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Who are the good, bad, and ugly in chocolate?

Explore the 2025 Chocolate Scorecard

Green America’s partners recently launched the sixth edition of the Chocolate Scorecard, which ranks chocolate companies on living income, gender, traceability and transparency, pesticides, child and forced labor, and deforestation and climate. If you are looking to choose chocolate that is better for people and the planet, this is a great resource. 

Time and time again, small chocolate companies rank better than major chocolate brands on social and environmental issues. Direct and fair trade chocolate companies have been placing farmers front and center of their business models for years. Take a look at some A-rated chocolate companies.

What about the kids, the trees, and the bees?

Sustainability means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Most chocolate is currently not sustainable, but solutions to child labor, deforestation, and hazardous pesticide are not only possible but vital to the health of people and planet. Consumers can make informed choices and demand tangible change.

Child Labor vs. Living Income

Learn More

Deforestation vs. Agroforestry

Learn More

Pesticides vs. Regenerative Agriculture

Learn More

In August 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to fight the climate crisis, grow domestic clean energy production, lower prescription drug costs, expand access to affordable health care coverage, and raise taxes on high-earning corporations—all to rebuild the US middle class for families, workers and businesses. Within this massive bill come numerous opportunities for small businesses—from accessing solar energy to electric vehicles and more. 

The IRA will work to reduce the United States’ share of global greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 40%, or 1 gigaton, by 2030. According to 126 leading economists—including seven Nobel Laureates, two former Treasury Secretaries, two former Federal Vice Chairs and two former Council of Economic Advisors Chairs—the Act will also reduce the deficit to “help fight inflation and support strong, stable economic growth,” per the White House. 

Below are resources that the Green Business Network will update as more information emerges on how the IRA can support small business.  

Clean Energy 

With the IRA, small businesses can benefit from savings on installing solar panels and other energy efficient projects. Overall, there’s a potential for ~70% tax savings in various amounts and ways by utilizing clean energy. 

Check out these small business tax credits for energy efficiency: 

• 30% tax credit for installation of solar PV systems, ranging for 10 years (2022-2032) with no maximum that can be claimed. 
• Make it in America: This new provision offers tax credits for the use of American-made equipment for clean energy production. 
• There are bonus credits for businesses that pay workers a prevailing wage* and use registered apprenticeship programs. 
• 10% tax credit for clean energy projects in underserved communities. 
• Per the White House, these projects must be “established in communities that have previously relied upon the extraction, processing, transport, or storage of coal, oil, or natural gas as a significant source of employment, creating jobs and economic development in the communities that have powered America for generations.” 
• 20% tax credit for solar projects on federally-subsidized affordable housing projects and a 10% bonus credit for solar projects in low-income communities. 
• $5 per square foot to support energy efficiency improvements that deliver lower utility bills. 
• Expands the Rural Energy for America program, providing rural agricultural producers with clean energy and energy efficiency upgrades. 
• This is estimated to reach over 41,500 small businesses and farms, as well as over $9 billion for rural electric cooperatives. 
• $60 billion to on-shore clean energy manufacturing in the U.S. across the full supply chain.
• Grants and tax credits to reduce emissions from industrial manufacturing processes, including almost $6 billion for a new Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program to reduce emissions from the largest industrial emitters like chemical, steel and cement plants.
• $10 billion investment tax credit to build clean technology manufacturing facilities, like facilities that make electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.
• $2 billion in grants to retool existing auto manufacturing facilities to manufacture clean vehicles.

To get started on your business’ clean energy journey, check out the Green Business Network’s guide on How to Improve Building Energy Efficiency Rating in the Office and at Home. 

*According to the US Department of Labor, a prevailing wage is the average wage paid to similarly employed workers in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment.

Energy Efficient Vehicles 

If your business requires transportation, consider switching to energy efficient vehicles if you haven’t already. 

The IRA offers a tax credit “covering 30% of purchase costs for clean commercial vehicles, like electric and fuel cell models.” 

Agricultre, Manufacturing, and Construction Industries 

The agriculture and manufacturing industries will especially see benefits from the Inflation Reducation Act.

Grants funded at $3 billion will be used to support the purchase and installation of zero-emission equipment and technology at ports. The Methane Emissions Reduction Program, meanwhile, will reduce the leaks from
the production and distribution of natural gas.

For manufacturing and construction projects, the Environmental Product Information Program will provide $250 million to support the development and enhanced standardization and transparency of environmental product declaration for construction materials and products.

For the agricultural industry, $40 billion is earmarked for agriculture, forestry and rural development, and $300 million specifically for a carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions quantification program.

Healthcare 

Running a business is hard enough without worrying about healthcare costs for yourself and your employees. The IRA also has several improvements to healthcare access and affordability that will directly benefit small business owners. 

The first benefit is the extension of the American Rescue Plan’s tax credits for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans through 2025. According to the White House, 25% of working-age adults enrolled in ACA are small business owners or self-employed and the uninsured rate for self-employed adults has dropped from 30% to 20.5% between 2013 and 2019. 

Another way the IRA is helping small business owners afford their healthcare is by lowering prescription drug costs for seniors. This is key because a 2021 SCORE survey found that while 21% of the US population is over 55, older Americans represent 50.9% of all business owners. 

With the passage of the IRA, yearly prescription drug costs will be capped at $2,000 and monthly insulin supplies will be capped at $35. It will also provide access to an increased number of free vaccines, including shingles and beyond. 

New Jobs and Equitable Labor Standards

Estimates show the Inflation Reduction Act will create 9 million new jobs over the next decade—more than 6 million jobs from grants, loans, and tax credits and nearly 3 million jobs stimulated by new loan guarantee authority for the U.S. Department of Energy. 

The breakdown of these new jobs and which sectors they will be in is as follows:

• 5 million jobs in clean energy
• 900,000 jobs in clean manufacturing
• 400,000 jobs in clean transportation
• 900,000 jobs in efficient buildings
• 150,000 jobs in environmental justice
• 600,000 jobs in natural infrastructure

What is more essential to these new jobs and implementing and investing in the IRA's policies, as outlined by the BlueGreen Alliance, is an improvement to the workplace itself and how labor can become more equitable.

It can do this by:

• Incentivizing the use of union labor
• Mandating that workers are paid a fair wage
• Utilizing union apprentice, pre-apprenticeship, and other union-affiliated training programs
• Ensuring equitable access to the jobs the IRA will create
• Prioritizing workers and communities most in need
• Building pathways into good-paying careers for workers across the nation

IRA Benefits by State 

The White House released state-by-state fact sheets for the IRA; see the specific benefits that pertain to your state. 

Below is a snapshot of benefits highlighted by the White House for Michigan. We selected Michigan as an example because Detroit is among the poorest cities in the country and because of Michigan’s historic automotive industry and the region’s potential to become a clean economy leader. The state also has significant rural areas that stand to benefit. And given the Flint, MI water crisis, an emphasis on environmental justice in Michigan is vital and the IRA takes steps in that direction as well.  

Here are some of the benefits Michigan will gain with the IRA: 

• 50%-100% of rebates for installation of new electric appliances, including heat pumps, stoves, and more. 
• Rebates for households to make repairs and improvements in single-family and multi-family homes to increase energy efficiency. 
• Support for transportation projects and plans to protect against extreme weather, such as flooding or heatwaves, through a new Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant Program. 
• Clean energy job creation through tax credits for the solar, wind, storage, and other clean energy industries 
• Environmental justice block grants, investments for cleaner buses and trucks, and a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator that will prioritize emissions-reducing projects in disadvantaged communities and fund state and local green banks like Michigan Saves. 
• Support for climate-smart agriculture practices that will help Michigan’s 46,000 farms lead on climate solutions and reward their stewardship. 

How Do I Find Out More About These Small Business Resources in My Region? 

1. The Green Business Network will continue to update these pointers for finding ways the IRA can support your business: Set up Google alerts: "Inflation Reduction Act," "small business incentives," "climate change incentives," etc. Add the name of your state, city and county to the keywords. 

2. Reach out to your state and federal legislator's office—ask for them to conduct a town hall or host a webinar to explain how businesses can take advantage of the IRA. 

• Many regional chambers of commerce also track and share this kind of information with their members, so subscribe to their newsletters. If you are a member, ask them to provide information or host a webinar/workshop. 

3. Join the Council for Community and Economic Research to gain access to their state incentive directory. 

4. Stay tuned for how the new, national Green Bank called for by the IRA, can support your business’ clean energy projects. 

5. The US Department of the Treasury announced additional states and up to $1 billion funding for the State Small Business Credit Initiative. 

Thanks to Gloria Ware, the owner and founder of certified Green Business Network member Get The Bag, for these suggestions.   

The Inflation Reduction Act is a vast bill with many different components. Read Green America’s statement on the Act and visit WhiteHouse.gov for more information. 

Updated February 2023.

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The world is in the midst of a climate crisis. That’s why nonprofit Green America says you should grow a 'Climate Victory Garden'. For more information on Climate Victory Gardens, visit greenamerica.org

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Upcoming Webinars

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Good Gardening & Eats: A 4-Part Series with Jada Bee

Ready to take your gardening to the next level? Join gardener and forager Jada Bee for a special four-part webinar series exploring sustainable gardening—from building your beds to cooking your harvest.

Part 1: Hügelkultur – Building Better Beds

Wednesday, April 30 at 3 PM ET (12 PM PT)

Discover Hügelkultur, a permaculture-inspired method of building raised beds that mimic the nutrient cycles of forest ecosystems.

Get more info and register for Part 1

Part 2: Foraging – Wild Foods All Around

Thursday, May 22 at 3 PM ET (12 PM PT)

What foods are growing near you that you didn’t even know were edible? Learn the basics of safe, sustainable foraging and how to bring wild ingredients into your kitchen.

Get more info and register for Part 2

Part 3: Preserving – What to Do with All That Produce

Thursday, July 10 at 3 PM ET (12 PM PT)

Your garden is producing in abundance—now what? Get simple techniques for preserving your harvest through canning, drying, and freezing.

Get more info and register for Part 3

Part 4: Cooking Your Harvest – Garden to Table

Thursday, July 31 at 3 PM ET (12 PM PT)

Your garden bounty becomes the main course! In this session, Jada will lead a live cooking demo that shows how to make the most of your fresh produce.

Get more info and register for Part 4

Check out our webinar playlists

By: Joanne Dowdell (board member representative) and Fran Teplitz (staff member representative), co-chairs of Green America’s Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Team

Green America Staff Contributors: Brooke Bennett, Anya Crittenden, Emma Kriss

Black History Month February 2023

The national theme of this year’s Black History Month, Black Resistance, recognizes how Black communities have resisted oppression in the United States throughout history, to this very day. This special time of celebration was originally chosen by the historian Carter G. Woodson, because February includes the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Woodson, known as the “father of Black history” created “Negro History Week” that ultimately became Black History Month. The holiday brings Americans together to remember, honor, and be inspired by Black history and culture.

To help enhance your celebration with content you can use all year long, Green America is pleased to share Black History Month resources that highlight Black accomplishment and the racial 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 building a just society.

