Your life is about sustainability, but what about the end of life? Funerals have shockingly high environmental impacts—one burial is equal to driving over 2,400 miles, according to a 2017 study in France. Choices made for the end of one’s lifecan also be a beautiful celebration, especially when part of your legacy is care for the Earth. Many alternatives to traditional burials exist to honor your life and the planet, too.

Traditional Burials and Cremation

Traditional burials may include a casket, embalming, a burial plot, a burial vault, a headstone, and expensive funeral home costs. Cemeteries require a lot of water to maintain green grass, and with its many impervious surfaces, harmful herbicides wash away and contaminate waterways.

In addition, the embalming process is highly toxic and invasive. Embalmers, who use formaldehyde and other chemicals, must wear respirators and full body coverings during this process. Over time, embalming fluid leaks into the ground where it can contaminate drinking water—it is estimated that 827,060 gallons of formaldehyde, benzene, and methanol are buried in the US each year.

In 2015, the US cremation rate surpassed the casket burial rate. And while cremation doesn’t take up as much space in a cemetery as a casket, it’s not exactly environmentally friendly, either. Crematories emit air pollution in the form of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and mercury—cremations were responsible for 5.5% of mercury emissions in the US in 2017, according to the EPA. Crematories run on fossil fuels and often operate in frontline communities, already burdened with pollution.

How you choose your resting place is completely personal. A natural burial or another low impact alternative may be more suited for you.

What is a Natural Burial?

Natural burials have become more popular in response to the environmental concerns of traditional burials. A natural burial doesn’t use nearly the same amount of resources as a traditional burial: it omits the concrete vault and substitutes a hardwood or metal casket for a shroud and pine casket; the grave is dug by hand instead of machinery; and avoids all embalming fluids. This means the body can return to the Earth naturally within a few years. Depending on where the natural burial takes place, flowers and trees can be planted on the burial site.

Natural burials usually take place in green cemeteries or in protected lands as a conservation burial. Green cemeteries avoid artificial pesticides and practice environmentally responsible land management. Some cemeteries have designated areas for green burials—Green Burial Council cites over 150 green cemeteries across the country and has information on their website for people interested in learning more. Ask the potential funeral home you’d like to perform your service if they offer natural burials.

Trees for a Change is a gifting service that plants a tree in a national forest recovering from wildfire or pine beetle destruction. Trees for a Change offers memorial trees for family members that have passed away and includes a map so that the family and future generations may one day visit the tree. While the service does not replace a plan for remains, it is a truly green alternative or addition to a headstone as a memorial.

Water Cremation

Water cremation (or aquamation or alkaline hydrolysis) is a gentle alternative to flame cremation. It uses 90% less energy and there are no emissions or smoke during cremation, said Emily Nelson, CEO and founder of Be a Tree Cremation in a 2021 interview with Rocky Mountain PBS.
Water cremation uses a solution of water and alkaline chemicals to reduce a body to liquid and bone. The liquid is nutrient-dense and can be used as fertilizer—Be a Tree Cremation partners with Half Moon Farm in Lakewood, Colorado, to grow flowers and non-edible plants with this water. The bones are then dried and turned into cremated “ashes.” Aquamation is legal in 20 states as of 2021, and not all states are equipped with facilities.

Cremation Association of North America works to clarify the process and misconceptions around water cremation.

Human Composting

Much like composting you might do with veggie scraps, one of the newer burial services relies on microbes, oxygen, and plant matter to help the body decompose, converting remains to soil in 30 days. The soil is then returned to the family or can enrich conservation lands and forests.

According to Recompose, a human composition funeral service in Washington, each person that uses its service instead of cremation or traditional burial saves one metric ton of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. So far, only Washington, Vermont, Oregon, and Colorado have legalized this funeral service.

The blog Talk Death is another good resource to learn about human composting.
Planning for the end of life is an emotional and personal process. If a green burial option is right for you, it can be a special way to continue your legacy of caring for the Earth when it comes time to return to it.

Take a time machine back to the Paleolithic Period, and you might spot early humans sporting animal hides—the precursor to modern leather. Tanned skins remain popular 400,000 years later, but now they’re mass produced. In 2020 alone, the nonprofit Textile Exchange estimates the international-leather industry produced 12.5 million tons of product—and claimed 1.4 billion animal lives in the process.

This toll, mixed with numerous environmental issues, spawned replacement products. But how can shoppers tell if these “vegan” substitutes are truly more sustainable?

Activist and author Emma Håkansson is the founding director of Collective Fashion Justice (CFJ), an Australian nonprofit advocating for fashion justice. Håkansson calls large scale investment in vegan leather “an enormous win.” Still, there are miles to go before most alternatives satisfy what they call “total ethics:” “Does [the product prioritize] the life and wellbeing of all animals; humans and non-humans; as well as the planet, before profit?”

Learn how to identify the best products for people and the planet.

Myth: Animal skins are a waste-saving byproduct of the beef/cattle industry.

Animal agriculture and the leather industry may be locked in an iron-tight embrace, but they are distinct entities with separate profit goals.

The nonprofit Slow Factory inverts the “byproduct myth” by referring to Brazilian cowhides as a “co-product” of beef. The profits from leather encourage even more industrial agriculture of cows for meat and leather, which wreaks havoc on the Amazon. (Slow Factory’s website visualizes the impact.) Leather, then, isn’t an innocently claimed resource, but rather it accelerates environmental abuse and poses harm to life.

Damage can continue during the tanning process, too. For example, the film The Toxic Price of Leather spotlights Kanpur, India—a leather-making hotspot largely servicing Western nations. There, local tanning factories plague communities with toxic, untreated water and serious ailments, producer Sean Gallagher told The Guardian.

Myth: “Pleather” is a suitable substitute for genuine leather.

Hop back into the time machine and tear toward the 1960s, when pleather was born. The material still has its perks, like generally cheaper prices and animal-free sourcing. But pleather isn’t all rosy, predominantly considering it’s, well, plastic.

For every plus of pleather, there seems to be a downside. According to the Global Fashion Agenda, a nonprofit centered on sustainability in fashion, synthetic-leather production releases less than half the greenhouse gas genuine leather does. But the hazardous chemicals used to create pleather can adversely impact laborers—as well as the people sporting the products.

And while CFJ shares that recycled materials can be used to generate polyurethane (PU) pleather, synthetic leather is extremely slow to break down—lagging far behind genuine leather. When it does biodegrade, Harper’s Bazaar reports, hazardous chemicals leak into the ecosystem.

So, if genuine leather and pleather both pose problems, what’s the solution? Luckily, some products skirt the ethical issues of real leather and the toxicity of plastic.

Fact: Leather's brightest future is bio-based and plastic-free.

“The most important leather alternative innovations coming out are those working to become more circular—easily recyclable and biodegradable,” says Håkansson. Experimentation is booming, with brands forging products with the help of natural materials spanning from fungi and fruit to bamboo and bark.

Although these options are not purely fossil-fuel based, many still rely upon a percentage of plastic to bind bio-sourced materials, stunting their overall decomposability. Only a handful of brands—makers of fully bio-based vegan leathers—bypass plastic completely, leading the way toward decomposition potential.

Unfortunately, some companies tout how green they are while burying the exact contents of their products, especially manufacturers of hybrid vegan leathers. “It is important to question how much of the main, advertised ingredient a material really contains,” write Dr. Ashley Holding and Paula Lorenz, cofounders of the media source The Circular Laboratory. If this proves difficult to decipher, go with another material.

Fact: There’s cause for hope.

Is imagining a future without genuine or fossil-fuel-derived leather realistic? Håkansson chooses to think so. She points to a quote featured in the industry magazine Fashion United.

“Selling leather products, although highly profitable, will soon be as outdated as smoking on TV,” said the founder of Ganni, a brand set to ditch leather by 2023. They recently partnered with Vegea, whose hybrid material leverages scrapped grape skins.

The path to sustainable leather is convoluted, and large-scale impact will require increased access. Of course, there’s always the opportunity to skip (p)leather and pick other materials, like linen and organic cotton. But, if leather remains a preferred textile, Håkansson has advice for you:

“The best thing we can all do is buy far less and ask questions before we do. Do we really need and love that item? Will we care for it for years to come?”

When it comes to vegan leather, a bit of consideration goes a long way.

Green doesn’t have to be your favorite color for you wear it well! Figuring out whether fabric is sustainable and socially responsible is a much harder task than identifying the color, unfortunately.

Here’s Green America's ranking of the most popular fabrics, with expert advice from Kari Morales of OrganicCottonPlus.com, a company that sells eco-friendly textiles, yarns, and notions, and Barkha Malik of Barkha’s Custom Sourcing, a consultancy firm that specializes in sourcing and producing sustainable fabrics and finished goods in apparel, gifts, and furnishings industries.

If you happen to be an aspiring fashion business owner, check out The Fashion Connection's resource library for more information.

Natural Fibers

Best of the best: Organic cotton and linen

While both organic and conventional cotton take a lot of water to grow, organically grown cotton requires no chemical fertilizers and pesticides, says Malik. Wearing certified organic cotton is a great step toward sustainability. Malik stresses that making sure those organic cotton pieces are GOTS and Fairtrade certified mean that you’re supporting both planet and people. See more about certifications at greenamerica.org/ethical-fashion.

Linen, which is made from the flax fiber, the same plant that makes the seeds you might add to smoothies, is another greenest pick. Linen takes a lot less water to grow than cotton, even non-organic linen. Linen is naturally pest-resistant and will also eventually biodegrade, which is a good thing! In the meantime, it will get softer with wear.

Other natural fibers:

Bamboo is another plant-based fiber, but worth having some wariness around, says Malik, because when it’s made into bamboo rayon, it is a chemical-intensive and wasteful process. But if you find the course woven material that is more like linen, bamboo can be a good choice.

“The natural fibers are all good—they are breathable, absorbent, and comfortable to wear.  They are recyclable, and also biodegradable when no longer usable,” says Morales. “Hemp and flax [linen] are naturally pest resistant.  Wool is both warm and cool, wicks moisture, and can absorb a lot of moisture without losing its insulating properties.”

Malik does not recommend wool or silk as they are not vegan, but recognizes others do. Silk is problematic because it involves killing thousands of silkworm cocoons—according to PETA, these animals can feel pain, making new silk production an unethical business. Wool production does not kill sheep, but that doesn’t mean all wool is sustainable and cruelty-free. Look for sustainability text on the company’s website if you are buying new wool.

Leather comes from nature, of course, but both it and its counterpart pleather (plastic leather) have a dark side.

On conventional cotton: Neither expert recommends conventional cotton, which means cotton that has not been produced with organic guidelines. Cotton is extremely water-intensive and chemical-intensive when grown non-organic.

Semi-Synthetics

Yes, there is a gray area between natural fibers that come from plants and animals, and synthetic fibers that are made by chemicals.

Rayon, modal, viscose, lyocell, are technically made from tree pulp, but undergo very chemical-intensive manufacturing process to become the silky smooth, soft fabrics we know.

Both the tree source and chemical processing can change these fibers from not-so-green to somewhat green. The Forest Stewardship Council does certify tree sources for sustainable management, just as you may see the FSC tree on a greeting card or pack of printer paper, though it is not the norm.

Both Morales and Malik say if you are going with a semi-synthetic, the fiber called TENCEL and other products made by the company Lenzing are preferable because Lenzing uses a zero-waste circular process for chemicals so it does not result in the same level of chemical waste as conventional rayon.

Synthetic Fibers

Synthetic fibers polyester, nylon, spandex, acrylic, Lyrcra, and elastane (also known as Spandex) are all commonly used because they are cheap to produce and quicker than growing crops.

The fact is, these materials are not good for the earth as they are made using chemical heavy processes, are petroleum-based so come from fossil fuels, and are not biodegradable, so will remain on Earth forever. Avoid buying synthetic materials when you can; though they are popular for sports clothing, consider buying natural versions, like performance wool and silk garments (preferably thrifted), which have the same wicking properties, as Morales says. Though they will be a larger upfront cost, look for those long-lasting pieces in thrift stores in your area or online.

Of blended fabrics, Morales says textiles that have synthetic fibers mixed with natural (like jeans that are 2% elastane, or a sweater that’s a 50/50 blend of acrylic and wool) are very unlikely be able to be recycled or biodegrade, unlike items that are not blended and totally plant- or animal-derived.

You may have seen companies touting new innovations where polyester is made from plastic water bottles and other plastic items are recycled into textiles and made into clothes. That trend has good intentions and companies may think they are doing the green thing by sourcing those fabrics, says Malik, but making fabrics out of plastics doesn’t address that those garments will still shed microplastics every time they are washed.

