The Northwest Earth Institute is a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to protect ecological systems. NWEI offers seven study guides for small groups. These self-guided discussion courses are offered in workplaces, universities, homes, faith centers, neighborhoods, and community centers throughout North America. Each program encourages participants to explore values, attitudes, and actions through discussion with other people. Courses include “choices for sustainable living,” “voluntary simplicity,” discovering a sense of place,” and more.
The mission of The Cloud Institute is to ensure the viability of sustainable communities by leveraging changes in K-12 school systems to prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future. The Institute equips school systems K-12 and their communities with the core content, competencies and habits of mind that characterize education for a sustainable future. We do this by inspiring teachers and engaging students through meaningful content and student-centered instruction.
Green America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982 (they went by the name “Co-op America” until January, 2009.) Their mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Green America works for purchasing and investment choices that are fair and sustainable, and for promoting fair trade business principles.
350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth. Solutions exist. All around the world, a movement is building to take on the climate crisis, to get humanity out of the danger zone and below 350. This movement is massive, it is diverse, and includes scholars, scientists, business leaders, churches, governments, and schools.
GoodGuide™ strives to provide the world’s largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of products and companies. GoodGuide’s mission is to help you find safe, healthy, and green products that are better for you and the planet.
WiserEarth is an online community that maps and connects organizations and individuals addressing the central issues of our day: climate change, poverty, the environment, peace, water, hunger, social justice, conservation, human rights and more. Here you will find a huge directory of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and socially responsible organizations, as well as online community forums where members can engage in discussion, post and share resources, and collaborate on projects.
The Worldwatch Institute is an independent research organization recognized by opinion leaders around the world for its accessible, fact-based analysis of critical global issues. Its mission is to generate and promote insights and ideas that empower decision makers to build an ecologically sustainable society that meets human needs. Worldwatch seeks innovative solutions to intractable problems-emphasizing a blend of government leadership, private sector enterprise, and citizen action that can make a sustainable future a reality.
We all have ecological footprints. It’s their size that differs. The footprint calculator estimates how much of the Earth’s biocapacity is needed to support a person’s consumption choices over the course of a year. The results can be compared to the global average or sustainable rate.
Unlike other measures that rank countries according to the environmental performance of their governments, companies and other factors, the Greendex is the first to rank the performance of individual consumers, rather than countries as a whole.
People use lots of water for drinking, cooking and washing, but even more for producing things such as food, paper, cotton clothes, etc. The water footprint is an indicator of water use that looks at both direct and indirect water use of a consumer or producer. The water footprint of an individual, community or business is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the goods and services consumed by the individual or community or produced by the business.