Featured Non-Profit

Green America 

As part of our commitment to being a not-just-for-profit business, What’s Good selects a different charity each quarter and donates $1 for every order we receive. Our goal is to promote and support charities that are focused on environmental sustainability and social justice. For the first quarter of the new year, we've selected Green America, a non-profit organization that harnesses economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

What's Good's founder, Jennifer has had a long relationship with Green America, extending back to her previous life leading another green business. Equally important, as a conscious consumer, Green America has been a huge resource for navigating the world of green. They are one of those unique organizations that helps consumers and green businesses all while helping the greater good. 

So it's no surprise that when What's Good launched, Jennifer joined Green America and soon became a Green America® Certified Green Business — which means we have been vetted and passed their standards to be recognized as a business that practices what we preach. Still, Green America is so much more than that. (Thus, this long blog.)

As individuals, we subscribe to their quarterly magazine, Green American which features some of the best articles on sustainability and social justice ANYWHERE. If for no other reason (of the many many reasons to support them), do it for the enriching and educational value of their magazine. For us as a business, they've helped us grow both in terms of educating our team on the issues at hand and pushing our business to do better, to be greener. If you happen to also be a business, the benefits of belonging stretch even farther. In terms of diversity and inclusivity, they are leading the way. Read on to take a deeper dive into Green America.

Founded in 1982 and originally named Co-Op America, the visionary group of Green America's founders bravely put forth a revolutionary idea to Americans: “Every time you spend or invest a dollar, it goes to work in the world. Too often, it goes to support institutions and corporations that perpetuate injustice, pollute the environment, and destroy communities. But we can change that. We can use economic power to push for socially and environmentally responsible businesses... and put our society on a more sustainable path.”

For 30+ years, they've helped people in their roles as consumers, investors, business owners, homeowners, community activists, teachers, people of faith, children and parents, to take both personal and collective action that promotes positive social and environmental progress. Together, these people are growing the market for green products, promoting renewable energy, promoting fair wages and fair trade, and building healthy communities.

Their work focuses on 4 key areas for system transformation, insisting on social justice and environmental health across all sectors:

• Climate and clean energy
• Sustainable food and agriculture
• Responsible investing
• Fair labor

What Makes Green America Unique:

• They mobilize people in their economic roles—as consumers, investors, workers, business leaders—to address issues of social justice and environmental sustainability.
• They empower individuals to make purchasing and investing choices to build a just and sustainable world.
• They empower people to take personal and collective action.
• They work on issues of social justice and environmental responsibility. They see these issues as completely linked in the quest for a sustainable world.
• They work to stop abusive practices and to create healthy, just, and sustainable practices.
• They demand an end to corporate irresponsibility through collective economic action.
• They promote green and fair trade business principles while building the market for businesses adhering to these principles.
• Their democratically-constituted board is elected by members from their consumer, business, and staff stakeholders.
• Green America operates as a collaborative and participatory workplace, where staff members are encouraged to give input and to reach consensus through democratic decision-making processes on key issues affecting staff of the organization.

Green Business Network: 
The leading authentic trustmark for true green business practices, Green America offers a business certification process that evaluates businesses for high standards of social and environmental responsibility. Their certification is tailored for small green businesses and social enterprises in over 40 industries and over 3,000 businesses.

What's Good is proud to be a Green America® Certified Green Business.

Center for Sustainability Solutions: 
Green America's Center for Sustainability Solutions brings together diverse groups of stakeholders into an Innovation Network to solve the complex sustainability problems that no individual business, organization, or leader can solve alone. They draw from a range of disciplines and methodologies to develop, test, and deploy practical solutions that shift systems toward bold sustainability goals.

If you’d like to learn more about Green America, get involved, or donate directly, visit them here.

If you’re new to What’s Good, this is just one part of our giving program — we too like the multi-pronged approach. Among other donations, we  give 1% of our annual revenue to One Percent for the Planet. And, with every used box shipped (pick this option at checkout), we’ll plant one tree through One Tree Planted. 

Together we do more good. Thank you!