Black History Month Resources:

Holiday Background & Social Justice:

Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Black History Month: HBCUBuzz (Historically Black Colleges & Universities)

National Museum of African American History & Culture

UNCF: Black History is Every Day Because Black Lives Matter Every Day

W.E.B. Dubois, Black History Month and the Importance of African American Studies

We are Teachers: Black History Month

Yes! Magazine: How Black History Paves the Way for a Just Black Future

2023 White House Proclamation

Economy:

AFL-CIO Black History Month: Union Leaders Profiles

Berkeley Economics, University of California: Black History Month/Economics

Green American Magazine Divided We Fall: Investigating the Costs of Racism to All of Us

Remaking the Economy: Black Food Sovereignty, Community Stories  (webinar)

Environment:

Bridging the Gap: Black History Month: Black authors on environmental justice

Bullard Center for Environmental & Climate Justice: 2023 Black History Month

Celebrating Black Environmentalists During Black History Month

Green America: How Environmental Justice Can Work for Everyone

Earthshare: The Critical Role of Black Environmentalists Throughout History & Today

Virtual Black History Month Events:

African Symbols Decoded: An Online Black History Month Presentation (Donation)

Black History Month Paint Party (Free; virtual attendees must purchase their own supplies)

Black History Month - Press ON!!! (Free)

Black History Month Nia and Healing Arts Jam ($30)

Black History Every Month: The History of Black People in America 1619-2023 ($22)

BOPSers 18th Annual Black History Month Celebration (Free)

Black History Month Youth Panel Discussion: Our History, Our Future (Free)

Black History Month Panel: Breaking Barriers in the Legal Profession (Free)

Library of Congress Events (Free)

SBA Black History Month Event: How to Thrive as a Black Owned Business (Free)

Ways to Celebrate Black History Month 2023

Why Black History? ($20)

2023 Black History Month - Resistance to Restoration (Free)

Understanding Black history is crucial to understanding U.S. history and the present. Let’s keep learning and working for justice.

Title: Executive Co-Director: Culture, Planning & Green Business Development

Hours: Full Time (4-day workweek)

Salary: $100,000 - $120,000 depending on experience

Reports to: President & CEO

Benefits: Excellent benefits including health care, dental care, support for working virtually, generous leave policy, and flexible 32-hour work week.

Founded in 1982, Green America is a national nonprofit dedicated to creating a just and sustainable society by harnessing economic power. Our unique approach focuses on economic action and marketplace strategies, working with consumers and investors.

We seek an experienced, collaborative leader, with a passion for people and project management in service to our social justice and environmental mission.

Green America is a highly collaborative, vibrant workplace.  We have a participatory decision-making process among staff members that aims to build consensus within departments and teams on how we carry out our work. Goals to advance Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion are woven into all of our work.

The Executive Co-Director: Culture, Planning & Green Business Development will provide planning, direction, and oversight for Green America’s work regarding: 1) Culture: Lead (a) the continuing integration of Green America’s JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion) commitments into all facets of the organization’s work and culture, and (b) the evolving nature of team building in a virtual organization; 2) Planning: with the Executive Team, drive annual planning processes for Green America’s programmatic work and budget, 3) Green Business: with Green America’s Green Business Network of companies and entrepreneurs seeking to advance corporate social and environmental responsibility, help build the green business sector.

The Executive Co-Director of Culture, Planning & Green Business Development works closely with the Executive Co-Director: Consumer and Corporate Engagement to ensure that programs and processes are integrated across the organization, and both Executive Co-Directors will work closely with the President & CEO to ensure that the organization is on track to meet all of its programmatic, financial, and organizational goals.  Together, the Executive Co-Directors and the CEO form the Executive Team (E-team) for the organization.  Like the teams across the organization and the board, the E-team is highly collaborative.

This position supervises Green America’s Director of Development & Organizational Advancement, Finance Director, Green Business Network Director, Executive Associate (with the CEO), and HR Director (with the Executive Co-Director of Consumer and Corporate Engagement).

Leadership responsibilities include:

CULTURE

1. Deepening our Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) Work   

• Co-chair Green America’s staff and board member JEDI Team.
• Ensure Green America’s JEDI work and culture are integrated into all programs and new staff and board member orientations.

2. Creating a Strong Culture as a Newly Virtual Organization   

• Develop activities, programs, and processes that build relationships among staff members in a virtual context and oversee the planning of annual, in-person staff and board member gatherings.
• Oversee Green America Worker Membership, ensuring that volunteer roles are filled, agendas developed, and Worker Members are encouraged to take initiative to contribute to building a strong, positive Green America culture.

PLANNING & ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS

3. Executive Team (E-Team) and Cross-Organizational Integration

• Work with the executive team to ensure smooth functioning across the organization, and that the organization is on track with its financial and programmatic goals. 
• Lead processes to ensure timely and well-run staff meetings, operating plan meetings, budget meetings, the annual staff gathering, and retreats as needed.

4.  Development:  Oversight & Fundraising

• Work with the Director of Development & Organizational Advancement to continue building strong development strategies.
• Through major donor visits and other approaches, raise funds and cultivate donors.

5. Finance: Oversight

• Work with the Finance Director and CEO on organizational financial needs and fiscal management, including the timely development of budgets, financials statements, audits, and tax forms.
• Ensure that Green America funds are invested following our social and environmental screening criteria, including serving on the Green America Endowment Executive Committee.

6. Board

• Serve as the Executive Team Lead to the board.

GREEN BUSINESS NETWORK (GBN)

7.  GBN: Oversight and Development

• Oversee the Green Business Network Director to develop new programs and opportunities, ensure programmatic and fundraising goals are met. Monitor progress throughout the year.

Skills Required:

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.

• Commitment to Green America’s mission and goals; strong commitment to both environmental sustainability and social justice.
• Experience in working effectively with people across lines of difference to ensure a respectful, healthy, and welcoming work environment.
• Experience leading Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion initiatives.
• Proven collaborative leadership and the ability to work in coalitions.
• Fifteen or more years of management experience, especially in the non-profit sector.
• Financial experience, including the ability to work with teams to create, manage and balance multimillion dollar operating plans and budgets.
• Strong communication skills.
• Adaptability and creativity – ability to help solve problems and to take advantage of new opportunities.
• Ability to implement and oversee multiple projects simultaneously.
• Ability to support and oversee business membership growth plans.

To Apply:

Please send your resume and a cover letter to executivehire@greenamerica.org by March 3, 2023.

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Green America is an equal opportunity employer. Women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply. 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.

An Arizona-based small business established in 2014, Kase Custom began its journey by restoring an old table plucked from a curb. The slow and steady process of repairing, sanding and finishing that first piece of furniture proved meaningful and therapeutic work. 

But it was just the beginning.

What began as a humble project to restore discarded wood furniture has evolved into a beautiful, handmade, completely custom process that we're honored to welcome into your home, office, or business across the United States.

We take pride in our small but mighty team of woodworking professionals.

Each piece of our heirloom-quality, reclaimed wood furniture bears the fingerprints and dedication of our artisans, who enter the shop with a sense of purpose and leave with a layer of sawdust and satisfaction.

When you purchase Kase Custom furniture, know that you’re not only investing in quality pieces to last a lifetime, you’re contributing to a family-led company with heart, grit and passion.

Companies Improve on Renewable Energy But Need Major Improvement on Equity and Impacts on Underserved Communities. 

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 26, 2023 – The three major U.S. telecommunications companies are significantly underperforming when it comes to energy justice, according to a new report by Green America. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile each received C or D grades in the organization’s latest report, which investigates energy use in the sector and assesses the companies’ energy procurement on key principles of energy and environmental justice.  

Calling for a Just, Clean Transition, part two, found that while telecom companies have made several of the largest corporate clean energy purchases ever since Green America launched its Hang Up on Fossil Fuels Campaign in 2018, the industry still has a long way to go to reach 100% renewable energy. And all of the companies must do more to ensure that their energy purchases support energy justice. It is not enough to simply purchase renewable energy. Companies also need to ensure that energy purchases support energy justice by benefiting communities most harmed by fossil fuels and incorporating these communities and workers into the process of siting and construction decisions.  

The report includes a scorecard grading each company on renewable energy goals, renewable contracts, renewable use, and energy justice: 

An overview version of the report is also available. 

Dan Howells, climate campaigns director at Green America, said: “It is encouraging that the big telecoms are making progress in adopting renewable energy to protect the planet. Yet, T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T all could be doing more to put new wind and solar power on the grid. And all three companies need to use their market power to advance energy justice and protect communities as well.” 

The report finds that companies can improve their energy justice scores by contracting for energy from companies that make improvements around the following RFP criteria:  

1. Decision-making power: Form Oversight Boards and Technical Advisory Groups that are composed of environmental justice communities and frontline leadership. Environmental and energy justice advocates consistently stress the importance of ensuring participation – an aspect of procedural justice – by impacted communities, with meaningful opportunities to influence decision-making. The ability (or inability) to influence processes by which decisions are made directly informs the extent to which siting, energy burdens, and economic opportunities create just (or unjust) outcomes.   

2. Sourcing and Siting: Commit to use only regenerative and non-extractive clean energy solutions that reduce pollution in environmental justice communities. Formally exclude waste-to-energy incineration and woody biomass power from what is considered renewable, even if these sources of energy meet state renewable performance standard guidelines. Energy sources that continue to burden environmental justice communities with on-site pollution are diametrically opposed to energy justice. Where siting of renewable energy (for example, hydropower) creates impacts to local, disadvantaged and/or environmentally overburdened communities, this should also be mitigated and where possible, avoided.  

3. Energy burdens: Ensure energy affordability and offer low-income energy assistance to under-served and environmental justice communities. This includes (but is not limited to) supporting rooftop solar on public and affordable housing; supporting community solar projects; and other actions to reduce the energy burden on lower- and middle-income households, ensuring accessibility to renewable energy. Energy burdens are one of the most tangible problems facing families in low-income and BIPOC communities, and energy companies providing residential energy are directly positioned to provide more equitable access through a variety of programs and investments.   

4. Economic opportunities (entrepreneurship): Strive for a minimum of 30% subcontracts within the next five years to be with minority-and women-owned or managed companies. Develop plans to increase the minimum threshold as minority-and women-owned or managed businesses in the sector increase. Report out publicly on progress in achieving this goal. The clean energy sector is advancing, while perpetuating existing inequities in economic opportunity. A commitment to energy sourcing that relies on increased business with minority and women-owned or managed vendors can foster progress toward energy equity. For publicly traded companies, this means incorporating minorities and women into positions of leadership, including in the C-suite and on boards.  

5. Economic opportunities (inclusive workplaces): Incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging (DEIJB) throughout its workforce and across leadership roles or must have stated goals to increase diversity and reform culture in the sector with measures for accountability. Energy companies should be advancing toward truly inclusive and equitable workplaces internally, including accountability measures, to support progress in a traditionally male and white-dominated industry. 

Elizabeth Silleck La Rue, report author and CEO of Silleck Consulting Services, LLC, said: “Systemic inequities won't reverse themselves; it will take genuine, intentional, and sustained effort to create a renewable energy industry that fairly distributes decision-making power, benefits and burdens. Where the fast-growing and increasingly critical telecommunications and renewable energy industries intersect, there's an opportunity to level the notoriously imbalanced power dynamics that plague the energy sector. Let's take it."  

Fossil fuel extraction, combustion, and waste disproportionately harm communities of color, leading to significant environment and health impacts. In the transition to renewables, it is also essential to ensure that jobs in wind and solar benefit impacted and underserved communities. Currently, women of all races, and Black, Latino, and Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in the clean energy workforce. When solar and wind facilities are built in or near vulnerable communities, those communities must have key roles in the process and obtain benefits from the installations. 

Part one of the report was released in 2022 and outlined the steps companies need to take to improve on energy justice. The report can be found at https://reports.greenamerica.org/energy-justice.  

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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, investors, and consumers to solve today’s social and environmental problems. http://www.GreenAmerica.org  

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

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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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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.

Includes advising clients, comparing properties to sell to clients, promoting properties, preparing documents and purchase agreements, soliciting potential clients, negotiating properties for clients

Company

Required:

• Business core purpose includes a “green” business function.
• Social and environmental mission and vision statement for your business on its website.

Preferred:

• Banking with a community development, minority, or socially & environmentally responsible bank or credit union.
• Protocols in place (e.g., trainings, HR policies, support group(s), statement of commitment, accountability mechanisms, etc.)  that advance justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) within the company.

