End secrecy on the climate crisis, a NEW sweatshop victory, and green business in China

Economic action for a just and sustainable planet

We've got big news for you in this issue. Our work together has brought a major victory against sweatshops in the Marianas Islands. We've got good news about how we're advancing the green economy together – here and in China. And we've still got lots of work to do together. To make the next round of advances on the climate, we've got to end the secrecy on the impacts of corporate climate pollution. Join with us to mandate that all corporations disclose the amount of climate impact they cause. Meanwhile, the green economy is growing like a garden in the springtime. Our first-ever Seattle Green Festival last month exceeded expectations, with more than 30,000 visitors, capacity crowds for our visionary speakers, hands-on workshops, green films, kids' activities and clothing swap.  And – of course – we got the chance to demonstrate our path-breaking event-greening standards to another city. As with our Festivals in DC, Chicago, and San Francisco, we recycled or composted 97 percent of the event's waste, and offset all carbon emissions. If you weren't able to attend the Festival in Seattle, Green Festival audio and video are online now, or you can make plans to attend our next Green Festival, May 17 – 18 in Chicago. For a greener future, Alisa Gravitz Executive Director Co-op America P.S. Mark your calendars now for our fall Green Festivals, Nov 8 – 9 in DC, and Nov 14 – 16 in San Francisco.  (Or, for those of you in the Rocky Mountain region, we'll be adding a Denver Festival in 2009, so stay tuned.)  To keep us expanding our Green Festivals to more and more cities, please consider becoming a sustainer today. Action: Tell Your Bank to Stop Financing Climate Change Corporate secrecy on climate change benefits no one.  Investors, consumers, the economy, and the corporations themselves can only be harmed by lack of disclosure. In response, a growing number of investors are asking Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to improve corporate disclosure of the risks and opportunities they face from climate change.  Investors are acting because corporate disclosure is a powerful way to encourage corporate action on climate change. In September, the nation's largest pension funds and state treasurers from 11 states asked the SEC to issue guidance on corporate disclosure about climate change.  They know – like you do – that climate change poses huge financial risks to their investments and the economy, and risks can only be addressed if we learn what they are! Now the SEC and Congress need to hear from thousands of concerned individual investors that US corporations must disclose their climate change risks!  So we've launched a major campaign to make sure the SEC and Congress knows that it isn't just the institutional investors asking for this – we all want corporate disclosure.  The secrecy must end!  Send an e-mail using our customizable online letter by May 30, and make your voice heard.    Send e-mail to the SEC and Congress today » News: Sweatshop Victory in the Marianas Islands Great news:  For more than a decade Co-op America and our members have been working together to end sweatshops, human trafficking, and exploitation on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Territory in the Western Pacific. On April 10, 2008 the US Senate voted 91-4 to finally extend federal labor and immigration laws to the Mariana Islands.  The House has already passed the Bill and it will be signed into law.  (For background on this issue, please see our previous editorials here and here.) This is a long-delayed victory to end some of the worse labor abuse in the world. In 1992 the owners of sweatshops on the main island of Saipan were fined $9.2 million for labor violations. In 2004 a high-profile 1999 lawsuit against 27 US name-brand retailers and 23 Saipan garment factories was finally settled for $20 million. Over the years, Congressional hearings and dozens of reports from human rights workers, NGOs and the US Government detailed an economic system in the Mariana Islands based on exploitation and abuse.  For years it was clear that federal control of labor, immigration and custom laws was required to shut down the system of abuse. And yet, since 1995 every effort to pass legislation to place the Marianas Islands fully under US laws and oversight was killed by lobbyists like Jack Abramoff and his Congressional allies. This obstacle to justice has finally been removed.  Human rights advocates and the workers are celebrating (you can join them at their Web site, Unheard No More). To learn more about sweatshops and how to take action, download our latest Guide to Ending Sweatshops online. Download the Guide to Ending Sweatshops » Resources: Our May Green Biz Interview – Green Retail in China! Jeff Delkin and Rachel Speth, founders of bambu (the eco-friendly housewares company) reside in Shanghai, China at the doorstep of the world's largest source of bamboo – a renewable resource that bambu sources orgianically. What's more, their location allows Jeff and Rachel personally to monitor the labor conditions of their production, ensuring that the green housewares they sell in the US through their New York-based company are TRULY green – both socially and environmentally responsible. "We are at the source so we are accountable for the work conditions and quality of our product," says Jeff. "And it means we're able to give back to the communities in which we work. In one community we provide support to local the school for the children of our production team, and we work with Grameen Foundation in China and provide support to the micro-finance work they do." We asked Jeff and Rachel to tell us about their work on sustainable production in China, as well as their latest venture, NEST, a Shanghai retail store (and their recent participation in Shanghai's first eco-fair). Read our May 2008 Interview »

May 6, 2008 Action · End Corporate Secrecy on Climate Change News · Sweatshop Victory in the Marianas Islands Resources · Our May Green Biz Interview – Green Retail in China! Use our spring gift guide to save money and buy green » (member advertisement) (member advertisement) Looking for a way to offset your carbon emissions?  Co-op America offsets with NativeEnergy's WindBuilders program, and you can too for just pennies a day. » Listen to the latest Green Festival speakers » Co-op America is featured in the newly updated book 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth. You can buy it (or check your local library) from our online portal, "Books We Like" » Thanks to the following blogs and Web sites who posted our 16 Steps to a Healthy Home: Big Lick Green Drinks Blue Ridge Eco-Shop Burnt Beans Caryn Corriere Eco-Deaf For My Kids Gaytheist Agenda Green by D’Bodinus Green Living and Design Green Rocks Inn Greening the Planet The Good Human Hella Delicious Tara Johnson Natural Lifestyle Pet Talk at the Pet Cabaret Regeneration Springs Rocket Maid Sparkling Dragonfly Verde Bag A Wild Soap Bar

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