It happens every week: past the produce and beyond the breads, the towering wall of egg cartons brings you to a crossroads. Purchasing ethical eggs has turned into a multiple-choice test: organic or non-GMO, pasture-raised, free range, cage free, or the mysteriously on sale and unlabeled. And they come in different colors, too? In deciding which eggs are good, better, and best, we end up creating a shopping cart traffic jam. Now, Green America has the answers with an egg-buying guide to help you decode the labels. At the end of the day, the greenest egg-sellers take both environment and animal welfare into consideration.

The Significance of Egg Color

While egg shell color tells us little else but the breed of hen, what lies within each egg can tell us even more. A cloudier egg white means a fresher egg, while an orange yolk is evidence of a carotenoid-rich diet, a nutrient found in grasses, flowers, and small insects, which indicates a pasture-grazing diet versus factory farm grain.

Stamps of Approval: Which Food Labels to Trust

While persuasive packaging might promise “natural” and “humane” products from happy and healthy chickens, the right certifications do the work for you by confirming what is legitimate versus greenwashing. The best certifications honestly fulfill their own claims and ensure responsible environmental and animal welfare practices.

The next time you shop, keep an eye out for these labels:

Environmental Welfare

Ken Roseboro, editor and publisher of The Organic & Non-GMO Report, explains the importance of buying organic when shopping for eggs: “I first look for the organic seal, which ensures the products I buy are produced in such a way to eliminate pesticides and other harmful substances, support soil health to sequester carbon and mitigate climate change, while supporting organic farmers who work hard to produce better quality foods.”

USDA Organic: Products contain only organically produced ingredients (without any genetic engineering) that are grown, handled, and processed without pesticides or other synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.

Non-GMO Project Verified: Chicken feed does not contain any genetically engineered ingredients above a set threshold. Remember, while not all non-GMO products are organic, all organic products are GMO-free.

Animal Welfare

Of course, we can’t forget the stars behind our egg-buying adventure—chickens! That’s why certifications endorsing animal welfare are crucial.

“The organic certification doesn’t address chicken welfare, and I only eat a few types of animal products, so I try to find eggs that also carry the Certified Humane seal,” Eleanor Greene, Green American editor-in-chief says. “I’m willing to spend more to have peace of mind about those two things.”

Certified Humane: Egg-laying hens have access to fresh water and diets that maintain health and well-being. Cages are prohibited and environmental factors including light, litter, space, and equipment all have strict regulations.

Certified Animal Welfare Approved by AGW: Animals have continuous access to pasture, are not put on feedlots, and cage confinement, hormones, and preventative or growth-promoting antibiotics are prohibited.

Shopping for ethical eggs can feel like a puzzle, but with the right clues, you can make informed and responsible purchases. As a bonus, look for cardboard packaging and eggs from local farms when you can. Now get crackin’!

A forest is a family. Surveying the soil, you’ll uncover an impressive network of roots. These subterranean connectors kiss at the tips, passing nutrients and strengthening the whole forest in the process.

Humans are not dissimilar. Communities grow lush through distributed care. And when relationships get disrupted at the roots, people branch out—forging new, fortifying bonds.
A “found family” is an affirming group, consisting of individuals who aren’t genetically related but whose ideals, identities, and/or interests overlap. Activists, elders, and queer people are among many who may find homes in such shared spaces.

We spoke with three organizations to learn how found families cultivate solidarity.

TreePeople: Soothing Nature’s Scars

TreePeople harnesses the collective power of volunteers and staff “to grow a greener, shadier and more water-secure” Southern California. Over four decades, TreePeople has mobilized more than 3 million people to plant and nurture trees, and advance environmental advocacy.

Finding your place and the people you call family can be challenging, says Alyssa Walker, mountain forestry manager at TreePeople, explains—even in a huge city like Los Angeles. But once volunteers gather on common ground, relationships take root. She’s seen people swap phone numbers, inquire about loved ones, and even initiate eco-focused group chats. Each bond sprouts from a “shared concern” about the Earth’s wellbeing.

“It's not often that you find a group with such specific interests working toward a common goal; a group that's as enthusiastic as I am that a Mule Fat [shrub] we planted sprouted tiny leaves or an Arizona Bark Scorpion just crawled on my shovel,” volunteer Danette Rivera, shares. “Of course we become cherished friends because anyone excited about those things belongs together.”

Folding school-aged youth, especially from underserved communities, into TreePeople programming is a priority. In addition to planning events across the city to boost accessibility, the organization coordinates buses for volunteers from East LA.

“Overall, we try to foster an environment of acceptance and welcoming,” Walker says. She stresses the importance of safe spaces, respectful language, and practicing “mindfulness of everything around [them]”—including nonhuman beings. Mother Nature is, of course, a key member of the family.

TreePeople offers room for all SoCal residents to learn about and practice environmental renewal. They will “keep that door open to whomever wants to” contribute.

Elders Climate Action (ECA) stretches the common definition of found family, especially as time and space are concerned.

Made up of thousands of involved elders spanning the nation, their community assumes a loose, broad shape. Members vary by chapter, background, and involvement, but they're unified by technology and a core emotion: love.

ECA member Todd Weber speaks to the elders’ “shared, deep concern” that they helped build “a world that is not in [younger or future people’s] best interests.” Some members are long-time activists, while others are newer advocates. Still, they’re all eager to offset their impact—to sway climate policy and construct “a just and sustainable future” for all life.

Members aren’t planning out their own lives 50 years on “because it won't matter—not for us,” Weber says. “We don't want to play golf [in retirement].” Instead, they’re focused on kids to come.

Ariana Genna, program and grant coordinator, references ECA’s work to make the movement intergenerational. As a college student, she led a discussion series called, “All Generations in Solidarity.” The organization’s aim, she says, is to “create a community of support and mentorship” that transcends age.

Beyond helping others connect, Genna fosters her own bonds with ECA elders. “I feel as though I have adopted dozens of extra-grandparents,” she says. “It is rare to find this sense of community.”

Weber resists the notion that “age [is] a period at the end of our life sentence.” A person’s impact can ripple beyond their time on Earth.

“We have to get all of the elders that have energy and opportunity to stand up,” he says. All are welcome.

Rebels of the Moon: Strong Communities Start with Self Love

When discovered early on, found families can be formative. At Rebels of the Moon, youth camps exist for the express purpose of fostering “radical self-love through connections to nature, body, and community.”

Key to being a “Rebel” is breaking apart “oppressive conditioning,” by challenging what society tells us to believe and feel. To do this work, Rebels use vulnerability, exposing their roots to accept community nourishment. Anyone can be a Rebel, but founder and director Katrina Alden especially encourages LGBTQ youth, people of all body types and abilities, and those most often not accepted and left behind to attend the camp.

Alden explains how this begins on day one: “We go into the big life events that made us who we are.”

Campers share difficult and joyful parts of life in a judgment-free space, where, as Alden enthuses, they proudly proclaim their pronouns and get to know one another authentically. A key lesson in learning self-love, and ultimately putting more care into the world at large, is accepting that others see and love you for exactly who you are.

“These are kids who…their vulnerability is unmatched,” Alden praises. This bravery from young people using their activist voices and eagerness to do the work, they explain, “becomes a web of inspiration” and “create[s] bonds that last a long time.” Alden says that after camps end, they hear from parents that campers remain in touch.

Alden wants Rebels to have a ripple effect: “Community is like concentric circles: inside is youth and we hold space and provide for them. Then the circles keep growing, and everyone has support behind them and somebody they can reach out to.”

Choose Your Family, Then Take Care of It

Like all the different types of forests on our planet, your family can look as vast and diverse as you want. Is it your nuclear family? The lifelong friends you made in the first year of college? Or perhaps it’s your drag family when you finally became Madame Sue Blime.

Growth abounds in ecosystems that provide safety, education, aid, and love. Like any meaningful relationship, maintaining and supporting your found family requires nurture and time spent together intentionally. Whichever family becomes home, you’ll find the forest becomes more beautiful and supportive when you care for it and its history and quality of life.

We don’t have to tell you—choosing a home is all about location. But what’s important to some might be less important to others, like a good school system or an area that’s not stifling hot in the summer. Maybe you want to be near family or are moving across the country for work. Whichever location you choose, climate change is already a concern. The question is not if it will be affected by more severe weather and storms, but when and how.

Marc Richmond is a green builder by education and currently works as a green Realtor with Texas Green Realty in his hometown of Austin, Texas. He says all too often, agents and sellers don’t know or don’t want to disclose important information that prospective homebuyers should know. This is particularly true in his region, which is prone to extreme heat and flooding, and had an electrical-grid crisis in 2021. Another green Realtor, Mark Wheeler of Roots Realty in Portland, Oregon, sees a different side of things, as the weather is mild but the area receives significant numbers of climate refugees from Gulf Coast hurricanes and West Coast fires every year.

If you haven’t found your dream home yet or are hoping to purchase your first home, here’s your four-step checklist with tips from these green experts who focus on pairing their clients with homes and making sure they’re as safe as they can be when climate disaster strikes.

Find a Green Agent

Because real estate agents are often found by word of mouth, many of Richmond’s clients don’t even know about his green expertise, he says. But there are big benefits of working with someone with a green background, many of which you can find on GreenPages.org or Green.Realtor. There, you will be able to find professionals who not only know the industry, but understand energy efficiency and climate risks. He says, even if you find an agent through a referral, don’t forget to interview them for the job and make sure your goals align.

Use Public Data

Use public data to know the threats to and benefits of your community. It’s easy to forget or ignore bad weather if it’s not right in front of you, which is why Richmond likes to show homes in the rain even more than on sunny days—because severe flooding is a big issue in Austin. He says when you’re looking at a house, you can call your insurance company for historic claims from the last seven years (ask for the CLUE report). That way, you may be able to find if the property is already under threat from fire, flood, an insufficient electrical grid, or other climate-related issues. You can also find out floodplain information on RiskFactor.com (FEMA has outdated data that could give a different picture), or get a quote on flood insurance from your insurance broker. It’s also practical to look up drought conditions from the last decade, which while less acute than flooding, can lead to more fires and other problematic conditions.

“I talk people out of houses way more than I talk them into houses. Because I say, ‘Look, this is going to happen here. There’s been flooding here,” Richmond says. “This is part of the resilience of housing and finding a house that’s going to be durable, going to work, and going to make sense for people, because it’s the biggest investment in their lives.”

The conditions inside the house also count. No tap water is perfect, but the Environmental Working Group uses more stringent standards than the EPA on its database. It is a good place to start to figure out if your new home might be best off with an installed water filtration system. Wheeler says he recommends living somewhere with high-quality water.

It’s also a good idea to test for asbestos, radon, and lead, especially in older homes. Redfin is another resource that talks through the basics of several different climate risks and the markets most impacted by those risks. Redfin collaborates with ClimateCheck.com on this data.

Thinking Long-Term

The average American moves more than 11 times in their lives, which means folks might not be thinking of their current purchase as a “forever home,” says Richmond. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think into the future.

“Will this house be able to sell in 10 years?” Richmond says. Even if you might not be interested in living somewhere long term, it is a protection on your investment to think about how big storms, floods, and extreme temperatures might impact the home.

Talk to Experts

Lots of experts are out there to help you make the best decision and green your home once you buy, it if that’s what you choose to do. A Home Energy Rating System Rater (HERS Rater) is an expert accredited to inspect the energy efficiency of the home, to verify sellers’ claims or to see what chances you might have to make efficiency upgrades. You might want to bring in a green builder if you want to talk about the structure and the cost of upgrades like heat pumps, insulation, furnace, or efficient windows.

Make your home efficient. Once you’ve bought a house in a location that makes sense for you in terms of risks, benefits, and affordability, there’s still time to make it the green home you want.

“Sustainability is always a pragmatic choice,” Wheeler says. “Sealing and insulating your home's building envelope gives you the most bang for your buck.” He also recommends knowing the threats your community faces, like earthquakes and wildfires in Portland, and being prepared with two weeks of supplies in case of complete supply-chain disruption.

Keeping the climate crisis in mind while house hunting may mean extra work up front, but in the long run, a resilient home will be more economical, safe, and comfortable for your family.

Green living tips for you and your family.

Climate Victory Garden Campaign Giveaway 2022 

Official Rules

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

1.  Eligibility: Climate Victory Garden Campaign Giveaway 2022 (the “Sweepstakes”) is only open to: legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are at least eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry, and who have not previously added a garden to Green America’s Climate Victory Garden.  Employees, contractors, directors, officers, and agents of Green America (“Sponsor”), and its affiliates, subsidiaries, and related entities and members of the immediate family (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where the reside) and household of each such employee (whether or not related) are not eligible to enter or win.  

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

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

3.  Sweepstakes Entry Period:  The Sweepstakes begins on November 30, 2022 at 12:00pm EST and ends on December 7, 2022 EST at 11:59pm (the “Sweepstakes Entry Period”). All entries must be received before the Sweepstakes Entry Period end time/date to be valid.  

