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New Economy, Consumption And Lifestyle Change

/New Economy, Consumption And Lifestyle Change

 

17 04, 2025

Sustainable Style, Powered By Women: Ending Fast Fashion’s Reign

2025-07-10T00:57:31-04:00Tags: |

Behind the expressive and creative fashion industry lies a dark secret: it is one of the most environmentally damaging industries, often exploiting women through underpaid jobs and unsafe workspaces. However, many women have been leading the ethical fashion movement, bringing about positive changes in the industry. Lisa Folawiyo from Nigeria is one of them. Moving away from fast fashion, she focuses on using leftover fabric to design modern clothes with traditional African prints in a more sustainable way. Stella McCartney is another pioneer, creating sustainable and cruelty-free collections using recycled and plant-based materials. McCartney also strives to improve transparency in the industry. In addition to environmentally conscious designers, female consumers play a major role in the ethical fashion movement, as they make up over 85% of the consumer base. Their choices represent the kind of world they wish to live in.

3 04, 2025

What If Your Clothes Could Actually Clean The Air?

2025-07-10T00:31:00-04:00Tags: |

In 2022, the fashion industry accounted for over 4% of all carbon emissions, surpassing both the aviation and shipping industries. Major fashion brands continue to overlook these dire conditions. However, a few innovators have turned pollution into promising new products that act as carbon sinks. Jennifer Holmgren, the CEO of LanzaTech, is one of them—her company recycles carbon and has partnered with On Running to produce CleanCloud, a sneaker midsole made with 20% recycled pollution. Similarly, sisters Georgia, Nina, and Sophia Scott founded Groundtruth, a luggage company that uses recycled plastic embedded with carbon emissions as hardware. While these companies are taking steps in the right direction, more sustainable solutions are needed, as only 30% of their materials can act as carbon sinks. Furthermore, technological innovations have yet to address overconsumption habits and often overlook the workers in the Global South, who are most affected by the fast fashion industry and the impacts of climate change.

19 03, 2025

Introducing Japan’s First Zero-Waste Town

2025-05-22T12:43:41-04:00Tags: |

Florentyna Leow, a writer, translator, and tour guide based in Tokyo, takes a journey through Kamikatsu, a small town in Japan that achieved an 81% recycling rate in 2016. In 2003, Kamikatsu became the first municipality in Japan to declare a zero-waste goal by 2020. The town sorts waste into 45 categories — down to items as small as toothpaste tubes — offering a model for effective waste management.  Florentyna highlights how recycling has become central to the town’s identity, shaping how residents relate to their everyday practices. Still, Kamikatsu has not escaped Japan’s aging population crisis. With only 1,400 residents, many elderly people face mobility challenges that make traveling to the waste site difficult. A housing shortage for newcomers further complicates revitalization efforts.  The shortage of housing for new residents further aggravates the population issue. Nevertheless, the progressive environmental policies have attracted a new wave of young residents to the town over the years, showing a glimmer of hope. Terumi Azuma is one of the new residents who moved back to the town after living in the city. She and several other residents, who are passionate about improving the sustainable lifestyle in Kamikatsu, now lead discussions on how to further improve the recycling system in the town, while pointing out that living in Kamikatsu is a retreat from the consuming culture in big cities.

14 11, 2024

Climate Change: Women’s Role In The Economy Is Key To A Just Transition

2025-07-10T01:02:07-04:00Tags: |

The adverse effects of climate change are being felt across the globe, sparking a growing movement to transition to low- or no-carbon economies. While these transitions are largely positive, the gendered nature of the social and economic issues they aim to address is often overlooked. As a result, many policies designed to support a low-carbon economy end up sustaining or even worsening gender inequalities. Researchers Julia Taylor, Katrina Lehmann-Grube, Sarah Cook, Somali Cerise, and Imraan Valodia highlight that to ensure these transitions are gender-just, power dynamics in climate policymaking must be taken into account. Reflecting on the gendered impacts of transition through a feminist lens, their research emphasizes that participatory justice, distributive justice, recognitional justice, and restorative justice must be core components of just transition policies. These elements are essential to addressing current shortcomings and ensuring that women and other disproportionately affected groups, who are most impacted by climate change, also benefit from transition policies.

13 08, 2024

Ivory Coast: Women cooperative for vegetables transforms rural village

2025-03-09T23:48:57-04:00Tags: |

In Fapaha, a village on the northern Ivory Coast, women have formed a cooperative to grow and sell vegetables and legumes with a goal of gaining financial independence without relying on handouts. Supported by the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP), which provided farming tools and market access, the women now sell produce to the local school canteen and a local market garden. This initiative has empowered them to play a more significant role in the village’s traditionally male-dominated society. More women work in agriculture on the Ivory Coast than any other sector, making up 42.9% of the agricultural workforce. However, they face persistent land ownership challenges, with only 8% owning land, compared to 22% of men. Initiatives such as this cooperative are changing this narrative and providing pathways for women that benefit entire communities.

13 08, 2024

How ‘woke’ marketing lets fast fashion brands get away with environmental and labour abuses

2025-04-09T22:22:56-04:00Tags: , , |

Fast fashion brands have increasingly been using "woke" marketing that targets women by promoting messages of feminism and environmentalism but, in reality, this often serves as greenwashing to obscure their harmful practices. These brands exploit gender stereotypes, positioning women as natural nurturers and caretakers and encouraging them to engage in "ethical" consumption as a way to make a positive impact. Instead of promoting sustainable behavior, such as reducing overall consumption, brands like H&M and Shein frame purchasing more products as a solution to environmental issues. This tactic of greenwashing is widespread across industries and seeks to shift the burden of environmental responsibility onto women while concealing the continued exploitation of female garment workers and the industry's contribution to environmental degradation. By using these greenwashing techniques, brands manipulate women into believing their consumption choices alone can drive change, diverting attention from systemic issues such as overproduction, waste, and labor abuses.

22 07, 2024

Background Paper: Just Environmental Transition in Lebanon

2025-04-19T16:15:41-04:00Tags: |

Yusra Bitar is a former research fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative committed to studying and writing about environmental issues in Middle Eastern and North African communities. Her background paper emphasizes Lebanon's disproportionate warming and climate-related crises which are exacerbated by an economic crisis and uncertain global affairs. She applies the Just Environmental Transition idea to changing Lebanon's social and ecological landscapes, establishing a regenerative economy and integrating feminist values into its central system. Some examples include demilitarization, universal social services, sustainable agriculture, and government accountability. Bitar recommends that Civil Society Organizations coordinate and create unified information about the Just Environmental Transition for it to be implemented successfully in Lebanon.

3 05, 2024

Women and young workers in Nepal want inclusive union structures

2025-02-27T14:24:02-05:00Tags: |

IndustriALL’s workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal, organized as part of the Building Inclusive Unions in South Asia project, highlighted the critical intersection of gender and climate change for women workers. Women trade unionists discussed how climate-induced migration is exacerbating precarious employment, leading to low wages and job insecurity, particularly for women. In response, women leaders formed a committee and a core group to increase women's and young people’s representation in unions, trade groups, and policy and to address these challenges. They are committed to gathering data on women workers and promoting union-building initiatives to ensure greater inclusion and protection for women in the workforce, particularly in the face of climate-related vulnerabilities.

25 03, 2024

Aruba Embraces the Rights of Nature and a Human Right to a Clean Environment

2025-07-13T20:31:56-04:00Tags: |

Katie Surma, a writer for Inside Climate News, sheds light on the latest developments regarding the incorporation of the human right to a healthy environment and the Rights of Nature into Aruba’s constitution. Stressing the interdependence between humans and the natural world, the proposed constitutional amendment promotes both the human right to a healthy environment and nature’s right to protections, including conservation, the restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity, and the regeneration of its life cycles. If successful, this would make Aruba the second state after Ecuador to include the Rights of Nature in its constitution. Roughly thirty nations currently have some form of recognition of the Rights of Nature. Furthermore, this would mark the first change to Aruba’s constitution since its separation from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986, although Aruba remains a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with the Dutch government overseeing foreign affairs and defense. Given Aruba’s economy is largely dependent on tourism, the ecosystem holds particular importance, though tourism has also introduced new challenges such as waste management, overfishing, and plastic pollution.

8 03, 2024

The Missing Piece: Valuing Women’s Unrecognized Contribution To The Economy

2025-07-10T01:06:28-04:00Tags: |

In 2018, the International Labor Organization estimated that around 16.4 billion hours were devoted to unpaid care work every day. If compensated at an hourly minimum wage, this labor would amount to 9% of global GDP—an astounding $11 trillion. The care economy includes both unpaid and paid work that involves nurturing and supporting individuals and communities, such as childcare and domestic chores. However, the gender disparity within this sector is often overlooked. Globally, women spend an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes per day on unpaid care work, making them responsible for 76.2% of all unpaid care activities. In OECD countries, unpaid work accounts for 15% of GDP, while in Latin America and the Caribbean it represents 21.4%. Women contribute 66% and 74% of this unpaid labor in these regions, respectively. This disproportionate burden of caregiving not only limits women’s participation in the labor force but also reinforces gender norms and perpetuates structural inequalities. To address this imbalance, more policies are needed to introduce social protections and invest in care infrastructure that supports women’s entry into the workforce—advancing gender equality and unlocking the full potential of women's economic contributions.

27 02, 2024

Milling a circular economy: This woman makes flour, cookies, and more from spent grain from breweries

2025-03-09T23:47:31-04:00Tags: |

Elizabeth Yorke, the founder of Saving Grains, discovered the potential of spent grain—a by-product of the brewing process—in 2016 while interning with food historian William Rubel. Learning that spent grain can be upcycled into flour led Yorke to explore how the 70+ breweries in her Indian hometown, Bengaluru, handle this by-product. She explains that “There is a lot one can do by upcycling spent grain, and that is what we are exploring at Saving Grains.” Saving Grains upcycles beer waste from local breweries into flour, which is then used to make products like crackers, cookies, rotis and ladoos. With a focus on creating a circular food economy, Yorke collaborates with community centers like Kutumba Community Centre, where the grain is processed into flour for local use. Despite challenges, Saving Grains has partnered with four breweries and bakeries and is exploring new upcycling ideas, such as using coffee grounds. Through initiatives like the Serial Upcyclers Club, Yorke aims to raise awareness about reducing food waste at a community level and encouraging people to get creative about food sustainability through the upcycling of by-products.

2 01, 2024

‘This is a real look into our lives’: The Maasai women photographing their people

2025-03-09T23:50:26-04:00Tags: |

Two Maasai photographers, Claire Metito and Irene Naneu, document the increasing burden on pastoralist women in Kenya as the climate crisis intensifies their daily struggles. The women, including 69-year-old Pilale Rikoiyan and farmer Lenoi Mayiempe, face the harsh realities of prolonged drought and immense care work, which have become harder as climate change exacerbates poverty and resource scarcity. Despite these challenges, women in Maasai communities often lack control over resources like land, which remains in the hands of men. The photographers, who are part of a program by Lensational that trains women from underrepresented backgrounds, capture intimate glimpses into these women’s lives, emphasizing their resilience amidst adversity. They hope that their work will raise awareness about these struggles and advocate for solutions such as better infrastructure and social safety nets for women impacted by climate change.

21 09, 2023

Care Jobs Are Green Jobs: Climate Action And Investing In The Care Economy

2024-08-26T12:52:28-04:00Tags: |

Unpaid care work is primarily carried out by women. Collectively accounting for an estimated 16.4 billion hours a day of work globally, the precarious formal and informal care sector embodies gendered and feminized working dynamics that are compounded by the climate crisis. Evidence shows that during crises, such as extreme weather events, unpaid care work increases. Transforming the care sector and securing paid care jobs is also crucial to decarbonizing the economy and reducing emissions. Tackling womens’ involvement in this sector would go towards formalizing their involvement in other workforces critical to the green transition, such as renewables, where employment and skills shortages prevent renewable energy expansion. For these changes to happen, discussions on the green transition need to shift away from male-centric industries and recognize the role of care in supporting a resilient society.

11 09, 2023

Reweaving the Future: Inside Fashion’s Biomaterial Revolution

2025-06-04T21:02:09-04:00Tags: |

The fast fashion industry’s fragmented supply chains, use of harmful chemicals, and rising pollution have led a new wave of innovators to develop planet-positive materials. In 2020, Elissa Brunato founded Radiant Matter to produce naturally sparkling materials from plant-based cellulose, offering an organic alternative to the 33 million sequined garments demanded during the UK festival season that often end up in landfills within five years. As biomaterials gain popularity for addressing the industry’s ethical and environmental burdens, Alissa Baier-Lentz’s company, Kintra Labs, has drawn major fashion brands by creating a biodegradable polyester alternative from corn. Similarly, Noriko Fukushima, communication specialist at Spiber, explains how Brewed Protein, the company’s biomaterial, is produced using naturally-derived protein fibers through fermentation. She claims that the Brewed Protein is both durable and versatile making it an innovative textile solution. Bringing attention to underwater ecosystems, Keel Labs, founded by Tessa Callaghan in 2017, produces Kelsun, a seaweed-based fiber. These materials are essential for designers building responsible brands—like Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, who uses grape leather, rose sylk, and recycled cotton. However, nature-derived textiles are not new and have long been used by Indigenous communities. Their practices remain an inspiration to the fashion industry today.

11 09, 2023

How Traditional Indian Fabrics Are Reinventing the Wheel of Sustainability

2025-02-21T17:34:48-05:00Tags: |

The fast fashion industry has had catastrophic impacts on the environment, health, and local economies around the world. Bandana Tewari highlights hemp and khadi, two Indigenous fabric sources that can help create a more sustainable, ethical, and tended to world. These materials are resilient, durable, and versatile, and can cut down on water and insecticide usage while maintaining a low carbon footprint. The plants also have deep historical and cultural significance—they have been used by Indigenous communities in India and other parts of the world for millennia, from ancient times through decolonization and revolutionary movements. Today, these fabrics have the potential to revitalize sustainable fashion while contributing to job opportunities and economic upliftment for rural India, especially for women. The rich culture, knowledge, and resilience of Indigenous communities in India are continuously woven into the fabric of hemp and khadi as they cultivate sustainable, permanent, and nonviolent alternatives to current systems of consumption.

11 09, 2023

Reweaving the Future: Inside Fashion’s Biomaterial Revolution

2025-05-22T12:50:37-04:00Tags: |

The fast fashion industry’s fragmented supply chains, use of harmful chemicals, and rising pollution have led a new wave of innovators to develop planet-positive materials. In 2020, Elissa Brunato founded Radiant Matter to produce naturally sparkling materials from plant-based cellulose, offering an organic alternative to the 33 million sequined garments demanded during the UK festival season that often end up in landfills within five years. As biomaterials gain popularity for addressing the industry’s ethical and environmental burdens, Alissa Baier-Lentz’s company, Kintra Labs, has drawn major fashion brands by creating a biodegradable polyester alternative from corn. Similarly, Noriko Fukushima, communication specialist at Spiber, explains how Brewed Protein, the company’s biomaterial, is produced using naturally-derived protein fibers through fermentation. She claims that the Brewed Protein is both durable and versatile making it an innovative textile solution. Bringing attention to underwater ecosystems, Keel Labs, founded by Tessa Callaghan in 2017, produces Kelsun, a seaweed-based fiber. These materials are essential for designers building responsible brands—like Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, who uses grape leather, rose sylk, and recycled cotton. However, nature-derived textiles are not new and have long been used by Indigenous communities. Their practices remain an inspiration to the fashion industry today.

23 08, 2023

Trash to Cash: Nigerian women are ready to tap into the economy

2025-03-23T01:23:42-04:00Tags: |

The Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) launched an initiative in the capital’s Surulere area that allows locals to turn single-use plastics into income. The "Trash to Cash" project encourages residents to collect and recycle plastics instead of discarding them, teaching that plastics can be turned into valuable resources and elongating their material lifecycles. The initiative facilitates a move away from linear consumption towards a circular economy, emphasizing responsibility through a value chain which offers both financial benefits and a cleaner, healthier environment. Laws against environmental pollution are enforced, but LASEPA also focuses on providing alternatives and education to encourage proper waste management.

29 06, 2023

Lifting the Curtain on Carbon Colonialism

2023-11-28T21:07:18-05:00Tags: , |

Sopheap is one of thousands of workers in Cambodia and around the world that have had to adjust their lives due to climate change and carbon colonialism. The 40 year old mother of three collects, sorts, and sells clothes that are dumped into Cambodia by the ton. She works through heat waves to earn a living from the discards of the fast fashion industry in the Global North. Sopheap is invisible to the world, hidden behind the curtain that companies have drawn to cover their impacts. Laurie Parsons describes the way colonial narratives and ideas are perpetuated through the phrasing of “sustainability” as they send their emissions and waste to the rest of the world. Decolonizing climate change means uncovering the hidden figures in sustainability and demanding accountability from the parties that center environmental action around disproportionate power dynamics. True sustainable climate action will come when Sopheap, and everyone affected by inequalities, are seen and included in the movement along with an end to abusive supply chains. Photo credit: Jake Chessum/Trunk Archive

22 05, 2023

Tricia Hersey Wants Us All To Slow Down

2023-12-04T15:28:14-05:00Tags: |

Tricia Hersey, author of Rest Is Resistance and founder of Nap Ministry is drawing attention to the need for rest in a world that is obsessed with “grind culture.” While animals and babies listen to the cues of their bodies, adults are ignoring their physical and mental needs in the name of work. This is having consequences on public health and reinforcing oppressive systems. Our culture and systems have ingrained the need for us to be productive for as many hours as possible, with rest being of secondary importance. This is by no accident, but rather by intentional systemic efforts to ensure humans behave as machines. Hersey argues every system is involved in this - from schools and jobs to friends and faith organizations. Hersey emphasizes that humans are not on this Earth simply to work as cogs in a machine and argues that rest is not surrendering but rather is a way to take action and resist the systems that enforce capitalism and white supremacy. Photo Credit: Charlie Watts

12 05, 2023

Meet the women working to grow local food systems on US island territories

2025-04-18T21:23:32-04:00Tags: , |

Women across U.S. island territories have come together to enhance their local food systems and reduce impacts of climate change. In different areas, such as Guam and Puerto Rico, women have traditionally been community leaders and have been responsible for the food supply. However, today these territories heavily rely on imports—between 95 and 80 percent of food is imported by the US or other countries which makes them vulnerable to extreme weather events that impact international supply chains. In order to reconnect with traditionally grown vegetables and fruits and reclaim a cultural connection to food, Sibilly Brown—an elementary school teacher in St. Croix and the founder of the Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition—developed a project with her class to reintroduce local food into the school cafeteria. Crystal Díaz, a Puertorican resident, has co-founded an app called PRoduc where restaurants and residents can reach local small farmers on the island. Through their actions and efforts, these women hope to raise the visibility of the needs of territories and their communities while leading the way towards more grounded, connected futures. 

