In viral videos seen by 300,000+, youth activists on TikTok & Instagram target the world’s largest consumer goods company & its Charmin toilet paper brand over concerns about caribou habitat, boreal forest destruction, and Indigenous sovereignty.
The kids are all right, as the saying goes. But they’re also mad as hell — at Procter & Gamble, for its greenwashing — after watching the world’s largest consumer goods company promote things like tree planting initiatives while decimating the boreal forest in Canada to make Charmin toilet paper.
As Procter & Gamble executives took center stage at CES 2021 this week to tout their sustainability initiatives, youth activists upset over the company’s greenwashing have been overwhelming social media platforms TikTok and Instagram to air their grievances in dozens of viral videos and posts seen by more than 300,000 people. …
The fashion industry remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels to power factories & make clothes, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s how you can cut through the greenwash & use your purchasing power to push major fashion brands to be more sustainable.
By Todd Paglia, Executive Director, Stand.earth
There are few products as personal as our clothes. What we put on our bodies, what lies against our skin all day long, the version of ourselves that we project to the world — this all means something. And at this moment in time, with a global pandemic and holiday shopping season upon us, what this all means is evolving.
Many of us were already occasionally confused about the millions of choices around the clothes we wear. Now that the holidays are coming (at least on Zoom), we have to contend with whether to match (or not?!?) our COVID masks with our pants? Shoes? …
Fashion’s biggest sustainability event of the year — the Copenhagen Fashion Summit — is about to kick off. Here’s what leading brands need to do to clean up their climate pollution and build back green after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Copenhagen Fashion Summit is debuting as CFS+ this year, rebranded like many other conferences forced to shift to an online format to accommodate the global COVID-19 pandemic while seeking to continue forward momentum, even in an altered landscape.
Despite being hit hard by the pandemic, fashion brands are increasingly coming around to the view that cleaning up the industry’s climate pollution will be critical to the sector’s recovery, not hinder it. …
Elected leaders speak at NYC Climate Week 2020 about the local regulatory strategy to protect public health and fight climate change that is gaining momentum across the U.S. and Canada
By Stand.earth
AS THE U.S. federal government implodes, with little to no focus on fighting climate change or tackling the fossil fuel industry’s massive lobby, leaders at cities and counties across the U.S. and Canada are stepping up to take action to pass policies to protect public health and fill in the gaps where the federal government has failed.
These local leaders are trailblazers in the new SAFE Cities movement, a campaign led by environmental organization Stand.earth to support the growing number of cities and counties across the U.S. …
The devastation from Hurricane Laura brings important fossil fuel lessons to California
By Matt Krogh, SAFE Cities Campaign Director, Stand.earth
Earlier this month, exactly 15 years to the week after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Laura tore through Texas, destroying homes and chemical plants and creating a toxic soup for nearby communities — places that already suffer the effects of pollution from regular operations of hundreds of petrochemical plants and refineries.
In an interview about Hurricane Laura, Retired Lt. Gen. Honore, who led the emergency response to Louisiana’s Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, observed that the power to reject these fossil fuel facilities had been taken away from people in the coastal parishes of Louisiana, leaving the companies with more rights than the people who live there. …
There is no second chance when it comes to a heavy fuel oil spill
By Anna Barford, Shipping Campaigner, Stand.earth
Off the once pristine shores of Mauritius, a disaster is unfolding. Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is spilling into a wetland recognized internationally as important for wildlife. Hindsight is once again teaching us that there is no second chance when it comes to spilled HFO — and it’s a lesson Canada’s leaders must learn before it’s too late.
On July 25th, a bulk carrier in Mauritius ran aground on the reef and consequently spilled hundreds of liters of HFO. …
New report provides the fashion industry with a roadmap to ditch fossil fuels in the supply chain, while encouraging brands to avoid greenwashing.
By Gary Cook, Global Climate Campaigns Director, Stand.earth
As the fashion industry begins the road to recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report released today by international environmental organization Stand.earth provides brands with an extensive guide to tackle climate pollution in the supply chain. The report, titled Fashion forward: A roadmap to fossil-free fashion, outlines the steps the industry must take to get a handle on its rapidly growing carbon footprint, through a combination of renewable energy, better materials, and greener shipping.
Read the report: https://www.stand.earth/publication/markets-vs-climate/fashions-coal-pollution/roadmap-for-greenrecovery
Banks in Switzerland, France, Netherlands facilitate trade from Amazon Sacred Headwaters region in Ecuador, where oil extraction contributes to spills, human rights abuses, and climate destruction
By Tyson Miller, Forest Programs Director, Stand.earth
A new report released by North America-based environmental organizations Stand.earth and Amazon Watch details how European banks are financing the trade of controversial oil from the Amazon Sacred Headwaters region in Ecuador to international destinations in the U.S. such as California.
The report also examines how these banks are actively complicit in the impacts of the oil industry on the Amazon rainforest — including oil spills, harm to Indigenous peoples, and climate destruction — despite making previous climate and human rights commitments.
The release of the report comes just a week after the Indigenous Federation of United Communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (FCUNAE), which represents the communities affected by a major oil spill in April — presented a series of lawsuits requesting precautionary measures to protect communities that are in danger from another possible oil spill due to regressive erosion of the Coca River and to guarantee rights protected by the constitution. A coalition of Indigenous and human rights organizations also recently launched an emergency global campaign demanding a moratorium on current crude oil production due to recorded contamination and the risk of future spills. …
Cruise ships must stop polluting our air and the climate, quit dumping waste into the oceans, and prioritize the health of crewmembers, passengers, and port communities.
By Kendra Ulrich, Shipping Campaigns Director, Stand.earth
It’s cold on the deck of my Princess cruise as we sail full-steam ahead off the North American coast. I’m under a brilliant cover of stars, keeping an eye on my travel companion as he incongruously reaches inside a cloth bag. We hear a beep, and we’re in action. We stand quietly while the handheld device does its job — secretly collecting data on the air quality on board the ship.
For more than two years, Dr. Ryan Kennedy, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, performed undercover tests across multiple cruise ships to collect valuable information and help paint a picture of just how bad the air pollution from these vessels really is. …
The difference between being an anti-racist and not being a racist has never been more stark.
By Todd Paglia, Executive Director, Stand.earth
Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to be an Antiracist” and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University explains:
“the opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘antiracist’” and this requires “persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examinations.”
In other words, agreeing with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement doesn’t count for much if you don’t also speak up, take action, contribute, and more. White-led NGOs have mostly done ok on the first part, which is speaking up. That’s a great start for a movement that has often stayed on the sidelines of racial justice issues. But more is needed. …
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