Services

Required: 

• Ensures health and social equity 
  • Prioritize access and inclusivity of services (e.g., works with mixed-income communities) For example, many low-income communities are more prone to health issues due to water and air quality issues, like placing them closer to incinerators, etc. 
  • Create goals to improve equity issues related to real estate
  • Benefits the community (e.g., philanthropy, services) Improving the health of the overall community and its people 
  • Provides equitable financing recommendations for clients.
• Familiar with sustainability best practices and benefits  
  • Avoids selling “flipped” properties that do not include energy saving features such as eco-friendly insulation, energy efficient appliances, alternative power source, etc.
  • Energy and water efficient appliances (e.g., EnergyStar rated appliances, water saving fixtures) 
  • Practices in place to reduce stormwater runoff 
  • Landscaping done with sustainability in mind (irrigation, xeriscaping) 
  • Energy efficient lighting 
  • Buildings are properly insulated (e.g., energy efficient windows, insulation) 
  • HVAC system well-maintained 
  • Access to renewable energy; knows EPS (Energy Performance Score) or HERS (Home Energy Rating System) score 
  • Ensure resilience of buildings from natural disturbances 
  • Minimize exposure to toxins and pollutants (pest control, lawn maintenance) 
  • Location is near access to alternative transportation  
  • Informs potential homeowners or renters and sellers of sustainability initiatives and has this information on their website 
  • Offer virtual showings and meetings
  • Use of digital documents

Preferred: 

• Provides a list of recommended green businesses/contractors to potential buyer 
• Familiar with a variety of sustainable and high-performance building methods and certifications  
• Earned a Green Certification or completed a course in how to be a green realtor or real estate agent

Company Employment

Required:

• Employees have access to family friendly benefits including high-quality health insurance, sick days, paid parental leave and childcare help.
• Offer a flexible workplace culture that encourages work/life balance and makes reasonable accommodations for telecommuting and flex schedules.
• For employees that are not commissioned, pays a wage that ensures employees well-being.
• Has an established non-discrimination policy and procedure and ensures an inclusive workplace culture.
• Governs fairly and in a transparent manner. Is open to employee input. Has a whistle blower protection policy in place.

Preferred:

• For employees that are not commissioned, living wage is paid.
• Has an established program that invests in employee growth and development.

Education

Required:

• Use transparent and truthful marketing.
• Advocate for green business practices in your industry.
• Established program for receiving input from both internal and external stakeholders.
• Participation in continuing education such as Earth Advantage 
• Familiarity with Home Energy Score and the EPA’s Indoor airPlus .

Preferred:

• Actively seeks feedback from industry peers and participates in industry associations and mentor programs.
• Provide educational materials to clients on value of energy efficiency homes

Green Office/Facility

Required:

• HVAC system well-maintained, building well-insulated, and smart and efficient climate control employed.
• System in place for reducing electricity consumption from lighting and electronics.
•  Use of Energy Star rated appliances and CFL/LED light bulbs in office.
• Use of 100% post-consumer recycled, Chlorine Free paper in the office and in all envelopes, marketing, and print materials.
• Systems in place for reducing paper use such as electronic processes, printers set with double sided printing as the default, and more.
• Use of only non-toxic cleaning and pest control products.
• Maximum amount of waste is reused or recycled including paper, plastic, metals, glass, electronics, and printer ink cartridges.
• Action on clean energy such as purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) or use of on-site clean energy.
• Compost all food waste.
• Landscaping done with sustainability in mind, especially considering runoff and stormwater management.
• Only fair trade and USDA certified organic coffee and tea served in the office.
• Use of green or local caterers for events.
• Use of a certified E-Steward for electronics recycling.
• Proper disposal of hazardous materials (e.g., batteries, paint, motor oil, etc).
• Knowledge of recycling/composting guidelines at your local recycling/composting facility.

The Green Business Network^® at Green America is home to both rising social and eco enterprises and to well-established green businesses, including landscaping, gardening, and farming businesses. 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 Landscaping, Gardening, & Farming 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 Landscaping, Gardening, & Farming Sector

Agriculture and landscaping are highly polluting industries because of the prevalent use of chemical and petroleum-based pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. These harmful chemicals deplete the soil; pollute water supplies; kill pollinators; lower nutritional content; degrade the health of surrounding communities; and harm workers’ health. 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. 

Download Guide

Ready to get started? Fill out the form below, and we'll email you our How To Guide for landscaping, gardening, & farming businesses. You'll also receive occasional updates from Green America's Green Business Network. You can update your subscription preferences or unsubscribe anytime.

Climate the Top Sustainability Concern; Ending Workplace Discrimination Tops Shareholder Resolutions; Community Development Investments Soar

The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US SIF) documents the assets involved in socially responsible investing strategies, also known as ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) investing along with other key developments in sustainable investing. The newest, biannual Report on U.S. Sustainable Investing Trends, released December 2022, tallies sustainable investing at $8.4 trillion.

The new report reflects a decrease in ESG investing for reasons that stand to benefit the continuing development of sustainable investing over time. First, the latest report applied a more stringent methodology to identify assets involved in ESG investing to ensure that specific ESG criteria are applied to all assets counted. This more detailed approach and level of disclosure is needed given the recent, rapid and sizeable increase in firms claiming to integrate ESG considerations.

Secondly, US SIF also attributes the decrease in their ESG-investing tally over that in the 2020 report to action by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that mandates greater disclosure of funds’ ESG criteria. Both the change in report methodology and action by the SEC bode well for ensuring a more accurate count of the dollars involved in sustainable investing.

Highlights of the report include:

• Climate and carbon emissions are the top ESG concern of both asset managers and institutional asset owners; fossil fuel divestment ranked fourth among the ESG factors that asset managers address.
• Workplace fairness, especially focused on ending ethnic and sex discrimination, emerged as the top concern in shareholder resolutions.
• Community development investing, benefiting economically marginalized communities, continued to rise, reaching $458 billion; this is an increase of 72% since the last report in 2020 and a $600% increase over the last decade.
• After climate-related criteria, the top issues for asset managers focused on military/weapons; tobacco; and anti-corruption.
• After climate-related criteria, the top concerns for institutional investors focused on conflict risk (terrorism or repressive regimes), corporate board issues, sustainable resources/agriculture, and tobacco.

Green America has resources to keep you updated all year long on socially responsible investing, better banking, and shareholder action. Together, we can vote with our dollars to support people and the planet.

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

The Green Business Network^® at Green America is home to both rising social and eco enterprises and to well-established green businesses, including sustainable personal care brands. 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 Body & Personal Care 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 Sustainable Personal Care Sector

Personal care products are made with thousands of chemicals, some of which are known or suspected carcinogens. Federal regulation of this sector is highly inadequate to protect human and environmental health. 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. 

Download Guide

Ready to get started? Fill out the form below, and we'll email you our How To Guide for sustainable personal care brands. You'll also receive occasional updates from Green America's Green Business Network. You can update your subscription preferences or unsubscribe anytime.

Global demand for chocolate, not least during the holiday season, has devoured tropical forests where cocoa trees grow.

Now, lawmakers in the European Union, the world’s largest cocoa buyer, have vowed to import only what doesn’t destroy or degrade forests. It’s part of a landmark legislative package to address deforestation risks in the supply chains of several commodities: cattle, timber, coffee, rubber, soy, cocoa and palm oil. (Palm oil is also used to make chocolate.)

Tips for raised beds, pest control, soil health, and more from Permaculture expert Nicky Schauder - www.greenamerica.org/climate-victory-garden-questions-answered

Title: Responsible Finance Campaign Director
Supervisor: Executive Co-Director, Consumer & Corporate Engagement
Position: Part-Time (20 hours/week); grant-track position
Salary: $43,000 - $49,000 depending on experience
Benefits: medical, dental, disability insurance, sick leave, vacation, virtual work

Green America is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a just and sustainable society by harnessing economic power for positive change. Our unique approach involves working with consumers, investors, and businesses. Our workplace reflects our goal of creating a more cooperative, environmentally sound economy. We have a participatory decision-making process that aims to build consensus within our teams. Commitments to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion permeate our work.

The Responsible Finance Campaign Director is a new grant-based position, in Green America’s Corporate Responsibility Programs & Communications teams, that will work to educate and mobilize investors and consumers on the importance of ESG (environmental, social, corporate governance) investing. The position will focus on educating institutional and individual investors on the positive aspects of ESG-based investing and sustainable investing and involve them in initiatives that uphold investors’ ability to choose ESG-based investment options including those that address the climate crisis.

Duties and Responsibilities

Campaigns

• Plan and implement campaigns to mobilize investors, businesses, and asset managers in support of ESG-based investing and banking, including debunking anti-ESG propaganda.
• Plan and implement campaigns to mobilize employees at major companies to seek ESG-based options in their retirement plans, including those that address the climate crisis.
• Participate in coalitions to support ESG and sustainable investing, especially climate-focused investments; link climate issues to impacts on, and the leadership of, frontline and communities of color.
• Draft comments to regulatory agencies, provide comments on legislation and build support for governmental action to protect and advance ESG investing.
• Integrate justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) impacts into communications and actions.
• Participate in departmental and other meetings as needed.
• Other campaign tasks as assigned.

Communications

• Coordinate with the Communications & Publications teams to create, update and optimize content on ESG investing and better banking.
• Work with the Web and Social Media Teams to ensure ESG investing and Responsible Finance content is well-suited for the web and social media, reaching a wide and diverse audience.
• Research and update/develop content (blogs, email, webpages, social posts, guides, digital and print articles and press releases) to educate investors and the public on ESG investing issues, including impacts on diverse communities.
• Speak on behalf of Green America at events and to the media on ESG-based investing and related topics.
• Participate in departmental and other meetings as needed.
• Other Communications duties as assigned.

We seek the following in qualified candidates:

• Support for Green America’s mission and to advancing our justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion commitments.
• 5+ years of campaign and communications experience.
• Strong research and writing skills; ability to synthesize information and develop clear and compelling messaging. Experience creating content for various audiences and for web, social media, and print.
• Ability to use social media creatively and effectively, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Demonstrated ability to formulate and implement online campaigns.
• Ability to manage multiple projects at once and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work effectively in coalitions and with a diverse range of allies.
• Experience with advocacy for ESG/sustainable investing preferred.
• Willingness to publicly present Green America’s Responsible Finance program and respond to media inquiries.

To Apply: Please send cover letter and resume to hire@greenamerica.org  

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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.

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

Green America's 2022 Victories (and a sneak peek at the work ahead in 2023)

Together, we accomplish the extraordinary. Here we take a moment to celebrate our 2022 victories that Green America members make possible and spotlight advances that will make our work even more powerful in 2023:

Thanks to our campaigns, Amazon, AT&T, and Verizon have gone from using no renewable energy to making some of the largest corporate commitments to clean energy ever.

We launched our Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI) Go-to-Market pilots. SCI provides the “how to” road maps, commitments, and third-party verification to help farms and companies transition to regenerative agriculture for soil and climate health. The pilot farmers, companies, and their networks represent over three million acres.

We reached a milestone of 15,000 registered Climate Victory Gardens that are sequestering carbon equivalent to driving 38 million miles and educated millions of people nationwide about the benefits of regenerative gardening through earned media, our website, and webinars.

Our Toxic Textiles campaign moved Carter’s, the kids clothing company, to commit that 100% of its cotton and polyester will be sustainable by 2030. The company has also committed that all 0-24-month baby clothes will be Oeko-Tex certified as non-hazardous by December 2022.

Our Clean Electronics Production Network collected chemical data from over 100 electronics manufacturing facilities to map the chemicals in use in the electronics industry. In 2022, smartphone maker Fairphone joined Apple, Dell, and HP in committing to eliminating high priority toxic chemicals and protecting workers from these chemicals. We are also working with these companies to substitute safer chemicals in electronics production to protect millions of workers from exposure to the most toxic chemicals in use.

Our Skip the Slip campaign got CVS to offer digital or no receipt options to all customers, saving 87 million yards of receipt paper, enough to circle the globe twice.

