward could go a long way,” Scott says. “It gives you a position of being more resilient in facing the challenges you could have.”

No matter what your position, ask yourself how you can forward climate outcomes and social justice in the workplace. Small solutions are just as vital as large ones—and working towards them together will bring ideas to reality.

How do you approach climate and justice concerns in your work? Email us to share your story.

Thank you to Krista Kurth, who inspired this piece.

Don’t think child labor in the US is a thing of the past. In 2022, the US Department of Labor (DOL) discovered over 100 children, aged 13-17, employed in dangerous jobs at meatpacking plants across the country by Packers Sanitation Services Incorporated (PSSI).

“This isn’t kids working at Dairy Queen for too many hours, it’s kids working in meat factories, ankle deep in blood and cleaning saws,” explains Reid Maki, director of child labor advocacy at the National Consumers League (NCL) and coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition.

The DOL reported at least three children suffered chemical burns from the caustic cleaning supplies they used. Many worked night shifts after attending school all day.

“It harkens back to a Dickensian idea of child labor,” Maki says.

Though horrifying accounts of dangerous child labor conditions may seem out of place in the 21st century United States, child labor has always been present, if hidden. Exploiting children for labor has followed the familiar thread of targeting the most vulnerable, from enslaved African children on plantations to immigrant children and families experiencing severe poverty.

In 1938, advocates for children won a victory when the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) placed limitations on child labor, like prohibiting children under 16 from working in manufacturing or mining. Later amendments introduced more restrictions, but child labor has nonetheless persisted—in 2023, the DOL found a 69% increase in illegal child employment since 2018, with over 3,800 children employed illegally, likely a significant undercount. The Child Labor Coalition estimates more than 300,000 migrant children work in agriculture alone.

States Are Racing to the Bottom

Less than a year after the PSSI investigation, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law a bill loosening child labor restrictions, by removing parental consent and age verification requirements. In the past two years, 10 states introduced or passed legislation rolling back protections for child laborers.

“Most of these bills are put forward by conservative legislators who believe in untrammeled parental rights [like allowing their children to work],” Maki says. Other legislation that claims to be about “parents’ rights” attack books in school libraries, LGBTQ+ content and speech. These are dog whistles that willfully ignore the consequences and already marginalized communities that will be hurt.

“They don’t consider the repercussions of child labor—the injury rates, the school dropout rates,” Maki says.

Another twisted justification for allowing child workers is labor shortages, due to factors like long-covid keeping people home sick, covid deaths, and a decline in immigration during the height of the pandemic. Also, the most dangerous jobs are often underpaid, which makes it difficult to attract adult workers, opening the door for exploiting children.

Maki speculates that legislators who support loosening child labor laws do so because they see it as a way to address labor shortages.

“Don’t address labor shortages on the backs of teen workers, especially in dangerous workplaces. Instead, raise wages and hire better-equipped adults,” Maki says.

Agriculture is a dangerous industry—and one that benefits from FLSA exemptions. In agriculture, children as young as 16 can work hazardous jobs like operating a forklift or handling and applying chemicals for over eight hours a day.

The United States Government Accountability Office found in 2018 that more than half of all work-related deaths among children occur in agriculture, though the industry employs less than 6% of all child workers (again, likely an undercount).

“We’re particularly concerned about kids working in tobacco fields because the crop is toxic,” Maki says. “Kids wear black plastic garbage bags while they work in oppressive heat to protect themselves.”

One such kid was Jose Velasquez, who immigrated to the US with his mother from Mexico when he was ten months old. When he was eight, he began working on a blueberry farm and switched to a tobacco field at 13.

“A typical day spanned from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with an hour for lunch,” Velasquez, now a college sophomore, recalls. “Tobacco is grown in the summer and North Carolina is a humid state. Some couldn’t even eat or keep down lunch because they were so dehydrated and exhausted.”

It wasn’t just physical hardships, either. Velasquez remembers the pain of returning home so exhausted, he didn’t have the energy to play with his friends during the sun-filled summer evenings.