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

(i) Create a comment on Green America’s Post about the giveaway tagging three of your friends and then click on the Post’s hyperlink which will direct you to Sponsor’s Climate Victory Gardens website; and 

(ii) click on “Add Your Garden” and provide all required details about you and your garden and click “Send” to submit your garden, and then take a screen shot or photo of the confirmation page and send the photo to the Sponsor via a direct message to receive one (1) entry into the Sweepstakes.  

All entry steps must be completed during the Sweepstakes Entry Period to be valid. All added gardens must be real and actual gardens and must be owned by the entrant unless the entrant has prior permission from the garden owner to submit/add such garden. If it is determined that an entrant made up a garden or that such garden has already been added, such entrant will be disqualified, all as determined in Sponsor’s sole discretion.  Entrant must perform ALL entry steps including without limitation, including all garden details as required, and comply with any applicable restrictions or requirements set forth herein to be valid. Entrants must agree to these Official Rules to receive an entry into the Sweepstakes. Limit: One (1) entry per person into the Sweepstakes during the Sweepstakes Entry Period, regardless of how many gardens are added and which social media platform is used to enter the Sweepstakes. You must have a personal relationship with any person that you tag in the Sweepstakes Post.

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

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

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

5. Grand Prize Drawing:  On December 8, 2022, Sponsor will randomly select one (1) winner from among all eligible entries received during the Sweepstakes Entry Period.  Odds of winning a prize depend on the number of eligible entries received. 

Potential prize winner must have a public Instagram/Facebook profile and will be notified on December 8, 2022 via a direct message at the Instagram account or Facebook account used to enter the Sweepstakes.  Potential winner must respond to such message within 3 business days of it being sent and must provide a valid email address in their response. Sponsor will then email the potential winner with prize instructions, which email potential winner must respond to in three business days.   Potential winners must meet all eligibility requirements, including timely replying to the notification and response email and execution and return of all releases and documents (if any) required by Sponsor, within the timeline allotted. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth in these Official Rules. Limit one prize per person/Instagram/Facebook account. 

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

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

6. Prize (1): One winner will receive a $250 gift card to [insert as I know we were finalizing this], which may be used toward gardening supplies of winner’s choice.  Approximate retail value (“ARV”) of prize: $250 USD. Prize is non-transferable and no cash equivalent or substitution of prize is offered, except at the sole discretion of the Sponsor.  If prize, or any portion thereof, cannot be awarded for any reason, Sponsor reserves the right to substitute prize with another prize of equal or greater value.  Prize winner will be solely responsible for all federal, state, provincial and/or local taxes, and for any other fees or costs associated with the prizes they receive, regardless of whether it, in whole or in part, is used.  Gift cards are subject to the terms, conditions, and restrictions as set forth by issuer.  Any total amount exceeding the gift card amount shall be winner’s sole responsibility. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming soon.

The Green Business Network^® at Green America is home to both rising social and eco enterprises and to well-established green businesses, including sustainable fashion 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 Apparel & Textiles 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 Fashion Sector

The fashion industry is one of the least regulated and unsustainable industries. Increasing demand for corporate transparency and for practices that respect workers, communities, and the environment is gradually leading to business changes that benefit people and the planet. Follow the guidelines below to get started on being a green business in this sector. At the Green Business Network, “green” always means social justice and environmental sustainability.

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

Since the pandemic, online retail sales have increased significantly. Fast, cheap, and trendy fashion has progressively become more popular too.  

One online retailer has caught a lot of consumers' attention: Shein. A simple search on TikTok shows that the hashtag “#shein” has 10.4 billion views.  But what attracts consumers to Shein? The prices. Shein sells items like $5 dresses and $10 coats and is one of the cheapest online retailers. Yet, despite the low price of trendy styles, comes at a price: Shein is accused of harming the environment, exploiting workers, and poisoning its consumers with toxic chemicals.  

What is Fast Fashion?   

Fast fashion is a relatively new concept in the industry that causes harm to the planet and exploits workers. Fast fashion delivers the newest trends and styles to consumers as quickly as possible. The fashion industry is the 2nd largest polluting industry in the world and fast fashion is making the problem worse.  

Shein is one of the fastest growing fast fashion companies and is producing 700-1000 new products daily. Shein pushes out designs much faster than any other retailer and the company's business model is raising red flags around its impact on workers, consumers, and the environment.

"While fast fashion places like H&M and Zara introduce new pieces by tracking trends and going through a 3-week process to come out with new designs, Shein is able to use real-time data to cut this process to 5–7 days."

Is Shein Selling Toxic Chemicals and Labor Abuses? 

Shein’s products have been tested for toxic chemicals and metals and found to contain phthalates, PFAS, and lead - all of which can harm human health and the environment. 

There is no evidence that Shein is taking any action to protect consumers or workers from toxic substances. Shein received the lowest rating on Green America's Toxic Textiles scorecard for the company’s failure to adopt a (Restricted Substances List (RSL) to protect consumers, a Manufacturer’s Restricted Substances List (MRSL) to protect workers, or a commitment to eliminate any class of toxic chemicals.  

Recently, Health Canada recalled a children's jacket sold by Shein that contains nearly 20 times the amount of allowable lead in children's products. Researcher Miriam Diamond (an environmental chemist) describes the jacket as “evil.”  Miriam Diamond was right; the jacket is very evil. Not just evil to the consumers but to the workers. Imagine the workers for Shein who are exposed to higher levels of chemicals and other harmful substances than the average customer and what that long-term exposure is doing to their health.  

Lead exposure over time can negatively impact your body and overall health. Exposure to high levels of lead can cause:   

• Anemia  
• Weakness   
• Brain damage   
• Abdominal pain   
• Forgetfulness   
• Nausea 

"I know it looks cute, but this is actually evil. The levels of lead in this trench coat are 20 times higher than the allowable limit for kids' jewelry. The allowable limit was put in place to safeguard kids' health," she told the crew on location in her laboratory in September." - MD  

The jacket is not the only case of Shein selling dangerous products. A woman’s story recently went viral after purchasing nail products from Shein and having to go to the emergency room. Sara Holcomb, a comedian in Chicago, Illinois alleges that the product caused numbness that spread from her hand to her elbow. Her most recent video described how doctors told her she had chemical poisoning, and she notes that “Shein needs to be held accountable.” She is correct.  

Shein is also accused of putting its workers at risk and creating horrible labor conditions. A recent undercover report by the U.K.’s Channel 4 found workers were working 18-hour days for very low pay, with only one day off per month, and were penalized 2/3 of their daily pay if they made a mistake on one item.  

Shein's global head of ESG, Adam Whinston, recently spoke at a sustainability summit touting the company’s business model as “transformative”. However, the company seems to do little to address the concerns of high levels of toxic chemicals found in its products that affect workers and consumers alike, nor addressing poor labor conditions overall.   

What You Can Do 

Skip toxic fast fashion, and instead check out:  

• 7 tips for less toxic clothing  
• Secondhand clothing options 
• Certified clothing companies in our Green Business Network 

Green America recommends that consumers avoid Shein’s products and purchase used clothing to save money, resources, and our health instead of fast fashion.   

And tell people you know – friends and family – about the harm caused by fast fashion companies like Shein and encourage them to seek out green alternatives as well. 

Greenwashing. You’ve heard the term before. A company and its products are “eco-friendly.” A business is on track to be “sustainable” by 2025. This strategy, greenwashing, is a way for companies to make unsubstantiated claims that their services, products, and/or processes are environmentally sound—i.e., not adding greenhouse gas emissions to the air, not leaving a massive carbon footprint, not producing tons of waste. 

Unfortunately, two things make greenwashing possible: companies’ effective marketing and people’s inability to know everything about everything (through no fault of their own). 

Equipping businesses with the tools to follow through on sustainability goals and consumers and investors with media literacy and basic “green” knowledge, greenwashing can be rendered useless. Please note that at Green America, our definition of “green” embraces people and the planet, so we include social justice practices in our definition of “green.” 

Sam Engel, co-founder of Green Business Network member Root & Leaf, a marketing agency, weighs in on the best ways to avoid greenwashing, for both businesses and clientele. 

First, the Dangers of Greenwashing 

A company claims to use recycled plastic, the words in bright green on the packaging, featuring a photo of a beautiful waterfall. The declaration wins over customers who are shopping in their busy lives and only know that plastic is bad. 

“Consumers don’t have time or energy to deeply research every purchase and they can easily get lost,” Engel explains. 

Marketers know this and intentionally choose not to reveal the company uses only 15% recycled plastic—the remaining 85% puts more plastics in the world. 

Greenwashing allows companies to cut corners, make deceitful claims, and, in the end, continue damaging the planet. 

Take the chemical company DuPont. In 1991, it released ads featuring marine animals prancing in chorus to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” That year, DuPont was the largest corporate polluter in the U.S. 

Words Matter 

As Engel describes, marketers are skilled at “playing chameleon,” knowing all the sustainable buzz words. Eco-friendly. Sustainable. Safe for the planet. 

But what do these words actually mean? Well, nothing without context or proof. 

Engel suggests businesses be transparent and clear in their language; he uses KIND’s slogan, “ingredients you can see and pronounce,” as an example. If the language is grandiose or vague, like a product claiming it uses organic cotton, but without any specifics, alarm bells should ring. 

Another issue is the ever-evolving nature of science, technology, and sustainability. 

“The language tends to evolve quickly and muddies the waters for consumers,” Engel explains. “Some terms get co-opted, others get replaced with phrases that sound good but are empty of real meaning. Brands will claim all sorts of amazing initiatives for a quick PR win." 

Simple words and clear meaning will go far for a brand’s reputation. 

Set Realistic Goals and Be Honest 

Goals are huge in the time-sensitive fight against climate change. The Paris Climate Accords outline goals to achieve by 2030, and scientists warn of what will happen if temperatures and sea levels rise in 5, 10, 15 years, and businesses have started paying attention. 

As heartening as this enthusiasm can be, it can also get businesses into hot water. 

Loyalty is earned through trust. A consumer is much more likely to return time and time again to a company that is transparent and honest about its goals, rather than claiming perfection from the get-go. 

“We can’t pose Patagonia as the model of a responsible company. We don’t do everything a responsible company can do, nor does anyone else we know,” reads Vincent Stanley and Yvon Chouinard’s book, The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned from Patagonia’s First 40 Years. “But we can illustrate how any group of people going about their business can come to realize their environmental and social responsibilities, then begin to act on them.” 

Companies use greenwashing to put forth misleading labeling while hiding their harmful practices in the fine print, if anywhere. 

Always be sure to fact-check a company’s claims; often, companies can fund or execute their own research, or cherry-pick data. 

Honesty goes both ways, as consumers should also acknowledge their own limitations of what they may or may not understand. One key practice to work on is media literacy—the ability to critically analyze and evaluate messages in the media, which is especially useful for identifying disinformation. 

Put in the Work and Ask for Help 

So, how to make good on honest claims? It takes time and hard work. 

“It's easier to spin the truth than to make fundamental changes to business operations,” Engel acknowledges of businesses dealing in greenwashing. 

However, now, more than ever, there’s help to be found. To become a truly green company, you don’t immediately need to know about carbon offsets, microplastics, or the most sustainable shipping options – having a multi-year sustainability plan will be more realistic. 

Businesses can check out the US Environmental Protection Agency’s E3 Sustainability Tools or the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides. 

Another tool recommended by Engel is a certification (or two, or three), like Green America’s Green Business Certification, a B Corp certification, or the Leaping Bunny certification. Certifications provide businesses with a second or third-party audit to show their sustainable practices are real and not exaggerations or outright lies. 

Consumers, too, can do their own research. Read up on green practices and what various sustainable terms mean from trusted sources, fact-check claims, and investigate certifications and what, exactly, they cover and audit. 

Take a Stand Against Greenwashing 

Sustainability is not something to be compromised. 

“Draw a line in the sand,” Engel states emphatically. “Early on at Root & Leaf, we wrote a post about companies we wouldn't work for.” 

Anyone or thing can do this—a business and who it partners with, customers refusing to spend money at companies that harm people and planet. 

As Green America’s Vote with Your Dollar campaign reveals, people have the power. 

Businesses may think greenwashing will benefit them—winning over more customers with green claims—but in fact a majority of Americans don’t trust companies’ sustainability claims, according to GreenPrint’s 2021 Business of Sustainability Index. If companies put in the work, though, and honestly prove their claims, it would be a win. 

GreenPrint’s report found over 64% of Americans are willing to pay more for a sustainable product and 77% are concerned with products’ environmental impacts, but nearly 3 out of 4 consumers don’t know how to identify environmentally safe products. 

With the right tools, and businesses putting in honest work, this win could become a reality. 

The Soil Carbon Initiative allows Banza to scale acres of chickpeas through regenerative management to mitigate climate change and soil erosion

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Banza, the maker of chickpea-based comfort foods, today announced its participation in the Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI), a new program from the nonprofit Green America. Dedicated to the regenerative agriculture transition, SCI incentivizes farmers to improve soil health, biodiversity, climate resiliency, and farm economics. SCI and Banza will work together to quantify the impact chickpeas can have on soil health.