In 2023, we’ll build on these victories and our other progress on climate, regenerative agriculture, and protecting workers from toxic chemical for more extraordinary progress for people and the planet. Stay tuned!

Congress Passed the Inflation Reduction Act and Tabled a Dirty Side Deal

In 2022, Green America joined with allies in pushing for strong climate change and social justice provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was signed into law in August. That coalition also worked together to oppose fossil fuel handouts in the bill. Unfortunately, the subsidies for fossil fuels were incorporated in the final legislation. Still, the IRA is the most significant expansion of climate policy in US history and provides tax incentives and funding that will:

• Rapidly expand wind and solar power in the US.
• Help millions of Americans switch to electric appliances and vehicles.
• Provide billions of dollars in support to Green Banks nationwide to further state and local climate change efforts.
• Provide support to struggling farmers and fund conservation programs.
• Ramp up manufacturing and installation of clean energy technologies in the US to create millions of jobs.

We will use the passage of the IRA to accelerate corporate adoption of clean energy, and ensure federal agriculture funding supports regenerative farming. We’ll also help our members and the public learn how they can access the money that the IRA provides to go solar and switch to electric vehicles. And we’ll help our Green Business members learn how they can take advantage of the IRA to further green their businesses.

Green America also joined with environmental justice allies nationwide to successfully oppose the “Manchin side-deal” from getting included in a must-pass budget bill. This side deal would have accelerated permitting for fossil fuels projects in exchange for Senator Joe Manchin’s vote in favor of the IRA.

“Communities most harmed by fossil fuels would have once again been most hurt by speeding up permitting of fossil fuel pipelines and other infrastructure,” says Dan Howells, Green America’s climate campaigns director.

Green America mobilized our individual and business members and reached out directly to Congressional staffers to encourage their members to oppose. In a victory for people and the planet, the side deal legislation was removed from the budget bill. But it could come back up after the election, so we’ll be ready to mobilize opposition again.

Regenerative Agriculture Provides Healthier Foods for Consumers

The evidence is in. Not only is regenerative agriculture the solution to rebuilding soil health, restoring the climate and regenerating farm prosperity, but crops grown in regenerative fields are better for our health as well. Over the past several decades, conventional crops grown in tilled soils and doused in multiple chemicals produced food with decreasing nutritional benefits.

Not surprisingly, when farmers improve soil health and reduce chemicals, the food that is grown is healthier. Peer-reviewed research from a 2022 study published in the journal PeerJ shows that crops grown in regenerative fields are higher in phytonutrients, vitamins, and other nutrients.

Green America’s Soil Carbon Alliance, our network of farmers and food companies, recently launched the Nutrient Density Working Group to draw attention to the nutritional benefits of regenerative agriculture. Working with farmers and food companies, along with consumer advocates, nutritionists, the medical community, and grassroots groups working on food access, this initiative will help spur the demand for the transition to regenerative agriculture.

“The regenerative farmers we work with like to say ‘healthy soil grows healthy plants, to feed healthy people and communities,’” says Jessica Hulse Dillon, director of Green America’s Soil & Climate Alliance. “Connecting the impact of regenerative practices with nutrient density increases the impact of work in the climate, environmental, and food access spaces to transform our food system.”

“We shall come in drag, which means men wearing women’s costumes,” declared an 1870 party invitation printed in the UK’s Reynolds Newspaper.

It was the 19th century and drag as we understand it today—the exaggerated performance of gender—was being defined and shaped for the first time. Of course, drag existed long before, in the days of Ancient Rome, Shakespearean theater, and Japanese kabuki.

Despite dangerous critics threatening violence at drag events, drag performers nonetheless remain, wigs high and makeup bold, proud and resilient as Mother Earth herself. For some queens and kings, their ties to nature run deeper still in sustainable drag.

Three people, connected by the drag world but occupying separate roles—a performer, costume designer, and photographer—speak about how community fosters sustainable action and fulfillment.

You’re Born Naked and the Rest Is Drag

An Indigenous drag star, a photographer who grew up on a sustainable herb farm, a South Korean costume designer raised by activists. Their origins set the stage and the communities that followed, from drag to family and friends, shaped them.

Bohenne Arreaux is Diné (Navajo peoples) and Creole, from the Jena Band of Choctaw, and their Indigenous roots are not only a part of their drag persona, but the foundation. (Note: Bohenne Arreaux is Two-Spirit and uses all pronouns.)

“I was definitely a novelty in the beginning,” they say of being an Indigenous drag performer. “But I’m not doing my drag in a way that performs culture as much as I am sharing who I am with people.”

Cassidy DuHon, a DC-based photographer and amateur drag queen has had a deep love of nature cultivated by his parents, including his soil scientist mother, from birth.

“Our role as humans in nature is to go out and commune with larger spirits, commune with your friends through the act of removing yourself from [the distractions of] society,” he says.
Similar to Arreaux’s Indigenous community and DuHon’s parents, Hahnji (who prefers to go by their first name only) recalls their childhood in South Korea: activist elders put solar panels on the roof and visits to their thrift-loving grandmother in Michigan resulted in a return to South Korea sporting 70s lace bell bottoms from Goodwill.

Drag came from their gender identity: “I’m gender-fluid and I like to play with different silhouettes. I went through a high femme phase, with heels and skirts with petticoats, only to change into basketball shorts and a tank top when I got home. I was doing drag on the regular and didn’t know it.”

It made sense, then, to infuse their earliest lessons and values into their drag community, just as Arreaux and DuHon did.

Making Treasure from Trash—Together

Shangela, a drag queen who gained fame on RuPaul’s Drag Race and now co-hosts We’re Here on HBO Max, has called drag queens some of the most resourceful people. In a 2021 article in Wealthsimple, she praised how they use makeup to the very end and recycle costumes, all while relying largely on tips earned at shows—which they booked using their own talent for both entertainment and cultivating connections.

One of Arreaux’s most iconic looks was crucially made with the help of others, from friends to ancestors and creatures who lost their lives.

“I was in a competition, the theme was Monster Ball,” she recalls. “I knew there would be Frankensteins, vampires, zombies, and I wanted to do a creature from Indigenous mythology.”

She went as the Deer Woman, a fertility and love figure for everyone who shows respect to women and children, and a vengeful, murderous spirit to those who harm women and children, known to lure men to their deaths.

Creating the costume for Deer Woman stemmed directly from their Indigenous beliefs of respecting the land and not creating waste.

“The costume was actually made from a couch,” Arreaux explains. He stripped the leather from the couch, given to him by an old roommate, and Deer Woman’s creation began.

Wanting to honor the animal which lost its life for the couch, Arreaux gave the skin new purpose while sustainably upcycling and avoiding waste. It’s a rule they follow when creating anything, from a theatre prop to a new drag character: “You have to be really wise about making something that lasts.”

Wandering, But Not Lost

DuHon saw drag differently through understanding resourcefulness and seeing drag in nature amongst community.

In 2012, a friend invited DuHon to Beltane, the Gaelic May Day festival honoring the start of summer. His friend was a member of the Radical Faeries, a counterculture movement started by gay men in the 1970s seeking community and spirituality in nature.

“At first it was like, ‘Oh, this is this strange party in the woods.’ But then I really took to the deeper spiritual aspects of it,” DuHon says.

Everything changed for him then. He became a Radical Faerie, started the hashtag #dragofthewoods on Instagram, and began hosting his own sustainable drag events, like a queer camping trip. One of his friends made an entire ballgown and accessories from grocery bags upon realizing the bags customers return in the hopes they’ll be recycled often go straight in the trash. Another sparkled and dazzled with a flowing, golden cape made of salvaged honey packets.

“Doing drag in nature takes teamwork,” he says. “Limited electricity, no place to plug in that glue gun. You work together to craft a look from less. The woods remind us to get back to our communal nature.”

Living in this world, finding community and support can be transformative and life-giving.

Five Corporations in a Trench Coat

Hahnji sees community all around them.

It is the Mexican artist down the street in New York City they buy pieces from for a play by a Mexican American playwright, and then develop a friendship. It is the performer who wants to keep their costume made by Hahnji, giving the piece life again and again. It is the young queer people, lacking resources, who come to Hahnji for styling help.

“We live in a country of five corporations in a trench coat and they don’t want us to be a community,” they explain. “A lot of what I do is promote resources and give back.”

Hahnji’s approach to this is anti-capitalist, focusing on the green values of paying fair wages and reducing the use of non-renewable resources.

“I have to spend capital,” they say begrudgingly. “So my focus is where: ‘Can I refocus on labor? Can I refocus on valuing people?”

They encourage buying from BIPOC-(Black, Indigenous, People of Color)-owned businesses and re-thinking what capital can be, such as resources or education.

“Everything is super gatekept,” they explain, and doubly so for queens and kings who are members of communities of color, who are forced to fight uphill battles upon the intersection of racism and homophobia. It’s why they’re focused on aiding communities of color and gender-expansive communities, to give them the tools and aid purposely kept out of reach.

Eventually, they want to expand this sense of community even further: “A lot of these resources are focused in liberal areas like New York, but I want to take them to the Midwest and beyond.”

Drag exists everywhere, as do communities of color, queer, and marginalized people. Beyond New York City and Los Angeles, there are countless people pursuing their identity, their art, their look, dreaming of more, if only someone offered a hand.

Don’t Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen

As DuHon puts it, drag is the “great equalizer.” It is a powerful, unifying force, especially for queer people and reinforcing their community. It examines gender and privilege, and it cannot be done alone.

As drag queens and kings rely on their resourcefulness and resilience, their cheering section of friends at brunch, their mentors and ancestors, to thrive together in the face of protesters calling for their banishment, there is much to learn from them.

Sustainability in drag shows us that we can thrift clothes, make things using recycled materials from services like FABSCRAP, support small, LGBTQ+, BIPOC-owned businesses, and above all else: find community, ask for help. Green America’s Vote with Your Dollar toolkit also provides first steps to adopt a money-saving, community-building lifestyle at greenamerica.org/votewithyourdollar.

You are never alone, and you certainly can’t get that two-foot thrifted Dolly Parton wig on your head yourself.

When it comes to green business, caring for the earth is a given. But Yamacu and Velasquez Family Coffee surpass this mission as they forge worldwide connection through cuisine. Salimata Bangoura, CEO of Yamacu (and Green America board member), sells West African food and drink to support her community in Mali. Cathy and Guillermo Velasquez, founders of Velasquez Family Coffee, sell the Honduran coffee beans that Guillermo’s father, siblings, and neighbors hand-pick and sun-dry. When supporting these companies, you’re not just purchasing tasty cold-pressed ginger drinks or your morning coffee, you are joining an international network of community and culture, by tasting flavors from around the world that have been brought stateside with purpose.

Yamacu

Food brings us together—the labor of love creating a dish and then sharing it with others, explaining its history and significance.

Growing up in Ferkessédougou, [a city in Ivory Coast,] “the melting pot of West Africa,” Salimata Bangoura discovered this early on in life.

“I ate food from all different West African countries,” recalls Bangoura. “I like to focus on things that bring us closer, remind us we come from the same threads, and create a bridge. Food is the most powerful medium to do that.”

Bangoura runs Yamacu, a company that food and beverage company specializing in Malian cuisine and flavors. Inspired by her mother, Rokia Diarra, and Diarra’s original ginger drinks, the business offers seasonal prepared meals for catering purposes as well as take out, and is currently fundraising for a café.

Diarra began making ginger drinks, an anti-inflammatory and digestive aid, in 1995 in the Bronx after emigrating from Mali. As a child, Bangoura helped her mother make and deliver the beverages in the NYC borough, where there was a large concentration of African immigrants familiar with the flavors.

“You blend the ginger with things like pineapple and lemons and water,” Bangoura explains.“Some people make it really strong, like my mom.”

Eventually, when her mother got older, Bangoura took over the company and merged it with her own West African-inspired company, a meal delivery service called Dugu.