23 03, 2023

Italy’s Model For Renewable Energy Communities

2023-12-04T15:38:00-05:00Tags: |

The city of Naples, Italy, has endured not only high poverty and unemployment rates, but also some of the highest energy costs in the country. Within this context, the San Giovanni a Teduccio neighborhood of Naples, demonstrates a shining example of how renewable energy can serve as a solution to the unsustainable costs and environmental consequences of fossil fuel based energy. Anna Riccardi, president of the local grassroots organization Fondazione Famiglia di Maria, is working with the environmental nonprofit Legambiente, to implement solar energy in her community by installing solar panels on top of the building in which her organization resides. These panels currently provide energy to 20 households, who now pay up to 25% less than average consumers on energy bills. In addition, there are plans to add 20 new households to this microgrid soon. By sharing renewable energy among a community, this project fights inequality by making green energy accessible to low-income families. Legambiente strategically combines the solar array with education efforts on how to reduce unsustainable habits to maximize the long-term sustainability of the project. Workshops have also been set up to equip young people in the community with skills geared towards the larger energy transition - demonstrating how renewable energy communities can not only provide affordable energy, but promote new jobs and combat unemployment. San Giovanni a Teduccio may serve as a model for other communities in the transition towards renewable energy, with Riccardi emphasizing that there have already been positive ripple effects, with numerous communities in Italy planning to create similar renewable energy networks. Photo Credit: Legambiente/Fondazione Famiglia di Maria

8 03, 2023

Startup trains women in rural costa rica to upcycle airline seats into leather goods

2025-03-09T23:55:12-04:00Tags: , |

The startup Wearsos is enabling waste prevention and providing job opportunities for women in rural Costa Rica by upcycling old airline seats into high-end leather products. The initiative, led by Lynne Corvaglia, a University of Toronto Scarborough graduate, was supported by Southwest Airlines' donation of replaced leather seat covers. Corvaglia's vision is to use upcycling as a tool to create local economic opportunities and reduce waste, with Wearsos incorporating other sustainable materials into its products. The ultimate goal of this project was to combine sustainability with social impact to create real jobs and opportunities for women. Around 60 women have participated in the program so far. The job not only teaches technical skills but also fosters personal and professional growth, providing economic stability and training for future financial independence and knowledge. Despite challenges during the pandemic, the company is now registered in Canada and Costa Rica and is preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund its first year of production.

2 03, 2023

Q&A: Vox’s Rebecca Leber On ‘The Next Frontier’ Of Climate Coverage – The Home

2024-08-26T12:47:36-04:00Tags: |

Rebecca Leber is a senior reporter committed to centralizing climate issues in mainstream news by talking about cultural perceptions of climate-friendly choices. Leber has been researching the energy transition and its nexus with consumer habits, along with how it has manifested in people’s homes. Her work unveils the ongoing drive from the fossil fuel industry to promote household gas stoves in the US, using modern tactics which help entrench existing cultural myths, such as pushing the narrative that there are culinary benefits of "cooking with gas." Leber’s reports reveal the powerful discourses backed by incentives of economic greed which influence the information people get on both sides of the debate – renewable and fossil fuels – while also turning climate issues into partisan political feuds.

12 02, 2023

Namibian Women Turn Waste Into ‘’Home Treasures’’ To Generate Incomes, Protect Environment

2024-08-26T11:42:46-04:00Tags: , |

In the informal settlement of Otjomuise, bordering the Namibian capital Windhoek, a group of local women have established The Sew Good Namibia project. The women use donated fabric and other surplus materials from interior design stores, which would otherwise result in polluting and non-biodegradable waste, and upcycle the materials into remodeled home furnishings. As their customer base grows, they are generating new incomes in an economically disadvantaged area, improving sewing skills, spreading waste awareness in the community, and enabling women to engage with traditional crafts and patterns. Another key goal of the group is to influence local Namibian consumer attitudes through social media and advocacy towards more sustainable and conscious buying.

21 01, 2023

Women In Karnataka Boost Village Economy By Upcycling Fabric Into Patchwork Quilts

2024-08-26T11:52:01-04:00Tags: |

In the Mundargi sub-district of Karnataka, India, the village of Jantli Sirur is famous for its khowdis (quilts) - and the women who make them. A group of thirty women in the village stitch their famed designs using leftover cloth from tailors, creating distinctive color patterns and visual stories for quilts and table runners. Jantli Sirur is traditionally an agricultural village, but the changing climate has brought increasing drought and low yields. Quilting provides an alternative source of income for families, as well as being an artistic leisure activity for many of the women. While using recycled materials creates novel challenges, as the pieces are of different sizes and do not easily align, the skill of the quilters is palpable. Their method of upcycling shows what can be learned from a decades-old practice and returning to traditional crafts to promote a circular economy. 

7 12, 2022

Nigerian Climate Action Group Trades Trash For Cash

2023-12-04T15:39:21-05:00Tags: |

Ecobarter is a youth-led waste-management company in Nigeria founded by Rita Idehai, a young female entrepreneur who aims to make sustainable consumption and disposal more convenient and accessible. The company provides an integrated online platform and app which connects users to local exchange centers, drop-off points, and doorstep collectors who will pick up and deliver recyclables to such locations. Ecobarter also includes a points system whereby users receive points each time they recycle a certain amount of plastic or metal. These points can then be converted to cash rewards which are sent directly to the user’s bank account, or they can be used to shop on Ecobarter’s eco-friendly marketplace, donate to selected charities, or subscribe to health insurance services. One customer, Rebecca Bulus, explains that not only has this project helped make her environment cleaner, but she is able to use her rewards to buy cooking ingredients to support her family. This system benefits waste producers and collectors alike while contributing to a wider goal of keeping trash out of the streets and water bodies. Photo Credit: Ecobarter

21 11, 2022

Transforming Ourselves To Transform The World

2023-12-07T17:46:30-05:00Tags: |

Cuerpo-territorio, meaning body-territory, is an Indigenous philosophy whereby the body is conceptualized as political territory which, similar to land, has faced colonization and exploitation at the hands of the capitalist patriarchal system. Bodies are thus vessels that can be impacted by the world, but also can influence and improve the world. Nicole Froio guides us through the stories of five activists who embody this philosophy and have embraced their bodily autonomy to change their lives and the lives of others in their interconnected community. This highlights the toll oppression takes on the body as well as the power of one’s relationship with their body in fighting back against societal constraints such as patriarchy, racism, sexism and ableism.

28 09, 2022

Gender, care and climate change — why they are connected

2023-11-29T18:02:25-05:00Tags: , |

Imraan Valodia, Siviwe Mhlana, and Julia Taylor deconstruct the interlocking crises of the care sector and explain why they are important to sustainable environmental and economic development. One crisis is the lack of representation of unpaid work in economic calculations. During the global lockdown, many realized that health care and domestic services, both paid and unpaid, are essential for sustaining our collective livelihoods. This work, disproportionately taken on by women around the world, creates resilient economies and caters towards environmental protection. This leads to the second crisis―care for the environment and the climate crisis. Historically underserved communities contribute the least to the perpetuation of the crisis but are at the forefront of local and global solutions. They are, in essence, the caretakers of the environment. However, they are the most impacted by climate disasters. Women already face barriers to accessing education, economic mobility, healthcare, and other services due to their roles as caretakers, and the compounding crises of care place additional burdens on them. Valuing care in all of its forms, and supporting caretakers in every field, is vital to addressing the crises. Photo credit: Daily Maverick

18 09, 2022

Women pioneer green projects in Gaza

2025-03-09T23:58:22-04:00Tags: |

Palestinians in the occupied territories have initiated several eco-projects to recycle waste into eco-friendly products. Under Israeli occupation, the Palestinian territories are facing severe waste and resource crises. There is a severe lack of adequate waste management and recycling facilities in Gaza, made worse by the constant bombings and destruction of infrastructure. This led Huda Thabit, a 40-year-old mother of four from the al-Nuseirat refugee camp, and her husband, Salem, to start a project that turned paper waste into eco-friendly drawing boards. This, and other initiatives, aim to create a positive community impact, address the waste crisis, and foster a culture around recycling in order to reduce the effects of environmental degradation in Gaza. The leaders of these projects are now turning to environmental education to engage younger generations in conservation and eco-friendly work to model a cleaner, healthier future.

9 08, 2022

‘We Need Green Energy, But There Is An Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Threshold You Can’t Cross’

2023-02-26T12:35:31-05:00Tags: |

Some nations’ governments are increasing efforts to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, which will affect many extractive corporations’ abilities to operate as usual. In recent years, corporations have been left mostly unchecked to devastate the land. As Indigenous rights are bolstered at the national level, however, companies and investors will need to strengthen their working relationships with Indigenous Peoples and seek free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from Indigenous communities if they plan new extractive projects like mining, drilling, and fracking on their lands. Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) Osprey Orielle Lake asserts that institutions need to have a strategy in place for when Indigenous communities say no to proposed projects, both renewable and nonrenewable. She contends that “Indigenous sovereignty and rights are central to a Just Transition,” and “No Go” policies should be implemented to allow Indigenous communities to reject projects and to ensure that their decision is respected by the institutions involved. Indigenous lands and local knowledge must be respected and upheld for Just Transition.

3 06, 2022

An Indigenous Basket-Weaving Traditions Keeps a Philippine Forest Alive

2024-01-23T18:34:21-05:00Tags: |

Upland one of the Philippines key biodiversity areas, the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, sits the village of Kamantian, home to 65 traditional basketry cultural bearers. This article highlights the Pala'wan people who create traditional Indigenous baskets, or tingkep, using non-timber forest products. One basket weaver, Labin Tiblak, began basket weaving at eight years old and once taught young girls the practice on a weekly basis, before the pandemic. Not only does Tingkep serve functional, artistic, and cultural purposes, but this practice supports the conservation of the Pala'wan peoples ancestral Mantalingham forests. The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, however, disproportionately affect the Pala'wan people by degrading Pala’wan land and resources, and disrupting traditional Pala'wan practices, like the ability to gather for basket weaving, putting the culture and the craft of Tingkep at risk. The article provides perspectives for the future, including insight from Minnie Degawan, an Indigenous Kankanaey-Igorot and the director of the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples Program, who advocates for the government to fully recognize the right of the Pal’awan people to their territories and self-determination. Photo credit: Keith Anthony Fabro

27 04, 2022

Podcast: Community Empowerment And Forest Conservation Grow From The Galip Nut In Papua New Guinea

2023-12-07T17:24:33-05:00Tags: |

In this episode of the Mongabay Explores Podcast, host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with Dorothy Devine Luana, the owner of a galip nut company in Papua New Guinea, as well as Nora Devoe, a research program manager focused on the potential for the galip nut industry to sustainably empower Papua New Guinea communities. Luana utilizes agroforestry, a farming technique that plants multiple cash crops besides woody perennials. Her company has been able to bring multiple streams of revenue to her farm and community through various galip products. Devoe is performing research and assisting locals with improved methods of harvesting, processing, and selling galip nuts to enhance the livelihoods of PNG residents. This industry is predicted to be worth 2 billion USD by 2025 and with increasing worldwide demand for nut-based products, this industry may be key to improving the quality of life for over a thousand smallholder farms in Papua New Guinea. Photo Credit: Conor Ashleigh

2 02, 2022

Permanently Organized Communities.

2023-02-02T16:25:03-05:00Tags: |

In this article Movement Generation founder, Michelle Mascarenhas, details why we need place-based permanently organized communities. Specifically now, the Covid-19 pandemic has offered opportunities to build the types of local systems our movements need, including but not limited to: shifting labor to mutuality and care, creating mutual aid networks, resourcing mutual aid funds, and working towards self-governance. Photo Credit: Brooke Anderson

2 11, 2021

Care, Gender, and Change in the Study of Sustainable Consumption: A Critical Review of the Literature

2025-03-09T23:51:56-04:00Tags: |

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the academic literature on the gendered aspects of household consumption and sustainability, focusing on how sustainable consumption and care work intersect within the domestic realm. In Western countries, the shift toward more sustainable lifestyles often disrupts well-established routines related to food, cleaning, energy use, and transportation—tasks closely tied to care work, which predominantly falls on women. The paper argues that transitioning toward more sustainable household practices requires reducing and redistributing care work, transforming work environments, and fostering an ethos of care that extends beyond the household to include other people and the planet. Without addressing gender inequalities, efforts to promote sustainability risk deepening these disparities. The authors advocate for rethinking households as key sites of societal change by acknowledging the relational and gendered dimensions of both care and consumption.

13 10, 2021

Climate Change in India: Teen Inventor’s Solar-Powered Ironing Cart

2025-04-09T23:18:07-04:00Tags: |

Vinisha Umashankar, a 14-year-old from Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, is making waves with her solar-powered ironing cart, earning her a spot as a finalist in the Clean Our Air category of The Earthshot Prize. Inspired by the harmful effects of charcoal used in traditional street irons, Vinisha set out to find a cleaner alternative. Her innovation not only eliminates the health hazards associated with charcoal but also combats deforestation. With the solar ironing cart, powered by five hours of sunshine for six hours of use, Vinisha aims to save trees, reduce air pollution, and combat climate change. Her passion for science and invention, sparked at the age of five by an encyclopedia gift, continues to drive her towards creating positive change, with plans to manufacture and distribute her invention affordably across Asia, Africa, and sunlit regions worldwide.

13 09, 2021

Eat Your Ethics: Rallying For Food Justice In Supply Chains With Lauren Ornelas

2021-12-13T21:26:52-05:00Tags: |

In this episode of the Amplify Podcast, host Sanchi Singh speaks with food justice activist Lauren Ornelas. Founder of the food justice nonprofit, Food Empowerment Project, Ornelas discusses her path to activism, whiteness in the veganism movement, and the ways in which COVID19 has greatly impacted food labor. Singh and Ornelas discuss the specific impacts of COVID19 food system disruptions in relation to low-income communities in both India and the United States. Video Credit: Amplify Podcast

6 07, 2021

Intersectionality: A Tool for Gender and Economic Justice

2021-07-06T17:19:22-04:00Tags: |

Intersectionality is an analytical tool for studying, understanding and responding to the ways in which gender intersects with other identities and how these intersections contribute to unique experiences of oppression and privilege. It also helps in understanding how different identities impact on access to rights and opportunities and also links the grounds of discrimination (e.g. race, gender, etc.) to the social, economic, political and legal environment that contributes to discrimination. Most importantly, it highlights how globalization and economic change are impacting different people in different ways.

6 07, 2021

Batting For Empowerment

2021-07-06T17:10:12-04:00Tags: |

The home textile conglomerate Welspun India has established a partnership with UN Women to empower women through skills-building initiatives in technical and entrepreneurial sectors. The collaboration aims to advocate for gender equality at the workplace, drive the agenda on equal pay, represent and leverage the role of women in leadership, as well as achieve a work environment free from harassment. CEO Dipali Goenka is hopeful that the partnership will enhance the quality of the workforce and provide skill development opportunities for women. The objective is to promote greater representation of women in leadership positions across corporate India. Evidence shows that introducing more women into the labour market would unlock trillions of dollars for developing economies. Photo credit: The Hans India

6 07, 2021

How Indoor Pollution Affects Women & Children

2021-07-06T17:01:25-04:00Tags: |

Indoor air quality and pollutants are today recognised as a potential source of health risks, with women and children being the main victims. While children’s physical characteristics make them more vulnerable to the effects of indoor health pollution with immediate and long-term health consequences, women in countries like India do all the cooking (with their children) and spend more time indoors. It is important to create awareness by educating people about the serious threat indoor pollution poses to health and well-being, in order to reduce exposure with better kitchen management and efforts to protect children. Photo credit: Chinky Shukla/ CSE

9 04, 2021

My Year Of No Shopping

2021-04-09T13:25:25-04:00Tags: |

The author Ann Patchett shares the journey to her pledge to stop shopping, inspired by her friend Elissa years earlier. The initial attraction for the idea turned into practice at the end of 2016, when she came up with an arbitrary set of rules for the year to make a serious but not draconian plan. In the article she shares all the “gleeful discoveries” of her first few months of no shopping as well as more long-term positive impacts on her lifestyle. At the end of the year, instead of ending the experiment, she decides to leave her pledge in place. Photo Credit: Wenjia Tang

9 04, 2021

She Built A House From Milk Boxes

2021-04-09T13:21:59-04:00Tags: |

Anna and her friends in Quito, Ecuador, collect trash and reuse it in creative ways. They collect empty milk boxes, compress them, clean them, heat them, shred them and turn them into solid bricks which can be used in various ways. For instance they make furniture, handbags, roof tiling and even a house - for which 1.2 million milk boxes were collected! In this way, Anna is saving 11 million milk boxes every month and helping reduce environmental pollution. Video Credit: NasDaily

4 04, 2021

FabBRICK: Meet French Architect Clarisse Merlet Who Converts Your Old Clothes Into Bricks

2024-08-26T12:13:31-04:00Tags: |

Clarisse Merlet founded the French company FaBRICK to tackle the growing problem of textile waste in France, where less than a third of the estimated 4 million tons of waste is reused or recycled. FaBRICK takes discarded clothes and upcycles the fabric into insulation bricks, which can be used for construction as well as furniture. The aim of the company is to address fabric waste while also greening the construction industry, and has benefited from a crowdfunding round which helped buy the necessary machinery. Merlet also came up with her own ecological glue to compress and stick the textile into the brick shape. Since starting, the company has created over 40,000 bricks, using 13 tons of fabric, and has helped catalyze similar upcycling initiatives.

8 03, 2021

“Voices heard for the first time”: Women in coffee cooperatives

2025-03-09T23:53:42-04:00Tags: , , |

The coffee sector has traditionally been male-dominated, despite women being a significant part of the workforce. Women producers often have limited agency, but initiatives like Jamaican Women in Coffee (JAWiC), Partnership for Gender Equity, and Café Femenino are driving a growing recognition of the need for gender equity. Barriers such as lack of land ownership and decision-making power are rooted in historical, cultural, and institutional factors. In order to overcome these constraints, organizations are establishing women-only coffee cooperatives, involving women in financial decisions, and promoting equitable operations. Support systems, including financial incentives from the Café Femenino Foundation and gender equity assessments from the Partnership for Gender Equity, are crucial for implementation. Respecting cultural norms is vital for success, with solutions being tailored to local contexts and involving all community members. Gender equity is foundational for sustainability in the coffee sector, providing long-term benefits for the entire supply chain.

7 03, 2021

How A Circular Bioeconomy Could Affect Women’s Livelihoods In Sub-Saharan Africa

2025-03-10T00:00:06-04:00Tags: |

Access to fuel resources is a gendered issue in sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority of cooking and heating activities being undertaken by women. Women source and transport wood to fuel their household activities, which can be an intensely laborious and time-consuming process. However, in Kenya, the women-led enterprise Eversave Briquettes repurposes byproducts from charcoal manufacturing and organic waste from crops and plantations to produce recycled charcoal briquettes for household use. A similar women-led organization, Eco-Charcoal, produces charcoal using sustainable harvesting techniques that preserve trees by utilizing only lower branches and foliage. Both organizations have provided employment opportunities to the local community, created alternative fuel products that are sustainable and accessible, and kickstarted local circular bio-economies. Key to this transformation is the inclusion of women in bio-manufacturing jobs and the diversification of what was once a male-dominated charcoal industry.

3 03, 2021

Making Women’s Voices Count – Addressing Gender Issues In Disaster Risk Management In East Asia And The Pacific

2021-03-03T19:51:19-05:00Tags: |

This guidance note, aimed at world bank staff, clients and development partners active in gender and disaster risk management, provides an overview of the links between gender and disaster risk management. Natural disasters in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region reveal gender inequalities in higher mortality rates for women rather than men. Gender-blind policies and responses perpetuate and increase inequalities for the female population and other vulnerable groups. Therefore, the guidance offers gender-sensitive strategies, recommendations and resources for the design and implementation of gender perspectives across a spectrum of disaster risk management policies, including plans and decision-making processes, recovery strategies, education and training. The gender-sensitive strategy is three-fold: use appropriate gender terminology; ensure equal gender representation in planning and consultation processes; train gender champions and female leaders to mainstream gender-equal institutional initiatives.

15 12, 2020

Mothers Of Invention Podcast. Episode 3: Taking Over

2020-12-15T22:02:57-05:00Tags: |

In this episode of Mothers of Invention Podcast, Mary and Maeve turn up the volume on the women who are helping us consciously-uncouple from our toxic relationship with single-use plastic. The week’s Mothers of Invention are: 1) Judi Wakhungu and Alice Kaudia, Kenyan politicians who unleashed up to $38,000 USD fines for anyone found using, making or distributing plastic bags, 2) Chelsea Briganti, an American self-taught materials engineer and entrepreneur about to unleash 55bn edible straws onto the world. 3) Rachelle Strauss, British founder of #ZeroWasteWeek - a global online campaign against household waste born from one family kitchen, 4) Siân Sutherland, British co-founder of A Plastic Planet and creator of the world’s first fully-functioning plastic-free supermarket aisle in Amsterdam and 5) Katharine Wilkinson, lead writer of ‘the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming’, Project Drawdown. Photo credit: Unknown

30 11, 2020

WE Recycle Circular Economy Empowers Marginalized Women

2025-03-10T00:01:30-04:00Tags: |

Women Empowerment Through Recycling, or WE Recycle, was set up in India by Renu Rao and Abhinav Gangumalla to recondition recyclable materials into usable and practical products. The company aims to uplift women by offering them employment and skills in sustainable production and living. These women live in the slums of Hyderabad, but this economic opportunity has given many of them greater hopes of financial independence. Many have been able to secure funds to go towards educating their daughters and disrupting cycles of poverty, paving the way for better futures for generations to come. The products the women make range from decorative lamps to coasters, bags, and candle holders. All of the items showcase traditional design elements while also displaying innovation in the use of upcycled materials.