Soil is the foundation of 95% of our food system. Climate change and intensive agriculture have put soil health at risk. Chickpeas, and more generally legumes, play a unique role in restoring soil health. They are one of the only crops able to capture nitrogen from the air and convert it to a usable form in the soil. To be a part of the solution, Banza is committed to transitioning chickpea acres to regenerative practices.

"Our mission is to inspire people to eat more chickpeas and other beans. Beans are nutrient-dense foods that play a key role in restoring soil health, yet 80% of the U.S population isn't eating the USDA recommended amount," said Brian Rudolph, CEO and co-founder of Banza. "We are eager to understand how planting more chickpeas can influence soil health. Our partnership with SCI is an important first step."

"Green America is thrilled to welcome Banza to the Soil Carbon Initiative, the country's first third-party, independently verified, regenerative agriculture program open to any farmer, in any production system," said Alisa Gravitz, CEO of Green America. "We recognize Banza for its commitment to help rebuild soil health, restore the climate and contribute to farm and rural community prosperity. Banza's strategy for using chickpeas, in rotation with other crops, to unlock soil health and improve nutrition for families across the country is truly game-changing."

Banza is dedicated to educating consumers on the positive impact chickpeas can have on their health and the planet in the long-term. To learn more about the initiative, visit soilcarboninitiative.org.About Banza

Banza makes comfort foods out of chickpeas, including pasta, pizza, rice, and mac & cheese. Since 2014, Banza has been on a mission to inspire people to eat more chickpeas and other beans because of their positive impact on human and environmental health. Today, Banza's chickpea products are available in nearly 21,000 stores nationwide, and it is the fastest-growing pasta brand in the country. For more information about Banza, please visit www.eatbanza.com.About Soil Carbon Initiative/Green America

Designed with input from over 150 food system stakeholders – from farmers to global food companies to soil and climate scientists – the Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI) is a commitment and verification program for soil and climate health. SCI was created with broad supply chain support in order to be scientifically rigorous yet practical and accessible for all farms and businesses. In March 2022, SCI launched its Go-To-Market Pilots, which are currently underway with a cohort of farmers and companies. SCI is an initiative of Green America, a DC-based nonprofit founded in 1982 with the mission to harness economic power to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

SOURCE Banza

As communities and activists around the world attempt to deal with the immense cost of the climate crisis from unprecedented flooding in Pakistan to the longest recorded heat wave in China to wildfires and the new “smoke season” in the American West, questions arise regarding how much individuals can effect change when what is needed is immense system change.

At Fair Planet Advisors, we believe B Lab and B Corp certification, and the Green Business Network at Green America certification, provide models that can not only create global system change but also allow each of us to “vote with our dollars” and to be a part of the system change that these times demand.

What Are Certifications and Why Do They Matter?

B Corp certification is a vigorous certification process verifying that businesses consider all stakeholders. This stands in contrast to the “Profit is King” approach, focusing on short-term profits for shareholders only. The Green Business Network certification, the first of its kind, ensures that businesses integrate social and environmental criteria into their operations and further prove that business innovation can serves people, the planet, and promote broad-based prosperity.

In the 1970’s Milton Friedman who has been referred to as “the most influential economist” of the 2nd half of the last century promoted the idea that “the sole purpose of a firm is to make money for its shareholders.” US and global financial systems have been reflective of that thought process for the past decades. But sustainable business certifications have been part of a changing tide.  In fact, in August of 2019 the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group composed of leading CEOs in the US, released an updated Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation that expressed a fundamental commitment to all stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders.

Meet the B-Corp and Green Business Network Certifications

Fair Planet Advisors has earned both B-Corp and Green Business Network certification, a reflection of our commitment to putting into practice a new approach to business. As a socially responsible investment firm, we help our clients invest their assets to meet their financial goals in ways that match their values and their aspirations for society and the environment. This year we were thrilled to receive a Best for the World (BFTW) Award from B-Corp in recognition of our work with customers, regardless of portfolio size, that is helping to create a new system.

B Lab has highlighted the stories of some of the BFTW companies globally:

Green Hammer Design Build of Portland Oregon is pursuing carbon neutrality, reduction in predicted energy use intensity across its buildings, 90% waste diversion for its projects including training on this for employees, and even Justice, Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Training to pursue addressing historic injustices in housing.

New Age Industries, of Pennsylvania, fluid transfer specialists, became a 100% employee owned company in 2019 and is a resource and advocate for other companies considering employee ownership.  Workers also have access to a discretionary bonus, tuition reimbursement, and paid volunteer time.

Organic India a provider of teas, supplements and more, shares resources, industry insights, and best practices for transparent supply chains, economic opportunity, and income stability for India farmers.

And certified Green Business Network members are also making a difference every day to improve outcomes for communities and our endangered environmental heritage:

Emma’s Eco-Clean, a woman-owned Bay Area cleaning cooperative, uses non-toxic cleaning supplies to protect the health of their employees and customers. The company grew out of a nonprofit founded by two women who were cleaning houses and not happy with the poor benefits house cleaners received. So, they decided to teach Latina women how to legally open a cooperative.

Canaan Palestine is making olive oil using organic and regenerative agricultural practices and promoting fair trade to support small farmers.

Big Bad Woof merges green living and green pet care, including attention to climate impacts, product transparency, fair labor conditions, and support for locally-made products.

In short, the B Corp community and Green Business Network believe that all stakeholders matter.  While no company is perfect, businesses with these certifications are striving to improve their business model for the sake of all their stakeholders with the belief that a new system is not only necessary but that is one we can create together.

At Halloween, we want our costumes to be scary, not our chocolate. But underneath the wrappers of many chocolate bars is cocoa coming from pods doused in pesticides. That is bad for us and even worse for the people who grow cocoa. 

Large chocolate companies do not want you to know what goes into making cocoa. That is why Green America has been providing consumers with an annual Chocolate Scorecard for almost 10 years. It is an effective tool for civil society organizations to hold chocolate companies accountable for their supply chain management and sustainability goals. And it gives consumers an ethical guide when navigating an opaque shopping experience. We want to help all those chocoholics out there to choose ethical chocolate more easily!  

See the full scorecard with 30+ companies

For the first time this year, the chocolate scorecard included a new category: Agrichemical Management.  

There are many reasons why.  

Agrichemicals in Chocolate 

Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, where over two-thirds of the world’s cocoa come from, have seen a steady rise in pesticide use, as have other cocoa-producing countries like Indonesia. This trend is not surprising, since low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) with weak regulations are often treated as a lucrative market for unscrupulous exporters of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs). At this rate, agrichemicals in chocolate are common, and spreading fast.  

Banned or unapproved pesticides are regularly exported from high-income to LMIC, in particular Africa and Central America. The United States, the second largest exporter of pesticides, legally permits U.S. companies to export pesticides that are not even approved or registered-for-use in the U.S. under the 1947 statue, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  

In Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire where tens and thousands of small-scale cocoa farming households continue to make around $1 per day per person (well below the poverty line of $2.15 USD), many farmers are incentivized to use pesticides without proper information or personal protective equipment (PPE). Impoverished farmers are often desperate for higher yields and pesticides create that in the short term, since cocoa is highly vulnerable to pests and diseases when cultivated as a monocrop.  

Effects of Pesticides on Women and Children 

To make matters worse, poverty and the lack of access to public education have driven many farming households to rely on child labor. A 2020 report found that over 1.5 million children engage in cocoa production in West Africa. According to the same study, children have been exposed to agrichemicals at an increasing trend from 5% in 2008 to 24% in 2019. Children handle hazardous pesticides and other agrichemicals when they engage in spraying, transporting, storing, mixing, and cleaning machines used for dispensing pesticides. Children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to harm from pesticide exposure. Those who handle pesticides, as well as those in the surrounding community, can suffer from acute poisoning to serious chronic health issues. In fact, many chemicals used on cocoa farms around the world are not even allowed for use in the United States or EU countries because they pose alarming and well-documented health risks. In addition, pesticides often pollute soil and water, further harming human health. Many farmers rely on streams or wells for washing and drinking water that have been contaminated. Few have access to piped-in and treated water.  

Dangers of Pesticides to Our Planet 

The vicious cycle of pesticide use is not costless to consumers thousands of miles away. The global trend of agrichemical use in cocoa is contributing to: 

• Pollinator collapse and risk of extinction 
• Catastrophic biodiversity collapse 
• Toxic pollution of soil and water 
• Microplastics that persist in the environment and in our bodies, according to a recent report exposing deliberate use of microplastics in synthetic pesticides and fertilizers  

Standing Up Against Toxic Pesticides in Chocolate 

Green America and its allies are calling on the chocolate industry to address the use of toxic pesticides in cocoa production. Industry needs to get serious about the problem, and foot the bill for a much needed and urgent reform. Chocolate is projected to be a 180 billion USD industry by 2025, thriving despite the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot ask impoverished cocoa farmers, many of whom experienced a decrease in their income during the pandemic, to shoulder the burden of transitioning from hazardous pesticides to sustainable and soil-nourishing practices. 

Recently, the German NGO INKOTA, and the VOICE Network, a global network of NGOs and trade unions working on sustainability in cocoa, co-hosted a webinar “Harmful Impacts, Little Action: Pesticides in Cocoa Production in West Africa” calling on a transition to safer pesticide alternatives.  

The groups behind the Chocolate Scorecard, including Green America, began asking major chocolate companies two years ago to transition away from highly hazardous pesticides, and to ensure the transition was farmer centric. This year the companies were ranked publicly for the first time.  

Here are some of the questions companies were asked and graded on: 

1. Does the company have lists of active substances that it monitors, prohibits, or restricts throughout its supply chain?  
2. In the last two years, have any active substances been added to or deleted from the company’s monitored, prohibited, or restricted list?  
3. How does the company support farmers to reduce chemical use?  
4. How does the company support farmers in adopting non-chemical alternatives to pesticides? 
5. What percentage of your volume is certified organic?  
6. How is the company ensuring that children and pregnant women are not exposed to pesticides?  

The scorecard found that many companies, including Mondelez and Lindt, need to do significant work to address pesticides. At the bottom of the pack, General Mills and Starbucks refused to share anything about what they are doing to address environmental and social harms of their cocoa, including pesticides. 

Check out the chocolate scorecard to see how the companies rank.  

Etelle Higonnet, leading activist in cocoa industry reforms, shared: “It is absolutely possible to do better cocoa – that is pesticide-free, that uses biochar and compost instead of fertilizers that are chemical, and that is good for forest, good for wildlife, good for human health.”  

Let us all commit to better cocoa.  

What You Can Do to Fight Pesticides in Your Chocolate 

As consumers we can drive change in the industry.  Consumer pressure has gotten some of the largest chocolate companies to take action. 

Take action today by: 

• Take Action: Tell the EPA to ban dangerous organophosphates
• Acting on social media: Send a message to major chocolate companies that they need to address farmer poverty, child labor and pesticide in their cocoa. 
• Buying from the heart: Purchase chocolates from companies that are leaders in protecting farmers, communities, and the environment. To eliminate pesticide from cocoa, the best you can buy is organic chocolate. Second best is to purchase chocolates that are certified by FairTrade or Rainforest Alliance. 
• Telling your friends: Message your friends and family on Halloween, share this blog with them, and let them know about how they can help treat – not trick – both people and planet! 

Farm work is one of the most dangerous jobs in the US, in part due to pesticide exposure, and women’s share of the farming workforce is increasing. According to the USDA, in 2009 women made up 18.6% of farmworkers but in 2018, women accounted for 25.5% of the workforce. Ongoing concerns about farmworkers' exposure to pesticides have been documented in the September 2022 Report “Exposed and At Risk”. 

The United States uses the second largest amount of pesticides out of all countries in the world; as of 2018, the US used over 400,000 tons of pesticides per year.

Farmworkers are exposed to higher amounts of pesticides than consumers, which in turn could lead to more negative health consequences – particularly for women farmworkers. Farmworkers can be exposed through handling pesticides, directly spraying the pesticides, coming in contact with pesticides residue while on the job, through pesticide drift, and pesticide residue can stay on clothing which can be carried into the home, risking the health of families as well.

What does pesticide exposure look like?

• In the short term, those exposed can experience: stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, blindness, nausea, dizziness, diarrhea and even death.
• Over the long term, chronic effects can include: cancer, birth defects, reproductive harm, neurological and developmental toxicity, and endocrine disruption.

Pesticide impacts on women:

In the list above, you will notice that a few of those long-term effects impact reproductive health, which is one of the key reasons pesticide exposure can cause additional harm to women.

A study examining pesticide related illnesses and injuries in farmworkers from 1998 – 2007 found that women farmworkers were twice as likely to experience an illness or injury related to pesticide exposure than men. With women’s share of the farm work force growing, it is even more pressing that we greatly reduce the amount of pesticides used in agriculture and eliminate the use of all highly hazardous pesticides.