A typical day spanned from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with an hour for lunch. Tobacco is grown in the summer and North Carolina is a humid state. Some couldn’t even eat or keep down lunch because they were so dehydrated and exhausted.

—Jose Velasquez, who worked as a child harvesting tobacco in North Carolina

Children Face Unfair, Unequal Treatment

It’s no coincidence that in the 1930s when the FLSA was written, and agriculture was exempt from various restrictions, Black people disproportionately worked in agriculture.

In no uncertain terms, Maki states the underpinnings of child labor in agriculture are racism, stemming from slavery and now most prevalent among migrant children. Most migrant children today are Latin American, seeking asylum from countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, he says.

Mary Miller Flowers, director of policy and legislative affairs at The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, adds that these children are already coming from the margins of society, fleeing poverty, violence, and climate change displacement.

“Our narratives about teenage Black and brown boys, gang and infiltration language, all of it is coming from a racist perspective on who does and doesn’t belong,” Flowers says.

The number of unaccompanied minors arriving to the US reached a high of 130,000 in 2022. Upon arrival, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) takes responsibility for placing children with sponsors. With many children and pressure to move them quickly out of detention centers, which cannot adequately serve children’s needs, HHS caseworkers were overloaded and may have made mistakes in the vetting process for sponsors, according to a 2023 New York Times investigation.

Once on the farm, Velasquez describes a “power dynamic” that puts undocumented immigrants at further risk.
“Sometimes we worked on small family farms,” he says. “The farmer’s children, most often white, got longer breaks, got to go inside and wait for the day to cool down. We didn’t have those benefits; we were expected to work 11 hours non-stop.”

Instability also contributes to disproportionate risks of child labor exploitation. UNICEF, for example, reported a correlation between a rise in poverty and an increase in child labor.

The COVID lockdown accelerated these conditions. While many families faced tight economic situations, children were resigned to remote learning. This reality made for a perfect storm for child labor as Human Rights Watch reported remote schooling and financial hardship led to more children working.

Low grades and dropout rates are intrinsically tied to how many hours a child works, according to NCL and studies that found children who work over 20 hours a week are more likely to drop out.

The Kids Need Our Help

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) reintroduced the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety of 2022 (CARE Act) before retiring at the end of the last congressional session. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) recently reintroduced the legislation in June 2023.

The bill proposes several new federal child labor restrictions, including pesticide use and undoing agricultural exemptions. It also imposes new reporting requirements for work-related injuries and deaths of agricultural employees under 18, as well as new and more severe criminal violations and fines.

Maki is a strong advocate for steeper fines.

“The $1.5 million fine PSSI got this time is one day of revenue for them,” he says. “This was not enough of a consequence—all the owners got off scot-free even though they knew the children were there.”

This kind of work can’t be solved overnight, but Maki is committed to it: “Here we are, 80 years later [after the FLSA], and we’re still trying to fix it. At every session [of Congress], [NCL] will support a bill to raise the age that children can work until it passes.”

Don’t address labor shortages on the backs of teen workers, especially in dangerous workplaces. Instead, raise wages and hire better-equipped adults.

—Reid Maki, National Consumers League (NCL)

Systemic change is at the core of the issue, especially for migrant children.

“Family separation means children end up in more vulnerable positions and there’s very little opportunity for them to develop trusted relationships with anyone, let alone someone managing their care,” Flowers says. “The less institutionalization of children the better.”

Community and peer-based support and resources are also key.

“We don’t want the government to regularly check in on these families,” she explains, noting their inherent and understandable distrust of the government. “They should be able to access meaningful services with people they can trust, like a church or peers who have navigated this reality themselves.”

Velasquez wants people to educate themselves on the reality of child labor and make changes in their everyday lives.

“Learn what companies are profiting from child labor and don’t buy their products,” he says, recommending instead to buy Fair Trade certified and avoid meat from large corporations.

You can also contact your representatives and demand support for legislation like the CARE Act and immigration reform, report labor violations to the DOL, vote in shareholder proxy ballots, and choose socially responsible investments.

Workers across the country are fighting for similar rights and protections as decades and centuries ago. As we lift their voices, we lift our communities.