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    • December 2024 newsletter: Top 12 moments of campaign impact this year

    December 19, 2024

    At the start of 2024, our goals felt like daring dreams. Could we really go up against Cargill as one of the world’s most powerful agribusinesses and Lululemon as one of the biggest global fashion brands, while winning divestment commitments valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars?

    Thanks to you, we didn’t just dream—we acted. Together, we exposed environmental wrongdoers, secured forest protections, and mobilized thousands of voices demanding climate justice.

    Big action takes big commitment—and we know this community is ready to rise to the challenge. Because at Stand.earth, the impossible is only the beginning.

    — Protecting Forests —
    Tiger

    1. Cargill campaign intensifies calls for billionaire owners to make good on promise to end forest destruction

    In October, our Cargill campaign unveiled a 17,000-square-foot mural in Brazil calling on the company’s billionaire owners to end their part in the destruction of South America’s forests and other critical ecosystems. Covered in a lengthy article in The New York Times, the mural installation aimed to increase the pressure on the Cargill-MacMillan family to see through a commitment they made late last year to end the destruction of nature in South America by 2025.

    “We won a formal commitment from industrial agriculture giant Cargill to stop destroying forests and other critical ecosystems in South America. Groups have been trying for years, but we had a smart strategy to target the real decision makers: the family. I’m pretty proud of that.”

    — Matt Jacobson
    Cargill Campaign Director

    2. Amazonia campaign research shows major oil and gas financiers investing in rainforest destruction

    In June, our Amazonia program released Greenwashing the Amazon, an incisive new report that demonstrates how major banks are investing in destruction that is irreversible for one of the most strategic ecosystems for life on the planet, even as they falsely claim to protect the rainforest, Indigenous rights, and our climate.

    “Our report uncovered how greenwashing works in practice, allowing banks to continue to finance billions of dollars for oil and gas companies in the region and delaying real climate action. The clock is ticking for the Amazon and we cannot allow financial institutions to turn a blind eye to the damage their money enables.”

    — Angeline Robertson
    Senior Investigative Researcher

    3. Old growth campaign exposes continued logging despite government promises

    Our satellite surveillance tool Forest Eye exposed that logging of rare, old growth forests continues in British Columbia, despite government assurances that those forests would be protected. Recent analysis from Stand.earth Research Group confirmed logging has proceeded in places where deferrals were supposed to move forward, and that logging companies have even clearcut forests where the government says deferrals are in place.

    “Breaking down the province’s numbers and comparing them to the leaked map, we can see through the smoke and mirrors that allow the government to celebrate deferrals in areas that were in fact already protected.”

    — Tegan Hansen
    Senior Forest Campaigner

    4. Biomass campaign increases international scrutiny on burning forests for energy

    At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in October, we joined a powerful chorus of voices from around the globe to call out forest biomass as a highly-polluting fuel that threatens ecosystems worldwide. Earlier in the year, our team documented logging trucks unloading whole logs at a pellet mill on Wet’suwet’en territory in Smithers, British Columbia and provided images to the press, further exposing the wood pellet industry’s activities in Canada.

    — Moving Beyond Fossil Fuels —
    Tiger

    5. Lululemon unveils new clean-energy commitment after the filing of numerous greenwashing complaints

    Our Fossil Free Fashion campaign led on filing a series of complaints against fashion retailer Lululemon in Canada and France for greenwashing its products. Following ongoing scrutiny with demonstrations organized by Stand and partners across Canada throughout the summer, Lululemon published a specific milestone this fall for phasing out coal and transitioning 25% of its “core” suppliers to renewable electricity by 2025.

    “Greenwashing is the distance between what companies say and what companies actually do. Stand filed greenwashing complaints against lifestyle brand lululemon in Canada and France – which inspired a similar greenwashing complaint in the U.S.! We’re closer than ever to lululemon and peer brands kicking coal out of manufacturing and shipping supply chains.”

    — Rachel Kitchin
    Senior Corporate Climate Campaigner

    6. Fossil fuel divestment momentum grows from coast to coast

    The past year has seen numerous encouraging moments of progress on the divestment work being championed by Stand’s climate finance campaign.

    In a groundbreaking victory this spring, Oregon adopted the COAL Act to divest the $98 billion Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund from up to $1 billion in thermal coal producers. Thanks to the powerful leaders with Divest Oregon, the state became the third jurisdiction in North America (joining California and Maine), and the fourth in the world (alongside the country of Ireland), to pass fossil fuel divestment legislation.

    As further affirmation of the downward trajectory of the fossil fuel sector and associated financial risks, New York City announced a commitment this fall to exclude new pension investments in private equity-backed fossil fuel midstream and downstream companies and projects, setting yet another trailblazing precedent for funds across the country and around the world to follow.

    “In 2024 alone, more than 60 institutions with assets totaling more than $500 billion made commitments to divest from fossil fuels. I especially love the campaign Stand helped Oregon advocates win, an effort to divest up to $1 billion of coal-related holdings from the state treasury fund. Brilliant!”

    — Amy Gray
    Associate Director of Climate Finance

    7. RBC faces growing scrutiny for fossil fuel financing

    RBC faced compounding push back from numerous sources this year for its notorious status as Canada’s #1 fossil fuel financing bank.

    RBC had a rocky annual shareholder meeting in the spring, when defensive staff silenced, censored, and interrupted Indigenous and frontline leaders directly impacted by the bank’s toxic fossil fuel financing. Then, in early summer, RBC was included in a summons issued by a Canadian parliamentary committee where the CEOs of Canada’s Big Five Banks testified on the impact of the Canadian financial system on the climate and the environment.

