We’re celebrating a successful first season of Plant With Purpose’s Grassroots Podcast! While we’re on a little break right now, feel free to go back and listen to any of our past episodes here! And if you’re not totally sure where to start, here are a few quotes from our
Worthwhile questions to ask about the things around us
Part of living a more sustainable lifestyle includes rethinking our relationship with the physical world. Sometimes that means reconsidering the importance of the forests in Ethiopia, or the trees in our own neighborhood. Other times, it means reconsidering the physical objects in front of us- our drinkware, the clothes on
Is This Sustainable or Is This Just Marketing?
What happens when the line gets blurry between sustainability and marketing?
Over the past decade, clothing giant H&M has received much criticism for the company’s environmental impact and the working conditions of its manufacturers. After the fatal collapse of a factory in Bangladesh killed 1138 workers in 2013, H&M became
The environment and human health
In many ways, the effects that the environment has on human health seem a little obvious. Still, there is a variety of different ways to think about their relationship that all underscore its importance. Here are some of those ways.
Biodiversity helps support resilience and nutrition.
A lack of biodiversity
The Roots of Everything
Downstream problems have upstream solutions.
Plant With Purpose’s model of international development evolved from a series of discoveries.
First: We discovered that if we wanted to help people improve their lives, we needed to improve their environment, because both were so deeply connected. Second: We saw that helping people out
Even though they won’t benefit me now.
One principle of sustainability is doing things with benefits that go beyond your lifetime.
In one of his most famous poems, “Manifesto”, Wendell Berry suggests doing things that we will not live to see the benefit of:
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the
One Planet, Many Neighbors
July 11 marks World Population Day, a day marked to raise awareness of issues related to world population. Though this is not the most well known commemoration, its relationship to the environment makes it worth exploring further.
So, what is World Population Day and where did it come from?
The
Here’s how to listen to and support the Grassroots Podcast
The Grassroots Podcast is officially live!
As of July 2, Plant With Purpose’s premiere podcast is finally live.
Whether you get your podcasts on Spotify, Apple, Google, Overcast, Breaker, Anchor, Pocket Casts, or RadioPublic, you’ll be able to listen to our new show for free!
We are committed
It Threatens the Most Vulnerable
The impact of climate change and degradation is not felt evenly.
Environmental degradation is a cruel phenomenon. It has the harshest effect on people who already suffer a great deal: the world’s poor. Especially the rural poor. While most common images of poverty depict something urban, poverty is mostly rural.
The Roots of Everything
There’s no shortage of problems in the world to solve.
As a student, Philippe Lazaro knew he wanted to apply his international interests to help solve some of these problems, but getting started was a journey in and of itself.
A slew of internships and volunteer opportunities took him around
Introducing the Plant With Purpose GrassRoots Podcast!
Here’s fun news- we’re launching a podcast!
Over the past few months, our team has been arranging interviews, talking to fascinating individuals, and reflecting on our own experiences on the journey of environmental restoration all for the purpose of putting together a moving and informative podcast experience.
The show will
Humility: What it is, What it isn’t
Humility is an increasingly underappreciated value in today’s culture. In a world where personal branding, hyperbole, and debate are highly visible, humility seems to be a forgotten art. In spite of this, there is something truly refreshing about being in the presence of somebody who is sincerely and genuinely humble.
Shoulder to Shoulder: The importance of solidarity
Solidarity is an act of hope.
Solidarity means moving in the direction of pain in the world, standing with those who are suffering and taking up their cause as if it were your own. Doing so is both an act of hope and an imitation of Christ.
Vitor Westhelle once
The Power of Investing in Mothers
What changes when you invest in mothers?
Mothers are a major part of any family. Whether it be a working mother of two or a stay at home mom, the mothers in our lives have helped shape us. The title of ‘mother’ is not a light load. Mothers are some
Savings Change Everything
Why is saving small amounts of money impactful?
Although saving a couple dozen cents a week does not sound like much, it is significant. The impact of 20-30 women saving thirty cents a week is catalytic. It causes a chain reaction of change which results in benefits for both the individual
Everyday Restoration
Restoration happens through everyday decisions
At a glance, environmental restoration looks like a very large undertaking—and that’s true, in part. Threats to the health of the planet have reached an urgent, global scale. But the magnitude of the challenge should not distract us from this simple reality:
Environmental change
How long does environmental restoration take?
Plant With Purpose is deeply committed to environmental restoration. This dream is shared among our partners in eight different countries. Jah Cho envisions future generations being able to reap the benefit of a restored forests. Isaias imagines that his community of Ojo de Agua as a rejuvenated, green landscape.
But
What Purpose Partners do different
Purpose Partners are more than just donors. They’re believers.
If you want to know what keeps our work going, look no further than our Purpose Partner community. Our support from these monthly donors means that every month, rural communities plant forests. Mothers in Tanzania, Burundi, and the DRC open small
Empowering women across the globe
Integrating sustainability and development provides many benefits to female farmers
Plant With Purpose is deeply committed to addressing the root causes behind poverty and environmental degradation. An amazing thing about addressing root causes is discovering how they affect so many issues.
Take, for example, women’s empowerment. Gender based inequality may
Ross Boone: a Picture of the Invisible
Meet Ross Boone AKA Raw Spoon
This month we’re teaming up with Ross Boone, an Atlanta-based artist and illustrator. We’re also featuring him as our Supporter of the Month!
Raw Spoon is Ross Boone’s artist name- and if you’re not sure why, then try reading that sentence out loud. His
Trees and Christmas are signposts towards Hope
If you planted a tree for every tree mentioned between Genesis and Revelation, you would easily end up planting quite a large forest.
You’ll find a bush that burns without burning up, a court held underneath palm trees. You’ll find Jesus in a garden hours before his death and mistaken
Six hopeful stories about the environment in 2018
When you pay attention to the news about the environment, the stories you come across are often grim. Many of them are alarming, warning about how we can’t continue our demanding lifestyles without irreversible damage to the planet.
Those stories are important, and it’s important to heed their warnings, but
Matthew Sleeth: What trees teach us about resurrection
The following post has been adapted from an article by Matthew Sleeth for Christianity Today. You may read the full version here.
Trees are found all throughout Scripture
Every major character and every major theological event in the Bible has an associated tree. The only exception to this pattern is
A STORYteller’s notes
A couple weeks ago, our team had the opportunity to go to STORY Gathering in Nashville, Tennessee. As far as the conference goes, it’s so unlike other conferences that it’s a bit hard to describe. In short, it’s a place for people who believe that a well-told story can change
John Mark McMillan on Caring for Creation
John Mark McMillan: Creation care is an act of love
John Mark McMillan is a widely-respected music artist. He is also passionate about how the environment impacts people. This fall, Plant With Purpose has had the privilege of teaming up with John Mark McMillan on his seventeen city tour. The
The art of taking a deeper look
Noticing is a spiritual act
Fred Rogers once said that “appreciation is a spiritual thing,” and that’s an idea that has a profound impact on what we believe and how we live.
All throughout scripture, we’re encouraged to engage the world with a profound set of gratitude and wonder at