Green America

Green America's vision is for a world where all people have enough, where all communities are healthy and safe, and where the abundance of the Earth is preserved for all the generations to come.

We direct our efforts to influence three strategic sectors of the economic system, and this makes up our Theory of Economic Change:

• Economic change always starts with consumers. Our Consumer Engagement and Green Living programs mobilize our network of 250,000+ consumers and investors to vote with their dollars and send powerful signals to the market about consumer demand for humane, just and sustainable products and services.

• Innovative businesses meet this demand with breakthroughs that change economic models and possibilities. Our Green Business Network of 2,500+ businesses represents the leading edge – showing that green innovation that is good for people and our planet can be profitable and sustainable. This is the nation’s first, largest, and most diverse network of socially and environmentally responsible businesses.

• Once consumers are demanding change, and innovative businesses prove it can be done, then the solutions must be scaled up to transform whole supply chains. Our Center for Sustainability Solutions brings together diverse stakeholders along entire supply chains to solve complex sustainability problems that no single business, organization, or leader can solve alone.

Green America's powerful strategies include:

1) Empowering individuals to make purchasing and investing choices that promote social justice and environmental sustainability.

2) Mobilizing consumers, investors, and business leaders to demand an end to corporate irresponsibility through collective economic action.

3) Promoting green and fair trade business principles while building the market for businesses adhering to these principles.

4) Bringing together key stakeholders from all along supply chains to solve complex sustainability issues and take our green solutions to scale.

Since 1982 Green America's programs and campaigns have used economic strategies to build the green marketplace, stop egregious corporate social and environmental abuses, call for greater corporate accountability, and create a just and sustainable economy.

We tackle society's most pressing problems with a holistic economic approach. Our Consumer Engagement Programs work on the demand side of economic systems by mobilizing people in their roles as consumers, investors, and business leaders to say "No" to companies and products that harm people and do damage to the earth, while saying "Yes" to products and services that are good for people and planet. Our Green Business Network members demonstrate that green innovation that is good for people and our planet can be profitable and sustainable. And our Center for Sustainability Solutions addresses the supply side of the economic equation by bringing together stakeholders along whole supply chains to shift whole industries to environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Green America has built a committed national network of 250,000+ conscious consumers, investors, and activists, as well as our 2,500 certified Green Business Network members around four core program areas: Clean Energy/Climate Action, , Fair Labor, and Responsible Finance.

We conduct outreach through our e-newsletters, Green American Magazine and Your Green Life, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest), websites, earned media, allied organizations, and special events. Our media firm estimated our reach for just two of our campaigns in a recent year was over 400 million people. And in one week, Facebook reported that our audience exceeded 4 million.

In 1982, a small group of people got together, united by a belief that we could create an economy that works for people and the planet—and Co-op America, now called Green America, was born.

This visionary group of individuals bravely put forth a revolutionary idea to Americans: “Every time you spend or invest a dollar, it goes to work in the world. Too often, it goes to support institutions and corporations that perpetuate injustice, pollute the environment, and destroy communities. But we can change that. We can use economic power to push for socially and environmentally responsible businesses ... and put our society on a more sustainable path.

Over the years, Green America has helped millions of people use their money to create a life they can feel good about living, and to cultivate a social and environmental legacy worth leaving behind. And we've helped these people join hands with others to help put our world on a more just and sustainable path toward the future.

Today the impact of the work we do together with our members is truly phenomenal. In addition to growing the green economy and helping millions of Americans green their lives over the years, our consumer, green business, and corporate engagement programs and campaigns have had strong impact on building the markets for clean energy and organic food, fighting for fair labor, and shifting billions from irresponsible banks and investments to socially responsible investing. Here are just some of our recent accomplishments:

• Hang Up On Fossil Fuels is on track to shift the entire telecom sector to renewable energy sources, which will result in 17 million tons of CO2 emissions avoided each year, the equivalent of taking more than three million cars off the road.
• Skip the Slip is encouraging major retailers to end paper receipts, and if just one company as large as Walgreens – with nearly six million customers every day – ends the use of paper receipts, an estimated 21,000 trees and 48 million gallons of water would be conserved, and 26 million pounds of greenhouse gases would be avoided.
• Climate Victory Gardens has a goal of one million backyard gardens, which will cut approximately 300 million kg of carbon equivalent (the equivalent of taking nearly 60,000 cars off the road for a year), compared to purchasing commercial produce.
• Responsible Finance is working to shift $100 million in the coming years out of megabanks harming people and our planet to better banking options.
• Our Fair Labor campaigns have the potential to positively affect the lives of millions of workers by eliminating toxic, cancer-causing substances in their workplaces.