According to the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP), exposure to pesticides while pregnant can be particularly harmful; it could lead to miscarriages, premature births, and birth defects. Pesticide exposure can be even riskier in the first few weeks of pregnancy, potentially before a woman knows she is pregnant. AFOP recommends all women that are pregnant or trying to become pregnant take additional precautions and try to avoid pesticide exposure.

Pesticides add to the toxic chemical exposure all women face

An added risk to chemical exposure is how we interact with the world and what products we each come into contact with. Women tend to be exposed to more chemicals than men. Women still often carry out more of the household cleaning than men, resulting in women being exposed to more harsh cleaning chemicals.

Additionally, women tend to use more personal care products than men. The Environmental Working Group estimates women are exposed to 168 different chemical per day through personal care products; while men, on average, are exposed to 85 per day – this number does not factor in pesticide exposure or exposure to cleaning products. It is likely that the various toxic chemicals interact with each other to produce greater impacts, so when women are exposed to toxic chemicals in personal care products and then through work exposures, the risks are compounded.

Additionally, Women’s Voices for the Earth notes that some chemicals accumulate in fat, and women tend to have a higher body percentage of fat than men, which in some cases, leads to women having much higher levels of certain chemicals in their body. And, some chemicals build up in our bodies over time, so increased exposure in both the amount of a chemical and number of chemicals poses a unique threat to women.

Women should have equal access to all occupations and with that equal access, women should not face an additional burden of being exposed to harmful pesticides or other chemicals while working.

While pesticide exposure creates health risks for women, that is not to say that pesticide exposure is not harmful to men – in an ideal world, no one would be at risk of being exposed to chemicals that harm our health.

Regardless of your occupation, everyone has a right to a healthy and safe workplace. And employers must adapt their practices in order to respect that right. In the case of agriculture, there are alternative growing methods that use less or no pesticides, such as regenerative agriculture or organic farming.

When we think about the companies responsible for carbon emissions, we tend to focus on the Chevrons and ExxonMobils of the world. But virtually every company has a carbon footprint. And each can help solve our global problem.

“Small actions on a local level add up,” says Fran Teplitz, executive co-director of business, investing, and policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Green Business Network. “We’re big advocates of doing what you can, based on who you are and where you are.” This domino effect has the potential to build positive momentum across business sectors.

 
Pregnancy comes with precautions such as no heavy lifting, light exercise, getting plenty of rest, and avoiding air travel closer to one’s due date. There is another concern to add to the list: pesticides. 

According to the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs , being in contact with pesticides is harmful, especially during pregnancy. Pesticides not only affect the parent, but the unborn child as well. Pesticide exposure during pregnancy may lead to miscarriages, preterm births, low birth weight, birth defects, and learning problems in children. Researchers have also found that these impacts can cause long-lasting effects in children. 

Pesticide exposure is hard to study. It’s difficult to point to a single source, especially if the exposure is at low doses over the course of years. Recently, a group of scientists has made progress in understanding the impacts of pesticide exposure. The Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) study is the longest-running longitudinal birth cohort study of pesticides and other environmental exposures among children in a farmworker community. 500 children have been examined since birth for 19 years. The health assessment is still ongoing and closely follows each child’s neurodevelopment and risk-taking behaviors, while the children are entering into their late teens and early adulthood.  

Findings of the study thus far include risks from the following pesticides: 

• Organophosphates: “shorter duration of pregnancy, poorer neonatal reflexes, lower IQ and poorer cognitive functioning in children, increased risk of attention problems in children” 
• DDT: poorer mental development in two-year-old children 
• PCBs: Altered maternal and neonatal thyroid levels  

 People Most Affected by Pesticides 

An important element is that the study largely followed low-income Latinx mothers and farmworkers' families. This is important to note because the communities that are mainly affected by pesticides are low-income Latinx families.  

Further complicating risks to pregnant farmworkers is the loss of reproductive rights in much of the US. Considering all the risks pregnancy entails and the high mortality rate of Black and brown mothers in the US, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was an unprecedented reversal of the rights of people who can get pregnant and will harm people who are already marginalized in this country. This will cause a disadvantage to Black and Brown people, LGBTQIA+ people, Indigenous people, people living in poverty, immigrants, non-Christians, and people with disabilities. Since most farmworkers in the US are Latino/a without access to funds to pursue reproductive care out of state, we will likely see a rise in risky pregnancies, compounded by pesticide exposures, in farmworkers. 

Increased Autism Risk in Children Exposed to Pesticides  

Exposure to pesticides during pregnancy may also raise a child’s risk for developing autism. A study published in the BMJ by Von Ehrenstein eVon Ehrenstein et al. found it is possible that pregnant mothers living in areas with heavy pesticide spraying (including glyphosate (the main ingredient in RoundUp), chlorpyrifos, diazonon, malathion, avermectin, and permethrin) set them apart from those with little to no exposure. Babies exposed in their first year of life appear to be at higher risk of developing autism with accompanying intellectual disabilities. These findings should lead policymakers to create changes in pesticide regulations to better protect children. 

  Moms Fighting Back 

Moms living in areas with heavy pesticides are leading the way to impactful change, starting in California. The Guardian interviewed Fidelia Morales, a mother of five, who lives near citrus groves where chlorpyrifos use is common. She said pesticide exposure has hurt her family, especially her 11-year-old son. This exposure has not just affected the Morales family—many Central Valley residents traveled to the state capital and testified about the fear of the long-term impacts on their families.  

These actions  got  policymakers’ attention. In May 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom and CalEPA announced that they had listened to residents and that a ban was “needed to prevent the significant harm this pesticide causes children, farmworkers, and vulnerable communities”. The state phased our chlorpyrifos over the next two years. Community leaders and mothers noted this is “only the beginning- and they are just getting started.” And state action in California, Hawaii, and New York built momentum for the US EPA to issue a ban on the use of chlorpyrifos  in food products in 2022.    

The ban on chlorpyrifos in food crops is an important step forward, but many toxic pesticides remain in use throughout the United States.  

Green America supports the Precautionary Principle.  Pesticides should not be allowed unless they are proven to be safe. Instead of the status quo, pesticides are allowed until they are proven unsafe. Green America urges states and the Federal Government to follow the precautionary principle. 

What’s Next?  

Public awareness and mobilization. Increasing  public awareness and activism on pesticides will  lead policymakers to change policies about pest control and start looking for alternatives that are safe for human and environmental health. 

Here are 3 ways to help the cause:   

• Tell the EPA to ban dangerous organophosphates
• Buy more organic foods as your budget allows and when available 
• Ask farmers about regenerative agriculture with these helpful questions 
• Ask federal legislators to support the Protect America's Children from Toxic Pesticides Act (PACTPA) and the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment (CARES) to protect child agricultural workers in the US overall.  

The Clean Electronics Production Network (CEPN) is seeking a communications / outreach contractor to support our work over the next few years. This is a part time (average of approximately 4 to 6 hours per week) ongoing opportunity.

CEPN is a multi-stakeholder, cross-industry collaboration that launched in 2015. The goal of the network is to move the electronics industry towards zero exposure to toxic chemicals in the manufacturing process. CEPN is an innovation network within Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions.

In August 2021, CEPN launched Toward Zero Exposure - a commitment program with leading electronics companies to protect workers from chemical hazards in the electronics supply chain. We are seeking to build awareness of this program and expand participation.

Areas of Support:

1. Outreach: Work with CEPN staff to grow the Toward Zero Exposure program participation by:
   • Supporting new participant outreach and recruitment
   • Identifying and supporting opportunities and events for outreach
   • Developing communication materials / collateral to explain and demonstrate the value of the program
2. Communications: Take responsibility for writing and editing:
   • CEPN’s quarterly newsletter, announcements, and other communications materials
   • Toward Zero Exposure annual report
3. Digital Engagement: Enhance the Toward Zero Exposure program's and CEPN’s online presence, and manage LinkedIn

Preferred Qualifications & Experience:

1. Excellent writing skills. A writing style that is compelling and clear. Ability to explain complex ideas in an easy-to-read style.
2. Excellent oral communication skills. Ability to talk confidently, honestly and strategically with a wide variety of global stakeholders including senior executives from electronics companies.
3. Experience, or demonstrated interest in, the mission and scope of CEPN.
4. Ability to learn quickly, synthesize a large amount of information and present it clearly, meet deadlines and to work calmly under pressure.
5. Ability to work independently as well as within a team environment.
6. Take responsibility for strategy, as well as moving a project from concept to completion.

If interested, please send a statement of qualifications including hourly rate and 3 to 5 relevant work samples to pbrody-heine@greenamerica.org and gleib@greenamerica.org.

_______

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.

Join a coalition of farmers, food companies, and businesses in support of a regenerative approach to healthier food for all Americans 

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 – Green America’s Soil & Climate Alliance, the Plant Based Foods Association, and the Plant Based Foods Institute along with a diverse coalition of farmers, food companies, and businesses, applaud the Biden-Harris Administration for hosting the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in more than 50 years. Consistent, equitable, and culturally appropriate access to healthy and affordable food is a cornerstone of our joint work across the food system and agriculture supply chain, and the inextricable link between soil health and human health cannot be ignored. 

This link has not been listed as a priority for discussion as we begin charting a meaningful path forward. Soil health has a profound influence on the nutrients that make it into our diet and onto our dinner plate. So we call on the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health to address the link between soil health and nutrition as a key part of the solution for healthier food for all Americans.

"Our mission is to inspire people to eat more chickpeas and other beans. Beans are nutrient-dense foods that play a key role in restoring soil health, yet 80% of the U.S isn’t eating enough of them,” said Brian Rudolph, CEO and co-founder, Banza. “Planting more crops like chickpeas will yield only positive outcomes for people and the planet.” 

As a coalition and a country, we must actively support the transition to an agricultural system that is diversified, regenerative, resilient, and adaptive. These agricultural practices have multiple benefits, including climate drawdown and resiliency benefits, soil conservation, water quality and conservation, biodiversity, domestic food security and economic prosperity for farmers and rural communities. 

"Providing high-quality, nutrient-dense plant-based foods for consumers is a top priority for Lupii," said Isabelle Steichen, co-founder and CEO of Lupii. "We know that the health of the ingredients we use starts at a soil level and being able to work on a domestic level with American farmers who prioritize regenerative farming practices allows us to deliver healthy plant-based foods that align with our values and the values of consumers."

New research¹ shows regenerative agriculture practices are proven to provide more nutrient dense food improving human health outcomes. The National Strategy must include support for regenerative agriculture practices and outcomes as part of its solutions to the challenges being addressed. Farmers are the backbone of our food system in the US, and they are working to regenerate soil and grow healthy food through regenerative practices like cover cropping, reduced tillage and inputs, and integrating livestock where appropriate. 

In parallel with the White House effort, we commit to: 

• Leveling up on regenerative practices within our farms and companies to deliver healthier food to consumers at a price they can afford.
• Working across the food system to enable food brands and companies the ability to improve their domestic sourcing through and encourage regenerative practices that promote biodiversity, nutrient dense food, and healthy soil.
• Building diversity into the supply chain with the structure necessary for BIPOC and underserved populations to engage with large-scale purchases of raw ingredients.
• Collaborating with the broader food space to ensure that the way food is being grown in the US contributes to the goals outlined by the White House.

About the Soil & Climate Alliance 

The Soil & Climate Alliance is a supply chain working group housed under Green America, the nation’s leading green economy organization. The mission of the Soil & Climate Alliance is to advance a resilient, equitable, and inclusive agriculture system that regenerates soil health, sequesters carbon, and revitalizes farm and rural economics, while improving water quality, biodiversity, food security, and nutrition. Our members are farmers, seed breeders, ingredient suppliers, traders, transporters, processors, retailers, brands and CPGs, investors, researchers, and farmer support organizations. Our Soil Carbon Initiative provides farmers and food companies with an outcomes-based, independent third-party verification program.

About the Plant Based Foods Association 

The Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) is the only trade association in the U.S. representing over 320 of the nation’s leading plant-based food companies. PBFA’s mission is to champion, strengthen, and elevate our members and the plant-based food industry. PBFA empowers the industry by advocating for government policies that allow fair competition while expanding market opportunities for retail, distribution, and foodservice to support the continued growth of the plant-based foods industry. 

About the Plant Based Foods Institute

The Plant Based Foods Institute (PBFI), PBFA’s sister non-profit organization, is focused on driving plant-based food system transition through policy and business strategies. Driving this transition requires a holistic approach that recognizes the complexity of the challenges we face, builds bridges across sectors, and ensures businesses can thrive—and it requires solutions that work for a diverse coalition of food system participants. That’s why PBFI incubates, implements, and evaluates strategies that empower the broadscale change we need, through the power of plant-based.