Creating a product that is good for people, shares her culture, and directly benefits West Africa are Bangoura’s main goals. While the business is not yet profitable, Bangoura says once it is, “all profits” will go towards supporting the people of Mali, where her mother has returned.

“Hunger leaves room for no other thought, trying to alleviate it is the number one goal, and that’s why we help support the people my mom feeds and cares for,” Bangoura says. “She helps young people from the villages looking for domestic work in the city. People come to her home, and she finds them employment and negotiates better pay.”

Bangoura further explains that her mother’s impact and reach has created a network in which Malian villages refer one another to her aid.

“By supporting Yamacu, you’re directly aiding this mission,” says Bangoura. “The absolute best way you can help is with funding, to support what women like my mother are doing, which helps us create and maintain sustainable communities.”

Velasquez Family Coffee

Some thirty years ago, a man helped his neighbor start her lawnmower. Guillermo Velasquez, a recent emigrant from Honduras, had just met his future wife, Cathy Eberhart.

Guillermo and Cathy Velasquez sound like the perfect pair to run a sustainable coffee business: he studied animal and plant systems and works in crop research at the University of Minnesota; she has a master’s in public affairs and worked with an organization that aids sustainable farmers with direct marketing. But the roots of Velasquez Family Coffee run so much deeper.

Guillermo grew up helping his father on his coffee farm in the Rio Negro community located in the mountainous rainforest of Comayagua, Honduras. In 2001, when the global market price of coffee sank, Guillermo’s father worried that to harvest and sell to his standard exporter would in fact lose him money.

That’s when Cathy and Guillermo asked themselves a life-changing question: Why don’t we bring this coffee home to Minnesota to sell at a fair price?

“We didn’t start out intending to have a business,” says Cathy. “Frankly we were just trying to help our family.” So, with the humble ambition of bringing coffee to St. Paul family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, what started out as 400 pounds of coffee brought to the United States in suitcases has transformed 20 years later into the import of 20-30,000 pounds of coffee per year. Velasquez Family Coffee ships around the country or is hand-delivered one Friday a month in the Twin Cities by Cathy or Guillermo themselves, one of their children or, on occasion, their kids’ friends.

“We’ve gone beyond delivering to friends and family, but it feels like a big family, a big group of friends,” says Cathy.

The Velasquez’s coffee beans are grown beneath the rainforest’s canopy, where the forest minimizes erosion and preserves the surrounding habitat. The beans are then hand-picked for ripeness and sun-dried to seal in natural sugars and flavors.

“Honduras before had a bad reputation about coffee,” says Guillermo. “But right now, Honduras has one of the best coffees in the world.”

Cathy says simply, it’s good coffee with a good story, and it directly supports Guillermo’s brothers, father (who is now 97 years old), and the broader Honduran community.

“That inter-cultural connection and our bi-cultural family is really what I love being able to share with others,” says Cathy. “This is a lot more than just selling coffee.”

Take Action:

Green businesses that care for people and the planet allow us to connect with cultures around the world, support diversity, and make our dollars count.

Almost two billion people worldwide partake in the culinary delight of bugs. In Thailand, fried caterpillars are common treats at street markets. In Mexico, cooked grasshoppers are bar snacks and taco fillings. And in Uganda, flying African termites, which have more protein than vertebrate meat, are eaten à la carte.

Yet many Americans are revolted by the idea of bugs for dinner. In a warming world, insect cuisine may become commonplace— to fight climate change, and because it’s tasty.

Katydid Cakes, Anyone?

The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 25-50% of Native American tribes had traditions around entomophagy (the practice of eating insects) before the 18th century. The Cherokee would enjoy fried cicadas, the Kitanemuk would eat red harvester ants as a hallucinogenic, and the Ute near Great Salt Lake shared katydid cakes with Mormon settlers during icy winters.

Dr. Cortni Borgerson, a Montclair State University professor researching insect-eating as a means of wildlife conservation, explains that American settler hesitance with entomophagy has to do with exposure. If people saw bugs as part of a regular meal, like French fries accompanying a burger, or in the meat aisle alongside pork and chicken, it would be normal.

“Most things that we like to try are introduced to us by family and friends,” says Borgerson. Without that, we are cautious to try something new.

Additionally, there is a geographic piece to the cultural puzzle. In northern latitudes, bugs die off for half the year, whereas cultures around the equator see bugs year-round, establishing ample time to experiment with entomophagy.

“When we do encounter insects, we’re not encountering them on our plates, but we are encountering them as taking our food away through spoilage or pests in our home—as opposed to this exciting new source of incredible food,” says Borgerson.

Protein Shake with a Side of Sustainability

Mounting concern over global food insecurity and the climate crisis are causing Americans to reconsider their protein sources. While highly processed plant-based meats are grabbing headlines as climate friendly options, one-third of Americans are receptive to a different protein: cricket-based foods.

Crickets have a much better environmental footprint than livestock. Insects get most of their moisture needs from food, using 95% less water than conventional animal agriculture. They are 20 times more resource-efficient than cows, producing 80% less methane, and release far less ammonia than pigs, which can pollute waterways and soil.

Industrial soy agriculture—a high-protein plant option—is better than livestock when it comes to resource management, but soy production is connected to deforestation and biodiversity loss in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest, as well as high pesticide use and genetic engineering. Comparatively, crickets can be grown indoors in sealed facilities and stacking habitat enclosures to be even more space-efficient. Indoor growing promotes food security in cities affected by climate change-related transport disruptions.

Sarah Schlafly started the food company Mighty Cricket with these points in mind, offering protein powders, flour, and oatmeal made from ground crickets. Schlafly notes that outdoor fitness enthusiasts gravitate to her products.

“Mountain bikers, rock climbers, trail runners—they’re already in nature,” says Schlafly. “Bugs don’t really ick them out because they’re always getting them in their face anyway, and they’re very passionate about preserving their ‘playground.’ I think it’s a combination of the [high protein content] they can get from the products with that sustainability piece.”

Crickets seem to be a palatable option for Americans because they are not associated with spoilage in the same way other bugs are. Crickets are reminders of delicate chirping on calm evenings and cute cartoon sidekicks in Disney movies. Many of Schlafly’s customers don’t just buy the products because of the environmental benefits, but because they like the taste, she says.

A New Take on Taco Tuesday

It’s hard to predict when insects will become a regular part of the American diet, says Schlafly, but change is happening. Restaurants across the country are offering Americanized takes on cultural dishes. Los Angeles is home to many chapulin restaurants (derived from the Nahuatl word chapolin for grasshopper) such as Guelaguetza and Expresion Oaxaqueña, and New York City’s The Black Ant, a modern Oaxacan-style restaurant, serves black ants on guacamole and espresso martinis.

“Those are actually what I recommend when someone’s like, ‘Oh, I want to try a bug for the first time,’” says Borgerson. “Get a chapulines taco, get some black ant guacamole because you get a citrusy profile versus a chicken profile with a nutty edge.”

While protein powder is one way to integrate insects into your diet, Borgerson hopes more people try insects in plated dishes. Seeing bugs served next to chips or on a taco helps to normalize it as food.

“If you think of things like sushi, tacos, and pizza, we’re constantly turning any neat, exciting food in the world around, and then finding what it means to be American in that place,” says Dr. Borgerson.

Americanizing entomophagy has already started. Salt & Straw, the Pacific Northwest ice cream-favorite served chocolate-covered crickets and toffee-brittle mealworms in one of its seasonal Halloween ice creams. The company takes inspiration and sources its bugs from Monica Martinez, who is on a mission to share the joy of entomophagy with Americans by selling bugs grown on her urban farm, Don Bugitos, in Oakland, California.

For most Americans, the world of insect cuisine is a new frontier. But giving a bite a try is a chance to explore exciting new flavors and advance environmental sustainability in a warming world. Look for restaurants serving bugs near you, try a cricket protein shake or ice cream, and if you like it, share it with your family and friends.

Not ready for bugs yet, or practicing veganism? Like insects, plant-based proteins are climate-friendly alternatives to meats like beef, chicken, and pork. Tofu, tempeh, seitan, lentils, beans, and nutritional yeast are great contributions to a tasty meal.

The United States is a country of dichotomies. Few things illustrate this better than access to healthy food. Take for example the affluent city of Beverly Hills, which boasts nine supermarkets that serve its 32,000 residents. By contrast, 30,000 residents of Detroit, Michigan, lack access to even one grocery store with fresh food. Instead, heavily processed, pesticide-laden foods line the shelves of neighborhood convenience stores.

Because politicians have historically done little to address this disparity, community organizers invest their time and money, and have an army of volunteers to provide their communities (mostly of color) organic food at affordable prices. But what is access to fresh produce without an understanding of good nutrition? One Denver native figured out a clever way to use music to explain what healthy eating looks like.

Ietef Vita was raised in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. Before the gentrification of the last decade, Five Points was home to mostly lower-income Black families.

“We didn’t have the Boy Scouts, we had gangs, so I became a gang-banging Crip,” Vita explains. “A lot of my friends ended up in the youth penitentiary, which was two blocks from my high school. Five Points was a prison town kind of vibe.”

How Vita went from a processed-food eating gang banger to becoming a yoga-loving, meditating vegan, rapping about greens and organic farming is simple.

“I owe it all to my mother,” he says.

Two things happened during Vita’s adolescence that served as the inspiration behind his lyrics about healthy eating. While working as a curator for the Denver Film Festival, his mother put herself in debt to pay for Vita and his brother to visit Burkina Faso for the Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou.

“As I walked through the port at Gorée Island in Senegal, I thought I was something special in my gang colors. Back then, I didn’t understand this was the largest slave-trading post back in the day,” recalls Vita. “Seeing where my people originated and the brutality they faced there and once they arrived in the new world, forced me to examine my life and the contributions I wanted to give humanity. I felt called upon to make a difference.”

Upon his return from West Africa, his mother gave him a package of tofu. While this may not seem out of the ordinary to those with limitless food options, for a gang banger from the “hood” without access to a supermarket, for Vita, it was more evidence to answer the call.

“At first I was the only tofu-eating, vegan gang banger, which provided the punchline for many jokes, but for me it was about self-reflection. Did I want to be part of the problem or provide a solution?”

Vita not only quit gang life, but he began studying Indigenous agronomy and permaculture, and started writing.

Using Eco Hip-Hop to Promote Healthy Eating

Vita, known professionally as DJ Cavem Moetavation, created a subgenre of rap he calls Eco Hip-Hop.

“My songs are about sustainable agriculture, but there’s more to my lyrics. Apart from police brutality, the Black community has multiple issues that aren’t being addressed in Hip-Hop.

“The same way Public Enemy, Tupac Shakur, N.W.A., and other prominent Old School rappers brought this consciousness to the mainstream, my mission is to expose the health crisis people of color face everyday. My albums have seeds with growing instructions. I got the USDA to certify them, enabling me to get them into schools. I’m also working with the WIC program. My songs provide context for all of this.”

Vita’s wife, Alkemia Earth, is a certified master energy healer who appears in most of his videos. “It may seem corny to tell people that you write rhymes about vegetables, but absent the lyrics, his music is modern-day rap,” known as Trap. “Nothing makes his day more than to hear a kid rapping about broccoli, collard greens, and kale,” she says.

Roger James, of Aurora, Colorado, is one of those young people. James is a recording engineer with Atlantic Records.

“I met Ietef when I was in middle school in Five Points. He came to our school and organized rehearsals, taught us about healthy eating, and provided venues for me to perform and get comfortable presenting my art to the world,” James says. “He definitely impacted my life a great deal when it comes to music and growing organic food.”

Ten years after their first meeting, James returned the favor by arranging and producing Vita’s latest album. Koncrete Garden is an EP with eight songs that sprinkle in issues that impact the Black community with more rhymes about vegetables. In the song “I’m on the Move” Vita describes a day in the life at Mo' Betta Green Marketplace, the farmers market where he serves on the board.