29 05, 2020

Gardens Have Pulled America Out Of Some Of Its Darkest Times. We Need Another Revival

2021-02-16T20:31:45-05:00Tags: |

As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages the United States’ economy, issues of food security have been magnified. Consequently, the importance of local gardens have been emphasized. From Victory Gardens during the first and second world war, to the emergence of urban vegetable gardens throughout US cities in the 1970s and 1980s, the United States has a rich history of local gardening initiatives. The pandemic has forced Americans to re-evaluate the many way local gardens benefit a community. In Richmond, California, Doria Robinson of Urban Tilth provides 227 families with weekly CSA vegetable shares. Serving low-income residents in a city with only one grocery store per 100,000 residents, Robinson’s work at Urban Tilth makes a great difference in the local community, especially in light of COVID-19. Photo Credit: Karen Washington 

23 03, 2020

Coronavirus Holds Key Lessons On How To Fight Climate Change

2020-09-08T21:31:05-04:00Tags: |

Similar to the COVID-19 outbreak, the climate change crisis could have also been avoided, but will now require urgent action.  This provides leaders with the unique opportunity to acknowledge the importance of steep learning curves and swift action when combating climate change. According to climate experts, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a slight dip in greenhouse gas emissions, but aside from the decline of work commutes, business travel, and international trade, many of these effects are temporary.  The pandemic and climate change must be solved together: stimulus measures for COVID-19 economic strains should invest in climate change solutions, and governments need to encourage societal behavior shifts through political measures that support their residents. Photo credit: Salvatore Laporta / Kontrolab / Lightrocket via Getty Images

18 03, 2020

‘Tip of the iceberg’: is our destruction of nature responsible for Covid-19?

2020-03-22T21:14:12-04:00Tags: |

Research suggests that humanity’s destruction of biodiversity creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as Covid-19, or the coronavirus, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise. According to disease ecologists viruses and other pathogens are also likely to be transmitted from animals to humans in the many informal meat markets that have sprung up in urban populations around the world. This article focuses on the increasingly visible connections between the wellbeing of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems. Additionally, it also argues that zoonotic diseases and viral infections are linked to environmental change caused by human behavior. Photo Credit: National Institutes of Health/AFP via Getty Images

17 03, 2020

Air pollution likely to increase coronavirus death rate, warn experts

2020-03-22T21:29:12-04:00Tags: |

COVID-19, or the coronavirus, is known to affect the respiratory tract of those infected. But there is new evidence that indicates patients exposed to polluted air are at a higher risk of dying. Additionally, patients with chronic respiratory issues after being exposed to long-term air pollution are less able t fight off the disease. Science tells us that epidemics like this will occur with increasing frequency. So reducing air pollution is basic investment for a healthier future. Photo credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

13 03, 2020

The Only Treatment for Coronavirus Is Solidarity

2020-03-22T21:52:47-04:00Tags: |

The pandemic, COVID-19, reveals a class system, where only the wealthy have the power to withdraw or shelter in place. Whereas, someone who lives paycheck to paycheck must continue to hustle every day to find work. This places poor people in a position between risking their health and economic survival. There is no choice but to make that choice. As long as this is true, the number of carriers will continue to grow. The only option is solidarity. Every country needs every other country to have an economy focused on health and social well-being. The coronavirus makes the slogan of solidarity literal: an injury to one is an injury to all. Photo Credit: Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty

20 09, 2019

Decolonizing Microfinance: An Indigenous Feminist Approach To Transform Macro-Debit Into Micro-Credit

2023-12-07T14:31:23-05:00Tags: |

In this journal article, Jacqueline Marie Quinless and Francis Adu-Febiri, two Canadian-based researchers, highlight how microfinance can be recognized as a form of gender colonization and oppression. The authors argue that both current literature on microfinance and Nancy Fraser’s theory on feminism fail to provide a pragmatic solution to guide Indigenous women out of these oppressive microfinance structures. The authors put forward that these oppressive structures are better understood and addressed through discussions with Indigenous women food producers in Ghana who are actively decolonizing and indigenizing microfinance.

3 07, 2019

Nurdle by Nurdle, Citizens Took on A Billion-Dollar Plastic Company — and Won

2020-11-20T17:34:49-05:00Tags: |

A federal judge recently ruled that Formosa Plastics, a petrochemical company outside Port Lavaca, Texas, can be held liable for violating state and federal water pollution laws. The company could face a penalty of up to $162 million. Thanks to data collected by resident volunteers, the nonprofit San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper brought a lawsuit against the company in 2017. According to the lawsuit, the company violated its environmental permits for years, dumping millions of small plastic pellets - called nurdles - into Lavaca Bay. Among the volunteers is Diane Wilson, a retired shrimper who has been trying to get Formosa to stop dumping in the bay since the early ’90s. Since the trial started, pollution levels haven’t changed, so she keeps gathering evidence with her kayak. Giving up is not an option for her. Photo credit: Wikimedia

1 07, 2019

Decolonising The Economy

2023-02-26T12:39:17-05:00Tags: |

As an introduction to Open Democracy’’s new series, “Decolonising the Economy,” Laura Basu explains the problematic inner-workings of the global economy and highlights the changes that must be made to create more equitable, livable, sustainable futures. Basu argues the global economy is an imperialistic, rigged system in which the global north’s wealth and prosperity are dependent on the underdevelopment of the global south. She explains that transnational corporations and the State actors who support them have the most to gain from this system. Because transnational corporations are often based in the global north (mainly in the United States and the United Kingdom), those nations’ economies will benefit from corporations’ financial success. However, those same corporations likely base their manufacturing centers in the Global South, where they can employ workers for very low wages -- wages that negatively impact workers’ quality of life and their nations’ economies. 

31 05, 2019

Environmental Justice Activists Are Leading a Green New Deal Revolution

2023-03-29T11:18:42-04:00Tags: |

The Green New Deal is often considered ambitious, yet for Indigenous communities and people of color across the United States, it is an essential catalyst for organizing and advocacy. The resolution, which highlights the need for action grounded in “justice and equity,” centers around the need to consult and include frontline groups most gravely impacted by climate change. This article explains the significance of the Green New Deal by following activists who are implementing justice-based environmental initiatives across America. Jayeesha Dutta works with Another Gulf is Possible, an organization uplifting women of color’s voices on environmental issues in the Gulf South. She shares her perspective on how to help communities in regions dominated by oil companies, and how to implement a just transition to a regenerative economy. Colette Pichon Battle, the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, discusses her vision for rebuilding infrastructure, creating inclusive green jobs, and leading grassroots change when progressive climate legislation is lacking. Photo Credit: Laura Borealis

14 05, 2019

How To Craft Climate Financing That Helps Minorities And Lower-Income Americans

2023-02-26T12:42:32-05:00Tags: |

In  this article, Rebecca Stoner highlights a model for non-extractive climate financing that aims to support and serve worker-owned, grassroots-level just transition projects. The Our Power Loan Fund, a Climate Justice Alliance initiative, works at the intersections of economic, racial, and environmental justice through its mission to support sustainable agriculture projects led by people of color from low-income communities. These communities are often the most impacted by social and environmental injustice but are the least likely to receive the necessary financing to implement solutions. The Our Power Loan Fund centers the needs of under-resourced workers by lending technical support and coaching to get projects “loan-ready” before offering loans that do not need to be paid back until the business is profitable. This model empowers local organizing -- rather than exploiting it -- by providing the resources necessary for frontline leaders to create pathways toward place-based environmental justice. Photo credit: Matt Feinstein/Global Village Farms

15 04, 2019

Upcycling Old Jeans Into Funky Bags, Mantra Of This Mumbai Woman Who Gave A Spin To 2,500 Denims

2025-03-10T00:02:50-04:00Tags: |

Soumya Annapurna Kalluri is a trained mechanical engineer who has used her practical skills and experience to reduce waste. Her startup, Dwij, translates to ‘a new lease of life,’ and so far has recycled over 3,000 pairs of thrown-out jeans into various fashion accessories, such as bags and clutches. The choice of recycling denim arose not only from the benefits of the strong fabric, but also due to the desire to avoid the extra waste that arises when denim is treated as trash—such as the 1,000 liters of water that goes into a single pair of jeans. Dwij also seeks to centralize the work of each individual tailor in its product marketing, valuing their skill and designs. Starting with a small investment of Rs 6 lakh, Dwij has now sold over 2,500 products from reused denims, and Soumya plans to expand into different types of products and employ more tailors. The end goal is to spread societal and consumer awareness around the benefits of sustainable, upcycled fashion and to help people become more responsible for what they throw away.

13 04, 2019

GirlTrek: When Black Women Walk, Things Change

2019-04-13T16:36:26-04:00Tags: |

Morgan Dixon is the co-founder of ‘GirlTrek’, a national help organization addressing the disproportionate effects of the current health crisis in African American women. Starting with 530 women in their first year, the organization has since grown to about 100,000 African American women who walk together every day. Together the women of ‘GirlTrek’ not only boost their own physical health, they also improve the health of their families and communities while reshaping the narrative around health for women of color. Video Credit: National Sierra Club

12 03, 2019

The Untold Story Of Women In The Zapatistas

2019-04-13T16:02:00-04:00Tags: |

Victoria Law is a journalist who spent 6 years with the Zapatista movement in Southern Mexico and published Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories. She gives an overview of the Zapatistas, the influence women have in the movement and the impact the movement has had on their lives. The Zapatistas began organizing in the 80s and declared war on the state of Mexico in 1994, on the exact day the NATO the free trade agreement began.  Since then the movement is renowned for the peaceful protests, indigenous organization, and their autonomy. Women have played a key role in the Zapatista communities accomplishing a drastic reduction of violence against women, the prohibition of alcohol (connected to abuse), the freedom to participate and lead in politics, and autonomy over their lives. Victoria sheds light to many things that can be learned from the organization of the Zapatistas and the key role that women continue to play in their liberation and in the liberation of their people. Photo Credit: Mr. Thelkan

8 03, 2019

The Women Refusing To Let Palestine’s Farming Roots Die

2020-10-10T20:18:03-04:00Tags: |

The Palestinian Heirloom Library, in its efforts supporting a Palestinian agricultural scene, stands not only as an act of resistance to Israeli occupation but as a source of cultural tradition and hope in amongst climate change impacts and agribusiness take-over’s. The brainchild of Vivien Sansour, the Heirloom Library was inspired into creation by stories of the succulent watermelon Jadu’I that used to flourish in Jenin. The melon, once a significant cornerstone in the daily lives of Palestinians, suffered (as did much of Palestinian agriculture) after the Israeli occupation. The goal of the Library aims to preserve ancient seed types as well as traditional agricultural practices and revive the heirloom varieties in the fields of the farmers. The Art and Seeds space showcases indigenous seeds and serves to teach the public about long-standing Palestinian farming practices. Photo credit: Vivien Sansour.

3 03, 2019

For Women In Solar Energy, Progress And A Ways To Go

2020-10-07T00:39:34-04:00Tags: |

When Kristen Nicole, founder of Women in Solar Energy, penned an open letter calling out the hyper-masculine and ‘booth babe’ culture that portrayed women as sex objects, it sparked a revolution within the industry to start examining their women-specific policies and initiatives. The solar conference culture perpetuates objectification with abhorrent displays such as women in cages dressed in leather cat outfits. However, numerous programs aimed at addressing gender diversity and increasing women’s participation in the field have grown in response. SEIA’s Women Empowerment Initiative as well as Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy campaigns have contributed to the shift in the awareness around the need for diversity. Whilst more female workers make up the solar industry today, and there are more women speakers at conferences, there are still shortcomings in that women continue to earn less than men and face barriers in climbing up the career ladder. Women of colour are also disproportionately affected, and Erica Mackie, co-founder and CEO of GRID Alternatives, calls for the solar industry to not just be energy-centred but also justice-focussed, and to recognise the intersection between race and gender inequities. GRID’s Women in Solar Program aids women from diverse backgrounds and their She Shines retreat is aimed as a training and team-building exercise for women in the industry. Photo credit: Stefano Paltera, US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

4 12, 2018

The Co-op That’s Keeping Community Money Out Of Big Banks

2023-07-30T14:04:56-04:00Tags: |

Me’Lea Connelly is leading efforts to redirect financial control and growth into historically underserved communities, contributing to community development and fostering racial economic justice. The founder of Blexit, a grassroots nonprofit that worked to boycott extractive systems that harm Black communities, went on to create the Village Financial Cooperative: a Black-owned credit union. The goals of the organization are to directly involve impacted communities in their finances and eliminate larger exploitative systems. This group is working towards “regenerative finance” to put control and capital into the hands of historically underserved communities to foster sustainable development. This would allow communities to reclaim their finances and counteract systems of power, specifically by stopping the removal of natural resources, discriminatory banking and housing processes, and growing sustainable initiatives. This project has provided BIPOC communities with tangible solutions and substantial hope for the future.   

20 10, 2018

The Bearded Seal My Son May Never Hunt

2020-11-07T18:07:29-05:00Tags: |

The author Laureli Ivanoff is an Inupiat, a northern indigenous population with communities from Alaska to Greenland. She reflects on the future of her people who now have to learn to live without the cold: last winter there was less ice in the Bering Sea that any winter since the 1850 when record-keeping started. The Inupiat need the northeastern Bering Sea to stay cold so that the creatures they traditionally rely on can thrive. She particularly thinks about her newly born son Inuqtaq, to whom hunting was going to be an act of intentional decolonization, a way of keeping alive a custom that’s become sacred and of staying connected to his heritage and identity. As she hurts for him and for her family, Laureli hopes the world quickly adapts and also respects the earth as they have for millennia. Photo credit: Ash Adams/The New York Times

15 10, 2018

The Power of Rural Women To Reduce Global Food Insecurity And Cut Emissions

2020-11-20T17:58:24-05:00Tags: |

Santona Rani, President of the Rajpur Women’s Federation, is working to increase climate and community resilience in her flood-prone area of Tajpur, Lalmonirhat in northern Bangladesh. Climate change is increasing the detrimental effects on crops and productivity. Her organisation is made up of twenty groups that work to assist 500 vulnerable and marginalized women. It works alongside ActionAid’s Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights (POWER) to boost independence through sustainable agriculture that fosters climate resilience. They also work to address the unjust gender roles that exist within the society; aiming to increase income and recognise the amount of work women do, provide training around leadership, women’s rights, financial aspects, sustainable farming and communication skills, as well as endeavour to prevent violence against women. Their work is community based, and involves interactive theatre shows, informative leaflets, and a seed bank and grain store that protects against the damages of flooding or natural disasters. Photo credit: ActionAid.

15 10, 2018

A Water Walk In New York City

2020-10-07T00:43:14-04:00Tags: |

During the month of July, women and men, engaging in a “water walk,” walked two miles through the streets of New York City carrying empty buckets. Two miles is about the length women and girls walk in developing countries each day to obtain water, so this walk was carried out in order to symbolize their hard work. Moreover, the walk ended at the United Nations Building, so it was intended to remind policy makers about the importance of clean water as well as urge them to consider water a human right. The walk also called attention to the fact that access to water is important but if distance, cost, or other factors make that access prohibitive, then simple “access” is not enough. Photo credit: Water Aid

12 10, 2018

Across Mozambique and Tanzania, Women Show Us How To Improve Communities And Protect Our Planet

2018-10-12T17:11:52-04:00Tags: |

Women across Mozambique and Tanzania are organizing their communities to improve  local livelihood through sustainability and the protection of natural resources. This inspirational blog by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) explores  the stories of various community leaders building long lasting projects. Like the story of Alima Chereira, who formed an agricultural association that teaches women climate-resilient farming practices. Or entrepreneur Fatima Apacur,  who helped her community form a savings association that uses the ancient practice of group savings and pooling wealth to help community members invest in the future. Photo Credit: WWF/ James Morgan

28 09, 2018

Olympia Auset Is Tackling Systemic Racism, One Vegetable At A Time

2020-10-10T19:27:42-04:00Tags: |

Olympia Auset is the founder of SÜPERMARKT, a low cost, organic pop-up grocery store which is addressing food inequality in southern Los Angeles. Auset sees food as a tool for liberation and seeks to free her own community from identifying as a food desert where people statistically live 10 years less than wealthier white communities. This reality steams from a history of white flight after slavery became illegal. Auset’s SUPERMARKT  is changing the local narrative and has plans to expand given her success and demand. Her model is also being replicated in food deserts across the country. Photo Credit: Sara Harrison

2 08, 2018

Plastic Pollution: How One Woman Found A New Source Of Warming Gases Hidden In Waste

2020-10-10T20:04:25-04:00Tags: |

Researcher Sarah-Jeanne Royer was supposed to measure methane gas coming from biological activity in sea water, but she found by accident that the plastic bottles holding the samples were a bigger source of the warming molecule. The gases produced and accelerated by solar radiation are methane and ethylene, which both contribute to the greenhouse effect. These findings are important because until the discovery, the link between plastics and climate change was mainly focused on the use of fossil fuels in the manufacture of plastic items, while this is the first time that anyone has tried to quantify other warming gases emerging from plastic waste. The discovery hasn’t been received well by the plastic industry, while other scientists agree that further research is urgently needed. Photo credit: IPRC

6 07, 2018

The Elderly Kenyan Women Weaving Their Way To A More Sustainable Future

2020-10-05T20:25:33-04:00Tags: |

A group of elderly Kenyan women in Mathiga village, northeast of Nairobi, have become entrepreneurs by taking advantage of their basketry skills, in an area where they could barely manage to farm. By selling their baskets to tourists, as the demand increased, their livelihoods got better. Despite the challenges to the tourism sector brought about by attacks by Somali-linked Islamists, their goods still got attention, even beyond Kenya’s borders. Basketry has not only offered them a source of livelihood, but it has also opened doors for them in the world. Photo credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Caroline Wambui  

27 06, 2018

Kill Patriarchy, Save the Womb

2023-02-01T22:57:37-05:00Tags: |

The modern menstrual product industry is harmful for the human body and for the land. Most menstrual products are single-use, coming in plastic packaging that is among the most common items found in landfills. Tampons are made from synthetic fibers that are directly linked to toxic shock syndrome, while pads are often bleached white with dioxins – carcinogenic chemicals linked to endometriosis and decreased fertility. In addition, menstrual product companies often use body shaming as a marketing tool, creating a taboo around openly discussing menstruation, and perpetuating the myth that menstrual products are the only way people can maintain their “hygiene” while on their period. This article proposes sustainable menstrual products that keep planetary and personal health in mind, such as reusable tampons, menstrual cups, and cloth pads. It also proposes Indigenous options including sea sponges, cliff rose, cattail, and moss. These alternatives avoid the harmful effects of toxins in mainstream products, prevent further plastic pollution, offer less expensive options for menstruators, and create better relationships with our bodies and the Earth. Photo Credit: Orlando Begaye  

27 06, 2018

Women And The Feminine Hygiene Myth

2020-10-10T19:32:57-04:00Tags: |

The feminine hygiene industry markets products that are manufactured with dangerous chemicals and which perpetuate harmful myths around period bleeding. Much of the marketing languages capitalizes on the notion that bleeding is shameful and should be hidden or kept from public discourse. Further, women and girls are often encouraged to use mainstream products such as bleached tampons and pads that threaten their health. This article encourages women to explore reusable, and non manufactured alternatives to managing their periods. Photo Credit: Orlando Begaye AKA Treeman

19 06, 2018

Recycling rubbish into revenue plan brings hope to women in Jordan

2025-03-09T23:57:02-04:00Tags: |

Sameera Al Salam, a Syrian refugee in Irbid, Jordan, earns a living by making upcycled handbags from newspapers at a workshop. Having fled Syria in 2012, Al Salam now supports and cares for her paralyzed husband and two teenagers. Struggling with poverty and unemployment, she joined a project by Action Against Hunger which employs refugees and locals to collect and recycle waste. The project also provides temporary work permits and aims to bridge the gap between Syrian and Jordanian communities and allow women to overcome cultural obstacles to employment. 80% of Syrian refugee households in Jordan are headed by women, making their involvement in the workforce even more imperative. Al Salam and others, like Syrian widow Awsaf Qaddah and Jordanian Berwen Misterihi, have found pride and purpose in their work, which aims to expand into independent waste processing and upcycling. Along with providing financial resources, the job serves as a creative outlet, training position, and a community building space, all of which are especially beneficial in recuperating after their past experiences. The women have formed a supportive community, with Al Salam expressing newfound confidence and social integration through the project.