    In the months that followed from summer into fall, 9,000 Canadians completed climate actions as part of the Unite the Swifties campaign organized by Stand and partners to hold RBC accountable in the face of the bank’s position as primary sponsor of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concerts.

    RBC also remains under investigation by Canada’s Competition Bureau over its climate advertising campaign for being allegedly misleading or ‘greenwashed’, and is facing a securities complaint over allegations of misleading investors through its use of terms like ‘sustainable finance,’ without providing the requisite data.

    “The campaign we have been running since 2021 is working. We have raised the profile and problem of the issue of the banks bankrolling and enabling fossil fuel companies. … We don’t need more deflection and greenwashing from the banks. We deserve accountability, real plans and real action to avoid the worst of climate chaos.”

    — Richard Brooks
    Climate Finance Director

    8. New report links deaths, asthma, climate pollution to Citi’s funding of gas terminals

    A report released this fall by Stand and partners shows that the lives and health of families in Texas and Louisiana are being directly impacted by Citi’s funding of nearby liquified methane gas projects (LNG). The report quantified the projected health impacts the facilities’ permitted air pollution could have on the region and highlighted three communities in the area that are fighting back against fossil fuel development.

    “We’re showing that Citi is complicit in environmental racism through both quantitative analysis as well as community stories, to offer examples of the real health and climate impacts of city’s financing.”

    — Hannah Saggau
    Senior Climate Finance Campaigner

    9. Analysis reveals oil and gas companies’ fracking demands record quantities of freshwater during drought

    Oil and gas companies in B.C. took a record six billion liters of freshwater for their fracking operations last year, according to data that Stand has been tracking from the British Columbia Energy Regulator. This represents an increase of over 800 million liters  — enough to supply every B.C. household for a week — while droughts are intensifying. 

    “Climate impacts caused by the oil and gas sector are making drought seasons in B.C. worse. We are calling on the provincial government to reduce the amount of water that fracking companies use by making some common sense changes to the way they regulate the fossil fuel industry.”

    — Sven Biggs
    Canadian Oil and Gas Program Director

    — Reinventing Cities and Transportation —
    Tiger

    10. SAFE Cities campaign mobilizes successful defense of Vancouver gas-free buildings policy

    In late November, Vancouver City Councillors quashed the possibility of rolling back a gas-free buildings policy by instead voting to require electric heating and hot water in the construction of new residences. This win came thanks to a broad-based and dogged campaign led by SAFE Cities to restore Vancouver’s credibility as a climate leader, after a last-minute decision over the summer began to backtrack on climate pollution rules for new builds.

    “Common sense and people using their voices won a sustainable and economically-sound future for Vancouver. This is not just a victory for the climate, but a victory for anyone across Canada currently standing up to the fossil fuel industry to keep gas out of their homes and their futures.”

    — Sunil Singal
    SAFE Cities Campaigner

    11. Deliver Change campaign drives conversation about Amazon’s transition to zero-emissions shipping

    This year, our Deliver Change campaign worked hard to engage Amazon in a solutions-oriented conversation about accelerating its transition to zero-emissions shipping. In July, our coalition took to the streets outside Amazon headquarters in Seattle asking to meet CEO Andy Jassy. Our team expanded our research to capture a full picture of Amazon’s dock-to-door emissions over a five-year period. Our campaigners regularly reached out to Amazon’s Sustainability and Operations teams, and even secured a meeting with them. Our transportation campaign will continue pressing until Amazon executives are ready to commit to zero-emission deliveries by 2030.

    “We have the science and solutions to align Amazon operations with our climate reality, and the company can’t pretend to be a climate leader while resisting the growing chorus of voices demanding solutions. Next year, we’re hopeful that Amazon will finally get the message. We won’t leave anything to chance, and we will continue to build momentum and work in solidarity with the communities and workers most impacted by Amazon’s pollution.”

    — Joshua Archer
    Senior Global Corporate Campaigner

    12. Complaint prompts probe into Canada’s water pollution practices

    Stand.earth filed a formal complaint this summer with an international commission as part of its ongoing campaign to pressure Transport Canada to take responsibility for coastal waters by regulating the shipping industry against dumping waste. This followed a release regarding the Transport Ministry “cutting-and-pasting” weak shipping regulations from its “Interim Order” last year, and a report released in May which outlined the impacts and solutions to shipping and cruise line industries operating business as usual in Canada’s pristine and ecologically diverse coastal waters. As the year drew to a close, Stand campaigners and partners delivered an open letter to Transport Canada in late November to urge leaders to take bolder action to regulate the massive amounts of ocean pollutants the shipping industry releases into Canadian waters.

    “Transport Canada has a new Captain, and with that, a new opportunity to chart a course which doesn’t harm precious marine life, including the last 72 Southern Resident Killer Whales, grievously impacted by cruise ships dumping toxic scrubber wastewater, untreated sewage, and greywater into their habitat. The loopholes in Transport Canada’s regulations which allow this need to be closed for the sake of marine life and coastal communities.”

    — Anna Barford
    Canada Shipping Campaigner

    Thank you for standing with us

    As we close out this year, we’re filled with gratitude—for your action, your generosity, and your belief in what’s possible. With our 25th anniversary ahead in 2025, we’re ready to push even harder for bold climate action.

    From all of us at Stand.earth: Thank you for standing with us. We can’t wait to see what we’ll accomplish together next year.

    Wishing you a peaceful and hopeful new year.

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