Green America’s Commitment to Climate Justice

Note from the CREDO team: This April, Green America is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO community will help Green America leverage consumer and investor voices to persuade corporations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, transition our food system to regenerative practices, and protect socially responsible investing from right-wing attacks.

Read this important blog post from Green America, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com to cast your vote to help determine how we distribute our monthly grant to this organization and our other amazing grantees this April.

Like CREDO and its members, Green America is committed to advancing climate justice! One of the major ways we do this is through our Consumer & Corporate Engagement Campaigns, which harness consumer power and direct dialogue with corporations to create a more just and sustainable economy. Some of our current campaigns include: 

HANG UP ON FOSSIL FUELS

This campaign builds on Green America’s 40-year history of campaign successes by calling on Big Telecom companies to add renewable energy to the national grid and ensure their renewable purchases further energy justice.

As Green Americans push these three phone carriers to accelerate renewable energy purchasing, our campaign is also urging the companies to ensure their purchases benefit communities and workers most harmed by fossil fuels.

Want to join our call to #CleanUpWireless? Sign our petition urging these telecoms to accelerate their transitions to 100% renewable energy with new solar and wind installations here!

TOXIC TEXTILES

Green America is also committed to combating greenwashing – defined as the practice of using vague terminology and/or unsubstantiated claims to make consumers believe a company and its products are more environmentally friendly than they really are. In the current era of greenwashing, labor issues are one of many “canaries in the coal mine” that can indicate when a company is merely giving lip service to its environmental and social impact, rather than investing in solutions.

We saw this with Amazon, which – while making strong commitments to renewable energy over the past few years – has been a laggard in ensuring worker safety. For two years, Green America has been calling on Amazon to specifically address toxic chemicals in its apparel supply chains through our Toxic Textiles Campaign. Nearly 40,000 Green Americans added their voices to our demands for Amazon (the largest clothing retailer in the U.S.) to ban hazardous chemicals. In response, Amazon announced in 2022 that its private label apparel brands will comply with AFIRM’s Restricted Substance List (RSL), ensuring that the chemical levels in Amazon clothing are safe for consumers.

Now we’re calling on Amazon to take the next step in its chemical management practices by eliminating the most toxic chemicals from its entire apparel supply chain to protect workers and communities. We invite you to join our call to Amazon to protect workers by adopting a Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) that would reduce toxic chemicals in all its suppliers’ factories, not just in the company’s clothes at the time of sale. It’s time Amazon put consumers and workers’ concerns before profit!

COOL IT!

 Trader Joe’s is another company that uses greenwashing to make consumers believe it is more sustainable than its competitors. In particular, Trader Joe’s has long ranked poorly among supermarkets in terms of refrigerant management, a major driver of climate change. In 2016, the grocery chain settled a lawsuit the US Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency filed because Trader Joe’s was leaking hydrofluorocarbons (refrigerant gases) at levels so high it was in violation of the Clean Air Act.

After 20,000+ Green Americans urged Trader Joe’s to do better, the company announced in 2022 that all its new stores would use alternative refrigerants much better for the planet than hydrofluorocarbons. However, Trader Joe’s has a long way to go to catch up to its competitors. In 2023, Green America will mobilize concerned consumers to urge Trader Joe’s (along with Kroger and other major grocers) to end their use of high Global Warming Potential refrigerants in all stores.

You can stay up to date on these campaigns and Green America’s full body of work by sharing your contact information with us at www.greenamerica.org/signup. Thank you CREDO and CREDO members for your support and all you do to create a more sustainable and socially just economy!