15 06, 2018

Immigrant Women Are Providing A Taste Of Oaxaca In California’s Central Valley

2020-10-05T16:55:59-04:00Tags: |

In Madera, California, Sylvia Rojas and Rosa Hernandez own Colectivo Sabor a Mi Tierra, a restaurant that offers traditional Oaxacan dishes such as tamales, picaditas, pozole, and mole. Many of these dishes have indigenous roots and reflect the migration from indigenous Mexican communities to the United States. Formerly farmworkers, Hernandez and Rojas opened up the restaurant with support from organizations such as the Pan Valley Institute, a group that focuses on uplifting women and building inter-ethnic relationships amongst rural Californian farming communities in the Central Valley. Photo Credit: Lisa Morehouse

4 06, 2018

A Woman’s Reparations Map For Farmers Of Color Seeks To Right Historical Wrongs

2020-04-24T16:12:49-04:00Tags: |

Leah Penniman and her organization Soul Fire Farm have developed a new mapping and reparations resource for black and brown farmers. Launched via Google Maps, the reparations map identifies over 52 organizations, their needs, and how to contact each farming operation. The project is an extension of a global movement for food justice, and the return of stolen lands and resources to Indigenous and black farmers. Consequently, the project directly addresses the significant wealth gap between farmers of color and white farmers. The site has had over 53,000 visitors to date. Photo Credit: Jonah Vitale-Wolff

31 05, 2018

Margaret Atwood: Women Will Bear Brunt Of Dystopian Climate Future

2021-01-15T17:09:10-05:00Tags: |

In this article, booker-prize winning author Margaret Atwood warns that climate change is ‘everything change’, and will bring a dystopian future, much like in her ‘speculative fictions’. Margaret associates climate change with social unrest, civil wars, brutal repression and totalitarianism – a worsening in women’s hardship and struggles. Under Her Eye was a two-day festival, titled after a chapter from Margaret’s The Handmaid's Tale. Alice Sharp, director of arts and science organisation Invisible Dust, was the festival’s curator that brought together prominent figures from the arts, politics and science to focus on women, their futures under climate change and environmental damage, and proposals to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Christiana Figures, former UN climate chief coordinating the Paris climate agreement 2015 is hopeful that women environmental activism and leadership is increasing. Caroline Lucas, UK Green Party, adds that the arts have an important role to play in the future. Photo Credit: Liam Sharp

25 05, 2018

Navajo Women Struggle To Preserve Traditions As Climate Change Intensifies

2018-12-19T17:33:57-05:00Tags: |

Lorraine Herder belongs to a shepherd family: she grew up raising sheep and using its wool in a remote area on the Navajo reservation. But now, shrinking water reservoirs due to climate change are making it difficult to keep this tradition alive. Dr. Margaret Redsteer, a scientist at the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, notes that the amount of groundwater has decreased drastically over the past century, putting a strain on the animals’ health and the Navajo way of life. The water crisis is also caused by other factors like coal mining, according to Nicole Horseherder, founder of non- profit organization “Scared Water Speaks”.  Photo Credit: Sonia Narang/PRI

21 05, 2018

Warming Waters Hurt Zanzibar’s Seaweed. But Women Farmers Have A Plan

2021-02-16T20:51:24-05:00Tags: |

Seaweed farming in Zanzibar, an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, is largely done by local women farmers. Most of the men find the work too hard for the small pay, but the income remains significant to women. As a result of their engagement in industry, women farmers and their family have significantly benefited. However, the Western Indian Ocean’s temperature is rising, which is leading to loss of the seaweed crop. The women farmers are responding to this adversity in various ways. One solution has been to farm farther in the ocean. This solution requires the participation of at least some strong swimmers, but seeing as most women in Zanzibar do not know how to swim, many of the farmers are having to learn to swim as they go. Another solution the farmers have enacted is cooperating with local and international researchers. The hope is that fostering this dialogue will benefit both parties and that the seaweed industry will remain viable. Photo credit: Karen Coates

21 05, 2018

Female Farmworkers Leading The #MeToo Fight For Workers Everywhere

2020-10-10T19:20:50-04:00Tags: |

Daughters of field workers are participating in a five day “Freedom Fast”, and joining the Time’s Up Wendy’s March in Manhattan. Their demonstration calls upon Wendy’s to sign onto the Fair Food Program which addresses many of the structural issues enabling sexual harassment in the workplace. The demonstration is taking place alongside the Time’s Up and #MeToo movement which has drawn global attention to the treatment of all women in the workforce. Women working in agriculture are strong voice in this movement as they report especially high rates of sexual assault in the workplace. So far the women’s efforts to suede Wendy’s have been unsuccessful. Photo Credit: Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

18 05, 2018

The Entrepreneur Making Healthy Food Accessible To Her Brooklyn Neighborhood

2020-10-05T17:16:03-04:00Tags: |

Francesca Chaney is working to alleviate food insecurity and make the wellness movement accessible in her neighbourhood of Bushwick, New York. A dream since she was 19 years old, the café, Sol Sips, started as a pop-up shop and evolved into a permanent fixture in the community. With a popular brunch menu and sliding scale prices, a diverse range of community members visit the spot ranging from indigenous, Latinx, and people of colour to old-timers and families. She serves a community that has largely been left aside by the mainstream health and wellness movement and Sol Sips remains a contrast to the majority of vegan and plant-based restaurants. Chaney wants to counter the trend that to eat healthy is a privilege only for those who can afford it. This socially conscious space that pays mind to the demographic of the neighbourhood is one of a range of businesses fighting to make vegan and healthy food accessible. Photo credit: Sol Sips

7 05, 2018

I am the Daughter of a Conventional Farmer—and a Sustainable Ag Advocate

2025-04-18T20:44:40-04:00Tags: |

Ash Bruxvoort, the daughter of a conventional farmer, uses her unique experiences within the urban-rural divide to advocate for change in the agricultural system. Having witnessed both the joys and struggles of farming as her family navigated volatile agricultural markets, she pursued a career in agricultural nonprofits to better understand and transform the food system. Initially drawn to urban food movement ideals like organic farming, Bruxvoort soon realized these "better" methods weren’t always financially viable for farmers like her father. This deepened her appreciation for the challenges farmers face within a profit-driven system. She believes that farmer’s daughters, with their firsthand experience of both urban and rural parts of society, are uniquely positioned to foster change. Women like Wendy Johnson and Lauren Rudersdorf are already working to redefine farming practices, promote sustainability, and bridge the urban-rural divide. Bruxvoort stresses the importance of empathy, compassion, and open dialogue to overcome stereotypes and misunderstandings. By listening to her father’s experiences, she has developed a deeper, more humanized understanding of the struggles farmers face, fostering mutual respect and a call to bridge the divide through meaningful conversations and see beyond the labels.

16 04, 2018

Cooperative Agro-Forestry Empowers Indigenous Women In Honduras

2020-04-24T15:47:48-04:00Tags: |

The community of Lenca women, Indigenous to Honduras, has been practicing agroforestry for millennia as a sustainable farming method in their dry region. They are keeping this traditional knowledge alive by growing organic, fair trade crops like coffee in worker-owned cooperatives. Farmers like Eva Alvarado helped to create an all-female growers’ cooperative in 2014, as part of the Cosagual coffee growers’ organization. Their coffee is now sold around the world, and the women bring home a larger share of the profits than before. The Lenca group is known for radical work: Berta Cáceres, the famous Indigenous activist murdered in 2016, also belonged to the community. The idea of this cooperative was seeded at a gender equality workshop with the Association of NGOs. Agroforestry, which involves planting fruit and timber trees in the shade, is an effective way to combat food insecurity, erosion and acts as a carbon sink. Women in Honduras are coping with climate change using agroforestry, a method that can provide a sustainable livelihood to many communities. Photo Credit: Monica Pelliccia

11 04, 2018

The Women Reviving Heirloom Grains And Flour

2020-10-06T23:19:28-04:00Tags: |

A group of women bakers in Los Angeles, California were selected to speak at the panel, “Bread Winners: A Conversation with Women in Bread,” organized by the California Grain Campaign in honor of Women’s History Month. The group of women assembled included baker Kate Pepper, California Grain Campaign Organizer Mai Nguyen, miller Nan Kohler, and baker Roxana Jullapat. The panel focused on the women’s involvement in the California Grain Campaign’s goal to push bakers to use 20 percent whole-grain, California grown-and-milled flours. During the panel Nguyen brought up the historical importance of women in agriculture, specifically in terms of seed conservation. Nguyen also expressed gratitude to cotton breeder Sally Fox, and chemist Monica Spiller, whose seed projects made Sonora Wheat a more familiar food amongst consumers. Photo Credit: Civil Eats

23 03, 2018

Impunity For Violence Against Women Defenders Of Territory, Common Goods, And Nature In Latin America

2020-10-23T23:16:06-04:00Tags: |

This report by Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Caribbean (UAF-LAC) analyzes the condition of women who defend environmental rights in Latin American countries. By analyzing the case studies of thirteen women defenders, a clear continuum of structural violence against the women emerges. On the one end, women defenders are subject to the criminalization of their activities and to harassment from various actors such as companies, the police, and the media. At the most extreme end of this violence continuum, women defenders are assassinated or “disappeared.” In cases such as these, the state, if it is not actively colluding with the perpetrators, often remains silent. UAF-LAC, then, calls for the state to protect women defenders by eliminating the impunity perpetrators currently enjoy, by eliminating the criminalization of defenders’ work and by creating a safe environment for them to work in. Specifically, the state must financially, politically, legally and psycho-socially support women defenders. Photo credit: UAF-LAC

8 03, 2018

Defeminisation Of Indian Agriculture

2020-09-02T23:19:40-04:00Tags: |

Women in India hold significant but overlooked roles in agriculture. The Census of India (2011) reveals nearly 98 million women have agricultural jobs. Due to decreasing economic opportunities in rural areas, young people and men are moving to urban areas, leaving women behind to farm. To recognize the importance of female farmers, the government of India declared October 15th as Rashtriya Mahila Kisan Diwas (National Female Farmer Day). This is a great step forward given women have been historical left out of agricultural narratives. The way forward is to give land rights to women while strengthening the existing government policies for female farmers in India. Photo Credit: Vikas Choudhary

8 03, 2018

Women Are Overburdened With Unpaid Work Everywhere Across The Globe

2019-01-21T21:42:59-05:00Tags: |

Unpaid domestic work is a burden on Indian women who are leaving formal work spaces to fulfill household duties. This unpaid labor, and women’s interests in general, are often left out of policy discussions, notes Ritu Dewan, Indian feminist economist. Jayati Ghosh, another economist, notes that women perform much more domestic work than men, leading to what is called time poverty. Action Aid, an international non-profit organization in Ghana, models and quantifies unpaid work, defining four main areas: unpaid care work, climate resistant sustainable agriculture, access to markets and violence against women. Time use surveys have led to legislation changes that can better distribute household duties. In Uruguay, for example, the state is responsible for providing care, freeing up more paid and leisure time for women.  Photo Credit: Vikas Choudhary

1 03, 2018

The Formal Economy as Patriarchy: Vandana Shiva’s Radical Vision

2020-11-07T18:03:44-05:00Tags: |

At the Bond conference in London on international development, Vandana Shiva is a voice out of the chorus. Anti-“empowerment,” anti-“jobs,” and anti-“formal economy,” she rejects many of the mainstream women advancement narratives. According to her, the biggest challenge is getting to the point where women’s power, knowledge and production are being recognized. This is not possible within the framework of the formal economy because it is defined on the terms of the patriarchy by those in control of nature and society. Women living under principles of autonomy and dignity are called an informal economy, but they are simply living in a different system where the power of men over women is not the organizing principle. Photo credit: Stefano Guidi/Corbis via Getty Image 

19 02, 2018

Realizing The Potential Of Wool: Q&A With Marie Hoff Of Full Circle Wool

2018-07-13T17:20:14-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Marie Hoff shares her efforts to embed environmental stewardship in local agricultural practices. An industrious entrepreneur committed to sustainability, she operates the Capella Grazing Project and launched Full Circle Wool last year, marrying the principles of carbon farming with wool production. Hoff produces wool and wool products that reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change by leveraging sustainable production processes and by displacing petroleum-based products. She hopes to improve people’s perception of wool as a resource through Full Circle Wool and by promoting the growth and expansion of industrial mills in the United States. US-based processing and manufacturing. Photo credit: Food and Fibers Project

14 12, 2017

Seattle, 1999: Diverse Women For Diversity Declaration To WTO

2018-02-14T22:08:45-05:00Tags: |

In response to events at the 2017 World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, Indian seed-saving organization, Navdanya, released this article, which honors and calls to attention the Diverse Women For Diversity Declaration, which was issued during the 1999 Seattle WTO meeting. The full declaration shares women’s analysis and responses to how genetically modified seeds, intellectual property rights, and patents are impacting food, medicine and agriculture systems; Indigenous peoples rights and lands; and the health of the Earth. The declaration calls out the WTO and its unchecked support of free markets and unjust economies, presenting a collective voice of women standing for life and diversity - and against the interconnected dangers of the global war system, corporate free market economy, and agribusiness industry.

13 12, 2017

Meet The Woman Who’s Boosting Arizona’s Mom-And-Pop Business Culture

2018-07-13T17:17:42-04:00Tags: |

Kimber Lanning is a distinguished advocate for local economic development in Arizona. Starting in 2003, she has built, Local First Arizona, into the largest alliance of local businesses in the United States. She actively eschews the tools and frameworks of traditional community developers who create jobs through large subsidies to big corporate chains. Lanning recognizes the benefits of a robust local economy, including economic competitiveness, greater diversity, commitment to sustainability, and intrinsic community-building and place-making value. She helps to level the playing field for Arizona’s homegrown businesses through myth-busting campaigns, an annual festival, a public directory, a Spanish micro-entrepreneurship program, and adaptive reuse programs to leverage old buildings for local entrepreneurs. Photo credit: YES! Magazine

2 12, 2017

30 Books By People Of Color About Plants And Healing

2018-03-02T13:55:54-05:00Tags: |

Queering Herbalism present a diverse list of 30 books by people of color on herbalism and holistic healing. Although many black, brown and Indigenous communities rely heavily on oral traditions, many barriers exist when they seek to become published, meaning most books on this topic are written by white people. Books on this list cover topics from Indigenous rites of birthing, to African American Slave Medicine, and feature prominent herbalists and healers, such as Ayo Ngozi, who teaches herbal history and medicine making.

21 11, 2017

Global Warming Might Be Especially Dangerous For Pregnant Women

2020-04-24T16:52:12-04:00Tags: |

Women scientists are finding that climate change will likely pose significant threats to pregnant women and their embyros, a group often left out of public health concerns. Rupa Basu, chief of air and climate epidemiology at the California Environmental Protection Agency, had been researching the connection between health risks and air pollution for the past decade, and looked more into the effects of temperature. Her research found that increasing heat and humidity raise the likelihood of premature and stillbirths every year. Similar conclusions were found by Nathalie Auger at Quebec’s institute for public health, as well as by Pauline Mendola and Sandie Ha at Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Mendola and Ha’s study found that a temperature increase in the top 10 percent range of a woman’s region could mean 1,000 more stillbirths every year, much higher than the researchers expected. Pregnant women are not often considered a group vulnerable to heat, according to Sabrina McCormick, a sociologist at George Washington University, which makes these findings an urgent call to reframe public health. While these and other researchers are eager to collect more data, it’s clear that pregnancy calls for more precautions and awareness amid climate change. Photo Credit: BLEND IMAGES / PEATHEGEE INC / GETTY

21 11, 2017

The Long Tradition Of Folk Healing Among Southern Appalachian Women

2018-07-13T15:26:40-04:00Tags: |

Byron Ballard is a self-proclaimed village witch who specializes in Southern Appalachian folk magic. Like many local healers, she relies on the traditions passed down from generations before her – traditions with roots in Paganism, Protestantism, and pragmatism. According to Ballard, it’s a mixture of “medicine and midwifery, omen-reading and weather-working”. The Cherokee and Choctaw were the first to really understand the natural healing properties of the Appalachian resources. This knowledge fused with understandings of medicine and religion that came with the arrival of Europeans. Appalachian folk medicine recognizes an interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit; it is, at its core, a presumption of the highest goodness of nature. Since families in Appalachia often live far from urban centers and hospitals, these healers continue to be an important part of communities from West Virginia to Mississippi. Photo credit: Anjo Kan/Alamy

20 10, 2017

Indigenous Women Take Pipeline Activism Global

2017-11-01T10:52:53-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Cook, a Diné human rights lawyer, founding member of the of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock, and delegate to the Autumn 2017 Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation to Europe, speaks on Rising Up With Sonali TV, providing hard hitting analysis of why financial and political institutions are morally and legally obligated to change their practices to respect Indigenous rights, human rights and the Earth - and how Indigenous women are taking action to push for this accountability and action in some of the European nations home to major investors and institutions funding fossil fuel extraction projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

1 10, 2017

Why Native American Women Are Going After Europe’s Banks to Divest From Big Oil

2017-11-01T04:52:40-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women leaders from the United States traveled to Europe in October 2017, where they met with leaders of government and financial institutions in Norway, Switzerland, and Germany to share their experiences, and calls to action for immediate action to divest funding from the Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners, as well as other dangerous fossil fuel extraction projects across Indigenous lands. In this Yes! Magazine interview, delegate Jackie Fielder (Mnicoujou Lakota and Mandan-Hidatsa), campaign coordinator of Lakota People’s Law Project and organizer with Mazaska Talks, discusses the events of the Delegation, as well as ongoing global, Indigenous-led movements for fossil fuel divestment such as the Divest The Globe and Equator Banks Act campaigns. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

25 09, 2017

Linking Gender, Economic And Ecological Justice: Feminist Perspectives From Latin America

2017-09-25T08:24:34-04:00Tags: |

This is an analysis by Alejandra Santillana Ortiz, from Ecuador, who's an alumnae of DAWN's GEEJ training institute. Ortiz correlates the role of the Global South in extracting to export for the Global North, including the agricultural industry, mining, and oil companies, with the role of women in extractivism. Women are more vulnerable to the dangers in this practice (such as the effects of water pollution and seed contamination), but they are also leaders in feminist movements for equality in the workforce and gender equity in general. Alejandra questions the practice of extractivism in Latin America as part of the patriarchy and capitalism, and how it affects women from this region. Photo credit: DAWN

24 09, 2017

The Feminist Economics Peer-Reviewed Journal

2017-10-31T20:34:31-04:00Tags: |

Feminist Economics is a peer-reviewed journal that collects, publishes and advances research on women’s work and feminist economics to challenge the current global model of capitalism. Rooted in international research and case studies, Feminist Economics displays wide-ranging examples of women centered economies, women’s reproductive labor, and global trends regarding women’s land-based work historically and today. The journal brings forward issues surrounding all forms of women’s work, but also often demonstrates the multidimensional potential of an economy founded in feminist principles including the links between women’s work, land, environment and climate change. Photo Credit: http://www.feministeconomics.org/

