Dear John,

I wanted to share some exciting updates on the impact we are creating together. From stopping copper and gold mines, to getting insurance companies to back out of dirty pipelines – we are creating real change in the world, and none of it would’ve been possible without this incredible community.

Scroll below to read all about it, and feel free to reply back to this email if you have ideas on new campaigns Ekō should run!

We helped stop a major copper and gold mine in Alaska – protecting 60 million sockeye salmon and thousands of Alaskan jobs

When the mining industry was gearing up to develop the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, our community sprung into action to help United Tribes of Bristol Bay fight back. The mine would have polluted pristine streams and wetlands, endangered the 60 million sockeye salmon that come to the bay each year, and threatened the livelihoods of local and Indigenous fishermen and Indigenous people.

Ekō members donated to fly Alaskan Native leaders to a massive annual shareholder meeting in London to call on the second biggest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto, to divest from Pebble Mine. And the day before the leaders’ arrival, Rio Tinto announced that it would sell all of its Pebble Mine shares, dealing Pebble Mine its first loss.

But Rio Tinto’s divestment was just the first step. Last year 160,000 of us submitted comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency opposing the project...and they listened! The Agency used its powers to protect Bristol Bay and stop the mining project once and for all. 

Photo by Ekō partners United Tribes of Bristol Bay

Thanks to our incredible community, we helped United Tribes of Bristol Bay save the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, and 15,000 much-needed Alaskan jobs from a massive open-pit copper and gold mine.

Ekō member Kelly A. said: “Yay! We are polluting the earth far too much to even consider intentionally adding another devastatingly destructive element into the mix. Thank you for all you do, Ekō team!”

We’re telling companies to hop off the Maya Train in Mexico

The Maya Train is a 1,500 km tourist megaproject that is set to bulldoze its way through the last remaining forests of Southern Mexico, including 23 nature reserves. Indigenous communities and environmental organizations have been pushing back against the project, and Ekō stood with them by launching a global campaign targeting the European public transport companies that are profiting from the destruction.

After building a 150,000 person petition, we delivered our voices directly to the companies in Spain, and met with Spanish politicians from four different political parties urging them to investigate the role of Spanish public companies in the Maya Train. And our Spanish advocacy worked! The Transport Commission promised to raise the issue directly with the companies, and the other politicians have submitted Parliamentary questions, which we expect to hear back about very soon.

We also made a splash in Mexico City, in a historic area known for protest art called Avenida Reforma. Jointly with our Mexican partners, we planted our campaign’s message on a beautiful plaque made of stone from the Yucatán Peninsula that will now live in Avenida Reforma forever. Tons of press showed up to the event, and the massive media coverage put this issue back on the radar of lawmakers across Mexico.

The plaque that will now live in Avenida Reforma forever. The banner reads “The Jungle is not for sale”

Ekō partners Kanan Derechos Humanos, a human rights legal group from Yucatán, Mexico said: "Since joining forces with Ekō, we've been able to promote our campaign to stop the Maya Train through infographics, legal defense actions, advocacy before international organizations, activism in the streets, and the production of a feature film. Ekō is an important ally for our work, and we hope to continue to collaborate on many more issues."  

We’re going after water-plundering BlueTriton, and winning

Bottled water giant BlueTriton makes its money by pumping water out of communities suffering from drought and water scarcity, and then selling the water in plastic bottles that end up in landfills.

For the past year, we have been fighting back by targeting the company’s partnerships, including The Weather Channel, which was shamefully greenwashing BlueTriton’s image. But with the help of community allies, we launched an ultra-targeted pressure campaign on The Weather Channel’s CEO Byron Allen. Over 1000 Ekō members made phone calls to his office, thousands more sent emails, and he became the target of an intense three-month digital ads campaign.

All the pressure worked! In February, Byron Allen’s company which owns The Weather Channel told us that our concerns about the partnership went all the way up to the executives, and that there was even an investigation. They also confirmed that the partnership between The Weather Channel and BlueTriton is now officially over.

While this dealt a huge blow to BlueTriton, our campaign isn’t over yet. We are continuing to pressure other partners like Wolfgang Puck, and won’t back down until BlueTriton stops draining drought-stricken communities of their precious water.

Byron Allen and Wolfgang Puck – one down, one to go!

Ekō member Greg S. said: “My pressure worked, along with all who supported this campaign.”

Lastly, thanks to our incredible community, major insurance companies are backing out of Oil and Gas extraction projects

One leak from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) could poison the water of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater reserve that 40 million people depend on for food, farming, and their livelihoods. This pipeline would be an unmitigated environmental and humanitarian disaster.

Insurance companies are meant to protect us from climate disasters like fires and floods – but the industry is actually fueling the climate crisis by continuing to insure fossil fuel projects. Projects like EACOP can’t move forward without insurance.

The good news is that the list of insurers backing EACOP is getting smaller and smaller. Our community already helped force 22 companies to stop insuring this devastating project, but we still have a few more targets to go after. Last month, Ekō members made phone calls to one of them, Lloyd’s Cincinnati, until the company finally caved and confirmed to us that it will not be insuring the pipeline.

This is an important victory, and sends a powerful signal to the rest of the industry – more and more insurance companies are backing out of dirty, planet-destroying projects, making it increasingly untenable for these projects to move forward.

EACOP could poison the water of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater reserve

And a few weeks ago, after a relentless public mobilization from our movement, including petition signatures and direct emails to company staff, Chubb became the first US insurer to require oil and gas companies to cut methane emissions and stop insuring drilling projects in protected areas. Another victory for people-power and the planet!

But while this is a welcome development, the restrictions don’t go far enough, as EACOP isn’t on protected land, and would still be catastrophic. So we will continue to pressure Chubb and other insurance companies to back out of this dangerous pipeline, and others like it.

These updates are only a glimmer of what we are getting done together every day. We are showing the most powerful forces in the world what happens when people come together to defend our planet and human rights, and we aren’t slowing down anytime soon.