8 Gen-Z groups fighting for a sustainable future

Voyagers

Because sustainability is the future of business, Voyagers is working to use the voices of the youth to amplify businesses that are making efforts in the area of sustainability. Not only does Voyagers consult with businesses, but the group also hosts events and campaigns promoting awareness about the climate crisis. They also work in forming a positive Gen-Z community through Slack who work together to fight for sustainability.

“Voyagers is a youth-led platform and community that I recently co-founded to tackle pressing issues in sustainability by working directly with the private sector,” Co-Founder Isabel LoDuca said. “We are supporting businesses in their sustainable journey as they work to be positive stewards in society. With Voyagers’ help, companies can balance meaningful purpose with financial returns. As the future of the world depends on businesses adapting more responsible practices, Voyagers is creating measurable change by serving as an amplifying body for sustainable brands.”

Zero Hour

Zero Hour is an international youth climate justice movement that organizes mobilizations, educational campaigns, lobby days, summits, strikes, marches, and media and social media campaigns to demand urgent action on climate change. Zero Hour fights for intersectional solutions to the climate crisis and focuses on addressing the root systems of oppression, like colonialism, that caused the climate crisis in the first place. Founded by Jamie Margolin, Zero Hour has reached millions of youth across the world and the group has made a tremendous impact.

“Zero Hour has fought for a sustainable future since 2017, from marches to summits to lobbying to educating,” Communications Director Natalie Sweet said. “We’ve reached hundreds of activists, with over 100 sister chapters around the world. Most importantly, in our platform and campaigns, we are always fighting to dismantle the roots of climate change — racism, colonialism, capitalism, the patriarchy, and ableism. As Communications Director, I convey the stories of Zero Hour and our grounding principles to educate the public.”

Sunrise Movement

Founded in 2017, Sunrise Movement is a grassroots organization uniting young people to stop the climate crisis. From campaigns to petitions, Sunrise has worked avidly over the past four years to bring about change. They emphasize creating new jobs while becoming a more sustainable society and focus their efforts on systemic governmental change. In 2020, Sunrise contacted over 6.5 million voters in the primaries and general election and also gave President-elect Joe Biden a Climate Mandate for his term.

“Sunrise is building a movement of young people to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process. We unite in 400 local hubs across the country to expose fossil fuel corruption in our politics, elect leaders who will fight for us, and pressure government officials to take bold action towards a Green New Deal,” Press Secretary Ellen Sciales said. “Most recently, Sunrise helped win two Senate races in Georgia and pressured President-elect Biden to pick the most progressive climate and environmental cabinet administrators in history, including the next Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland.”

Project Planet A

The youth-led environmental organization, Project Planet A, works towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly future by providing resources and spreading awareness about climate change. The group has a blog on their website where they talk about everything environment-related, and have resources ranging from recipes to sustainability tips. Project Planet A also has a chapter system, which they are actively recruiting for, to build a community of climate activists.

“At Project Planet A, our goal is to provide youth with the resources, opportunities and education to take climate action,” Founder and Executive Director Andrew Blatt said. “This has been done through our educational posts on social media and our events we hold including webinars, conferences, and easy ways for youth to get involved. Our chapters around the globe create a united community of environmentalists helping their community be more sustainable.”

Climate Action LAb

Located in LA, Climate Action LAb is a collective aiming to inform and empower youth to tackle climate-related issues in their community. The group posts on Instagram actively and focuses the majority of their work through digital media where they explore different environmental topics and discuss political views on climate change. They also engage their local LA community and recently focused on inspiring more Gen-Z to vote in the 2020 election.

“Climate Action LAb is an incubator for climate action in the Southern California region and beyond. Our team actively is on the hunt for small steps that our community can take, especially from home during lockdown. Whether it’s providing a template to submit public comments on local legislation; videos on how to phone bank; or sharing petitions to e-sign, our aim is to engage our entire community, regardless of age, with tangible action items. For example, in an effort to increase youth voter turnout, our content team pivoted to covering not only the presidential election but Californian politics,” Founder Gia Chinchilla said.
Chinchilla continues, “We began a series that broke down each ballot measure on the state’s ballot in a digestible and user-friendly graphic format that ended with a call to vote. As result, the popular series engaged over 4,500+ youth, prompted over 1,600 post-shares, and saw support from local environmental organizations as well. With over 2.4 million Gen Z voters now registered in California (Political Data Inc), Climate Action LAb realizes the untapped power of the youth vote and will continue to mobilize our community to take political action.”

Earth Uprising

Earth Uprising is a global, youth-led nonprofit organization focused on climate education, climate advocacy, and youth mobilization. Through its strong network of activists from all around the world, partnerships with groups, and local, national, and international campaigns and actions, it aims to bring attention to and spur action based on the latest science regarding the climate crisis. Earth Uprising provides the tools, resources, and connections young people need in order to take direct action in their own communities.

“At Earth Uprising International, we are fighting for a sustainable future by educating youth on the climate crisis and providing them with the tools, resources, and connections they need to create change within their communities,” Communications Coordinator Mohammad Ahmadi said. “We have chapters in countries all around the world that are taking action in a variety of ways, such as advocating for the addition of climate education to school curriculums, pushing for cities to declare climate emergencies, spreading awareness about local environmental issues, supporting climate legislation, and educating people about how the climate crisis will impact their areas.”

“Additionally, we believe that every youth is needed in the climate movement and that every youth can contribute in their own way through their passions and skills, which is why our number one goal is to create a community where everyone is welcome and feels included and supported,” Ahmadi continued.

Climate Cardinals

Climate Cardinals works towards a sustainable future through education. The group translates environmental research into over 100 languages to make it more accessible to those who do not speak English. Climate Cardinals reaches over 350,000 individuals in 41 countries, empowered by more than 8,000 volunteers who have helped translate over 500,000 words of climate change research and information

“Searching the term "climate change" on Google Scholar will result in over 3,700,000 documents written in English—more than three times the amount from Mandarin Chinese and French combined. However, climate change disproportionately affects countries with non-English speaking majorities,” Deputy Partnerships Director Hikaru Hayakawa said. “Education on climate change is important in order to articulate the problems we see within our communities and advocate for climate change adaptation and mitigation.”

Re-Earth Initiative

Founded in 2020, Re-Earth Initiative works towards making the climate movement more accessible to all, with the core values of inclusivity, accessibility, and unity. On April 22, 2020, they launched a digital protests campaign and are now working on converting the pledges taken that day into real, tangible action. The group posts several articles and hosts webinars and events for youth to learn more about the climate crisis. Our organisation’s core values are inclusivity, accessibility, and unity.

“Re-Earth Initiative strives to make the climate movement accessible to all. We bring climate action to the masses through writing environmental toolkits, working with high schools to integrate environmental education into their curriculum, and organising global campaigns,” Volunteer Manager Kate Yeo said. “Our 2020 Earth Day digital protests reached out to over 300 thousand people across the world! I’ve been a Volunteer Manager, building our global network which now comprises over 300 youths! I have also served as Communications Director and will be taking on the role of Op-Ed Coordinator next to grow our blog.”