Washington, U.S.A. — Individuals running a green business or support a company that supports the environment can submit a nomination to the first quarterly “People and Planet Award”, which is sponsored by the nonprofit Green America.

Nominations will be accepted online through July 9, 2012. Green businesses with fewer than 50 employees that are working to benefit their community may be nominated. After the nomination period closes, a panel of Green America judges will narrow the field to 10 finalists. Public voting will begin on August 2, 2012 and close on September 4, 2012. After the votes are tallied, the first group of three quarterly winners will be announced during the week of September 17th.

The new quarterly “People and Planet Awards” will recognize innovative entrepreneurial U.S. businesses that deeply integrate environmental and social considerations into their strategies and operations. Each quarter, three nominated green businesses will go on to win a $5,000 cash award. Winners must demonstrate excellence in a facet of the green economy as chosen by Green America for that quarter. The awards categories will reflect Green America’s broad definition of a “green economy”: one that works for both people and the planet.

Alisa Gravitz, executive director, Green America, said: “We are pleased to be able to encourage and honor businesses who are working hard to benefit their communities, their workers and the environment. Thanks to the generous donation of a longtime supporter, Green America will be able to award $15,000 each quarter to boost the green economy. In this tough economy, we know that $5,000 can go a long way to help sustain and grow an innovative green company.”

The first round of the Awards will focus on green businesses that also have a community action component. Examples could include a green cafe that donates organic waste to a local composting program, a solar installer with a program giving job-experience to local at-risk youth, or an organic farm that donates produce to the local homeless shelter.

Future rounds of the quarterly Awards will focus on clean energy, workplace innovations, and other sustainability practices.

Judges for Green America’s People and Planet Award include Katie Galloway & Gigi Abbadie, Aveda; Justin Conway, Calvert Foundation; Elysa Hammond, Clif Bar; Cheryl Newman, Honest Tea; Stacy Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance; Theresa Marquez, Organic Valley; Eric Henry, TS Designs; Reed Doyle, Seventh Generation and Fran Teplitz & Andrew Korfhage, Green America.

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The following is being released by Green America, Washington, D.C.:

The “Raise the Bar, Hershey!” Coalition which has called on The Hershey Company to remove forced child labor from its products has an additional target this Easter: Cadbury/Kraft.

While Cadbury has demonstrated its commitment to ending forced child labor in the West African cocoa industry by selling Fair Trade certified chocolates in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Japan, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand—the same cannot be said of Cadbury products sold in the United States.

Why?

In 1988, Hershey purchased Cadbury’s U.S. chocolate business, including the exclusive rights to make and sell well-known brands like Cadbury Creme Eggs, and Cadbury Solid Milk Chocolate Bunnies.

The petition, launched last week, has already generated more than 5,000 signatures to the CEO’s of Hershey and Kraft/Cadbury.

Steven Waters, a supporter of the campaign in North Carolina, stated: ”I was shocked to learn that Cadbury’s products in the U.S. are made by Hershey. Learning that forced child labor was an ingredient in their seemingly innocent Easter chocolates made it easy to persuade my girlfriend’s family to discontinue their large quantity purchases of Chocolate Creme Eggs this year.”

“Unfortunately, Hershey refuses to meet the standard set by Cadbury overseas of offering at least one major fair trade product, despite almost two years of mounting consumer pressure,” said Green America Fair Trade Campaigns Director Elizabeth O’Connell. ”With Easter around the corner, the third most popular chocolate-consuming holiday in the U.S., consumers want to be able to buy Easter treats for their families that align with their values.”

The petition is coordinated by Raise the Bar, Hershey!, a coalition of organizations fighting ongoing labor abuses such as child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking in the West African cocoa industry.

Image Courtesy of    http://www.flickr.com/photos/owlpacino/

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Green America strongly commends President Obama for his wise decision, announced  to reject the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline. The proposed pipeline would extend nearly 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast.

This Canadian project poses severe consequences for human health and the environment while further entrenching the dirty fossil fuel economy and failing to generate lasting jobs. Investment in clean energy generates 3-4 times as many jobs as investments in fossil fuels.

“This is the right decision, a brave decision, and one that shows the President took into account profound concerns about the pipeline’s impacts on health, climate change, the environment, and the need to build a clean energy economy that can create lasting U.S. jobs,” said Fran Teplitz, Green America’s director of strategic outreach.

Last November, the Obama Administration pushed the deadline on its pipeline decision into early 2013, determining that current impact studies on the pipeline were insufficient. A fair and measured period of scrutiny for the proposed pipeline is exactly what Big Oil and Republicans in Congress don’t want, because this project fails on every score. Congressional Republicans pushed legislation in December designed to force a presidential decision on the pipeline in February 2012.

“The President made the right call today,” stated Alisa Gravitz, Green America’s executive director. “Green America and our allies will continue to work to oppose tar sands pipelines at every turn. We will continue to lend our voice and our organizing power to this issue which has dire consequences for Native communities, the earth, and the clean energy future that the times demand we create,” she affirmed.

Proponents of the pipeline tout it as a major job creator. Data show, however, that the Keystone XL pipeline can actually be a jobs killer in the U.S., through pipeline spills and increased fuel costs in the Midwest as current tar sands oil gets diverted. Moreover, with a significant portion of the Keystone XL oil intended for the export market, there is no credibility to the claim that tar sands oil represents a “friendly” oil source for the United States.

President Obama has used his decision-making power on the Keystone pipeline in a prudent and sensible way that will benefit current and future generations. Big Oil should not determine the direction of our energy future when we need a new direction based on clean and renewable power.

Green America is a national membership organization that uses the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society

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