7 am at the market
Washing that kale and I park it
I got that cabbage on low
I got that spinach on low
I got tomatoes on low
I got that garlic on roast

About Vita’s influence on young people, Shane Wright, the development director of the Denver nonprofit organization Lincoln Hills Cares, concurs.

“Vita is a fixture, father figure, and feature in Denver’s community-based environmental movement. Not only does his music represent Denver, but he shows up for the youth. When he’s not touring, you can find him juicing greens from his own garden at the farmers market.”

Respect for the Founder of Eco Hip-Hop

Today the gang-banger-turned-musician has garnered respect from the music industry. Chuck D, front man for Public Enemy (known for their politically-charged songs like “Fight the Power” and “Can’t Truss It”), is Vita’s mentor. “DJ Cavem’s music will propel us as humans. Spirit energy and fuel define his mantra. He is a gift from beyond to listen, watch, feel and emulate for generations to follow.”

Todd Thomas, known professionally as Speech, is a founding member of the group Arrested Development. He calls Vita, “Always dope, always authentic and a “back-to-earth visionary.”

It’s a Koncrete Garden Out There

Disparities in food access—to quality affordable foods in grocery stores—affects 11.8% of the US population, according to 2020 data from Feeding America, but doesn’t consider the pandemic, which increased food insecurity. People of color are likelier to live in those food insecure areas, which is part of the reason why Vita finds it so important to educate those in his community about growing foods, provide food access through community gardens and events, and teach about how healthy food, when it is accessible, can be fun and tasty.

Vita brings it all full circle. “As good health continues to elude most Americans, I will continue writing music to bring back ancient wisdom to address current problems. And I owe it all to my mother.”

Sarah Ratliff is the co-author of Being Biracial: Where Our Secret Worlds Collide, an anthology of essays exploring mixed-race identity. Her main topics of interest are Puerto Rico, cannabis, natural healing, race and gender, politics, STEM, and sustainable agriculture.

Industrial agriculture has changed our relationship with the land—instead of picking a tomato by hand, many Americans pick it out of a lineup on the grocery shelf. But cultivating the land is a fundamental practice of humanity, stretching back millennia. Many traditional gardening methods from around the world maintained a natural balance between the soil, the climate, and community food needs, in their own unique ways. The modern regenerative gardening/agriculture movement is informed by these ancient and ongoing traditions—and it’s helping people understand that we are part of maintaining the balance of the natural world as stewards of the land.

Shepherds of the Land

In Ortonville, Michigan, Tamarack Camps is helping Jewish children connect with their roots and the joys of tending the land. Farber Farm is an educational program at Tamarack Camps, where campers may grow and harvest peppers, kale, beans, broccoli, zucchini, and much more—the produce is served in the cafeteria, so the campers can experience the food from seed to table.

Alex Rosenberg, the Farber Farm manager, explains that while cultivating the land is not something typically associated with Judaism today, it is a foundational part of the religion.

“Our ancestors were shepherds of the land. All our holidays are woven into an agricultural calendar,” she says. “Just being on the farm and getting your hands in the soil is the absolute most Jewish thing you can do.”

One of the oldest Jewish traditions, shmita, is about nurturing natural balance—every seven years, cultivated land is to be left alone to rewild. As many ancient Jews were animal shepherds, this process protects the land from overgrazing. The belief is that, if the land is allowed to rest, then the following years will be bountiful. It’s a reflection of the seven-day week with one day of rest.

During the most recent shmita, which occurred from September 2021 to September 2022, Rosenberg hoped to inspire the campers to think bigger than just their summer camp experience.

“How do we bring [shmita] forward into soil conservation practices that we can be doing year after year after year, rather than taking just a sabbatical?” Rosenberg asked. “How do we extend that and still be able to work within an agricultural framework where we are producing enough food in efficient ways to feed our communities?”

It’s food for thought that the regenerative movement is already working on. Shmita, interpreted for modern day farming, is rotational grazing—where animals are kept together to graze a short time and then moved to new fields, leaving the field where they grazed and fertilized to rest, for the diverse grass species to grow to support soil health, and sequester carbon.

For Farber Farm, the idea of shmita is a tool to teach campers about stewarding the land. The land requires rest and restoration much like humans do. It’s part of a curriculum that includes regenerative growing practices using methods like no till, cover crops, and composting to improve soil health. The lesson is that, with patience, nurturing the well-being of the land means caring for ourselves.

It’s also a lesson central to the Zuni tribe of the American southwest.

Bounty in Scarcity

Indigenous communities across the Americas have rich agricultural histories with holistic ecosystem management, many of which have informed the modern understanding of regenerative growing practices.

Venturing into the dry and hot environment of New Mexico, the Zuni tribe has practiced waffle gardening (heko:we in the Zuni language) in the desert for centuries. From above, the ground looks like a waffle, with little depressions in the soil to hold water for plants. A waffle garden can be sustained with limited water resources, making it extremely efficient in arid environments. This mindfulness towards limited resources is central to regenerative growing practices, which is conscious of waste.

Culturally, food sovereignty (the belief that people have the right to determine what and how they grow and eat) is woven into the Zuni way of life. As expert desert farmers, the Zuni people would grow food like maize, squash, and beans, historically. But in 1908, the Zuni River—what sustained gardens in the Zuni pueblo (village)—was dammed to form the Black Rock Reservoir. Since then, grocery stores proliferated, and gardening became scarce.

Kenzi Bowekaty is the food sovereignty leader at Zuni Youth Enrichment Project (ZYEP) in Zuni, New Mexico, a nonprofit dedicated to connecting Zuni children and families with their traditions. Bowekaty says that during the pandemic, waffle gardens began to reappear.

“ZYEP decided to give out garden kits because we couldn’t continue our regular programming the way we would have,” says Bowekaty. “I feel like it’s really growing back again, because of people wanting their own food.”

Just as the waffle-shaped depressions in the ground are home for the plants, homes in the Zuni pueblo are parsed out in a grid. That reflection is just one of many for the Zuni and the plants they nurture.

“We really believe that the plants resemble us as people in the stages of life,” Bowekaty adds. A planted seed is like an embryo in a mother’s womb, that eventually emerges in the sun. When harvest time comes, and the heavy corn stalks slump over, which Bowekaty relates to how a person would hunch as they aged.

Like how taking care of each other in a family builds a strong unit, taking care of our plant family results in food we can eat. When it comes to regenerative growing practices, the belief that humans are akin to plants keeps us mindful of how to treat and maintain the land.

Take Action

• Learn more about the cultural roots of regenerative growing in Native Growers Decolonize Regenerative Agriculture from the summer 2021 Green American.
• Read Healing Grounds by Liz Carlisle, which shares the stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian American farmers reviving traditional methods of growing food.
• Start your own regenerative garden! Visit our resources for Climate Victory Gardeners to get started.

The Earth is a place of incredible resources: powerful winds, rich soils, strong currents, and resilient life. When it comes to fighting climate change or investing in a greener future, our most crucial asset may be each other. For every harmful policy or practice, there’s a green strategy or innovation to make our society better and heal our planet. This issue celebrates those solutions that abound from across cultures and around the world. This issue chooses hope.

For a more just and sustainable world, we have looked around the globe for innovation and inspiration, to expand the conversation, and learn from our neighbors near and far. We hope you will find inspiration from creative thinkers and activists across the continents and know that we are in this together. We will find our way into a green future, together.

South Korean Music Brings Fans Together for Climate

Devotees of Korean pop music are excited about making change in the world. Supporters of the mega-group BTS raised over $1 million for Black Lives Matter in June 2020, matching BTS’ own donation. K-pop enthusiasts globally have come together for numerous social justice and political causes, and climate change is no exception.

KPop4Planet is a group of supporters seeking to raise awareness about the climate crisis, with its biggest campaign, No K-Pop on a Dead Planet, speaking directly to music labels. They’re demanding green album purchase options, low-emissions concerts, songs about the climate crisis, and artists themselves encouraging climate action. The campaign has collected over 10,000 signatures so far and hosted an in-person action about sustainable album releases, including CDs, in front of music company headquarters, according to Dayeon Lee, a Korean university student and leader of the campaign. In August 2022, JYP Entertainment became the first K-pop music production company to release an ESG report, thanks to supporter pressure.

“It’s not only that fans are showing interest in social issues. They’re concerned about political movements in the name of K-pop fans, such as raising money for Black Lives Matter and the Save Papua forest campaign [an important land to Indigenous people of Indonesia], which are all fan-driven campaigns,” Lee says.

She also points to Blackpink, a K-pop group with 23 million monthly listeners on Spotify, being appointed goodwill ambassadors for the COP26 summit in 2021 as “an example of how idols have encouraged K-pop fans to become engaged in taking climate action.” —Eleanor Greene

Protecting Land Is Protecting Culture in Puerto Rico

In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated human and natural communities in Puerto Rico, including sand dunes, which are important natural barriers to weather and for archaeological sites, where important cultural artifacts have been found and continue to be threatened.

In the DUNAS project (Descendants United for Nature, Adaptation, and Sustainability), local communities in Puerto Rico have been using their knowledge of the environment to help bring back ecosystems and heritage sites.

With Para la Naturaleza, a Puerto Rican environmental organization, the project is incorporating citizen science and engaging community members on climate change and conservation techniques, like staying on trails. Isabel Rivera-Collazo, assistant professor at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institute of Oceanography, says protecting cultural identities by preserving Indigenous languages, passing information down, and recording the knowledge, are important steps in protecting local ecosystems.

“The idea of the project is to recover cultural heritage and use that link to the land to stimulate climate action and to support restoration of damaged ecosystems,” she says.

The project also included creating 3D images of pottery and artifacts found in archaeological sites in the dunes, which can be viewed online and printed with a 3D printer. Museums can more easily create exhibits this way and the actual artifact gets to remain with its original community. DUNAS printed these artifacts and gave them to elders in the community whose ancestors may have created the original pieces. —Aja Hannah

Clean Cars, Even in the Oil Country of Norway

Norway’s biggest industry is petroleum exports, but it’s also the country that has the highest percent of electric vehicles in use in the world (23%). The country even has a 2025 target for 100% of vehicle sales being electric. One way it does that is through tax savings—instead of offering rebates, Norway taxes electric cars at 4% (or 12.5% if the car is over $95,000 USD), compared to a 25% tax for non-electric vehicles. Along with monthly savings, electric vehicles end up being cheaper than gasoline-powered for many consumers.

“Tax incentives work. And once people drive an electric vehicle, most of them like it,” says Auke Hoekstra, founder of ZEnMo Simulations and senior advisor of smart mobility at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, another country with very strong electric vehicle policy and usage.

“Norway is the biggest supplier of fossil fuels in Europe, but in-house, it’s almost 100% clean energy,” says Hoekstra, noting the country is not part of the European Union and relies on petroleum as a national source of income. Experts call the country’s reliance on oil as it strives to become a climate leader a paradox, and many activists and climate experts are striving to align policy with ambitions to lead on climate.

Besides creating tax incentives, Hoekstra says governments must provide good infrastructure, like charging stations that are easy to find and connect with most vehicle types. Governments can also make data available to citizens that help them make choices clearly—he looks to the US’ fueleconomy.gov, which helps car-buyers to compare vehicles side-by-side with prices and fuel economy, including all cars, not just EVs. —Eleanor Greene

Australia Is Fighting Fire with Fire

Fighting fire with fire sounds counter-intuitive, but for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia, it’s a way of caring for and protecting the land. For over 60,000 years, cultural burnings have been practiced by First Peoples as an essential part of life, livelihood and wellbeing.

These intentional and controlled burnings help wildlife thrive—key in Australia, where 30 species have gone extinct since European colonization, more than anywhere else in the world—by providing various vegetation patches in different stages of regrowth, which increase the variety of habitats. According to The Nature Conservancy, they also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating dry brush that can worsen wildfires later in the season.