This comment is supported by:

• Applied Ecological Institute
• Banza
• Bionutrient Food Association
• Lupii
• Non-GMO Project 
• Soil Carbon Initiative

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

¹ Montgomery DR, Biklé A, Archuleta R, Brown P, Jordan J. 2022. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming. PeerJ 10:e12848 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12848

After pressure from Green America and allies to address the environmental impacts of its dairy, Starbucks has taken two important steps forward.

Starbucks has announced its Journey to Sustainable Dairy. The company is working with The Nature Conservancy to find ways to reduce the climate and water impacts of its dairy, while benefiting farmers. This is a new program, so it will take some time before its impacts can be evaluated.

Starbucks previously announced that they will be offering more plant-based milks, including almond, coconut, soy, and oat milks, as alternatives to conventional dairy products.

An environmental audit found that dairy was the main source of emissions in the company's supply chain, which prompted this change and the company's goal to reduce carbon emissions by half by 2030.

As one of the world's largest dairy purchasers on earth, the steps towards more sustainable cow's milk dairy and plant-based alternatives are a win for the climate, with plant-based milks having lower emissions than dairy products, as well as a boon for animal welfare. It remains to be seen how well Starbucks dairy commitment will support struggling small US dairy farms.

Starbucks made these announcements after years of Green America highlighting the company's industrial milk habit and its negative impacts on the planet, and campaigning for their switch to organic milk. Over 150,000 consumers took action with us in our "What the Starbucks" campaign asking the company to address it's enormous climate footprint from dairy milk.  

Room for Improvement: Green America Gives “D” Grades to McDonald's, 7-Eleven, Burger King, Claire's, Rite Aid, Safeway, Family Store, Panda Express and Wendy's.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – SEPTEMBER 7, 2022 – Green America released a new update to its Skip the Slip report on the impacts of paper receipts on forests and climate change, as well as how the chemicals used on receipt paper affect consumer and employee health. The report also features a scorecard that grades 33 major U.S. companies on their progress to address the waste and health risks associated with paper receipts. 

A major finding of the report is the progress CVS is making to address the impacts of its receipts. In 2017, Green America began urging CVS to address its wasteful, phenol-coated (BPA or BPS) paper receipts. The campaign led to a dialogue between Green America and CVS on alternatives. As a first step, the company implemented BPS-free paper in all 10,000 stores and increased promotion of its digital receipt option to ExtraCare Card members, and 7.3 million customers have signed up. In 2019, an estimated 58 million receipts were sent digitally, saving 48 million yards of receipt paper - more than enough paper to circle the globe. In 2020, total paper savings rose to 90 million yards – enough to circle the globe twice.

In April 2022, CVS added a new receipt prompt at cash registers so all customers could choose a printed receipt, digital receipt or no receipt. As of July, the receipt prompt saved over 87 million yards of receipt paper. CVS also reports phasing out print circulars in 2/3 of its markets, resulting in a 70% reduction of paper use, and shortened the length of its receipts. 

The Skip the Slip scorecard graded companies on their current progress, including whether they offer digital receipts or receipt paper free of BPA and BPS. 

“Since launching the Skip the Slip Campaign, the negative effects those little paper receipts have on customers, employees, communities, and the environment is now recognized by businesses big and small,”said Green America’s Climate Campaigns Director Dan Howells. “It is great that CVS, the largest drugstore chain in the US, has taken note and is substantially reducing the amount of paper receipts issued and ended the practice of issuing receipts coated in toxic chemicals.”

"Receipts may be small but their effect on our health and the environment is significant and solutions are readily available," said Joshua Martin, Director of the Environmental Paper Network-North America. "Retailers who are sustainability and public health leaders simply must eliminate the toxic coatings from their receipts that make them harmful to public health and unrecyclable, and avoid the wasteful and unnecessary use of forest resources by offering and encouraging digital and no-receipt options."

The updated Skip the Slip report details how consumption of thermal paper for receipts increased in the United States and worldwide prior to COVID-19, but decreased in 2020 due to the pandemic. Now that the pandemic’s impact on in-person shopping has lessened, consumption of receipt paper is increasing and projected to continue increasing.  

Every year in the United States, receipt use consumes 3.6 million trees and over 10 billion gallons of water.Production and disposal of receipt paper generates unnecessary waste and emits the carbon equivalent of over 471,000 cars on the road. Receipts also pose health risks to people who are regularly in contact with them. 

An estimated 93% of paper receipts are coated with Bisphenol-A (BPA) or Bisphenol-S (BPS), endocrine-disruptors which serve as color-developers to make the text appear on receipts. The chemical coating is absorbed through the skin and is linked to fetal development issues, reproductive impairment, type 2 diabetes, thyroid conditions, and other health concerns.

In 2021, Green America surveyed Americans on receipt preferences and found that 86% of respondents want retailers to offer digital receipts. Nearly half had already signed up for digital receipts and cited that they prefer digital receipts because of the environment and ease of receipt storage. On average, respondents stated they throw away or lose 49% of the paper receipts they receive, even ones they intended to keep.

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@hastingsgroup.com.

Carter’s, the largest U.S. retailer of baby clothes, is taking important steps to limit toxic chemicals in its supply chain and use sustainable fabrics - thanks to pressure from Green America and its members! 

Because of our Toxic Textiles campaign and thousands of consumers speaking up, Carter’s is adopting a Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) to protect workers and communities in its supply chain.  When the MRSL is put into place, it will provide a list of chemical substances banned from intentional use in the processing of textile materials that go into Carter’s clothing. This will protect workers who make Carter’s clothing, local communities where textiles are made, and the kids who wear Carter’s clothing.

In 2020, Carter's released a Restricted Substances List (RSL), disclosing information about energy usage and waste reduction, and providing greater transparency about efforts to protect human rights within its supply chain. 

Carter's announced 100% of its cotton and polyester will be sustainable by 2030, including using organic cotton and recycled polyester. 

What made rev abby mohaupt switch to a better bank that reflects her faith and values?  

The rev mohaupt (who uses all lowercase for her name because that’s how her grandmother spelled it) shares with Green America’s Fran Teplitz, executive co-director, what motivated her and how rewarding making the switch was. 

rev. mohaupt is the director of education and training at GreenFaith, and former co-moderator of Fossil Free PCUSA, a grassroots movement to get the Presbyterian Church (USA) to divest from fossil fuels. She’s also a PhD candidate at Drew University in Religion, Culture, and Ecology. rev abby recently moved back to Chicago after living in California, New Jersey, and Texas. Her last move created the perfect opening for switching to a bank whose mission she supports. 

Fran: Why did you decide to switch banks now? What was most important for you? 

abby: I was moving to a new city and when I closed all of my accounts in Texas, I knew that when I opened a new account in Chicago, I wanted to use a bank that was more in line with my values. A few years ago, I switched from Chase to Amalgamated for my larger/recurring expenses, but I needed a more local bank for some tasks. As I looked for banks, it was important to me that I work with a bank that focused on people and diversity, and one that was small enough that it wasn’t one of the major investors in fossil fuels.  

I ultimately chose a bank that was historically created to support Korean immigrants, and now continues to support specifically multi-ethnic communities. Because so much of my financial life (and professional and personal life) is about divestment from fossil fuels, I was surprised that this was the best fit for me (I assumed that I would choose based on fossil fuels alone).  

But there was also something lovely about this choice for at least two reasons:.  

• Our liberation from injustices are intertwined – immigration justice is climate justice.  
• When I was in seminary, much of my education was enhanced by Korean students who taught me to be a better person of faith…. and my life is better because of immigrants every day. I’m charmed by that connection. 

Fran: Those are powerful connections to your new bank. What was most important for you to find in a new bank? 

abby: I wanted to be able to go to my bank in person and to have the location be one that was easy to get to. While there are closer banks to our apartment, those were all big banks that support fossil fuels. The bank I ended up opening an account with – Hanmi – is right on the route home from my daughter’s daycare, so I pass it nearly every day.  

Fran: So the solution you needed was right in your neighborhood! What resources were helpful?  

abby: I used Green America’s bank resource to look up banks in my neighborhood that had similar values. I didn’t have to close any accounts (because I’d done that previously), so I simply had to compare the map on the site to where I regularly go. 

Fran: Tell us about your new bank! Anything surprising?  

abby: I love our new bank. I opened the account one afternoon after picking my daughter up from daycare. She sat pretty quietly throughout most of the interaction, but she also captured the heart of the banker who helped us through the process. A couple weeks later, I was going through the drive thru, and that same banker helped me. He asked how my daughter was doing– which was so surprising after several weeks!  

Fran: What’s your message to others needing to switch to a bank or credit union that reflects their values? 

abby: Before you begin this process, it can feel like a mountain of work – just start with one account and move one account at a time. There’s no “pure” money – so do the best you can, using the resources available to you so that you bring your money in line with what you believe in.  

...just start with one account and move one account at a time.

Fran: What is your next step for greening your financial life? 

abby: The next step for us is moving the last of our investments in line with our commitment to be invested with our values. It’s a step that I’ve let linger for a couple of years, and I’m ready to make that call. Then I think we’ll start integrating our transportation commitments with our finances! Now that we live in Chicago, we have lots of green options for travel, and each of those options are more cost-effective than owning a car on our own.  

For Nasser Abufarha (above, left), endeavoring to make Canaan Palestine [GBN] a green business was always about more than the sustainability practices he believed in. It is, first and foremost, a way to honor his ancestral land and the thousands of years of history it held, including the olive trees, standing strong and representing a sacred way of life. 

The company, which sells local and natural Palestinian staples like olive oil and almond products, is what Nasser describes as the “marketing arm.” 

It all began, however, as Nasser explains, “to help save the community, save the relationship with the land, save the trees, save the crop.” 

The foundational systems of Canaan Palestine, including fair wages and regenerative agriculture, are natural outcomes of the roots of Nasser’s goals. Like the widespread roots of the olive tree, these systems could not exist without the richness of Palestinian soil and the Indigenous peoples who came before, teaching reverence for the land. 

Nasser offers an illuminating perspective on what being a green business means, beyond numbers and science. 

Honoring the Land

The land of Canaan was one of the earliest inhabited by humans, with Indigenous peoples forming societies as early as the Neolithic period. Many different societies appeared across this land, with olive trees as important fixtures in all these societies since the beginning. 

If the olive trees knew the hands that planted them, their oil would become tears.

Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian poet

Some olive trees in Palestine are over 5,000 years old, Nasser explains in earnest. Trees that, for more than a millennium, have sustained, fed, and nurtured life through resilience and strength. 

“This is something to protect,” says Nasser. “These ecosystems are something to learn from, to teach us about sustainability, and to make sure they remain for future generations.” 

It was this realization that began taking Canaan Palestine into a new direction, beyond its commitment to tried and true methods like fair trade and wages. 

What Is Regenerative Agriculture?

Abufarha wanted to forge new paths and began looking at ways to make Canaan Palestine sustainable at the root—literally.  

Regenerative agriculture has become a core tenant of the business, leading the business to work with farmers not only to avoid exploitative practices born from political occupation, but with adopting more sustainable farming techniques. This style of farming adopts a holistic approach that considers all living things within an ecosystem and the health of the land, rather than the industrialized way of farming in the Western world, which leads to excessive soil erosion and the destruction of biodiversity. 

One way Nasser is encouraging regenerative agriculture among the farmers and villages Canaan Palestine works with is through intercropping. Decades ago, in the 70s and 80s, Nasser explains, Palestinian farmers also worked with grapes. The traditional way of farming was harvesting olive trees with other vegetation and crops.  

“The diversity of plants amongst the olive trees makes a more stable regenerative environment,” Fatin Zahra, Business Market Manager of Canaan Palestine, explains. “Grapes in particular function well amongst the olives and are alive and green during the summer months when most of the grasses have dried out.  This creates more shade and cools the area down, which helps with water retention.  Additionally, their roots provide nutrients to the soil which the olive trees can benefit from.” 

However, without a market for them, the farmers uprooted these crops. 

“We’re bringing this back—almost every month, there is a crop,” Nasser says proudly. Canaan Palestine is broadening this work to include more crops again farmers means to make a livable wage and have work year-round, rather than during one season. “We are encouraging farmers to go back to agroforestry. We are giving farmers multiple seedlings to integrate back into their farms: almonds, grapes, figs, carobs, walnuts, and more based on what best suits their plots.” 

Another technique the company is adopting and teaching to farmers is minimum tillage. Nasser says that farmers, from the 70s on, were taught to till the soil twice or three times, but that is no longer the most sustainable way to care for the land and its crops. 

Putting Palestinian Farmers First

"For the last 60 years, farmers have been given instructions by formal agricultural extensions to move away from their traditional practices to adopt new ‘modern’ methods of agriculture,” Nasser says. “Canaan is fostering gaining back sound traditions that sustained these olive trees for thousands of years.” 

He continues: “We encourage them not to plow as much. But to them, plowing is weed control. We have to teach them new habits and new ways of seeing things. It’s less about the farms being clean of vegetation and more about farms being clean from pollution.” 