11 09, 2017

Winona LaDuke: “Time To Move On” From Exploiting, Ignoring Nature

2018-02-20T18:53:16-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous rights activist, and advocate for women and the Earth, Winona LaDuke, addressed a crowd at Johns Hopkins University as part of the JHU Forums on Race in America, “Time to move on”. LaDuke is part of the Ojibwe or Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota, the founder of the Indigenous Women’s Network, White Earth Land Recovery Project, and Executive Director of Honor the Earth. Sharing stories from her life, LaDuke emphasizes the importance of Indigenous knowledge and the need for society to move from an economy based on exploitation and the rights of corporations, to one based on life and the rights of nature. Photo credit: Will Kirk/ Homewood Photography

31 08, 2017

Bulk Buy: Why Zero-Waste Supermarkets Are The New, Old Way To Shop

2017-09-25T08:26:43-04:00Tags: |

Ingrid Caldironi opened a market in London in mid-2017, focused on zero-waste consumption. The market is located on Dalston's Kingsland Road, and targets people looking to have a more sustainable lifestyle. Caldironi decided to open Bulk Market after reading an inspiring story of a New York woman  living a zero-waste life, and realized that very few people were taking actual steps to solve the issue of waste on the planet. The owner mentions how such lifestyle has proved to be financially smart for her, and shows that buying in big glass jars and deleting plastic out of your life is a great way to save money. Photo credit: Sara Lee/The Guardian

26 08, 2017

Kate Raworth Breaks Down Reality-Based Economics On The Laura Flanders Show

2017-10-26T23:05:42-04:00Tags: |

In this episode of The Laura Flanders Show, Kate Raworth, an advisory member of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, breaks down the process of thinking like a reality-based economist in the 21st century. Raworth discusses how economic growth came to supersede human and environmental welfare in Western society and argues we must revise our system of economic thinking to meet current environmental and social challenges. Additionally, Donna Andrews and Kashmira Banee chat about extractive systems, eco-feminism, and life on the planet. Photo credit: The Laura Flanders Show

26 08, 2017

TreeSisters Want Women To Wear Their Love For The Earth

2017-10-26T22:58:53-04:00Tags: |

Treesisters is inspiring earth-loving women to take action to protect the planet through more eco-conscious fashion choices. This blog details the ways in which individuals can avoid trends that are detrimental to the environment like “fast fashion” and make more earth-friendly decisions such as opting for recycled clothing, shopping locally, or purchasing sustainable fabrics to create a healthier planet for the future. Photo credit: TreeSisters

23 08, 2017

How An Environmental Activist Became A Pioneer For Climate Justice In India

2018-01-23T20:10:25-05:00Tags: |

Sunita Narain, an environmental activist and Director of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India shares powerful analysis on the responsibility that wealthy countries have to take action to address their liability for global climate impacts, which is unjustly impacting citizens of ‘developing’ and low-income nations. She calls for climate justice, and for the Indian government to grow the country in a manner that relies on sustainability and equity, instead of copying western development mechanisms that bring harm. Photo credit: Centre for Science and Environment

18 08, 2017

Counting The Cost Of Fast Fashion

2017-10-31T20:01:29-04:00Tags: |

This article at the 1 Million Women website, written by Alice Payne, presents the issue of fast fashion, with the cycle of new products being faster every season, which leads to the unsustainable issue of overconsumption in Australia (including popular stores such as Zara and Topshop). Payne analyses the results of this practice, such as rising fiber prices and the increase of purchases of clothes overseas, then introduces possible adaptation measures, including recycling materials for a more sustainable clothing industry. Photo credit: 1millionwomen

3 08, 2017

A Trailblazing Entrepreneur Is Opening A Zero-Waste Grocery Store In Ottawa

2017-11-01T23:36:18-04:00Tags: |

After learning that a zero waste lifestyle really is possible, former French teacher Valerie Leloup started Ottawa’s first zero waste grocery store. Leloup is joining a wave of female leaders that are focused on eliminating harmful levels of waste by providing 250 food and non-food products in bulk, compostable, reusable or unpackaged form at Nu Grocery Inc. The proposition is a sustainable alternative to the 1984 pounds of waste each Canadian household produces every year. Photo credit: Alex Tétreault

1 08, 2017

Low-Energy Homes Don’t Just Save Money; They Improve Lives

2017-10-31T20:39:13-04:00Tags: |

This article from 1 Million Women presents results on research about low-energy houses as opposed to regular houses, which take up a lot of energy and are a great factor of global carbon emissions. Specifically, it analyses the Lochiel Park Green Village in the South of Australia, a neighborhood of 103 zero-energy houses. Among the results are the significant health improvements on the people living in these sustainable homes, including a decision to quit smoking cigarettes by a woman living in one of the environmentally-friendly places. The advantages are also economic, as not having to pay energy bills saves a great amount of money for the residents. Photo credit: 1 Million Women

26 07, 2017

1 Million Women Advocates For Zero Waste Periods Worldwide

2017-10-26T23:01:58-04:00Tags: |

Maria Nguyen created this informative piece for 1 Million Women to advocate that women shift toward environmentally sustainable feminine hygiene products like menstrual cups and reusable pads. It takes about 500-800 years for plastic wrappings and tampon applicators to degrade in a landfill and over the course of a lifetime, the average woman who uses single-use products will discard over 11,000 tampons or pads. Moving away from single-use products would have a profound impact on the amount of waste an individual generates in her lifetime. The blog serves as a resource for women who require information on the issue of feminine product waste and how individuals can make more sustainable choices. Photo credit: 1 Million Women

25 07, 2017

Helen And Sylvia: A Transformative Friendship

2020-10-06T23:38:51-04:00Tags: |

In partnership with the the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), the global feminist organization MADRE facilitated an exchange of farming knowledge between two indigeous Kenyan women, Hellen and Sylvia. Hellen is a mother of five living in Chepareria, Kenya. She is a member of the Pokot Indigenous People and sells crops from her one acre farm. Sylvia, a Maasai woman, lives 250 miles away in Ololulunga, Kenya. With her maize crops dying due to drought, Sylvia was struggling to support herself and her family. At a MADRE event, the two women met each other, and Helena showed Sylvia her small poultry farm. Inspired by Helena’s poultry farm, Sylvia started her own. She now sells chicken eggs at the local market and finds it easier to support her family. Photo Credit:madre.org

23 07, 2017

Women Of India Up In Arms Against Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

2018-01-23T17:48:54-05:00Tags: |

Women from all over India marched and protested together  in Hyderabad, in opposition to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. This partnership is based on destructive model of development which violates the rights of farmers, dalits, land rights, Indigenous women, minorities, fisherwomen, labour rights and more. Burnad Fatima, member of Federation of Women Farmers Rights, Tamil Nadu describes how this mega free trade agreement will affect the women through impacts on land rights, migration and trafficking. Similarly, Albertina Almeida and Kate Lappin from Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development express deep concerns about the trade agreement.

17 07, 2017

Democracy And An Ecologically Sound Future

2017-10-08T22:57:31-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights the work of Heather McGhee, the president of the public policy organization Demos, which means "the people." Heather works towards more equatable economics, as well as for environmental justice. She was one of the speakers at the Bioneers conference in October 2017, titled "Uprising Bioneers," in San Rafael, California. Photo credit: Bioneers

3 07, 2017

Why Co-ops Matter For Women Around The World

2017-10-14T16:39:00-04:00Tags: |

Women in countries including Guatemala (Angelita Paz Cardona), East Timor (Abelina dos Santos), and Senegal (Khady Ciss) are taking the lead in their communities to work towards resiliency by starting and managing co-op businesses. These co-ops, including many farming and food services, help increase women’s economic participation and leadership, while also creating more sustainable models of local production and consumption. Photo credit: NCBA International  

1 07, 2017

Yes To The People’s Movement: Naomi Klein

2017-10-27T19:59:10-04:00Tags: |

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything and No Is Not Enough, speaks with the Laura Flanders Show about her latest book, which explores the depth of the capitalist crisis, what it means for the Earth and global communities, and how movements of resistance and change can continue to take hold and change the global story of wealth and exploitation. Photo credit: Laura Flanders Show

1 07, 2017

Biography Of Denise Abdul-Rahman

2017-11-01T17:52:30-04:00Tags: |

Denise Abdul-Rahman is a powerful woman leader who has spent her career working at the intersection of racial, climate and economic justice. For example, she has facilitated community trainings on “Bridging the Gap: Connecting Black Communities to the Green Economy,” and led the Just Energy Campaign to stop Indianapolis Power Light from burning coal. Abdul-Rahman holds a variety of titles: she serves the NAACP Indiana as an Environmental Climate Justice Chair, sits on the Climate Justice Alliance Steering Committee, was a Credentialed Delegate to Paris COP21 with the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and was a USCAN 2016 Conference Steering Committee member. Photo credit: Kheprw Institute

26 06, 2017

1 Million Women Takes On Plastic-Free July Challenge

2017-10-26T23:00:30-04:00Tags: |

Women staff members from 1 Million Women, a nonprofit based in Australia, took part in the 2017 Plastic Free July Challenge and shared their experiences in this blog. Founder and CEO Natalie Isaacs argued that it is critical to limit our individual impact on the environment in the age of climate change so in pledging to get as close to plastic-free as possible in their lives, staff members made meaningful strides toward reducing waste. Photo credit: 1 Million Women

14 06, 2017

The Future Of Work: Consider The Changing Climate

2020-10-23T22:30:08-04:00Tags: |

Juliet B. Schor is a professor of sociology at Boston College who in this article weighs in on the most consequential changes in the future workplace. Whilst conversations about the future of work are mostly about machines, she claims that an analysis of the context must include consideration of climate change because it promises to be extremely disruptive. However, an apocalyptic future is not our only option. Her studies show that countries with higher average annual hours of work have higher carbon emissions, and the opposite is also true. “If we could open our imaginations to a society in which good jobs did not come with killer schedules, we’d reap many benefits” - she claims. In addition to reducing carbon pollution, both men and women could achieve “work/family balance”, have time for hobbies and participate in political life. Photo credit: Tatiana Grozetskaya/Shutterstock

14 06, 2017

World Employment And Social Outlook: Trends For Women 2017

2017-09-25T08:28:35-04:00Tags: |

The report "World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends for Women 2017" was published in 2017 by the International Labor Organization (ILO), specifically by the Labor Market Trends and Policy Evaluation Unit of the ILO Research Department in Geneva, Switzerland. The report analyzes the labor trends and gender gaps in the global market. The socioeconomic barriers that women face everywhere in the world and the gender norms established by society are aspects considered by the report in terms of female labor force participation. It takes into account the differences between women living in urban areas and in rural areas, and concludes that having equal rights in the workforce would improve individual welfare. Photo credit: AWID  

13 06, 2017

“A Transformative Vision”: Naomi Klein on Platforms for Racial, Health & Climate Justice Under Trump

2020-10-23T22:41:01-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Canadian journalist, columnist and best-selling author Naomi Klein talks about the broad lines of the Leap Manifesto – Caring for the Earth and One Another. The success of neoliberalism, she argues, is based on the fallacy it is the only viable economic system; that no matter how bad its policies, the alternative would be worse. However, the Leap Manifesto in Canada expresses the transformative vision stemming from the courage to step forward and envision a different kind of economy in which everyone is provided with quality healthcare and education. The manifesto, endorsed by 220 grassroots and NGO organisations, thrives on utopian imagination and advocates for a transition towards progressive trade policy, which includes broader issues on alternatives to fossil fuel, solidarity with refugees, racial justice and indigenous rights. Klein asserts that the bold people’s platforms emerging from grassroots social movements will lead politicians to follow suit.

13 06, 2017

Full Interview: Naomi Klein On Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics

2017-10-31T20:35:02-04:00Tags: |

Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate has been called the bible of the climate justice movement. It cuts straight to the chase in identifying capitalism as the principal culprit of climate change, through stories from the global movement that widely uses the slogan “system change, not climate change.” Klein also notes that the ‘capitalist patriarchy’ is subordinating women’s bodies and the earth. In her new book No Is Not Enough, Klein takes on the catastrophic decisions President Trump is making on global climate progress by denying that climate change exists and by infamously pulling out of the acclaimed 2015 Paris climate accord. Yet, despite the setbacks caused by Trump, Klein explains that the climate movement is stepping up and fighting hard against the dangerous impacts that climate change policy will have on the interlinked issues of race, gender and economic inequality under Trump’s administration. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

8 06, 2017

Fashion Forward: Women’s Sewing Cooperatives Support Climate Resistance

2017-09-24T16:33:52-04:00Tags: |

Mrs. Hadizatou Ebiliki and women in her community are breaking down gender barriers and building climate-resilient income streams via sewing. Recurrent droughts, inconsistent rainfall and climate change are impacting the stability of Niger’s economy, forcing people to migrate and look for alternative sources of income. Sewing provides one such alternative livelihood. Women like 16-year-old Halima Ousseïni are able to acquire skills to hold a stable sewing job, unthreatened by the climate crisis. The collective of 40 women have influenced a growing trend of sewing collectives in the region. Photo credit: Julie Teng/UNDP Niger

6 06, 2017

Planting The Seeds Of Degrowth In Times Of Crisis: Examples From Greece

2017-09-25T07:54:22-04:00Tags: |

In Greece 48 women’s cooperatives are challenging neoliberalism with an environmentally conscious degrowth economy. The popularity of women’s cooperatives rose when many women lost their jobs during the disastrous economic crisis. The success of these cooperatives comes from a wider support for traditional products that can be linked directly to local land and communities. Women produce and pack traditional Greek delicacies themselves, such as orange jam. Kolektivas is the name of a network of larger cooperatives at the city level where women are also taking leading roles. Photo credit: womensassociations.gr

1 06, 2017

Helena Norberg-Hodge: Society Should Shape Business – Not The Other Way Round

2017-11-01T11:09:11-04:00Tags: |

Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of organizations such as Local Futures and the Global Ecovillage Network,  is a vocal global advocate for localization of economies to truly meet the needs of people and planet. She demands a world that values wellness and sustainability over profit, a term she has coined ‘the economics of happiness’. This Guardian article profiles her life and invaluable contributions to movements for new economy, sustainable living, wellbeing and a just transition to renewable systems.

26 05, 2017

The Laura Flanders Show: Women And The New Economy

2017-10-26T23:03:44-04:00Tags: |

In “Women and the New Economy,” The Laura Flanders Show features interviews with Sarah Leonard, senior editor at The Nation; Shirley Sherrod, founder of Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education; Farah Tanis, co-founder and executive director of Black Women’s Blueprint; Ai-Jen Poo, director of National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-founder of Domestic Workers United; and Pavlina R. Tcherneva from the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. This video provides an overview of how women bear the burdens of a neoliberal economic system. Photo credit: The Laura Flanders Show

18 05, 2017

Savvy Seniors Enjoy Their Golden Years Off The Grid

2017-09-24T16:39:46-04:00Tags: |

Retirees Bette Presley, Dani and Adele are making big commitments to a sustainable lifestyle by moving into customized tiny homes. Solar power, small-scale appliances, and space efficiency characterize these sustainable houses. Retiree Dani’s, a disabled widow, has constructed an accessible home with a custom wheelchair ramp and a wide-set front entrance. A custom made chair lift transports her to her sleeping loft. Photo credit: inhabitat

17 05, 2017

Feminist Economics And Degrowth

2017-10-31T20:35:22-04:00Tags: |

Researchers Jannis Eicker and Katharina Keil get serious about the inherent feminist aspects of degrowth economics. They question the overlying assumption that gender liberation can be achieved through women’s integration into capitalism and wage labor, and challenge the idea that suddenly paying for the unpaid labor women have done for ages will somehow remedy gender discrimination and provide solutions to linked environmental problems. Instead, Eicker and Keil jump on the degrowth bandwagon with the intention of infusing it with a feminist economics that envisions an environmentally sustainable economy. 

3 05, 2017

View: Women, Climate, Jobs And Justice

2017-10-31T19:57:34-04:00Tags: |

The April 29, 2017, People’s Climate March was billed as a mobilization for ‘climate, justice and jobs.’ In the lead-up to the march, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization argues that in transitioning to a renewable energy economy, we should also transform the gendered nature of economic labor to promote equity in the workplace. With the use of charts, they showcase the opportunity we have to increase women’s leadership and participation in the new energy economy.

1 05, 2017

Why Cameron Russell and the Model Mafia Think the Fashion Industry Needs to Take a Stand on Sustainability

2019-01-21T19:37:03-05:00Tags: |

Cameron Russell, a fashion model, cares about climate change, and is working to get the fashion industry on board too. When the 2017 People’s Climate March called for supporters, she got a handful of models to bring art and their voices to the streets, forming the Model Mafia. These models are using their cultural capital and media spotlight to spread awareness: Hawa Hassan, a Somali-American woman, wants more people to know about climate refugees. Ebony Davis wants to highlight how people of color are disproportionately affected by climate change. While sustainable fashion is often a buzzword, these models want to push for lasting changes in production and consumption habits that lead to climate justice. Photo Credit: Gabriela Celeste

1 05, 2017

Standing Against The Banks: DAPL Divestment And Water Protectors’ Fight For Justice, Indigenous Rights, Water And Life

2017-11-01T05:00:19-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Cook, a Dine/Navajo human rights lawyer and founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock, and Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, share an in-depth analysis on the need for Indigenous-women led movements to push policymakers and financial institutions to divest funding from fossil fuel extraction projects across Indigenous territories and around the world, drawing on their experiences in Europe during the Spring 2017 Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation to Norway and Switzerland.

26 04, 2017

Michelle Kovacevic Hopes To Inspire Widespread Action On Climate Change

2017-10-26T22:57:15-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Kovacevic pledged to adjust her lifestyle to have less impact on the environment and hopes that by doing her part, she will inspire others to take action on climate change. As part of her pledge, she factors in her personal contribution to pollution whenever she decides how to travel for work, for example, choosing trains or automobiles instead of flying. She also bicycles more and invests in renewable energy research, among other eco-conscious choices. Her pledge is part of the Victoria Government’s TAKE2 collective climate initiative to support individuals, businesses, government entities, and community organizations in reaching net zero emissions by 2050. Photo credit: Shuttershock

26 04, 2017

Toronto General Hospital Nurse’s Plastic Collection Transformed Into Mural

2017-10-26T00:04:28-04:00Tags: |

Tilda Shalof is turning 28 years of collected medical waste into sentimental art murals that illustrate the medical care world and patient’s stories. As an Intensive Care Unit nurse at Toronto General Hospital, Shalof has always viewed the plastic caps and waste from syringe coverings and other medical implements as meaningful colorful bits connected to caring for the ill, and never as garbage. Each of the around 100 sterilized pieces she’s been collecting every day have been reused to create a stunning and powerful four-by-nine feet medical art piece made of 10,000 plastic pieces. Photo credit: Steve Russell/Toronto Star

13 04, 2017

Indigenous Women Of Standing Rock Resistance Movement Speak Out On Divestment

2017-10-19T22:35:32-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women from Standing Rock and their allies who observed and experienced human and Indigenous rights violations in North Dakota due to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) traveled to Norway and Switzerland in the spring of 2017 to share their stories as women leaders living and working in communities directly impacted by fossil fuel development and infrastructure. Wasté Win Young, Standing Rock Sioux leader and former tribal historic preservation officer; Tara Houska, Anishinaabe tribal attorney, national campaigns director of Honor the Earth and former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders; Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota pediatrician living and working on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation; Autumn Chacon, Diné artist and water protector; and Michelle Cook, Diné human rights lawyer and founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective all met with actors including Den Norske Bank (DNB), the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund Global, and the Norwegian Parliament to advocate for divestment from fossil fuels and respect for Indigenous rights. During their time in Europe, the presence of delegation members helped tip the scale for announcements of a large divestment by DNB.

