1. 10 Easy Ways to Cut Your Energy Bills in Half » (January 19)

Thousands of you downloaded the PDF poster from this e-newsletter, listing the best ways to cut your energy use, like line-drying your clothes, installing ceiling fans, and unplugging unused appliances (also available in HTML).

IN 2012: The key to eliminating our country's reliance on fossil fuels is to dramatically boost our energy-efficiency, while accelerating the shift to truly green and renewable energy like solar and wind. Look for Green America's brand new Web site for our Clean Energy Victory Bonds plan in January. Victory Bonds are a tried and true strategy for citizens to cooperate on funding urgent national projects, from the World War II effort to today's work to shift toward cleaner energy. We'll ramp up our work to mobilize Green Americans in every congressional district to demand the enabling legislation for these bonds.

2. 9 Ways to Go Local With Your Food »
(October 6)

Our "Good Food Gone Local" Green American was one of our most popular ever. Just last week we launched a new "good food" action, in partnership with our allies, to demand mandatory labeling for GMO food. Thousands of you have already taken action; if you haven't yet, please sign our petition to the FDA today.

IN 2012: We'll follow up our GMO action and our "Good Food Gone Local" Green American with a new issue of our magazine exploring the problems with GMOs, and how to protect yourself and your family. We'll also examine the sweeteners in our foods -- often a GMO-heavy ingredient in processed food products -- and give you more green-living tips and resources for answering the question: organic or local?

3. Wednesday's Hershey Rally: A Huge Success » (June 9)

Big congratulations to our Fair Trade director Elizabeth O'Connell, whose work to organize an early June rally outside of the Hershey store in Times Square paid off big time, in terms of increased awareness of the child labor issues in the cocoa supply chain. That's on top of the many other ways you took action this year to push Hershey to do better, from Valentine's Day messages, to our viral video contest and our Halloween costume contest, you made a big difference this year.

IN 2012: Look for us to ramp up our efforts to push Hershey to do the right thing and ensure that its supply chain is free from abusive child labor. We'll be launching new actions ahead of Valentine's Day 2012, including social media actions to spread the word to folks buying Valentine's Day chocolates, and curricula for teachers to share with children. Together, we can shift more of the chocolate market toward Fair Trade in 2012. Together we'll keep the pressure on Hershey. One thing we know for sure at Green America is that when we keep the pressure on, companies change.

4. 9 Toxins to Keep Off Your Body » (July 5)

Our popular "Poisonous Personal Care" issue of the Green American explained the problems with the nine most troubling chemicals still used in personal care products from shampoo to shaving cream. Our online list includes a link to a downloadable PDF poster you can use as a reminder when you're checking your labels.

IN 2012: Here at Green America, we embrace the "Precautionary Principle," and demand that products on the market be proven safe, rather than merely assumed to be safe until there's problem. This goes for personal care products as well as electronics, like cell phones, which generated safety concerns in headlines this year long after our initial feature first hit the presses way back in January. Look for more "Precautionary Principle" scoops in 2012 in the pages of the Green American.

5. YES! Another one down... » (February 7)

In February, we celebrated the cancellation of a coal plant by Perdue University, bringing to 150 the total number of coal plants defeated or abandoned since 2001. Throughout the year, you helped us push Southern Company, the worst carbon-emitting utility in the country, to reduce its dependence on coal and nuclear. Our report in May exposed Southern Company's poor record, and you signed our petitions and letters, which Todd Larsen, our Climate Action Director, took to the Southern Company annual meeting. The good news is that it’s working: Southern Company announced a commitment to a major solar installation and to reducing it’s CO2 by 20%.

IN 2012: We'll keep up the pressure on Southern Company, because even with its new commitments, Southern Company remains at the bottom of the list, and a terrible polluter overall. We'll also keep pushing for greater regulation of mountaintop removal coal mining -- the most destructive form of coal mining there is!

6. You'll be outraged by this lawsuit! » (May 17)

Thousands of you WERE outraged when Hilex Poly, a huge plastic-bag manufacturer, sued ChicoBag, one of our Green Business Network™ members, a seller of reuseable shopping bags. The lawsuit was settled, but not before we'd been inspired to produce a whole magazine feature about plastics recycling the problems with disposable plastics. (Speaking of recycling, another popular action you took throughout the year was to tell the airlines to recycle their trash. Several airlines are taking action; look for our follow-up report in 2012.)

IN 2012: Along with our "Take The Plastic Challenge" issue of the Green American, we launched a popular series of blog posts from our editors about how to live a plastic-free lifestyle. We'll run more blog series like these in 2012, including a series in January/February about "financial fasting," and an upcoming series on the projects being financed by the corporate banks that will DEFINITELY make you want to break up with your mega-bank, if you haven't already...

7. #Occupy Wall Street ... How to Take Action Whereever You Live » (October 11)

Speaking of the mega-banks, our ongoing "Break Up With Your Bank" campaign got a boost this fall when frustration with the mega-banks emerged as part of the Occupy movement. Our Community Investing Guide and "Break Up Toolkit," provide guidance and resources for ditching mega-banks in favor of community development banks -- banks with a mission of creating good, green local jobs; financing affordable housing (including low-income housing); and providing services that have a positive impact on local communities.

IN 2012: Our policy director Fran Teplitz joined the "Occupy K St." protestors outside Green Americas offices two weeks ago, and shared our community-development banking resources with them. (She blogged about it here.) We'll keep it up in the coming year, with a new "break-up" Web site set to go live in the opening months of 2012. Switching to a smaller, local bank is a good idea, and switching to a community development bank is even better. We'll be continuing our public education campaign on community develpment banking -- including our fourth annual "Break Up Day" on Valentine's Day -- all through next year.

BONUS: Also in 2011, we launched our new DIGITAL MEMBERSHIP, which has proven extremely popular with our members. Now you can join Green America (or renew your membership) and your membership will be 100-percent paper-free -- no more paper mail from Green America ever. We'll send you your Green American magazine as a link in an e-mail that you can view on your e-reader, tablet, or personal computer. Save paper, save energy, save postage, and gain access to special links, videos, and online features you can't get from the printed publications. (Also: Remember that if you choose to receive paper publications, Green America prints only on 100-percent recycled paper.) To give you an idea of how our digital magazine works, here is our popular "Good Food Gone Local" issue, in digital format. To start receiving the Green American digitally in 2012, please join today!

(All advertisements are from approved Green America Business Network™ members.)

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Free shipping through Dec. 22 from Organic Bouquet, plus a 10 percent donation to Green America »

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Special offers from our Green Business Network™ »

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All credit card purchases will help support Green America »

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Every second gift is FREE »

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JOIN GREEN AMERICA:
If you're not already a supporting member, please help our our green-economy programs thrive, by joining today. You'll receive a copy of the National Green Pages™ and a subscription to our Green American »

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DOUBLE YOUR POWER:
Every gift you give, before December 31, will be matched dollar-for-dollar.

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In 2011, we launched a whole suite of new ways for you to get green-living info when you need it: Ask Green America, our help desk for all your green living questions … Green Living Makeover so you can take on new green challenges (and get all your Facebook friends going green too) … Green Pages Online and Shop Green America to connect you to the greenest companies and products … your free National Green Pages app so that you’ll never be without green connections no matter where you travel … and Green Deals so you can save green when you buy green.

Together we’re growing the green economy for a just, sustainable future for all!