Business

You have been recycling your household garbage for years. You buy your groceries and cleaning products from your local co-op. Many of your clothes are made from organic cotton. Generally, you live a green lifestyle; however, how green are your banking and investment practices? Have you ever thought about banking or investing with a financial institution that matches your core beliefs and values?

100% Post-consumer Recycled Content

The biggest contribution you can make toward affecting real and positive change is to be a green educated professional working for an UNgreen company. Eco-by-stealth is the most powerful tool for deep change—and it’s easier than you’d think.

Fact: In 2004, over 12 million pounds of Toxic Chemicals were released into Minnesota’s air.

— MN Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Program

As fast as the green economy grows and market sectors emerge with new sustainable solutions and technologies that can change our world for the better, the American job market still looks grim. Mid-income level jobs—the “good jobs”—are hard to find. (The equation goes something like this: fewer good jobs, more people looking.) And living wage jobs are, well, hardly that.

Supporting locally owned, independent businesses keeps more of your money in your community. When you spend $1 at a local independent store, an average of 68 cents is recirculated into the local economy. In contrast, when you spend $1 at a national chain store, only about 43 cents stays at home. If Twin Cities consumers shift even 10% of their spending from chains to locals for one day, the Twin Cities economy gains some $2 million.

I was just lying on the grass at Peavy Park on May Day. There were progressive and activist types all around. I felt alienated as always; even on International Workers Day, I was in the minority as a crazy, angry, blue-collar-working trash person.

There is no denying that we are a consumer society. But is it possible to harness consumption as a vehicle for positive social change? A growing group of investors believe that Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) can pave the way for social change by funding environmentally and socially responsible companies. By making the shareholder's voice an activist voice, screening for progressing-thinking companies and investing in communities, money can provide capital and momentum for a healthier world.

We are all aware of the importance and power of the printed piece. We also know the power we have to make a huge impact on reducing the number of trees being cut down and lowering the amount of toxins in our waters. Energy and materials involved in the printing process, from pre-press to disposal, have implications for air and water quality, waste disposal, energy use and worker safety.