12 04, 2017

Finally, A Breakthrough Alternative To Growth Economics: The Doughnut

2017-09-24T20:09:59-04:00Tags: |

Economist Kate Raworth is linking a faulty neoliberal economic model to outdated and destructive concepts of the Rational Economic Man. Instead, she is advocating for a doughnut economy that puts environmental and societal well-being first. The outer ring of the doughnut represents the ecological ceiling of an economy, while the inner ring shows the resources needed to sustain a good life for all humans. The hole in the middle indicates the billions of people around the world who live in deprivation. Living within the doughnut means investing in wealth equality, which is intrinsically linked to respecting environmental limits. Photo credit: Kate Raworth and Christian Guthier/The Lancet Planetary Health

1 04, 2017

Jill Mangaliman – How Can The Economy Be Equitable And Environmentally Sustainable?

2017-11-01T21:27:14-04:00Tags: |

Jill Mangaliman is the Executive Director of Seattle-based Got Green, a people of color-led organization that works on climate change, racial and immigrant justice, and economic empowerment. In this talk at the Next System Teach-In, they discuss Indigenous economic models of abundance that centered on health of people and the land as an alternative to capitalist and colonialist exploitation, and discussed the fight against the erasure of people of color in the environmental movement. Photo credit: TalkingstickTV

26 03, 2017

Women Leaders Using Social Media To Change The Way We Live

2017-10-26T22:55:32-04:00Tags: |

This blog, curated and published by 1 Million Women, showcases the work of five female Eco-YouTubers who are using social media to spread information and share the many ways that individuals can fight climate change through lifestyle choices. Bonny Rebecca discusses how a vegan diet aids in water conservation; Lauren Singer manages Trash is For Tossers, a video blog that offers zero-waste tips; Rachel Aust inspires her viewers to live minimalistically; Keiran from Thrifted Living focuses on DIY and sustainable fashion choices; and Natasha from ThatVeganCouple discusses vegan diets and advocates for minimalist lifestyles. Photo credit: 1 Million Women

26 03, 2017

A Call To Action: Insights Into The Status Of Funding For Indigenous Women’s Groups

2017-10-26T16:21:07-04:00Tags: |

In this report the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP), International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI), and AWID discuss the need for increased attention to make funding resources available directly to frontline Indigenous women so that they may themselves shape agendas and decisions affecting their lives and territories. The report is presented with the understanding that Indigenous women’s solutions are imperative for any effective action to address climate change and other pressing global concerns. Photo credit: AWID

24 03, 2017

Pink Power: Women Drive Rickshaws In Pakistan

2017-09-24T16:35:56-04:00Tags: |

Zar Aslam serves as President of the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) in Lahore, and also founded of EPFs all-women Rink Rickshaw Initiative transportation service. Providing services to only female clients, the Rink Rickshaw Initiative has become a household name in providing safe, empowering transportation to local women who otherwise face street harassment in public in Lahore. This outcome is a women-led local economy that provides low-carbon transportation and financial independence for female drivers in addition to accessibility, safety, and confidence for commuting women. Photo credit: Pink Rickshaw Scheme

22 03, 2017

No Job Is Impossible For Women

2017-10-14T16:11:39-04:00Tags: |

Soledad Miranda is among the emerging group of women construction workers of La Paz, Bolivia. She started working at age seven and received no schooling, like many other indigenous girls in her community. She survived an abusive marriage and she migrated with her 12 children to La Paz. First, she washed clothes and sold soda and beer in the streets. After four years in La Paz, she managed to find a job as a construction worker for the municipal government. Along with over 450 other women, she received training in painting, plumbing, coatings/insulations, tiling and remodeling. Construction work is no longer a man’s job in La Paz, it is increasingly done by women who are trained and economically empowered. Today, she dreams of building her own construction company. Photo credit: UN Women/David Villegas

8 03, 2017

Why We Need Feminist Economists

2017-10-16T17:43:00-04:00Tags: |

Naila Kabber, professor of Gender and International Development at the London School of Economics Gender Institute, wants us to know why we need feminist economics. Like climate change, Kabber argues that mainstream economic policies disproportionately affect women. Feminist economics speaks out against neoliberal and macroeconomic policy, arguing that the logic of profit is built on the backs of women, minorities and the environment. Feminist economics demands an economy that recognizes the interdependence between the productive growth measures that exclusively define neoliberalism and the reproductive labor of women that goes heavily unaccounted for. Photo Credit: sinister pictures/Demotix/Demotix/Press Association Images

28 02, 2017

Denmark Reduces Food Waste By 25% In Five Years With Selina Juul’s Help

2017-09-24T16:31:48-04:00Tags: |

One woman spearheaded Denmark’s effort to cut food waste by 25% in five years. Selina Juul founded the organization Stop Spild Af Mad (Stop Wasting Food), which convinced larger supermarket chains to discount food that would usually go wasted, and to give away food items that otherwise get tossed in the dumpster. Juul’s influence has led to the opening of Wefood in Copenhagen, a surplus supermarket that is selling products at discounts of up to 50 percent. Photo credit: Daniela De Lorenzo/The Independent

27 01, 2017

Malnad Mela, A Biodiversity Festival Founded By Women

2017-10-27T00:03:38-04:00Tags: |

Malnad Mela, an Indian biodiversity festival, started when Kamala, a farmer from the Malnad region, donated seeds to a seed exchange. The initiative started a community of women farmers called Vanastree, Kanada for “forest women.” A few years after that, their action grows into what became the biodiversity fair, where women exchange experiences and advice about seed conservation, biodiversity and sustainable farming. Photo credit: The Economic Times

25 01, 2017

Home-Grown Kenyan Solar Farm Powers Computers And Protects Girls

2017-09-29T19:11:13-04:00Tags: |

Ten years ago, residents of the village of Olosho-Oibor decided to install solar panels to meet their most basic energy needs, as they had no connection to the national power grid. They never thought that the solar farm project would grow to become an energy provider for computers used by women entrepreneurs for their businesses, children who need to study long hours, and a centre that protects girls from early marriage and female genital mutilation. Photo credit: TRF/Benson Rioba

17 01, 2017

Rachel Carson : The American Experience

2020-11-20T17:41:36-05:00Tags: |

Writer and biologist Rachel Carson published the controversial book Silent Spring in September, 1962. Prior to writing Silent Spring, Carson was already one of the most celebrated writers in the United States, known for her work’s emphasis on the natural world. In Silent Spring, Carson unveils the damaging effects of the renowned synthetic pesticide DDT. She provides a counter-argument to the narrative of human domination of the natural world, and warns that humans need to take caution against the detrimental environmental effects their actions create. Silent Spring forced the United States to question its relationship with the environment, as well as its rapidly industrializing methods of agriculture. Photo Credit: Screenshot

5 01, 2017

All-Women Alliance Tackles Industrial Pollution in Colombia

2017-10-29T21:51:56-04:00Tags: |

Colombia’s highly polluting construction industry is being transformed by an all-women alliance ready to make industrialization sustainable in efforts to help tackle climate change. The Fostering Cleaner Production Initiative invites Colombian women to take on industrial pollution for a greener future. Women within the initiative are being trained to bring pollution prevention to their current positions that deal with water, sewage, and varying construction companies. These women are being credited for the industry transitioning into renewable energies, and lowering waste. Photo credit: UN Climate Change Climate Action

1 01, 2017

Katherine Lucey And The Solar Sisters Revolution

2017-10-02T23:10:36-04:00Tags: |

Energy poverty affects 1.6 billion people around the world, most of them women and girls. Understanding women’s crucial role in family well-being and economic prosperity, Katherine Lucey founded Solar Sisters to recruit, train and mentor women to build sustainable businesses selling portable solar lamps, mobile phone chargers and clean cookstoves. The organization supports female entrepreneurs with sales and distribution of renewable energy equipment and, since its launch, has employed more than 1,000 women. Photo credit: Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

1 01, 2017

What Does Environmental Justice Organizing Look Like In The Time Of Trump?

2017-11-01T21:29:40-04:00Tags: |

Miya Yoshitani, executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), got her start as an organizer in the 1990s. In her career she has worked on fossil fuel resistance, for example stopping the expansion of a local Chevron refinery, and also on building a just transition to a new economy. APEN has been collaborating with organizations like Cooperation Richmond, which builds local wealth by nurturing worker- and community-owned co-ops. Yoshitani is a powerful climate woman leader who is not backing down in the Trump era. Photo credit: Grist

26 12, 2016

Indigenous Women Artisans Defend Their Livelihood And The Environment

2017-10-26T23:14:11-04:00Tags: |

Sumara and other Indigenous artisans are using traditional techniques when crafting necklaces and pottery to generate sustainable incomes for their families. The women live in an area of the Ecuadorian Amazon often greatly exploited by extractive industries. The HAKHU Project supports the women artisans so they may continue nurturing their culture’s traditions and highlight forms of non-extractive economy that ultimately empower Indigenous people. Photo credit: Ian Frank/HAKHU Project

30 11, 2016

Winona LaDuke: Economics For The Seventh Generation

2017-09-24T20:29:49-04:00Tags: |

Renowned Anishinaabekwe leader, writer and activist Winona LaDuke presents a case for an economics that considers much more than economic profit and growth. Just two days after the election of President Donald Trump, LaDuke spoke to Oregon State University about the future of Standing Rock and the overlapping issues of Indigenous rights, energy, food sovereignty and climate justice. Her outstanding multidimensional presentation proposes paths forward to a post-carbon economy where mother earth is respected and gender relations balanced. Photo Credit: Oregon State University School of History, Philosophy, and Religion

1 11, 2016

Illicit Financial Flows: Why We Should Claim These Resources For Gender, Economic And Social Justice

2017-11-01T00:51:15-04:00Tags: |

The Association for Women’s Rights in Development organized this policy report to explore how illicit financial flows affect women, especially in developing countries. They suggest ways to reverse the negative impacts and advocate for stronger regulation on financial issues, through supporting feminist and gender justice organizations and advocates. Photo credit: AWID Women’s Rights

31 10, 2016

Funders Go Fossil Free

2017-10-31T19:17:26-04:00Tags: |

On Global Divestment Day, members of Rachel's Network, a coalition of women's environmental funders, pledged to divest their stock holdings from the fossil fuel industry. Online tools such as the As You Sow website and the Divest-Invest movement are helping individuals and investors to make sure their money does not support oil, coal and gas companies. Photo credit: Rachel's Network

26 10, 2016

Judy Wicks Discusses Local Living Economies At Bioneers Event

2017-10-26T22:48:11-04:00Tags: |

Judy Wicks, entrepreneur, activist and co-founder of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), presented this discussion, “Business for the Common Good: Building Local Living Economies in the Age of Climate Change” at a 2016 Bioneers event. Wicks explains what the local living economy movement is about and why businesses should focus on this model that maximizes human relationships over profit and respects the rights of nature. Photo credit: Bioneers

26 10, 2016

Ghana’s Eco-Friendly Bamboo Bikes

2017-10-26T00:00:35-04:00Tags: |

Ghanaian women and young people are taking sustainable commuting to the next level by constructing custom made bicycles out of the local material bamboo, grown by local farmers. Ghana Bamboo Bikes woman CEO and founder Bernice Dapaah has met the highest standards of innovating and shaping just, sustainable, new economies. Each bike is 100% recyclable and for every bamboo plant used, another ten are planted. After training and employing 35 locals, including people with disabilities, Dapaah wants to relieve more unemployment by hiring another 50 locals while also growing the localized ecological economy she has created in her community. Photo credit: AP

24 10, 2016

The Women Fighting Hunger One Neighborhood At A Time

2018-01-24T19:02:50-05:00Tags: |

East Boston, Massachusetts’ Community Soup Kitchen’s, Alleman Nijjar, along with head of Boston Office of Housing Stability, Lydia Edwards, have established a community soup kitchen to address issues of hunger, obesity, and diseases such as heart attack and diabetes, among the homeless and economically vulnerable people of the city. Monica Leitner-Laserna, a member of the soup kitchen and its menu-planning committee, also owns her own cafe which followed the principles of worker-owned co-operative restaurant. Both Alleman Nijjar and Monica Leitner-Laserna hope to continue their work bringing all East Boston citizens together at one table for a plate of good nutritious meal. Photo credit: Casey Walker

27 09, 2016

Using Other People’s Water

2018-10-17T18:14:39-04:00Tags: |

In this 41-minute podcast of BBC's The Forum, Esther De Jong, who specializes in tropical engineering and gender in agriculture, discusses the use of water and its relation to women, specifically in developing countries. Esther is the Deputy Director of the Gender and Water Alliance. She highlights the struggles of women in poor countries who are mostly responsible for procuring and managing household water, and all of the safety concerns that come with this task. According to Esther, the role of women in getting the water is often forgotten due to the unequal way men and women are treated in the society. Photo Credit: BBC

22 09, 2016

Rebecca Burgess Is Stitching Together A Local Clothes Movement

2017-10-31T20:36:13-04:00Tags: |

Inspired by the success of sustainable, local textile production in Thailand and Indonesia, Rebecca Burgess is uses renewable energy-powered mills, compostable clothes and natural dye farms in her sustainable clothing network: Fibershed. Burgess’s new economy has bloomed into 54 communities, composed of spinners, farmers, dyers, designers, sewers and ecologists, who are countering the extensive health problems of waste and pollution caused by the clothing industry. Fibershed is creating sustainability by shaping a local economy that incorporates care for its water, its working landscape and the health of its well-paid workers. Photo credit: grist

22 09, 2016

Nicole Bassett Revives Dead Threads

2017-10-31T12:10:51-04:00Tags: |

Nicole Bassett is taking on the 14 million tons of waste in textiles that Americans put in landfills each year. The apparel industry’s economic model depends on overproduction: the industry often throws out surplus clothing that doesn’t sell, and consumers are incentivized to throw out used clothing or clothing with minor defects instead of repairing it. To combat this wastefulness, Bassett cofounded the Renewal Workshop, a company working to create a circular economy for the apparel industry. It reuses and recycles unused and malfunctioning clothing, making it shiny, new and ready for purchase online. Photo credit: grist

11 09, 2016

Scotland’s Female Farmers: Custodians Of The Land

2018-03-01T12:24:21-05:00Tags: |

In some of the most hostile and secluded rural areas of Scotland, women are connecting to the land and acting as protectors of the environment. After returning to her native Scotland, photographer Sophie Gerrard was inspired by the intimate relationships local women have with the land. In her project, Gerrard shares stories of women who have different stories and backgrounds, but all protect their landscape with a sense of custodianship given the threats of climate change. Photo credit: Sophie Gerrard

22 08, 2016

Climate-Change-Friendly Milk That Empowers African Women: Camels Are The New Cows

2017-10-31T12:12:22-04:00Tags: |

In Isiolo, Kenya, the women-led work of cow and goat milk production has been under threat due to long and increasing droughts. However, women entrepreneurs like Maryam Osman are now leading a climate-resilient camel milk cooperative, empowering women in the region while adapting to climate change.

20 08, 2016

The Farmers’ Advocate: Mary Berry

2017-08-20T09:35:25-04:00Tags: |

The daughter of prominent environmental activist Wendell Berry, Mary Berry is adding to her family’s legacy by running a rural advocacy organization in Kentucky that works to guarantee fair and reliable crop prices for farmers. The Berry Center hopes to make farming a sustainable and reliable career path, focusing on building long-term contracts between producers and buyers to help farmers enjoy job security while transitioning to organic livestock feed. Photo credit: grist 50!

14 07, 2016

Erika Mackey Offers Solar Solutions To People In Africa

2017-10-02T23:23:46-04:00Tags: |

Erika Mackey is COO and cofounder of Off-Grid Electric, a solar pay-as-you-go company founded in Tanzania. In their model, customers pay the same price as, or even less than, what they pay for kerosene, which has been a great incentive to switch power sources. The company has already expanded to other countries and aims at providing renewable and affordable energy for households and businesses. Photo credit: Power for All

28 05, 2016

Adelita San Vicente Of Mexico Speaks Out During Global March Against Monsanto

2017-07-19T21:15:59-04:00Tags: |

Activists in more than 400 cities in 50 countries marched against seed and agrochemical giant Monsanto in May 2016. Adelita San Vicente, an outstanding woman leader of the movement to protect Mexico’s seeds and cultural and agro-ecological diversity, was amongst the protestors and solution-builders who spoke out against Monsanto’s attempts to spread genetically modified seeds in Mexico and beyond. Photo credit: Al Jazeera Plus  

27 05, 2016

Climate Policy Shaper: Heather McGhee

2017-10-27T02:56:22-04:00Tags: |

Heather McGhee is the President of Demos, a non-profit research and advocacy organization that fights against economic and political inequality with policy aligned with climate sustainability. The organization’s work is directly influencing national policy. Currently McGhee is developing a vision for a clean energy economy that will see benefits going to all communities. Photo credit: Grist 50!

26 05, 2016

Women in the semi-arid region of Brazil

2023-11-29T17:51:45-05:00Tags: , |

Despite facing historic discrimination and lack of opportunities, women in Bahia, Brazil are working to sustain their families and communities, and assert their independence and autonomy. Women have been taking on agricultural roles, waking up early to farm and tend to their crops. This allows them to provide for their families, contribute to the “formal” economy, and ensure food security for their communities. Many are able to sell their excess product in cities, generating more income and providing non-toxic nutrition options for people in rural areas. Women all throughout Brazil are now influencing public policy to alleviate the injustices that work against women, and provide support for them to thrive.  Photo credit: Fabiano Vidal 

1 04, 2016

Miya Yoshitani Of Asian Pacific Environmental Network Speaks Out For A Just Transition

2017-11-01T03:14:02-04:00

Miya Yoshitani of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network speaks with New Economy Coalition about the effects of the fossil fuel economy on communities of color at the conference Common Bound. She focuses on the negative impacts of the fossil fuel industry in Richmond, California and she elaborates on how communities can end their reliance on the fossil fuel economy and build something new. Photo credit: Common Bound

27 03, 2016

Webinar Highlights: Corporate Power And Women’s Economic Justice

2017-10-27T01:56:52-04:00Tags: |

In February of 2016, a webinar on gender justice regarding ecology and economics was organized by the Association of Women in Development (AWID) and the Gender and Development Network (GADN), leading up to the 61st Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The webinar was moderated by Ana Abelenda, from the Association for Women's Rights in Development, and the speakers were Kunthea Chan, from JASS Southeast Asia, Chidi King, from the International Trade Union Confederation, Rachel Moussié, a consultant, Dr. Mariama Williams, from South Centre, and Jessica Woodroffe, from the Gender and Development Network. The online meeting focused on measures to limit the tremendous power of global corporations regarding the violation of women's rights, including the concepts of economic justice and feminism in the discussion. Photo credit: AWID

15 03, 2016

Farm-To-Table Community Agriculture Led By Women

2017-07-19T21:28:08-04:00Tags: |

Leah Roberts, 37, sells produce from her farm to local Oregon residents and restaurants, an arrangement that falls under the umbrella of community-supported agriculture (CSA). Just this year, Roberts' Rockwood Urban Farm and about a dozen other CSAs started working with two local nonprofits to offer a new payment system that makes it easier for people of all incomes to purchase a CSA share. Photo credit: Pamplin Media Group, Jonathon House

8 03, 2016

Iconic Activist In Rio Watches As Her Home Is Bulldozed To Make Way For The Olympics

2019-01-21T19:51:23-05:00Tags: |

Like many other Rio de Janeiro residents, Maria Da Penha’s home was demolished by bulldozers to make room for the 2016 Summer Olympic headquarters. De Penha’s home was one of the last to go, and she has been fighting to preserve the history and culture of her community and to keep the government accountable. The government displaced most of the Vila Autodromo residents with cash buyouts or the promise of new apartments, and seized the land with eminent domain. Rather than just an economic concern, de Penha sees this as an attack on fundamental human rights, and says that all citizens need to be respected. Photo Credit: Will Carless

27 02, 2016

Miya Yoshitani On the Solutions To Climate Change

2017-10-27T01:52:49-04:00Tags: |

At a Climate One event about environmental equity, Miya Yoshitani, the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, points to the buying power that each person has, and how this impacts climate change. Miya talks about the importance of people's actions in the climate movement, along with other tools, such as policy, as a way to mitigate and adapt to the current environmental issues. Photo credit: Climate One

23 02, 2016

Carol Ann: Urban Farmer From Texas

2017-10-01T18:49:42-04:00Tags: |

Carol Ann has turned her interest in farming and growing her own food into action by starting an urban farm in Austin, Texas. Boggy Creek Farm opened its doors in 1982 and since then has added agriculture buildings, a chicken house, processing sheds, and two hectares of growing fields void of any tractor paths, since her farm only uses foot paths. Planting, harvesting and cultivation is also exclusively done by hand. Her employees have helped her contribute to an urban farm economy that is dramatically more sustainable than a factory farm. At her farm stand, you can find her selling her wide array of veggies, fruits and eggs harvested on the same land that it stands on. 