It takes time, practice, demonstration, and small steps. 

As Fatin details, Canaan Palestine is committed to supporting these farmers and setting them up for success. 

“We've done weekly workshops with farmers, led by the employees of Canaan and the Palestine Fair Trade Association,” she says. “They visit each village and educate the farmers on regenerative agriculture and the many benefits it can have on their lands and health of their soil.” 

As Nasser says, the nature of regenerative agriculture is “tailored to the farm,” meaning it’s not a one-size-fits-all system. It is, however, the only path forward. 

“For Palestine to have a future, for people to hold onto their lands, we have to apply these practices,” Fatin concludes. 

Read more about Canaan Palestine. 

Contact: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

For Palestinians, the olive tree is lifegiving—it is a main source of food, its produce provides snacks that children have before going to school, its oil sits on every dinner table. Nasser Abufarha, founder of Canaan Palestine, wanted to preserve this vital, living thing by supporting the land it grows on and the farmers who harvest it, and sharing it with the world. 

The first step was creating the Palestine Fair Trade Association. Abufarha introduced the policies of fair trade, from sustainability to ethical sourcing and just labor practices, to Palestinian farmers in 2004. Now, the association spans 54 villages and over 2,000 family farms in Palestine. 

Then came Canaan Palestine, a certified member of the Green Business Network since 2007, intended to serve as a marketing and retail operation for producing and sharing organic Palestinian products like olive oil and tapenades. 

In American culture, we say, 'This is my bread and butter.' In Palestine, our bread and butter is bread and olive oil.  

Nasser Abufarha

Canaan Palestine employs many strategies to create its mouth-watering products as a green business. It begins with farming, and employing regenerative agricultural practices when growing and nurturing the olive trees. 

“You have to respect Mother Earth and all these relations, and how you benefit from situating yourself within these life systems,” Abufarha says.  

The intention of creating the Palestine Fair Trade Association, and then Canaan Palestine, was to address the specific issues farmers in Palestine face. 

As Fatin Zahra, Business Market Manager of Canaan Palestine, adds: “We’re the underdogs. We don’t always have access to global markets unless there’s a platform that allows us to do that.

Before these two projects were launched, farmers had limited access to international markets, they were paid below market value for their olive oil, they were selling their olive oil for less than what it cost them to harvest their olives, many were unable to market and sell their olive oil, and a number of farmers were abandoning their farms to find more stable work with a steady income. 

These were all brought on by the lack of organization in the industry, weak economy, the Israeli Occupation, Israeli land theft, restrictions on movement and trade, to just name a few.” 

Both Abufarha and Zahra confirmed farmers abandoned their farmlands and gave up harvesting olive trees, moving on to something else because of the obstacles they faced and ruinously meager money they made.  

Now, though, farmers are thriving and the olive tree, a symbol of Palestinian cultural identity, passed down from generation to generation, is being cared for in a way that ensures its continued longevity and health of the land. 

“We are protecting the farmers in the marketplace from subsidized plantation products by addressing the disparities in price to the consumers and  the conditions of production,” explains Abufarha. “As long as that relationship between farmers and the land is alive, that’s their strength.” 

It’s the story of many small-scale farmers, Abufarha acknowledges, but with an added dimension given Palestine’s political occupation and systemic programs meant to exclude Palestinian farmers from the orchards on their land. 

“They [political occupiers] are interested in the land and its fruits, but not the population that lives on this land,” he concludes. 

But the future is bright for Canaan Palestine and the farmers. 

Abufarha says: “Beyond protecting the olive crops, Canaan now invests in crop diversification to help regenerate biodiversity in the farms and diversify farmers’ income.” 

“We’re also looking at working with new products like almonds,” Zahra adds excitedly. “This way we can add more opportunities for our farmers to have crops year-round and it’s not seasonal. Thanks to these projects, farmers can live more easily and fruitfully and build their communities.” 

Food Huggers designs make it easy to adopt sustainable practices at home. We offer customers solutions that make sustainable habits easy and fun to do without giving up convenience or style.

Our company mission is to help customers reduce different types of waste at home. Food Huggers designs keep your food fresh at home replacing single use plastics with high quality reusable alternatives.

There is more FOOD in US Landfills than anything else. Reducing food waste is one of the top things we can do as individuals to reduce the output of methane gas. By making it easy and fun to keep your food fresh we help customers reduce food waste at home which reduces the methane gas output of our landfills.

The average American family of four throws away $1600 a year in wasted food. Reducing this financial waste helps to improve the economics of our households as well as our communities.

Be empowered to act on climate change! Decarbon is a simple app to help you lower your carbon footprint AND take broader community action. It's like Apple's Health app for carbon tracking.

Key things to know about Decarbon:

• You set a carbon budget and reduce the impact over time by completing climate actions
• Climate action "collabs" are hosted a different leader in the climate movement each month
• 100% transparent - Open source carbon footprint database
• 100% free (no ads or paywalls)

How Decarbon works:

1. Link your bank (or use our estimator)
2. Automatically track purchases
3. Join collabs to take action and reduce emissions
4. Offset unavoidable emissions with carbon credits

Learn more at decarbonapp.com

Contact us at hi@decarbonapp.com

Give a damn about climate change!

I started Decarbon because I'm... scared. The climate emergency feels more and more desperate, and for years I've struggled to understand both what my contribution to the problem is and what I can actually do about it.

Hopefully Decarbon will serve as a simple tool to help demystify those things for us. If understanding the climate impact of a purchase was just as easy as knowing it's price, if tracking everything was super easy, and if we all reduced our impact to within a sustainable amount, maybe we can start to turn this ship around. (I know that oil companies and governments bear the biggest responsibility, but that doesn't mean we should do nothing!)

Lastly, we're committed to keeping Decarbon completely free for everyone - no paywalls, ads, or selling your data.

Peace and love,

Kyle

Why does Decarbon track CO2e?

Carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) is a standardized way to compare the total greenhouse gases embodied in our purchases. For example, even though burning gasoline when we drive our cars includes methane and nitrous oxide gases in addition to carbon dioxide, we can use CO2e as a total metric for it’s impact. Decarbon tracks CO2e to keep things simple and to help you easily compare the impact of your purchases apples-to-apples.

How does Decarbon calculate the CO2e impact of my purchases?

Tap the info icon on your purchase to see the exact calculation Decarbon made! The CO2e impact for your purchases is a simple multiplication of the purchase amount, the CO2e emissions factor (CO2e per $) of the purchase category, and any modifiers that you can apply to the purchase to make it more accurate.

What should my annual CO2e budget be?

It should be as low as humanly possible! The initial goal on Decarbon is 7 metric tons of CO2e per year, so you can start with that and then lower it as you begin to understand your impact. Ultimately, we need to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees Celsius, so your goal should be as low as possible to support that.

How does Decarbon connect to my bank?

Decarbon uses Plaid, a trusted third-party tool, to connect to your bank and get transaction information from your checking and credit card accounts. Plaid is used by Venmo, American Express, Coinbase, and others to manage their user’s bank connections.

What bank data does Decarbon have access to?

Once you connect a bank, Decarbon will have view-only access to the transactions of your associated checking and credit card accounts. Decarbon never has access to your bank login credentials, account numbers, or routing numbers. Decarbon can’t make any transactions on your accounts.

Will Decarbon work outside the USA?

You can use Decarbon anywhere, but the experience is currently optimized for individuals living in the United States.

Gloria Ware, CEO of Get the Bag, appeared on Channel 19 News in Cleveland, OH on August 8, 2022, on the talk show CRIBBS in the CLE, Josh & Maria (Cribbs) Live. Get the Bag, a Green Business Network {GBN} member, achieved GBN certification this year for its fulfillment of our social justice and environmental sustainability standards. Get the Bag is dedicated to advancing Black businesses and Black women’s entrepreneurship by providing education resources, funding opportunities, and community to Black women business leaders nationally.

Fran Teplitz, GBN Director, spoke with Gloria about the show and business goals. Read on and then watch the show!

Fran: Congratulations on your recent media coverage! How did this opportunity for a live TV appearance come about?

Gloria: I received a DM on Instagram from Maria that I was highly recommended by the Cribbs In The Cle community of supporters as a business owner to feature on the show.

Fran: That’s so exciting. What points were you most pleased to be able to share about Get the Bag and Black women business owners?

Gloria: I was excited to introduce to Josh, Maria and their audience, a wonderful selection of unique, eco-friendly and luxurious products from Black-owned and Black-women owned brands. Many of the businesses featured also have social impact goals. Some of the favorite products featured in the boxes were Moonshot climate-friendly crackers, Spoken Flame Candles with AR technology, beauty brands Dornee LLC and Raw Beauty Co. facial cleanser. Maria was very excited about the Black History Flashcards from Urban Intellectual.

Fran: You mention Black Business Month; what are your own goals for this designated month next year? 

Gloria: We keep our community informed of business grant opportunities on our website and in our newsletters, but in August 2023 I would love to partner with another organization to offer direct business grants to Black women business owners. These grants would be used to support their green business initiatives. I would also like to present awards to top Get The Bag partners who work with us on grant partnerships and business gifting programs.

Fran: One of my favorite exchanges in the video is this one between you and Josh – thank you for explaining what being a green business means to you: 

Josh Cribbs: “You are green business certified. What does that mean?”

Gloria: “Everything that I do I try to take an eco-friendly approach…..(and) most of my vendors are Black women entrepreneurs.”

Watch the video of Glora Ware, CEO of Get the Bag, on Cribbs in the CLE, and spread the word about how Get the Bag strengthens Black women’s entrepreneurship!

Where you shop and what you buy sends a direct message, as Gloria impresses on supporting Black businesses. Use Green America's Vote with Your Dollar toolkit to become a more sustainable shopper.

“The only way for sustainability to truly work is if we share best practices—it can’t live as a trade secret.” 

That’s according to Alex Lassiter, founder and CEO of Green Places, a company offering sustainability services and software to businesses both large and small. 

What Lassiter means by that is gatekeeping—corporations and wealthy, powerful people at the top keeping sustainable technologies and strategies to themselves. 

Without sharing the wealth of knowledge, Lassiter warns we’ll “spend the next 10 years reinventing the same stuff and never actually getting anywhere.” 

Trade secrets can refer to many distinct types of sustainability tools, from technology and apps to studies and outside expertise. Unsurprisingly, the more money and power a company holds, the easier its access to such trade secrets and capabilities of harnessing sustainable practices. 

Companies like Green Places, led by Lassiter’s efforts, are focused on countering this and making sustainability work for everyone and therefore influence widespread, tangible change. 

“We Need to Democratize Sustainability": Banishing Gatekeeping

As Lassiter points out, small businesses will never have access to resources that companies like Patagonia do, whether it’s because of profit (or lack thereof), influence, or power. But the problem is—we all have the same goals, and how can those goals be carried out if we’re not working together? 

“We need to democratize access to sustainability tools,” Lassiter says. 

One effort Green Places puts forth is a Slack channel where people and companies in the sustainability space can talk, trade tips and advice, and combine resources to further sustainable practices, which directly fights gatekeeping and the oppression of knowledge and aid.

The only requirement—beyond following the rules, like no selling—is you must be working in sustainability. 

“There’s folks in there from everywhere,” Lassiter says. “Big tech to software to retail. It allows people the freedom to be able to share more openly.” 

From Carbon Accounting to Storytelling 

The services Green Places provides are two-fold and get to the core of its mission. 

First: learning, truly, how green of a company you really run—which will help to simplify the process when seeking additional accreditations like Green America’s Green Business Certification. 

One thing they do is annual carbon accounting. 

“We calculate their emissions and give them something to track towards,” Lassiter explains. “We do it in alignment to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, we're making sure that these businesses are up to the right standards.” 

More broadly, Green Places also helps companies set up sustainability plans. 

Whether it’s carbon reduction or removal, renewable energy, Lassiter explains the goal is to give companies access and tools to achieve these plans. 

The second piece of Green Places’ goal is helping companies communicate their sustainability successes and journeys. 

“Sometimes it’s helping them build out reports and disclosing information appropriately,” Lassiter says. “Some of it is more fun, like creating shareable content.” 

One type of shareable content Green Places supplies is a website. As Lassiter explains it, if a company uses Green Places software for their sustainability plan, they automatically get an embeddable tab for their website as well as a badge certifying a company's climate commitment to share this information publicly. 

“Transparency is at the center,” Lassiter concludes. 

Capitalism Undercuts Sharing Knowledge

Why do certain technologies and ideas become trade secrets? The roots lie deep within the system of capitalism, which breeds greed and megalomania. 

Lassiter posits that because companies are set up in a capitalist environment, they adopt a way of thinking that goes like this: “I do things to be better than you, therefore, I should get more customers and more money.” 

But what happens when the future of our planet is on the line and capitalist ideology does not allow for best practice sharing? 

