Dear Daniel A Stafford, Great news this week from across our green-economy programs… First off, our Better Paper program director, Frank Locantore, tells me that eight new magazines -- Publishers Weekly, Phi Kappa Tau, Bicycle Times, Dirt Rag, Experience Life, Greenability, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and WellFed -- have started using our Better Paper Eco-Label to clearly show their commitment to using recycled paper. Look for it when you buy magazines, and see below for more from our Better Paper program on our latest award winners. And what a difference recycled paper makes! If the entire North American magazine industry included a minimum of 30 percent post-consumer recycled paper in their publications, it would save approximately 10 million trees a year – along with delivering big energy, water, and landfill savings. Second, our Fair Trade director, Elizabeth O'Connell, reports that her trip last week to Hershey, Pennsylvania was a sweet success. On Valentine's Day, Elizabeth joined with our allies at the New York Labor Religion Coalition to personally deliver thousands petition signatures and hundreds of valentines -- made by schoolchildren opposed to child labor -- to members of the Hershey Trust, demanding greater action to get child labor out of Hershey's cocoa supply chain. Finally, our policy director Fran Teplitz reports that efforts by Green America and dozens of allies working on energy and climate issues succeeded in gathering more than 800,000 signatures last week against a new effort to stop Congress from reviving the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline – a polluting tar-sands pipeline project halted last month by President Obama. Our work together continues on each of these projects, as we push for a more eco-friendly magazine industry, a more socially just cocoa industry, and a cleaner energy policy for the United States. Here's to a greener America,
Alisa Gravitz,
Executive Director,
Green America P.S.: Your donation today expands and accelerates all of our green economy work – from recycling to fair supply chains and clean energy. Thanks for your commitment to these issues. 
Winners of our 2012 Aveda Award  Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Aveda Environmental Award for Magazines presented by Green America and Aveda. This year's awards go to: Dirt Rag, a leading mountain bike magazine, as the Environmental Award Winner. A shout out goes out to Greenability,Kansas City's green living magazine and GRIT, America's rural lifestyle magazine, who rounded out the top three. To see how one major magazine has advanced its commitment to greater recycling, check out this video on Fast Company's recycled-paper publishing, produced by our Better Paper Project. Watch our video on Fast Company » Our comprehensive list of magazines using recycled paper » 
Keeping the Pressure on Hershey  Before Valentine's Day, we told you about how Hershey has made its first-ever public acknowledgement that it bears some responsibility for monitoring the labor practices in its supply chain. The Hershey company has announced that one specialty line of products – the Bliss Bar – among its vast array of products will by the end of 2012 be certified by the Rainforest Alliance.
This is a great first step, but it leaves out the overwhelming majority of Hershey products, and even the Bliss Bar won't be certified by the most rigorous processes available. That's why we're keeping up the pressure. On Valentine's Day, our Fair Trade director Elizabeth O'Connell met up with teenaged child-labor activist Jasper Perry-Anderson and other allies in Hershey, Pennsylvania to directly deliver more than 16,000 petitions and more than 500 valentines created by schoolchildren, all bearing the message that Hershey needs to do more to combat child labor in its supply chain Read Elizabeth's blog post » 
KXL Pipeline: It's Not Over Yet  Last week, Green America was among 30 climate-focused organizations involved in mobilizing citizens to send more than 800,000 messages to Congress saying no to a revived Keystone XL pipeline project. With an initial goal of mobilizing 500,000 people within 24 hours, the push wildly exceeded all our expectations. Thanks to all the Green America members who stepped up to send this big message! Why the renewed push against Keystone XL after the president struck down the pipeline project ? It's because Senate and House Republicans are leading the charge to force an approval of the pipeline. The House passed legislation last week to increase oil and gas drilling and to undercut the President's decision against constructing the Keystone XL pipeline at this time. The Senate will consider its own provisions soon . Fifteen of the nation's top climate scientists also added their names to the effort by sending a personal letter to the Senate, urging leadership to abandon the tar sands pipeline because of its impact on the environment and climate. "We can say categorically that this pipeline is not in the nation's, or the planet's best interest," wrote the group, which included Dr. James Hansen of NASA, Dr. Michael Mann at Penn State, and Dr. Ralph Keeling at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Read our editorial on why KXL is bad for our country » | 
