Sustainable Consumption

Grantmaking in this area aims to broaden the market for environmental papers and packaging through markets campaigns, shareholder activism, consumer-targeted education, and dialogue with the corporate sector. This year we have expanded our packaging program to include efforts to reduce plastics in the waste stream, through strategies such as eliminating single use plastic disposables by promoting reusable packaging for grocery stores, take-out, and delivery.

Roughly three-quarters of Americans now say they’ve been affected by extreme weather in the past five years, a near 20-point jump in five months, and the majority believe climate change is at least partly to blame, according to a poll last month from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Those risks have prompted a growing number of people to direct their dollars into investments that aim to tackle global warming and improve the environment—hoping to help save the planet and make some money at the same time.

Read article in Better Planet

As You Sow

The Sept. 20 election that returned the Liberal Party to government was, in many ways, a climate election. For the first time, every major party put forward a climate platform, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s performance on the file over the last six years was among the issues on the ballot.

Read article in The Globe and Mail

Stand.earth

The Story of Plastic

Our first feature-length documentary, The Story of Plastic is a searing expose revealing the ugly truth behind plastic pollution and the false solution of plastic recycling.

Read in Story of Stuff

Watch animated short (4min)

Watch movie (1hr 23min)

Plastic crisis needs binding treaty, report says

Pollution from plastics is a global emergency in need of a robust UN treaty, according to a report.

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says there’s a cascade of evidence of harm from plastics.

Read in BBC

Environmental Investigation Agency

Upstream CEO sees huge potential in burgeoning reuse-refill sector, including for haulers

Matt Prindiville, head of a nonprofit focused on holistic waste solutions, is at the center of discussions with brands and activists alike about not just relying on recycling for a circular economy.

Read article in Wastedive

Upstream

Our Shopping Obsession Is Causing a Literal Stink

One thing’s for sure, says Joshua Martin, director of the Environmental Paper Network—these conflicts are likely to mount as the world consumes more packaging.

Read in Time

Environmental Paper network