“Following the principle of ‘Right Fire, Right Time,’ fire is applied to specific places at times of the year to heal Country. This is an obligation and an active and empowering way of responding to climate change,” Rodney Carter, CEO of Dja Dja Wurrung Group says. As part of the Dja Dja Wurrung Country Plan through 2034, Dja Dja Wurrung people would be contracted and compensated to practice cultural burning.

“It puts First Peoples’ knowledge at the forefront, creates economic opportunities for First Peoples, and builds community resilience.” —Anya Crittenton

In Switzerland, Residents Rule Recycling

In the last 50 years, the volume of Swiss household trash has doubled, with the average person producing roughly 1,550 pounds of waste per year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This is just 150 pounds less than the average American, according to the 2019 Verisk Maplecroft report, and yet in Switzerland, where recycling is mandatory, half of that waste will be recycled, according to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), compared to less than a third of American waste.

Swiss recycling depends on the everyday citizen. In Switzerland, there is an elaborate yet clear sorting system, separating paper from cardboard, PET bottles from plastic, even green, blue, and purple glass from brown and clear. Drop-off sites are detailed online, and door-to-door collection is available for the majority of recyclable materials in certified, color-coded garbage bags. Recycling etiquette is enforced through fines and “garbage detectives”—municipal workers who check garbage bags for rule violations.

“Like Santa Claus, they check who was naughty and who was good, at least on their home turf,” says Dardan Shehu, a writer for Study in Switzerland, who explains how foreigners and visitors may be scolded, lectured, or reported by neighbors when discarding waste in “un-Swiss” fashion.

Swiss consumers recycled 94% of their cans and glass bottles in 2018, according to the SBC. In the US, aluminum cans were recycled at a rate of 50%, with glass bottles resting just under 40%, according to 2018 EPA data.

Whether this success rate is due to higher social and community expectations, more intense accountability systems, a diversity of resources, or all of the above, American recycling has room to grow by comparison. —Olivia Liang

Argentina Toasts the Planet with Eco-Wines

A glass of malbec, a taste of chardonnay—they all taste better when they’re made ethically. Wineries straddle numerous industries, from agriculture to cuisine and tourism to communications. The vastness of viticulture leaves plenty of room for waste and mistakes.

However, in Argentina, the world’s seventh largest producer of wine, sustainability in the vintner’s world has been a priority for many years.

In 2010, the Bodegas de Argentina, the business chamber for wineries in the country, established its Sustainability Commission, aimed at providing wineries and the larger Argentine wine industry with education, tools, and resources that encourage successful sustainability, resulting in certification. This helped set the benchmark for the world, with Argentina leading the way. In its second year, the Commission co-created the Sustainability Self Assessment Protocol, which outlines goals for wineries and tools to achieve them.

Many wineries in Argentina have already received certification from the Sustainability Commission with successes spanning all areas of business.

For Bodega Argento, a winery in Mendoza, now a global leader in organic winemaking, agricultural progress is vital.

“Soil health is reviewed and assessed annually,” Bodega Argento sustainability leader Andrés Valero says. “We utilize agronomic management and throughout the crop cycle, cover crops are maintained which, in addition to having a role in promoting surface and underground biodiversity, helps keep the soil alive and protects it from erosion.” —Anya Crittenton

Ghana Is Fashion Forward

Toxic chemicals, water contamination, miles upon miles of waste—the fashion industry is rife with sustainability and labor problems. In Ghana, people in the fashion industry and those concerned about climate change are dedicated to revolutionizing fashion. This is especially crucial as US exports of used clothing to Africa decimated several African countries’ apparel sectors.

Over a year ago, the World Sustainability Organization (WSO) partnered with Ghanaian media personality, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and model Natalie Fort, to increase sustainability awareness and offer certifications across the country. Fort runs a firm, Fort Group, which is dedicated to improving the lives of Ghanaians from healthcare to financial aid. Since 2019, she has been the Patron of the Ghana Philanthropy Forum, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening CSOs, NGOs, community foundations, and other third sector networks in Ghana.

This partnership directly impacts Ghana through two areas of focus within the fashion industry: production of clothing and treatment of models.

WSO offers the Friend of the Earth Sustainable Fashion certification, which looks at prolonging the life cycle of materials, reducing the amount of waste, and reducing harm to the environment. In order to receive the certification, Friend of the Earth standards for Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Farming, and Sustainable Textile Processing must be met. Some of these standards include keeping an inventory of vulnerable wildlife and flora, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and more.

“Africa and Ghana’s fashion brands represent an important potential added value for clothing’s export, as well as work opportunities for local communities,” WSO founder and director Paolo Bray says. “WSO’s task is to highlight those sustainable African clothing brands and help them enter new markets, which are always more demanding for environmentally friendly products.” —Anya Crittenton

Japan Is Making Sustainable Development Goals Fun

In 2015, the UN adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, aimed at enacting a plan for people, planet, and prosperity. As part of this plan, the UN created the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 goals for each country to achieve, addressing things like poverty, hunger, clean energy, and more.

Every country in the UN is pursuing the 17 SDGs in their own way. In Japan, it’s become a nationwide trend, with SDGs playgrounds appearing, as well as SDGs trips offered by travel agencies and an SDGs Center at the popular amusement park, KidZania.

For one Japanese company, Imacocollabo, the SDGs presented an idea: a brand-new multiplayer, in-person, card-based game, the 2030 SDGs Game. Takeo Inamura of Imacocollabo explains the inception of the game on its website (2030sdgsgame.com): “The SDGs are ambitious and can seem overwhelming … While dramatic in their potential impact on the world, approaching them can be daunting.”

The 2030 SDGs Game is meant to give people practical and accessible ideas for helping create a sustainable world.

After gameplay, players engage in a facilitated dialogue, called kizuki, a uniquely Japanese term indicating a transformation to awareness.

“Participants share and examine their discoveries and observations, personal and collective, about assumptions, cultural lenses and biases, and how these influence the world that was created,” Aya Matsuyama, also of Imacocollabo, says.

The game is taking off globally and Inamura and his team have created an English version. On the game’s website, you can read past case studies of facilitated events, find worldwide online events, and even become a facilitator or host yourself. —Anya Crittenton

Attacks on a socially responsible investing strategy called ESG (that considers environmental, social, and governance criteria) are being used—like accusations of widespread voter fraud or teaching critical race theory—as a wedge to divide and mislead Americans and halt social and environmental progress.

Lawmakers in 10 states, including Florida and Texas, have recently passed policies that prohibit considering ESG when making investing decisions with state money, and seven more states have introduced similar bans or have pending bans, according to tracking by Morgan Lewis law firm. The laws prohibit state investors or the banks they use from considering ESG criteria, even when it is the smartest financial decision. The supposed point of these rules is to protect industries that are important to state economies, but so far that has only included fossil fuels and firearms—and the way the rules are written, even financial experts and banks don’t understand them.

“Republican lawmakers are using this attack on what they call ‘woke capitalism’ as part of their anti-climate, pro-gun strategy,” says Fran Teplitz, Green America’s executive co-director for business, investing and policy. “With Republicans in control of the House again after the midterms, they will likely use committee hearings to further attack ESG.”

Anti-ESG policies are already having a chilling effect on companies, by walking back climate commitments in order to keep doing business with these states.

“Whether it’s a moral argument, financial argument, or risk-hedge argument, it’s a very dangerous position, to say ‘we’re going to double down on fossil fuels,’” says Stephanie Cohn Rupp, CEO of Veris Wealth Partners.

What is ESG?

ESG means taking into consideration environmental, social, and governance decisions of a company, alongside traditional financial analysis, when deciding whether to invest in it.

ESG commitments are booming from banks and big businesses, which are using ESG data like climate risk (environmental), labor issues (social), and board effectiveness (governance) to see both how resilient and profitable their portfolios will be in the future.

ESG is already deeply embedded in investing practices, with global sustainable investing surpassing $35 trillion by 2020 and projected to reach $50 trillion by 2025, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Attacks on ESG & Their Impacts

Two 2021 Texas Senate bills prohibit local jurisdictions from working with banks that had adopted ESG policies “against” the oil and gas or firearms industries. After implementing the policies, Texas jurisdictions stopped working with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Fidelity for their municipal bonds ostensibly because of their ESG commitments.

Making that switch meant having to renegotiate terms of many bonds with different banks, which cost taxpayers up to an estimated $532 million in the first eight months of the policy, according to a 2022 study.

Ironically, those megabanks are not boycotting the fossil fuel industry—in fact, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America are in the global top four banks funding fossil fuels, according to the Rainforest Action Network’s Banking on Climate Chaos Report. Those three banks have provided $899 billion combined in fossil fuel lending since 2016.

It’s a very dangerous position, to say ‘We’re going to double down on fossil fuels.’

— Stephanie Cohn Rupp, Veris Wealth Partners

Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest investing firm, had issued a letter saying the company would “confront the global threat of climate change more forcefully.” But another executive at the company also issued a letter saying it would “continue to invest in and support fossil fuel companies, including Texas fossil fuel companies.” Companies going back on their climate statements is the exact chilling effect that politicians who introduce these laws are aiming for.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed a resolution that prohibits the managers for the state’s $186 billion pension fund from considering ESG factors and requires managers to “only consider maximizing returns.” This fails to account for the ability of ESG criteria to contribute to maximizing returns, proving these attacks are being used as a culture war strategy rather than as investment strategy.

Why ESG Will Continue to Grow

Dan Garrett, the assistant professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania who co-authored the study about Texas bonds, explained that most investment companies and investors are trying to get oil and gas off their balance sheets in the next 20 years, as the industry is declining and most agree it will continue to do so. Though oil and gas companies are currently seeing record profits partially because of the war in Ukraine, as renewable energy increases, the sector’s revenues will decline, and face stranded assets—creating long-term risk. But in Texas, Garrett says, the industry directly generates 10.6% of the state GDP.

“So, [policymakers’] incentive is ‘we would like to stop this capital from flowing out of our state,’” says Garrett. “Did this sort of policy slow that capital moving out of oil and gas? Maybe not.”

DeSantis’ position is that, “we are protecting Floridians from woke capital.” Most finance experts disagree with DeSantis and would say that considering ESG and maximizing returns are not in conflict.

In fact, a New York University report examining over 1,000 studies between 2015-2020 showed that sustainability initiatives at corporations drive better financial performance due to improved risk management and innovation.

What Green America Is Doing and What You Can Do

For decades, Green America has been working to help people align their investments with their values. Green America is now working to maintain momentum for ESG and combat misinformation from the radical right among investors, institutional investors, financial advisors, and funds. An immediate focus is on public messaging especially through social media—check out and share our posts at facebook.com/green-america. There are also steps investors and concerned citizens can take to protect ESG investing. Folks who have their pensions in state retirement programs can be especially effective advocates.

“Pensioners are the ideal spokespeople, as investors, because they worked hard and want their money to be there to sustain them in their retirement,” says Rachel Kahn-Troster, executive vice president at ICCR {GBN}. “They want the people managing their money to ensure the money is there and be assured that our planet and society are there in the future.”

Kahn-Troster adds that concerned citizens should call their local and state representatives, no matter what color their state swings. Investors can speak with their investment managers to express that using ESG as a lens to navigate investments and mitigate risks is important to them. Investing that considers ESG criteria alongside financial analysis is a prudent investment approach to build wealth. ESG investing is financially competitive, helps improve companies, and generates better outcomes for workers, communities, and the environment.

While the attacks on ESG are dangerous, fortunately there is widespread recognition among investment professionals and many regulators that ESG is legitimate and generates positive outcomes for all stakeholders. By doing a better job of identifying investment risk and opportunity, sustainable investing is expected to continue to grow.

Former vice president Al Gore and David Blood, co-founder of Generation Investment Management, co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed in November, strongly defending ESG: “The investment community is adapting for the next chapter of capitalism, in which sustainable investing is mainstream. This is the only way the planet, its people, and their investments can thrive.”