“There hasn’t been an environment for this to work,” Lassiter continues. “When you open up that possibility, though, where there was previously a void, it can be successful.” 

Not just for the company itself, but for people and the planet. And if there is a desire for doing good and profit to not be mutually exclusive, you’re in luck. It’s becoming clearer that more diverse companies, more transparent companies, more sustainable companies are performing well. 

“People need proof,” Lassiter says. Greenwashing, a marketing gimmick that companies use to make their products, labor, and practices sound more environmentally friendly than they really are, is becoming increasingly investigated and detrimental to a company’s bottom line. Instead, honesty and genuine efforts at sustainability are what’s winning over consumers now. Businesses can show these efforts with sustainability certifications, through programs like the Green Business Network or B Corp. 

Small, but Mighty 

To Lassiter, sustainability is the way of the future. Full stop. That doesn’t mean, however, there aren’t roadblocks towards this future, both in and out of our control. 

One of the first roadblocks to address is crucial for small businesses, and it has to do with how small businesses think of themselves and their success. 

In Lassiter’s line of work, he hears a lot of people say: “If I can’t be Patagonia, why try at all?” 

That fear of perfection, and a fear of not doing enough, leads to inaction. 

But the only way success becomes reality is through systemic change. 

“Shell is not going to solve this, right? BP is not going to solve this; Delta is not going to solve this. The three of them together with Bill Gates isn't going to solve this,” he states. “What's going to solve this is a systemic shift in the way that our society values things. And that is something small businesses have a lot of control over because it's about building awareness. It's about educating yourself. It's about understanding that you have different options.” 

The climate deal that has become law continues to support the fossil fuel industry. We need stronger leadership to protect Black, Indigenous, people of color, and frontline communities who face the most harm from fossil fuels. Sign the petition below to President Biden to urge him to declare a climate emergency.

Green America welcomed the positive steps within the July 27, 2022 climate deal that is part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 

Calling for $369 billion in climate and clean energy investments, the bill would put the U.S. on the path to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 40% by 2030, bringing us closer to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

Meaningful Congressional action on climate is long overdue and this legislation constitutes the largest U.S. investment in climate action to date.

How the Climate Deal Falls Short 

The deal also continues subsidies to the fossil fuel sector and supports the development of new fossil fuel infrastructure. It also promotes strategies such as carbon capture and storage which attempts to capture carbon on site but allows coal and other fossil facilities to continue to operate, including carbon capture from fossil fuel power plants. 

In exchange for Senator Manchin’s support, Democratic leadership promised expedited reviews of fossil fuel projects, and approval of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline. This one pipeline alone could produce emission equal to 26 coal-fired power plants or 19 million passenger vehicles. 

This means that some of the progress made possible in the legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will actually be undercut by provisions that continue to advance the fossil fuel industry. 

Support for fossil fuels that continues to entrench them for decades to come cannot legitimately be included alongside strategies to reverse the climate crisis.

What about Nuclear Energy?

Green America also opposes nuclear power as a climate solution. 

While nuclear operates fossil-free, it is energy intensive to build (think of all that concrete). It also poses enormous safety threats to communities from uranium mining to accidents in uranium transport or in nuclear power plants. Nuclear waste hazards are not solved. It promotes the development of nuclear states and nuclear plants are targets in war (as is happening in Ukraine).  It takes too long to build to be the solution we need in the next ten years.  And we can go fossil-free with a focus on renewables without more nuclear plants. 

Impact on Communities and Human Health

Continuing to support fossil fuels and nuclear power also means that the communities that have—historically to the present day—been harmed the most by the fossil fuel and nuclear industries will continue to be exploited and to have their health and well-being poisoned and undermined. 

While the legislation includes $60 billion for environmental justice initiatives, they need greater support without fossil fuel trade-offs to be truly effective in addressing climate impacts and systemic racism. A true climate solution is one that puts climate justice front and center and insures that communities most harmed by climate pollution benefit most from climate solutions.

Bineshi Albert, Co-Executive Director of the Climate Justice Alliance said of the climate deal: “Legislation that supports measures to address the health of polluted communities on one the hand, while ramping up projects that increase pollution and unsafe practices on the lands of other frontline communities on the other, such as carbon capture and storage, is wrong. Hard fought measures for Environmental Justice that support our communities are now being positioned alongside things that harm us, essentially holding us hostage to the needs of the fossil fuel industry. This will only harm us in the future.”

While this climate deal is unprecedented and nearly didn’t happen at all, more is still needed to meet the magnitude of the crisis and to end the ongoing sacrifice of low income and communities of color to continued reliance on fossil fuels. 

Green America urges the Biden Administration to declare a climate emergency and to focus on climate solutions that will protect Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and all low income and people of color on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Those solutions are the ones that will best protect everyone.

For more information:

 Congressional Progressive Caucus Center

The Climate & Community Project, Inflation Reduction Act: The Good, The Bad & the Ugly

Top 10 Solutions to Reverse Climate Change

10 Reasons to Oppose Nuclear Energy

The Problem: Fossil Fuels & Soil Degradation

From the energy-intensive production of chemical farming inputs to agricultural methods that reduce the soil's natural ability to store carbon, our modern food system degrades local environments and contributes greatly to global climate change.

Industrial agriculture uses immense amounts of fossil fuels. For example, fertilizer in manufacture in the year 2000 was equivalent to 191 billion liters [50.5 billion gallons] of diesel, which is projected to rise to 277 billion liters [73.2 billion gallons] in 2030. This energy is being used to produce a farm input that can be generated naturally on farms, without carbon emissions.

Industrial agriculture emits powerful greenhouse gases, degrades soil, and reduces the soil's natural ability to absorb atmospheric carbon and convert it to soil carbon. In the soil, carbon provides the essential building blogs for crops and a complex community of beneficial microorganisms. Many modern farming methods poison, expose, and exhaust these delicate soil communities that have played a valuable role in balancing our atmosphere since the early evolution of terrestrial life. 

The Solution: Organic & Regenerative Agricultural Practices

With the adoption of organic and regenerative agricultural practices, food and farming systems can transition from being pollution emitters to important stakeholders in carbon sequestration and part of the solution towards reversing climate change. 

Modern organic farming produces crop yields similar to conventional agriculture but avoids the use of synthetic chemical inputs, genetically modified organisms, and antibiotics, while choosing management practices that support biodiversity, soil fertility, and human and environmental health. The market for organic products is growing rapidly, as is the acreage being dedicated to this type of agriculture. For concerns around climate change, this means fewer energy-intensive chemicals and emissions.

Regenerative agriculture is a type of organic agriculture that focuses on creating and maintaining healthy soils that absorb and store carbon. Here's where the conversation turns from slowing greenhouse gas emissions to actually removing these gases from the air.

Regenerative agriculture operations on the premise that high concentrations of carbon in the atmosphere have negative global effects, but that this carbon is a much needed and limited nutrient in the soil, especially after years of depletion under industrial farming methods. Organic and regenerative management practices that encourage soil health and carbon storage include crop rotation and cover cropping, composting, mulching, and low/no till farming methods that allow microorganisms to absorb and convert carbon. Adoption of these methods will reduce the food system's contributions to climate change.

"Modern organic, regenerative agriculture has the potential to sequester enormous amounts of carbon."
 

If 10,000 medium-sized US farms converted to regenerative, organic farming, the emissions reduction would be equivalent to removing over one million cars from the road. If all US croplands became organic, soil carbon storage would increase by 367 million tons and would cut nitrogen oxide emissions (often from synthetic fertilizers) dramatically.

Research from the Rodale Institute demonstrates that if organic, regenerative agriculture was adopted globally, climate change could be reversed. To show how powerful regenerative, organic agriculture could be as a climate change solution, the Institute created a global model based on 100 percent transition to this type of agriculture. Using emission rates from 2012, they found that the world's farmlands could have sequestered 111 percent emissions that year.

This potential to combat one of the most pressing global issues of our time, alongside many other environmental and social benefits, highlights the need for widespread adoption of organic and regenerative agriculture.

Green America’s Green Business Network Director Fran Teplitz spoke with Andy Mebert, CEO of Yaya Maria’s soap company, a Green Business Network member, about his sustainability journey that includes using a credit union: 

Fran: For starters, please tell us about your business – the range of goods you offer and what motivated you to create these soap products. 

Andy: Yaya Maria’s makes the most natural soap there is, from ingredients everyone understands. We make liquid hand soap, body wash, and dish soap. We’ll be launching a face wash later this year. 

What I love about Yaya Maria’s is there’s no other soap like it on the market. Almost all soaps contain toxic chemicals like phthalates, parabens, SLS, and petrochemicals. Those ingredients are sometimes hidden in ingredient lists under vague, catchall terms like "surfactant," "cleaning agent," "preservative", or “fragrance”. "Fragrance" alone can mean any of 3,000 undisclosed chemicals, many of which are toxic. 

Fran: I read on your website about the compelling connection between your earlier health challenges and your sustainability journey. Would you please share that with our readers? 

Andy: A few years ago, I had cancer that had metastasized, so I had two surgeries and three rounds of chemotherapy. Fortunately, the chemo worked—I’ve been cancer-free for eight years, and I’m grateful to be alive—but it has a lasting effect. Cancer survivors live with an elevated risk of recurrence, so I still have to do regular checkups. Also, years later, I can still feel the impact of the therapy on my body.  

The experience made me rethink my lifestyle—from how frequently I exercise, to what I eat and to what I put on my body. In fact, when I got sick, I was shocked by how hard it was to find soap made from ingredients that I could truly trust. Many brands that claim on the front of the label to be “natural” actually contain the same harsh chemicals found in conventional products. Once my wife and I realized that toxic chemicals could even be found in brands that have a good image, we decided to make our own. 

Fran: What does being a green business mean to you? 

Andy: As a consumer, I’m constantly thinking about how my decisions about what to buy impact the environment. I’m also constantly looking for ways I can reduce, reuse, and recycle more. 

I apply that same way of thinking to running a green business:  

• Yaya Maria’s soap is manufactured using 100% wind-powered electricity.  
• The manufacturing process sends zero waste to the landfill, and discharges zero pollutants into the air or water.  
• All shipping materials are made of cardboard or kraft paper or upcycled from incoming packages.  
• Wind power charges the electric car that drives the soap on the first leg of its journey to the customer, and for the rest of the way, shipping is CO2 neutral.  
• We give customers the option to order soap in glass bottles instead of plastic. 
• We work with brick-and-mortar refill stores that sell Yaya Maria’s in bulk to people who bring their own containers.  
• For the refill stores, we offer them a free closed-loop program: they hang on to their packaging, we give them a return label, and when their container of soap is empty, they collapse it and send it back to us for refilling—and the cycle continues with no waste.  

Fran: Yaya Maria’s has earned Green America’s Green Business Network certification, which includes attention to both social and environmental issues. One question we ask certification applicants is What kind of bank or credit union do you use? Businesses are sometimes perplexed by this, but you address this on your website. Thank you! Why do you discuss your business banking choice?  

Andy: Large banks have a massively outsized impact on society. How a bank invests its money matters a lot. Most big banks invest in whatever companies or projects they think will give them the biggest return -- even if it’s drilling for more fossil fuel or building a palm oil plantation that destroys a rainforest. They’re investing in global financial markets instead of in local communities.  

Credit unions, on the other hand, are member-owned institutions, and they respond to local concerns. Instead of investing in (say) Exxon, they give local homeowners and small businesses the loans they need to thrive. They also often give their accountholders fairer terms, like fewer hidden fees. I think it’s pretty amazing that by closing your account with a big bank and moving it to your local credit union, you can put your money to work for something good. 

That’s why Yaya Maria’s has an account at the local credit union, not at a big bank. This credit union was started in the 1940s by the local autoworkers’ union, and it’s served the working people of my community ever since. 

Fran: What encouragement would you give a business that hasn’t yet switched to a better banking option? 

Andy: In general, it’s in your own interest to work with a bank that reinvests in your community because if your community does well economically, you’ll probably get more business from customers in your area. There are most specific advantages though. At a local credit union, you can get a business loan on more favorable terms compared to large banks. Lower interest rates on loans, flexible terms, and less bureaucracy when it comes to considering factors beyond your credit score. All of those things can make a real difference when you need money to grow your company. Credit unions offer the same banking services that multinational banks do, such as online banking, credit and debit cards, and access to ATM networks and reciprocity agreements between credit unions. For a business there are lots of positives, and in my experience, no negatives. 

Fran: What next steps do you have for Yaya Maria’s continuing green journey? 

Andy: Yaya Maria’s will be launching several new products this fall. There will be an all-natural face wash coming soon in several scents. We’ll also be introducing a series of organic anti-aging serums in glass bottles. 

This year I’m going to fine tune my closed-loop program. Yaya Maria’s will soon offer returnable packaging to not only to stores, but also end consumers. Stay tuned! 

And now one of our next steps is encouraging more businesses to open their bank accounts in a credit union. Just saying...