16 02, 2016

Facing Severe Food Shortages, Women In Venezuela Take Up Urban Gardening

2017-07-19T21:36:48-04:00Tags: |

Women like Josefina Requena have been first to respond to Venezuela’s food crisis by starting small-scale urban farms in their own homes, growing fruit and vegetables and keeping chickens to promote food security and community health. Photo credit: John Otia/NPR  

6 02, 2016

Two Sisters Convinced Bali To Ban Plastic Bags By 2018

2017-07-12T20:22:25-04:00Tags: |

Every year, humans use a trillion single-use plastic bags, nearly 2 million each minute. When they are discarded, they pollute our lands and rivers and take up to one thousand years to decompose. In Bali, plastic bag pollution was such a problem that two young sisters, Melati and Isabel Wijsen, created the youth-driven initiative Bye Bye Plastic Bags in 2013 to ban plastic bags in Bali. Through petitions, beach cleanups and even a hunger strike, they convinced Governor Pastika to commit to a plastic bag-free Bali by 2018. Photo credit: EcoWatch

5 02, 2016

Can Gender Equality Solve Coffee Sustainability Problems?

2017-07-19T21:40:50-04:00Tags: |

Worrisome trends in rising temperatures and erratic rainfall worldwide are endangering the global coffee industry. Women such as Sunalini Menon, the first female coffee taster to open business in Asia, are working to fight climate change and the coffee industry’s entrenched problems with gender inequality in the workforce by opening their own businesses. Photo credit: FNC 2016

20 01, 2016

Damayan Cleaning Cooperative: Labor Trafficking Survivors Open Co-Op

2017-10-31T19:49:57-04:00Tags: |

In this episode of The Laura Flanders Show, the Damayan (which means "to help each other") Cleaning Cooperative is introduced, an initiative in the United States by female survivors of labor trafficking from the Philippines: women who were sent to the U.S. to work in housekeeping or babysitting without earning a salary and having no breaks. The cooperative was launched in September 2015, and the female owners are part of the Damayan Migrant Workers Association, an organization that supports Filipino women who are migrant workers. Photo credit: The Laura Flanders Show

17 01, 2016

Young Woman Cycles The Southern Hemisphere To Collect Stories Of Climate Change

2017-07-20T19:24:33-04:00Tags: |

23-year-old Devi Lockwood spent a year travelling the Southern Hemisphere by bike to collect 1,001 stories of climate change. Her blog and photography narrate human experiences of water, land and nature from ordinary people all around the world. Photo credit: @devi_lockwood on Instagram  

15 01, 2016

Nuns Cycle Across India To Promote Gender Equality And Conservation

2017-07-20T19:26:41-04:00Tags: |

Gyalwang Drukpa, the head of the Drupka Monastic order of nuns in Kathmandu, Nepal, led 235 nuns in a 2,000 kilometer bike ride from Kathmandu to Delhi. The nuns made numerous stops along the way to raise awareness about gender equality and environmental stewardship. Photo credit: Flying Nuns

6 01, 2016

A Call To Foundations: Divest Now From Fossil Fuels

2017-12-06T14:44:55-05:00Tags: |

Ellen Dorsey, Founder of Divest-Invest, and colleagues, write on the imperative for foundations and philanthropic actors to immediately divest all funds from fossil fuel corporations, and other actors contributing to environmental and social injustices. She speaks on the Paris Climate Agreement and movement of renewable energy markets, arguing that strides have been made, but that philanthropic investors have a critical moral imperative to take action and use their resources to influence more just, effective and speedy change. Photo credit: Be The Change

1 01, 2016

Nine Women Receive Clean Energy Education And Empowerment Awards

2017-09-28T17:25:59-04:00Tags: |

The fifth Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Women in Clean Energy Symposium granted awards to nine women active in the field of renewable energy who have demonstrated exceptional leadership. The C3E began as a commitment made by the United States at the Clean Energy Ministerial, a forum of 24 major-economy governments, to close the gender gap and stimulate women leaders within clean energy. The award is divided by categories, such as entrepreneurship, advocacy, business and research. Meet nine women who are at the forefront of renewable energy solutions. Photo credit: Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Awards

23 12, 2015

Filipina Trafficking Survivors Launch A Cleaning Co-Op

2017-09-24T20:12:07-04:00Tags: |

Judith Daluz is organizing Filipina women into a cleaning business cooperative she created after breaking free from an exploitative employer. All of the workers at Damayan Cleaning Cooperative are also part owners, and approximately 50 percent of them are trafficking survivors. The co-operative has created an avenue towards labor independence, where these women workers own and control their modes of production and enjoy health care and better pay, freeing them from dependence on abusive labor arrangements. Photo credit: Damyan Cleaning Cooperative

17 12, 2015

Empowering Ugandan Girls As Environmental Change Agents

2017-10-08T22:36:43-04:00Tags: |

In Uganda and throughout the Global South, the toxic fumes that firewood stoves emit are resulting in respiratory diseases that take the lives of up to 4 million people a year. Since women are primarily responsible for cooking, they are most impacted. In addition, rainforests are being chopped down for firewood without any reforestations efforts. In response, the Girl Up Initiative Uganda is guiding a project that tackles this problem by providing clay cookstoves that are less harmful for women’s health and the environment. The project is also also providing women the possibility to earn an income through producing charcoal briquettes. Photo credit: GUIU

6 11, 2015

We Are The Solution: African Women Organize For Land And Seed Sovereignty

2017-07-17T17:35:53-04:00Tags: |

Mariama Sonko is a farmer and the National Coordinator of We Are The Solution, a food sovereignty campaign led by women in rural parts of West Africa. Working across several countries, the campaign promotes seed conservation and honors women’s ancestral knowledge as a source of social power and food sovereignty. Photo credit: Fahamu

2 11, 2015

The Future Of Work: Consider The Changing Climate

2019-01-21T19:59:03-05:00Tags: |

Juliet B. Schor, sociology professor at Boston College, wants to talk more about how climate change, and not just new technologies, will affect the future of work. Her research has found that countries with fewer work hours also have lower carbon emissions: more leisure, rather than production, is maximized. She outlines her vision of a short-hours, high satisfaction economy in the book “Plenitude”. Long hours not only degrade an employee base but also the environment. These key findings provide insight into how to lower emissions and boost economic and social well-being. Photo Credit: Tatiana Grozetskaya/Shutterstock

2 11, 2015

A Conversation With Plastic-Free Champion, Beth Terry

2017-10-31T19:34:08-04:00Tags: |

Diane MacEachern, from the Moms Clean Air Force, interviews Beth Terry, writer of the book Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too and author of the blog "My Plastic-Free Life." Beth talks about the increasing threat of plastic pollution to the planet, and rates the alternatives to plastic, such as the BPA-free plastic bottles, as well as the practice of recycling. Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force

29 10, 2015

Helping Women Take Up Urban Agriculture In Uganda

2017-10-29T00:43:58-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Diana is a Ugandan women farmer who has swapped mowing her lawn for growing fruits and vegetables in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala. She also raises chickens and cows in her backyard garden. Dr. Diana is also assisting other local women to start their own urban gardens through training sessions and chicken and seeds grants that start aspiring women urban farmers off on the right foot. Not only does Dr. Diana’s urban farm provide vegetables for the women, but good business and economic independence is also being established for Kampala’s women urban farmers by selling their produce to their surrounding communities. Photo credit: GGTN Africa Youtube

26 10, 2015

Young Women Fight Against The Use Of Palm Oil In Girl Scout Cookies

2017-10-26T23:07:48-04:00Tags: |

At ages 10 and 11, now Brower Youth Award winners Rhiannon Tomtishen and Madison Vorva began their fight against the use of palm oil in Girl Scout cookies, founding Project ORANGS. They learned about how the rise in conventional palm oil has resulted in rainforest deforestation, the destruction of endangered species habitats, and widespread human rights abuses. During the 2012 Bioneers National Conference, the young women shared their story about working with the Rainforest Action Network to build an online campaign against conventional palm oil use in Girl Scouts cookies. Photo credit: Bioneers

26 10, 2015

California Woman Helps Neighborhood Become Locavores, One Locally Grown Meal At A Time

2017-10-26T22:42:33-04:00Tags: |

Kimberly Leeds, resident of Aliso Viejo, California, is helping to bring community together and increase climate resiliency and sustainability through potluck meals designed to help guest think about the source and impact of their food - and grow a network to garden and exchange produce locally. Photo credit: TransitionUS

1 10, 2015

Kosha Joubert On Eco-Village Living

2017-10-01T18:52:21-04:00Tags: |

Kosha Joubert is educating about the power autonomous ecovillages have to positively transform societies. She advocates for citizens taking change of their own communities, by spearheading sustainable models that work best for themselves. Joubert is rooting her message in examples of international eco-villages that have been a proven success. She lives in the Eco-village of Findhorn in Scotland and is President of the Global Ecovillage Network. Committed to concepts of collective wisdom, Joubert insists that sustainable and peaceful societies can be created through ecological community models founded in system of cooperation and anchored in innovation and creativity.

26 09, 2015

A Call To Action For Indigenous Rights From Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn

2017-10-26T16:13:07-04:00Tags: |

Activist Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn iwi of the Māori of Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kuri people in Aotearoa (New Zealand) stands as a protector of Indigenous rights and territories, and the health of coastal ecosystems and customary Indigenous fisheries. As an executive member of Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa, the governing authority for her Te Rarawa peoples, Catherine is an outspoken voice against colonization, and for the upholding of Indigenous rights to their lands, waters and sustainable economies. During recent meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, she spoke out about the impacts of deep sea oil drilling and rising seas on Pacific Indigenous peoples, amongst other vital issues. Photo credit: Shane Brown, Global Coordinating Group Media Team

24 09, 2015

Advancing Gender Equality The Cooperative Way

2017-09-24T16:42:09-04:00Tags: |

The International Cooperative Alliance and the International Labor Organization have joined forces to analyze how emergent trends in cooperative economics influence gender equality and women’s empowerment. International challenges surrounding the sexual division of labor, including women’s pay, unpaid labor, the difficulties women face in advancing in the labor market, and disproportionate levels of labor precarity for women, are of key concern. Photo credit: International Labour Organization

24 09, 2015

Isatou Ceesay, Queen Of Plastic Recycling In The Gambia

2017-09-24T16:24:15-04:00Tags: |

For 17 years, Isatou Ceesay has taught women how to transform plastic waste into products such as bags, toy balls, and wallets. Now, to combat the use and disposal of plastic in ways that harm people and the environment, her community-based organization the Women Initiative The Gambia (WIG) is supporting 3000 members to recuperate and recycle plastic across 40 communities. The initiative is putting into action Ceesay’s understanding that the health of the environment is inseparable from the well-being of women and all people. Photo credit: Climate Heroes 

7 09, 2015

Women Revolutionize Waste Management On A Nicaraguan Island

2017-07-20T19:18:35-04:00Tags: |

Maria del Rosario Gutierrez used to make money selling scrap metals and plastic waste for reuse. Realizing that many women made a living scavenging for materials to recycle, she founded the Association of Women Recyclers of Altagracia to provide hygiene tips and training. The women have inspired their community with their efforts to recycle waste and keep their island clean. Photo credit: Karin Paladino/IPS  

6 08, 2015

Why Women’s Work Is Key To A Just And Sustainable Future

2017-06-20T21:29:49-04:00Tags: |

The concept of women’s work refers to often underpaid tasks, from caring for the elderly and doing cooking and cleaning to reproductive, educational and emotional labor in many forms. However, in a low-carbon future, women’s work will be indispensable, as our economy moves away from consumer-driven industries that rely on fossil fuel energy to a caring economy. Photo credit: National Domestic Workers Alliance  

6 08, 2015

Helena Norberg-Hodge: A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity

2017-12-06T14:42:37-05:00Tags: |

Helena Norberg-Hodge, Director of Local Futures and producer of the film, Economic of Happiness, discusses her life of work to support the local-living movement, which she also frames as a movement towards happiness and interdependence, and the ‘decentralization’ of economics, politics, and lifestyle. Photo credit: Happen Films

9 06, 2015

Gender Equality And Sustainable Food: The Power Of Women Farmers

2017-04-08T03:44:42-04:00Tags: |

While women make up 40% of the agricultural labor force, they continue to face problems accessing land right and resources. Audra Mulkern of the Female Farmer Project works to uplift women in farming, sharing their stories and demonstrating their influence on our food systems. Photo credit: Foodie Underground

3 06, 2015

Zimbabwean Women Weave Their Own Beautiful Futures

2017-10-31T20:36:40-04:00

In Zimbabwe’s arid Lupane District, frequent drought and food scarcity often make it difficult for local families to meet their basic needs. Looking for a steady source of income, a group of women banded together in 1997, a group of women came together to weave intricate baskets and make other crafts using resources from their local forests. The collective became the Lupane Women’s Center, which now supports thousands of members to sell their products overseas while making steady, climate-secure wages. Photo credit: Busani Bafana/IPS

3 06, 2015

Toting Panels On Donkeys, Maasai Women Lead A Solar Revolution

2017-07-17T17:38:10-04:00Tags: |

Jackline Naiputa, leader of the Osopuka Edonyinap women's solar energy group, is one of many incredible Maasai women on the frontline of Kenya’s solar revolution. More than 200 women have been trained in solar panel installation and are bringing clean, affordable energy to communities across the remote region. Photo credit: TRF/Leopold Obi

12 05, 2015

Magical Houses Made Of Bamboo

2017-10-01T18:44:19-04:00Tags: |

In this TedTalk, Elora Hardy explains how she founded Ibuku, an organization that brings together sustainable resources and aesthetic imagination by building exquisite homes and schools in Bali. Bamboo is a magic material that takes root on otherwise uncultivable land and requires very little water to grow. Hardy shows how bamboo has endless potential as a sustainable resource and as a force for earthquake-resistant, affordable and durable construction. 

29 03, 2015

South African Women Respond To Drought By Creating A Seedbank

2017-07-17T17:42:16-04:00Tags: |

When the agricultural production of the Gumbu Village was affected by climatic changes, such as extreme drought, women in the community didn’t hesitate to take action. Guided by Bioversity International, a group of 40 women now manage and operate a community seed bank, ensuring access to a variety of nutritious crops, protecting biodiversity, supporting their households’ food supply and earning extra income. Photo credit: Women For Expo

28 01, 2015

Helena Norberg-Hodge – The Economics Of Happiness

2020-10-05T20:28:47-04:00Tags: |

Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder of the organisation Local Futures and the producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary, ‘The Economics of Happiness’, as well as the author of several books. In this video, she speaks at UPLIFT 2014 about bringing together inner and outer transformation, which she sees as inextricably interconnected, to create a world that works for everyone. In this process, she argues for the importance of moving away from fear into a love-based existence. She also believes, in order for the transformation to happen, in the need for global communication and interaction. 

1 01, 2015

Anya Cherneff Empowers Nepalese Women With Solar Energy

2017-10-02T23:05:33-04:00Tags: |

Anya Cherneff cofounded Empower Generation, a social enterprise that links solar energy suppliers with Nepalese women, who then distribute the technology in their communities. The company has already supported 15 women-led businesses to deliver 50,000 solar products to people in need. Anya believes in encouraging women to participate more in the energy sector and speaks publicly about her work to share her vision. Photo credit: Clean Energy Education and Empowerment Awards

23 12, 2014

Ai-Jen Poo: A Caring, Sustainable Economy For The 21st Century

2017-10-31T20:04:16-04:00Tags: |

Ai-Jen Poo gave a speech at the 2012 Bioneers National Conference as part of the Re-Imagining Labor in a Green Economy theme. This American activist is the co-director of Caring Across Generations, a national coalition of advocacy organizations that are dedicated to solving the main issues in the workforce, such as the problems of immigration, long-term care and jobs. Ai-Jen Poo mentions how women workers often face difficult situations at work that impact their quality of life. Photo credit: Bioneers

30 10, 2014

Four Takeaways On How Women Are Using Grassroots Environmental Grants

2017-10-30T21:09:27-04:00Tags: |

Grassroots women leaders are leveraging Global Greengrants to fight on the frontlines of climate change. These efforts include advancing sustainable forest practices, protesting extractive industries, reducing urban emissions, and building solidarity across movements. Photo credit: Global Greengrants

29 10, 2014

Shannon Biggs: Rights Of Nature And Economics Of The Biosphere

2017-11-01T23:22:49-04:00

Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange explains that nowadays there are factory towns where the entire job market is related to corporations. Even though those factories are responsible for local contamination, communities struggle to prevent their activities as they boost the economy. She suggests that the green economy can help us find a balance as it follows the example set by the Indigenous peoples who have maintained a balanced relationship with the Land. Accordingly, we should shift the narrative and the main question should not be how we can fit Nature in Economics but how we listen to the Earth and what she has to offer us. Photo credit: Rights4Nature

28 10, 2014

Osprey Orielle Lake On The Rights Of Nature And Earth Economics

2017-11-01T23:23:07-04:00Tags: |

Osprey Orielle Lake’s presentation at The Economics of Sustainability Conference 2014 focused on the reinvention of modern economies and legal frameworks so that humans can coexist in harmony and reciprocity with Nature. Modern environmental legal frameworks have failed to protect Mother Earth and most of the world’s economies are based on treating Nature as property. Accordingly, there is a need to replace the current model with a new just and restorative economy which considers social, gender, Indigenous, economic and environmental justice. The rights of Nature legal framework can affect our economies in a positive way as it requires a transition to a renewable energy and organic agriculture. Photo credit: Sam Euston

26 10, 2014

What Does Genuine, Legitimate Participation By Women Look Like?

2017-10-26T23:16:25-04:00Tags: |

This powerful piece written from the frontlines of the People’s Climate Summit in Lima by Leny Olivera examines what authentic inclusion of women in the climate movement looks like. She offers a true-life example of a just transition to a sustainable and more inclusive system in the form of Community María Auxiliadora, in Bolivia. Furthermore, the author points to that inextricable link between extractive industries (or the causes of climate change) and the violence against and subjugation of women. Photo credit: The Democracy Center

26 10, 2014

Roxanne Brown On Working Together To Secure A Sustainable Future

2017-10-26T22:46:26-04:00Tags: |

Roxanne Brown, coalition builder, labor-movement leader, and legislative lobbyist, presented this speech at the 2011 Bioneers National Conference. In the video, Brown poignantly articulates why society cannot build a sustainable economy for the future unless it honors worker’s safety and economic security. Her presentation is part of Bioneers’ “Re-Imagining Labor in a Green Economy Volume 1 Collection.” Video Credit: Bioneers

26 10, 2014

Where Is The Money For Indigenous Women’s Rights Organizing?

2017-10-26T16:22:48-04:00Tags: |

During a ‘Resource Mobilization Hub For Indigenous Women’s Rights’ event at the the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) World Summit on Indigenous Philanthropy, members of the International Indigenous Women's Forum and AWID share findings on the need for increases in funding to Indigenous women’s organizations on the vanguard of global fights for land, water and communities.