Your ambitions for the new year might be big or small, but lifestyle changes of any kind take some work to practice and perfect. Indeed, 80% of all New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by the end of January. That’s why, instead of New Year’s resolutions, we’ve come up with five green goals to strive for in the new year that you can try, tweak, and restart as the year unfolds.

Buy and Read Banned Books

Many of the books we now value as literary classics were once challenged or banned: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. These books, and many more, were once removed from reading lists and classrooms throughout US history for their “anti-white” sentiments or inclusion of homosexuality, profanity, or blasphemy.

The fight against censorship continues today, as books that celebrate diversity are at risk in public schools and libraries. To join the national conversation about inclusivity, solidarity, and education, read these books that are currently under attack:

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017)—This young adult novel about 16-year-old Starr Carter who balances her poor neighborhood with elite suburban prep school has been banned and challenged because it was thought to promote an anti-police message and social agenda.
• Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison (2018)—This semi-autobiographical novel tells the coming-of-age story of Mexican American Mike Muñoz and has been banned and challenged because of LGBTQ+ content.
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (2000)—This graphic memoir depicts Satrapi’s childhood and early adult years in Iran and Austria during and after the Islamic Revolution, and was challenged for graphic language and images.

Take action to defend everyone’s First Amendment right to read by reporting any censorship to The American Library Association and continuing this conversation at school boards, PTA meetings, and public hearings.

Spring Clean with Reuse in Mind

Sometimes “less is more,” but cleaning for cleaning’s sake is not as great or green as it sounds, especially when items end up in landfills. So, before you spring clean, consider these questions:

Think of the next five years: Before you pitch any furniture or tchotchkes, consider when they might come in handy. Will you have a family member going off to college in need of a desk? You don’t want that Dutch oven, but your Julia Child-obsessed niece or nephew might!

Is this salvageable? Sew a stitch, patch a rip, repaint that old bookcase. Before you discard clothes or furniture, brainstorm how your items can be re-imagined for a second (or third!) life.

Throw away or give away? When parting with items, consider where they will be most useful. Call consignment and secondhand stores, or even houses of worship and local nonprofits, to learn where your items will be most beneficial. You can also post pictures on local online marketplaces to ensure your items will be used and loved, or list on your local BuyNothing group or Freecycle.

Spend Time Outdoors by Growing a Garden

If you want to spend more time in nature this year, grow your green thumb and start (or expand) your garden to help combat carbon emissions. Join the Climate Victory Garden community to add your garden to our map, get tips from tens of thousands of climate gardeners, and learn about gardening to fight climate change.

Start Small: Whether you live in a one-window apartment or have a low-success rate with plants, your home garden can start as small as you want. Re-grow scallions in a mason jar or pot herbs to garnish every meal and cocktail.

Think Big: When expanding your garden, the most important thing to consider is what you actually enjoy seeing and eating! Plant bee- and butterfly-friendly flowers or grow peppers to spice up your life.

Cook with International Flavors

Experimenting with flavor combinations from around the world is a fantastic way to travel the globe and learn about other cultures while supporting local, ethnic grocery stores.

Expand your palate and refine your cooking skills with these 2022 international cookbooks:

• Mabu Mabu: An Australian Kitchen Cookbook by Nornie Bero
• Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico by Rick Martínez
• The Woks of Life: Recipes to Know and Love from a Chinese American Family by Bill, Judy, Sarah & Kaitlin Leung
• Korean American: Food That Tastes Like Home by Eric Kim
• Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Matriarch of Edisto Island by Emily Meggett. The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans who labored on coastal plantations in the American south. This geographic isolation allowed for Indigenous African traditions to survive, including food, art, spirituality, and language.
• Rice is Life by Lotus Foods founders Caryl Levine and Ken Lee. This new cookbook shares rice recipes from around the world that feature “the world’s most important staple food.”

Get Finances in Order and Make Your Money Green

Initiating financial change can always feel like a challenge, but Green America has resources to help get you started.

Examine your shopping habits. When buying soap, candles, clothing, or coffee, explore Green America's certified businesses to shop from sustainable businesses and vote with your dollars.

Break up with your megabank. Join thousands of others who have switched to a community development bank or credit union to keep your money in your community and fund projects you can be proud of.

Consider a new credit card. Many credit cards are tied to major banks and support fossil-fuel investment. Switch to a green credit card (including Green America’s!) that supports social and environmental justice.

Here’s to your New Year's green goals: For you, the planet and all people. You’ve got this!

Updated Nov 2023

Inspiring green solutions from communities around the world.

The EPA has a legal and moral obligation to protect farmworkers, children and communities. We are going to do everything in our power to hold them accountable. Join us in continuing the fight by telling the EPA to ban organophosphates.

Higher prices, rather than bigger crops, are crucial to help lift cocoa farmers out of poverty as inflation spirals, according to a report from non-governmental organizations.

Pressure has been mounting to tackle child labor on cocoa farms and ensure growers earn a living income. That’s spurred cocoa companies to launch sustainability programs aimed at boosting production in West Africa, where the bulk of the world’s output is...

Environmental and social problems in global cocoa supply chains are likely to continue unless companies pay farmers substantially more for their beans, according to a major report on cocoa sustainability published on Wednesday.

The Cocoa Barometer, produced by the VOICE Network group of civil society organisations, found farmers in many cocoa-producing countries remain poverty stricken and unable to reduce levels of child labour and deforestation.

Wooden Element is a small Illinois based artisan company with a passion for fashion, creativity, and preserving nature. Our small family business is run by a husband-and-wife duo (Natalie & David Akerele), working closely with talent in our local community. We also collaborate with a few artisans.

We handcraft wooden jewelry & accessories for ladies and gentlemen. We believe in social impact and a portion of our sales support Easter Seals, Best Buddies International (IL Chapter), and Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) - Egbe Revitalization Project West Africa. We also support Aletheia School (Peoria, IL).

We also believe in sustainable fashion. In terms of environmental responsibility, we use Eco-friendly resins, ethically sourced and/or recycled natural wood, repurposed wood, and biodegradable materials whenever possible. 

We are proud to offer FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified sourced wood. We specialize in making Recycled Plastic and Biodegradable Cellulose Acetate sunglass frames. We also offer FDA and CE Certified Sunglasses. 

Our earrings feature a hypoallergenic Copper Alloy, and are Lead Free, Nickel Free, and Cadmium Free. We also hand make PETA Approved Vegan cork jewelry & accessories. We utilize shipping/packing materials made from recycled paper. Wooden Element started in Wicker Park, Chicago, and eventually migrated to Central IL. We are now based in Peoria, IL. We aim to reinterpret classical fashion accessories and give them a modern wooden edge.

Food is one of the great equalizers, allowing one to not only experience, but taste, culture and flavors from around the world, as far as another continent and as close as a local farm. This passion for food—fresh and pesticide-free—laces Kit Wood’s every word as she explains the origins and tenets of her company, Green Plate Catering. 

It’s also apparent in the company’s menus, boasting dishes like mushroom tartlets in winter and slow roasted salmon with sun dried tomato pesto in summer. 

“I grew up in the middle of Ohio, surrounded by fresh produce,” Wood reflects. Her love of food and access to local farms led to the beginning of Green Plate Catering, whether she knew it or not.  

She began packing lunches for her husband, excited about the seasonal flavors she could incorporate. Eventually, her lunch-making skills gained the attention of friends and colleagues, and she expanded beyond the four walls of her own home. 

Green Plate Catering Begins

Fast-forward and a catering company is born, dedicated to “all the green things before they were popular.” Twelve years ago, Wood connected with Jessica L. Weiss, founder and executive director of growingSOUL, an organization committed to teaching and advocating a zero-waste food cycle. 

“She taught me all about [composting],” says Wood. “We hired them for service and as we got bigger, we switched to Veteran Compost, a local company that employs veterans and their family.” 

Despite the company’s exciting growth, Wood remained committed to staying local.

“We buy foods that aren’t sprayed, grown in healthy soil, and we get to know our farmers,” she explains, praising the importance of community. “Over the years, you learn and you hear and you pay attention. Eventually, you can tell the difference in the tastes of the product.” 

But Wood acknowledges she never would have gotten here without the help, knowledge, and expertise of other people. Her biggest mistake at the beginning was thinking she could do it all on her own. With help from the likes of Weiss and hiring a larger, passionate staff, Wood saw Green Plate Catering bloom like never before. 

For all her efforts, Green Plate Catering successfully earned the Green Business Network’s gold certification, which Wood describes as exciting: “It’s the gold standard of meeting green practices. And then Montgomery Country [in Maryland] has a green initiative, so we’re certified in our county, too.” 

The certifications are well earned, with sustainability touching nearly every part of the business, from the composting and seasonal, local food to biodegradable boxes and tableware. 

She recalls an event three years ago at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD: “There were probably 350 people there—and I walked out with half a bag of trash. I was so proud of us. So proud. And it was a challenge; it was a lot of people, but it was truly green event.” 

Green Your Own Kitchen

Wood may have the power and support of a staffed company, but she believes anyone can make sustainable efforts in their kitchen, especially when it comes to prolonging the life of food. There are several guides online about storing food properly—consider starting with the winter 2016 Green American, “Tackling Food Waste.” 

Learn what you can make with food on the brink, like turning mealy apples into applesauce or putting overripe bananas in a smoothie. With leftovers, Wood encourages turning to your community: “Share your food. Offer a snack to the neighborhood kid when he comes from school or take a meal to the grandmother down the street. At Green Plate, we keep food in the back called ‘clean food’ and we donate it to our county shelter.” 

This act of returning to community, relying on and learning from one another, is not only how Green Plate Catering thrives, but how Wood finds hope for the future. 

“I’m excited that this younger generation seems more engaged. People make claims about them, how they’re all about technology and stuff, but so many are more engaged with the Earth and connection than we give them credit for.” 

It's seen in her own son, Ryan Devine, who will inherit Green Plate Catering in the future.

Though she concedes while everyone, younger generations and beyond, must “do their part,” those in power at every level can do more to support sustainable development. 

Green America, our members, and allies all secured a victory for investors nationwide.

Green America actively opposed Trump-era rulings that undercut the ability of retirement plans to include investment options that consider environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) criteria and that made it difficult for retirement plan fiduciaries to vote on ESG-related shareholder resolutions.

On November 22, 2022, the Department of Labor (DOL) reversed these rulings with a final rule, Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights, that allows ESG criteria to be applied in employer-sponsored retirement investments and in the voting of shareholder ballots. In particular, the ability to consider climate impacts is a top concern of many investors and can now remain a consideration in 401(k) investments as the climate crisis escalates.

Green America supports the new rule. Decades of investment experience globally has shown that including environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria in the investment process provides competitive  returns, which the Trump administration and right-wing pundits now claim. To the contrary, taking ESG factors into account means investors have a greater understanding of risk and opportunity and can invest more wisely to maximize their returns. The Department of Labor recognizes the value of investor choice and the benefits of ESG criteria as it works to protect the retirement assets of millions of American workers and their families. Globally, $35 trillion is invested using an ESG framework.

In addition, the ability of retirement plan fiduciaries to vote shareholder resolutions on issues such as climate, labor protections, human rights, corporate political contributions, and more plays a key role in improving corporate conduct. Green America and our allies urged the DOL to remove regulatory barriers to voting which the DOL has done.

Green America recognizes the importance of the new DOL rule and believes that ultimately all investing should be socially and environmentally responsible.

Going green is good for business. Consumers are often willing to pay more for eco-friendly products than other comparable products on the market, according to market research. 

But not all environmental claims are created equally. “Greenwashing” is a form of misinformation often used to entice an aspiring green consumer. Companies promising to be sustainable, biodegradable, or environmentally conscious sometimes fail to meet the promises they make to consumers.