This season, you hold the power. Your spending can support people and planet—or fund pollution. Here’s how to choose wisely.
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Dear Green American,
This time of year, we're bombarded with messages to buy, buy, buy. But here's what the big corporations don't want you to know: your spending choices are one of the most powerful tools you have to create change. Think about it: greedy, polluting corporations depend on your dollars to fund their extractive practices.
But what if we collectively chose to withhold that support? What if instead of enriching companies that exploit workers and dump toxins into our environment, we invested in businesses committed to fair wages, sustainable practices, and community wellbeing?
This shift—from taking economic actions at home through conscious consumption, to supporting ethical businesses in your community, to raising your voice demanding corporate accountability on a global scale—is how we build real, lasting change. This month's newsletter gives you the tools to make that shift: green alternatives for your holiday shopping, local businesses worth supporting, and urgent actions against corporations that need to hear from consumers like you. Your economic choices matter. Let's use them.
Your Green Holiday Action Toolkit:
👕 Plastic in Kids’ Clothes? ([link removed]) - Take action
🛍️ Your Ethical Black Friday Starts Now ([link removed]) - Shift your spending, transform the world
👚 Sustainable Style ([link removed]) - Gift clothes from these truly green businesses
🤝 Help Us Win the CREDO Grant ([link removed]) - Vote by Nov 30!
🎁 Your Green Holiday Starts Here ([link removed]) - Make your celebrations green with our checklist
Every piece is part of the sustainability puzzle—using our economic power to build a world that works for people and the planet. Let's dive in!
Alisa Gravitz
President & CEO
Green America
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👕 Plastic in Kids’ Clothes? Demand a Safer Standard
Major clothing retailers are selling children's garments laden with dangerous plastic.
The Problem:
Microplastics are now widely distributed in human bodies
They have begun to be associated with heart disease and stroke, obesity, fertility issues, and inflammation.
Children and infants can be more vulnerable to these chemicals than adults because their brains and organs are still developing.
The Solution:
Raise your voice and tell The Children’s Place, Carter’s, and H&M that parents and conscious consumers are watching—and we won't tolerate products that harm children.
Take Action ([link removed])
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🛍️ Ethical Black Friday Sales Inside
Black Friday is synonymous with exploitation: workers forced into brutal schedules, massive carbon emissions from shipping, and cheap products designed to break so you'll buy again.
The Solution:
Our Green Business Network members are certified green businesses offering holiday sales on everything from fair-trade home decor to organic clothing to nontoxic skincare, and every purchase supports businesses committed to paying living wages, using sustainable materials, and operating transparently.
These sales include items like:
Fair-trade jewelry handmade by artisans in Guatemala
Upcycled bags and clothing
Organic cotton apparel
Weighted pillows filled with Michigan cherry pits saved from landfills
Natural skincare products free from toxic chemicals
When you shop these sales instead of big-box retailers, you're practicing economic activism: withdrawing support from corporations that prioritize profit over people and redirecting it to businesses building the economy we need.
Find gifts for everyone on your list and fund the future you want to see.
Take action today ([link removed])
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👚 Sustainable Style: The Best Brands to Gift This Year
Looking for clothing gifts that don't come with a side of worker exploitation and environmental destruction?
We've curated a guide to truly sustainable clothing brands—companies using innovative materials like ocean plastic and hemp while paying fair wages and minimizing environmental impact.
These brands demonstrate that it's entirely possible to create beautiful, durable clothing without exploiting workers or destroying ecosystems. But here's the economic reality: green fashion brands often struggle to compete with fast fashion giants that externalize their costs onto workers and the environment.
When you choose to spend your money with ethical clothing companies, you're building a fair, sustainable marketplace.
This holiday season, skip the retailers profiting from sweatshop labor and plastic pollution. Instead, invest in brands working to transform the fashion industry rather than exploit and pollute.
Shop The Guide ([link removed])
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🤝 Help Us Win the CREDO Grant—Vote by Nov 30!
Green America has been selected to receive a grant from CREDO that would directly fund our work mobilizing economic activism nationwide—but we need your vote to win.
By voting for Green America, you're not just supporting one organization; you're investing in a movement that's successfully pressured major corporations to adopt sustainable practices, helped thousands of workers demand fair wages, and mobilized consumers to redirect millions of dollars toward ethical businesses.
Next Steps:
Cast your vote before November 30 ([link removed]) so we can combat the climate crisis, fight corporate exploitation, and build an economy centered on justice and sustainability.
Share the link with friends who care about justice and the planet.
Help Us Win ([link removed])
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🎁 Your Green Holiday Starts Here
The holidays generate massive waste: wrapping paper, plastic packaging, food waste, decorations destined for landfills, and carbon emissions from shipping. But conscious celebration is possible, and our green holiday checklist can help.
Simple swaps can dramatically reduce your holiday environmental footprint like:
Choosing reusable fabric gift wrap
Buying from local producers
Selecting experiences over products
Redirect your spending toward businesses and practices that align with a thriving future:
Buy local food for your holiday meals to support farmers using regenerative practices rather than industrial agriculture corporations
Choose reusable decorations to withdraw support from the plastics industry
Use our checklist to make your celebrations both joyful and green—proving that we don't need wasteful consumption to create meaningful holiday memories.
Take action today ([link removed])
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Green America
1612 K St NW #1000, Washington, DC 20006
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