26 10, 2014

Former Black Panther Launches Oakland Urban Farm To Give Ex-Prisoners A Fresh Start

2017-10-26T00:46:26-04:00Tags: |

In West Oakland, former Black Panther Elaine Brown is using her tradition of revolutionary action to support ex-prisoners with job opportunities in urban gardening. West Oakland Farms is blooming with a colorful palate of peppers, corn, kale, squash and tomatoes. The inspiring 72-year-old radical envisions a joint project that will offer affordable housing, a fitness center, a juice bar and a grocery store, all run by her NGO, Oakland & the World Enterprises. Brown’s objective is to connect poor Black women and men to autonomously run land based resources that provide economic opportunities in a dramatically gentrifying city. Photo credit: Twilight Greenaway

25 09, 2014

Women’s Voices: Mom To Mom – No More Conflict Palm Oil

2018-10-17T18:25:41-04:00Tags: |

The 2014 People's Climate March in New York City brought out over 400,000 people - an incredible showing of the grassroots momentum behind the climate movement. Shortly after the march, mothers Debra Mahony, Susan Rubin, and Harriet Shugarman wrote a letter to another mother, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico, to urge her to halt the use of conflict palm oil in her company's products. As part of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) Snack Food 20 Campaign, the mothers delivered a powerful message about the harmful impacts of deforestation on people around the world and urged Pepsico to stop its destructive practice. Photo credit: Debra Mahony, Susan Rubin, Harriet Shugarman

20 09, 2014

Esperanza Martinez At This Changes Everything Talk With Naomi Klein

2017-10-14T16:21:23-04:00Tags: |

Climate activist Esperanza Martinez discusses the meaning and ramifications of ecological debt in this discussion with Naomi Klein during Climate Action Week. Martinez argues that societies should no longer be destroying areas like Yasuní National Park in Ecuador to unearth fossil fuels and explains why it is essential that social economies must free themselves of fossil fuels. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

11 09, 2014

Voices Of Hope/Elizabeth Yeampierre: “There’s Nothing More Sustainable Than A Poor Person”

2023-04-16T16:28:45-04:00Tags: |

Elizabeth Yeampierre is a Puerto Rican attorney with African and Indigenous ancestry who has been an integral part of New York City's environmental justice efforts. She is highly experienced in community organizing, adaptation and resilience. At the Voices of Hope symposium, Yeampierre draws on her years of activism and lived experience to identify the biggest challenge to addressing the climate crisis: privilege. Throughout her speech, Yeampierre speaks to many ways in which power and privilege is hindering the transformative change to climate justice as well as solutions from the perspective of a frontline, grassroots level. Yeampierre poses questions for the listeners to reframe/redefine what they think of as community, place, potential, and being an American. 

13 08, 2014

Gambia – Recycling For Women’s Wealth And Independence

2018-08-22T16:54:39-04:00Tags: |

The Women’s Initiative the Gambia (WIG), established by women, is leading the way in reusing, recycling, and upcycling waste. WIG representatives like Isatou Ceesay, aim to combine environmental education with skills to make marketable products, not only from trash, but also traditional crafts such as bead-making.  This provides income opportunities to women while addressing the rising environmental issues caused by the increasing waste pollution in Gambia. The generated income is helping participants invest their money back into their families and children’s education. WIG is currently working with four communities by training apprentices and teaching locals the importance of waste separation, recycling of plastics, and environmental conservation.

11 08, 2014

1 Million Women Becomes Australia’s Largest Women’s Environmental Organization

2017-07-20T19:28:58-04:00Tags: |

1 Million Women, founded by Natalie Isaacs in 2009, has become the largest women’s environmental organization in Australia, with nearly 83,000 women cutting over 100,000 tonnes of carbon pollution through small daily acts and coordinated mobilizations. When they reach their target of a million women as members and over a million tonnes of CO2 pollution saved, they will have generated carbon reductions equivalent to taking 240,000 cars off the road for a year. Photo credit: UN.org

17 07, 2014

J&P Cleaners Aims To Be Greenest Local Laundry—With Help From Neighbors

2017-10-31T19:37:29-04:00Tags: |

Myra Vargas used to work in the dry cleaning business, but the chemicals threatened her pregnancy, which led her to quit the job. She then founded J&P Cleaners, hoping to be a pioneer in Massachusetts with the method of "wet cleaning" (removing the use of the chemical tetrachloroethylene). The process, however, is quite expensive, and that is why the community group Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition is crowdfunding to raise money for J&P Cleaners and promote a less toxic environment. Photo credit: Transition United States.

10 06, 2014

Mothers Light Up Homes In Rural Tanzania

2017-09-22T16:01:24-04:00Tags: |

Arafa Mwamba, along with other women in her community, works as a solar engineer in Chekeleni, Tanzania. The women have been trained by Barefoot College in the field and can now perform all sorts of operations to install and maintain solar equipment. They have expanded their business to offer their services in nearby villages, including providing nighttime lighting which has improved public safety for women and girls.

15 12, 2013

Wind And Solar Power Best For Navajo Nation

2017-09-26T14:54:18-04:00Tags: |

Wahleah Johns, a Navajo member, clarifies the reasons why wind and solar power are beneficial for Navajo communities and should be promoted as necessary alternatives to coal. Among many arguments, she points out that unlike coal, wind and solar are renewable sources of energy. Wahleah also demonstrates that these sources of renewable energy are more economically viable than coal.

7 12, 2013

Roxanne Swentzell And The Pueblo Food Experience

2017-12-07T18:21:23-05:00Tags: |

Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, is the Director of the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, through which she works for Indigenous rights and cultural protection and revitalization, including work in education, art, farming, and seed stewardship. The project, the Pueblo Food Experience was also brought to life with her care. A group of Pueblo peoples committed to eating only Indigenous, local foods, and experienced profound and important change in their health, happiness, sustainability and connection to culture and the land. This short documentary features the work of Roxanne, and the experiences and thoughts of those who participated in this important, and ongoing project for Indigenous sovereignty, health and lifeways. Photo credit: Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute

1 11, 2013

How Economic Growth Has Become Anti-Life

2017-09-24T20:14:43-04:00Tags: |

Ecofeminist, seed activist, theorist and author Vandana Shiva reminds us that the terms ecology and economic come from the same Greek etymology “oikos,” meaning home. Economics, in its original sense, was concentrated on the basic needs of women centered households. With the rise of today’s capitalist economic model of growth and production, women’s housework and reproductive labor have been rendered invisible, while women’s traditional land labor is often unrecognized and undervalued even though women produce the vast majority of the world’s food. Climate change is a result of an economic model that only considers economic growth as valuable and thrives on the exploitation of natural resources and women’s work. Shiva encourages us to do away with the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) scale and focus on concepts like gross national happiness instead. Photo credit: Joe McNally/Getty

27 10, 2013

Interview With Olga Djanaeva Of ALGA

2017-10-27T16:14:58-04:00Tags: |

This is an interview by Claire Greensfeld, Senior Advisor on Climate and Energy at WECF, with Olga Djanaeva, from Kyrgyzstan. She is co-founder and director of the organization ALGA, which means "Moving Forward, Being Ahead" which she helped found when women from her village got together and decided to create something so they could share their own problems and improve each other's lives. ALGA works on Sustainable Livelihoods and has succeeded in securing land rights for women and starting  a programme for rural women to get loans for their small enterprises.

22 10, 2013

Empowering Women Farmers Through Food Sovereignty And Environmental Stewardship

2017-08-22T09:40:09-04:00Tags: |

Faced with the challenges of climate change and the deleterious impacts of agrochemicals, female farmers in Nicaragua have formed cooperatives to pursue a series of environmentally-friendly initiatives. The women’s cooperatives are promoting the production of native seeds and farming methods to help address climate change, as well as the production of organic fertilizers. Women farmers are now exporting over 60,000 pounds of organic, fair trade coffee to North America. Photo credit: Fair World Project

16 10, 2013

Women In The World: An Interview With Anne Marie Miller

2017-09-24T16:29:39-04:00Tags: |

Anne Marie Miller is the founder and CEO of Sustainable Waste Design, a New York-based company that integrates waste disposal, environmental protection, energy production, and material recycling to create closed-loop economic systems. Taking inspiration from WECAN’s 2013 International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit (IWECI), Miller believes that women, who make 85% of purchasing decisions in the United States, are key to engaging in just, compassionate, living economies like the ones her business helps to create. Photo credit: 1 million women

25 08, 2013

Degrowth And Equality Of The Sexes?

2017-09-24T20:34:58-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Sarah Nemno asks France’s Degrowth party member Vincent Liegey about how gender equality fits into degrowth economics. Liegey argues is that a degrowth of economics also means a degrowth of inequalities, including gender disparities. In exploring the topic, the two discuss the decolonization of our imaginations, of our western ideas of development, and above all of our masculinist and patriarchal frameworks. Photo credit: Projet Decroissance

26 10, 2012

Photographer Aliza Eliazarov Combats Food Waste Through Art

2017-10-26T23:11:39-04:00Tags: |

Inspired by 17th-century still life paintings, New York photographer Aliza Eliazarov staged food she rescued from garbage dumpsters for beautiful photographs that feature wasted food. Eliazarov hopes her work will increase public awareness and even curb food waste. She called the series “Waste Not” and gathered the produce with help from a freegan directory and organizations in NYC that are working to combat food insecurity with food waste such as City Harvest and Dan Barber’s wastED popup. Photo credit: Aliza Eliazarov

26 10, 2012

Stop Wasting Food: Selina Juul At TEDxCopenhagen 2012

2017-10-26T23:10:02-04:00Tags: |

Selina Juul makes a strong case in this TEDx Talk that the future of a better world and thus of the planet depends on individuals not wasting food. In her presentation, Juul connects the sheer volume of food waste in Western society to consumerism and discusses food as a political tool that can help create lasting social change, lower greenhouse emissions, and feed those who suffer from food insecurity.  The Danish woman is responsible for launching an entire movement via Facebook when a page she started grew rapidly in four years to become Denmark's leading NGO against food waste. Photo credit: TEDx

1 10, 2012

Create In California: Del Rio Farm Ride

2017-10-01T18:50:17-04:00Tags: |

Author Suzanne Ashworth is the owner of a 70-acre certified organic farm, where she houses 1600 varieties of seeds. Ashworth has decided to spread her diversity of seeds across California by selling her organic veggies to restaurants who want to flourish the organic food economy. Ashworth is linked to The Coalition Green Restaurant Alliance Sacramento (GRAS), who is on board with developing good quality food across the restaurant industry, but is also engaged in an impressive full-circle compost program that targets eliminating food waste as well.

24 09, 2012

The Future We Want: A Feminist Perspective

2017-09-24T20:23:13-04:00Tags: |

In this report on the inseparable relationship between economics, gender and ecology, researcher Christa Wichterich explains how oftentimes green economic modeling lacks a gender perspective and offers solutions. Wichterich argues that the pathway towards a new sustainable economy should fuse together ecological and gendered approaches for gender justice on a livable planet. 

1 03, 2012

Equitable, Ecological Degrowth: Feminist Contributions

2017-09-24T20:32:12-04:00Tags: |

Professor and researcher Patricia Perkins of York University has brought together ecofeminist methodologies with feminist ecological economics towards a proposal of degrowth that takes on climate change and gender injustice at the same time. She emphasizes redistribution, ecological services, unpaid work, and participatory processes as fundamental to the formation for an equitable economics of degrowth. 

1 12, 2011

Feminist Perspectives Towards Transforming Economic Power—Agroecology: Exploring Opportunities For Women’s Empowerment Based On Experiences In Brazil

2017-10-19T22:58:15-04:00Tags: |

Tying together themes of economic, gender and land justice, this report by AWID and ActionAid Brazil discusses agroecological and sustainable farming practices as a tool for strengthening women’s empowerment and feminism amongst rural women of Brazil. The voices and experiences of women farm leaders of the Women and Agroecology Project are shared. Photo credit: AWID

1 11, 2011

Kari Fulton, Climate Leader

2017-11-01T17:49:29-04:00Tags: |

Kari Fulton is a powerful voice in the movement for environmental justice. A proud graduate of Howard University, Fulton is the co-founder of Checktheweather.TV, a digital community that amplifies the voices of young people of color working for environmental justice. She has worked at Green For All and also served as Interim Director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, and as the National Youth Campaign Coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). Fulton helped coordinate Power Shift 2009, the largest lobby day and youth summit on climate change in United States history. Fulton was included in Ebony Magazine's 2010 Power 100 list. Photo credit: Green For All

1 11, 2011

Where Are The Women At Occupy Wall Street? Everywhere, And They’re Not Going Away

2017-11-01T00:29:04-04:00Tags: |

Sarah Seltzer speaks with a dozen women involved in instilling a lens of equality to the Occupy Wall Street movement at Zuccotti Park in New York City. The horizontal structure of the movement, preserving direct democracy, creating safe spaces, and creating power outside of a misogynistic arena, are discussed as successful anti-oppression tactics for the Occupy movement, and all other movements seeking justice and equity for all. Photo credit: AP Photo/Andrew Burton

21 10, 2011

Women Rising XIII: Enterprising Women

2017-09-25T08:21:52-04:00Tags: |

The Women Rising Radio interviewed four successful women who are leaders in the fields of peace, justice, the environment, and civil society for its Enterprising Women program. These women include Brigitte Kitenge, creator of Future Hope for Women, a women's cooperative organization in the Congo for women affected by war in that region; Jane Kunyiha, who makes micro-grants for small startups in Kenya through Project Baobad; Rashmi Dixit, a woman who founded and runs a restaurant focused on the indigenous culture in India, and finally, Lucky Chhetri, co-founder of Empowering Women of Nepal (EWN), an organization focused on empowering girls and women through adventure tourism.

1 09, 2011

Governing Climate Funds: What Will Work For Women?

2017-10-12T14:23:54-04:00Tags: |

Elizabeth Arend and Sonia Lowman examine four funds—climate funds and non-climate funds—to draw out lessons for gender integration in global finance mechanisms. As the international community mobilizes in response to global climatic changes, climate funds must ensure the equitable and effective allocation of funds for the world’s most vulnerable populations. Women and girls, disproportionately vulnerable to negative climate change impacts in developing countries, have largely been excluded from climate change finance policies and programmes. They must not only be included in adaptive and mitigative activities, but also recognized as agents of change who are essential to the success of climate change interventions.

31 05, 2011

A Garden In My Apartment

2017-10-31T00:34:33-04:00Tags: |

Britta Riley is not letting her urban lifestyle stop her from growing her own food — arguably one of the best individual environmental actions we can take. In her tiny New York City apartment, Riley and some friends of hers are transforming old plastic bottles into planters to grow herbs and veggies. Tired of having to depend on others for everything, Riley is deciding to harness the power of co-dependence instead. After many trials and experiments, Riley and her friends have created a system that brings the delights of an outdoor garden plot into the urban apartment setting. Photo credit: TEDxManhattan

31 01, 2011

Time For A Cycling Revolution And “Critical Mass” In Cairo

2017-10-31T01:44:28-04:00Tags: |

Inji El Abd is a woman co-founder of Green Arm, a platform for environmental ideas in Egypt, and the Cycling for Change movement. She writes about the Cycling for Change’s demonstration of more than 150 cyclists in Cairo, demanding for a better future and the end of the regime, in January 2011. A month later, the revolution evolved into a green revolution, with people cleaning the Tahrir square and repairing the public space. Under the previous regime, it was difficult for cyclists to gather, as they were harassed by authorities, but now, with the right to peacefully demonstrate, there is hope for a more cycling-friendly city. Critical Mass is a bicycling event that happens worldwide every month, aimed at creating social space for cyclists, which has been considered as a cycling protest in many cities. Photo credit: Green Prophet

6 12, 2009

Nobel Economics Prize Won By First Woman

2017-12-06T14:40:38-05:00Tags: |

Elinor Ostrom, a female political scientist from Indiana University, has become the first woman ever to win the Nobel prize for economics. The award was received for her work investigating ways that people come together to protect collective resources, and what this implies for strategies to combat climate change. Photo credit: Getty Images

1 11, 2009

Climate Hero Sharon Hanshaw

2017-11-01T02:06:50-04:00Tags: |

Sharon Hanshaw became a climate change advocate and leader for her community after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her house, workplace and community in Mississippi. After that, she gathered with other women to think of how to recover from the damage and became the director of Coastal Women for Change, a NGO created to foster economic empowerment and recovery, training for jobs and climate change resilience. In this interview, she tells us more about this process and how she has been trying to raise awareness in the communities and also with politicians about how climate change hazards increases the likelihood of natural disasters, which affects poor communities the most. Photo credit: Liliana Rodriguez/Oxfam America.

24 09, 2009

Women Are Central To Local Economies In Central America

2017-10-31T16:42:34-04:00Tags: |

Rita Cassisi, Gilda Esposito, Mayra Falck, and Angelica Faune authored a UN Women publication about women entrepreneurs in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Using participatory-action research as their model to interview over two thousand people, the researchers demonstrate the need to protect women entrepreneurs from anonymity and discrimination, which is a way to address the issue of economic justice. Photo credit: UN WOMEN

1 07, 2008

Sierra Leone’s First Women Barefoot Solar Engineers

2017-07-17T23:46:32-04:00Tags: |

After ten years of civil war, the people of Sierra Leone are rebuilding their lives, homes and infrastructure. Nancy Kanu and Fatuh Koma received training from the Barefoot College to install and maintain solar panels. Now they not only provide electricity to their villages, but are also respected figures in their communities. Photo credit: makingitmagazine.net

19 06, 2007

Women Absorb Up To 5lbs Of Damaging Chemicals Each Year Thanks To Beauty Products

2020-04-24T16:19:20-04:00Tags: |

he average woman can absorb as much as 5 pounds of threatening chemicals each year through cosmetics alone. Research within the cosmetic industry still lacks sufficient data on the many ways human-made compounds may react to each other. As a consequence, studies are showing links between common cosmetic chemical ingredients and irritation, inhibited bacterial growth, premature aging, and, in some cases, cancer in female consumers. Scientists claim that absorbing harmful chemicals are in some cases more dangerous than consumption due to their immediate absorption into the bloodstream. Photo Credit: Fiona Macrae

1 06, 2006

Majora Carter: Greening The Ghetto

2017-07-20T17:56:40-04:00Tags: |

Majora Carter is a leader in urban environmental justice and a key organizer of the grassroots movements to "green the ghetto," pushing for South Bronx's first open water park and a greenway along the waterfront. Through her work with Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter has spearheaded sustainable job training programs and the development of urban green belts and parks in underserved and low-income communities across the city. In this TED Talk, Majora discusses environmental racism and the impacts of industry on people of color, and how a critical environmental justice framework can help people re-claim and re-green public spaces. Photo credit: ted.com

6 05, 2005

Tsunami Prompts Women’s Swimming Lessons

2025-01-25T11:39:44-05:00Tags: |

Opportunities for women to learn to swim were almost non-existent in Sri Lanka. Culture in Sri Lanka prevents mixed gender bathing in public pools that do exist and requires women to swim in the sea in full clothing. The 2005 Indian Ocean Tsunami took many lives of women and children that could have been saved had they known how to swim. After the tsunami, Christine Fonfe felt that it was time to shift cultural narratives around swimming. Girlie Ganage is among a group of women learning to swim and notes that, before the tsunami, women swimming would have been almost unthinkable. Now, there are groups aiming to make swimming lessons a part of the national school curriculum.  Photo credit: Tom Parker

27 10, 2004

Feminist Perspectives Towards Transforming Economic Power: A Women’s Rights Perspective From Bolivia

2017-10-27T01:51:06-04:00Tags: |

"Buen Vivir: An Introduction From a Women's Rights Perspective in Bolivia", written by Martha Eugenia Lanza Meneses, a gender research fellow at Fundación Colectivo Cabildeo Bolivia, and edited by the Association for Women in Development, is part of a series leading up to the 12th AWID International Forum on Women's Rights and Development promoting different actions on development being implemented by feminist groups all over the world. This specific report is about Bolivia and its concept of buen vivir (living well, in English) which is the idea of protecting nature and its original form, shifting production and consumption to a different kind of development. The article presents the use of buen vivir in Bolivia's public policies, and introduces the concept of gender by highlighting the patriarchal structure of decision-making in various communities. Photo credit: AWID

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