Greenpeace USA is the United States affiliate of Greenpeace International, an environmental nonprofit organization that spawned a social movement inspired by direct actions on the high seas to stop whaling and nuclear testing. Headquartered in Washington D.C., Greenpeace USA. operates with an annual budget of approximately $40 million, employing over 500 people in 2020. The organization relies on donations from members, refuses corporate contributions and refrains from endorsing political candidates, though in 2020 Greenpeace USA issued climate scorecards for presidential candidates and ranked them from best to worst on climate

In a 2022 move to unite the labor and environmental movements, Greenpeace USA.'s co-director Annie Leonard, producer of web videos on throw-away consumer culture, recruited Tefere Gebre, the executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO, to become chief program officer overseeing campaigns and communications with an emphasis on climate justice. Since its inception in the 1970s, Greenpeace USA. has waged a series of corporate campaigns, street protests and sting operations focused on de-escalating the arms race, drawing connections between the climate crisis and militarism, stopping deforestation, ending fossil fuels, preventing plastic pollution and other issues.

Organizational structure Greenpeace USA is a nonprofit 501(c) (4) lobby group that seeks “to change current environmental policies and practices” through “grassroots lobbying for various legislative initiatives.” The Greenpeace Fund is a 501 (c) (3) tax deductible charitable organization that promotes Greenpeace USA's mission to protect the environment. The Greenpeace Fund makes grants, conducts education campaigns and funds research, including a report on social media companies' lack of transparency in addressing climate change disinformation.

In 2020 Greenpeace USA's budget was approximately $40 million with hundreds of people on payroll.

The organization also relies on volunteer activists to work in the following capacities: small group regional "action pods" to promote green campaigns on the local level; ambassadors to lead volunteer programs; letter writers to influence voters or target corporations; text bankers to mobilize Greenpeace supporters and voters during elections.

Greenpeace USA is one of 26 national and regional organizations (NRO's) that are members of the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International. As a member, Greenpeace USA is expected to implement and support Greenpeace International's long term overarching program campaigns. Each NRO has its own legal unit and governing board.

History

Greenpeace was first organized in the United States as independent corporations in 1975, when Greenpeace San Francisco opened, followed by groups in Hawaii, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, and the Great Lakes region. In 1979, these offices agreed to be represented on the board of a new corporation to be named "Greenpeace USA". The Vancouver, British Columbia based Greenpeace Foundation, the original Quaker-influenced Greenpeace organization, then filed a lawsuit against the San Francisco office for using the name Greenpeace, which the Canadian office said was trademarked. The conflict was resolved and a trial averted when an international Greenpeace council was formed with representation from each country to pay off the $250-thousand dollars of debt owed by the Vancouver office. In the late 1980s, Greenpeace USA underwent a budget-driven restructuring to effectively make the USA a fundraising base for European campaigns, closing down all of the original Greenpeace corporations throughout the country except the U.S. organization incorporated in Hawaii, which has continued a national and international campaign presence as an unaffiliated organization since 1985.

Jon Hinck, co-founder In November 1978, when Jon Hinck was 24 and unemployed in Seattle, he answered a Greenpeace magazine Help Wanted ad, "Selling advertising for a good cause." Though hesitant to join a radical group then based in Vancouver, B.C., he took the sales job in Seattle and later began reporting for the magazine, covering the dumping of nuclear waste and use of toxic herbicides. After demonstrating his creativity as an activist, "posting official-looking pollution warning signs at local lakes" — Hinck was hired as the campaign director for Greenpeace Seattle... In late 1979, he represented that office at a meeting of the U.S.-based branches of Greenpeace and joined in the creation of the new national affiliate, Greenpeace USA. Under Hinck's leadership as national campaign director, Greenpeace Seattle, together with Greenpeace Vancouver, worked to prevent oil pollution on the Northwest Coast with a successful ban on oil supertankers in Puget Sound and rejection of the Northern Tier Pipeline. The work of Hinck's team at Greenpeace USA, along with that of other activists, resulted in the U.S. government's end to nuclear waste disposal at sea. Greenpeace subsequently achieved a total ban on nuclear dumping through the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter.

Phil Radford, executive director (2009-2014) In 2009, 33-year-old Phil Radford, a Greenpeace canvasser, was hired as executive director of Greenpeace USA. Radford, the youngest executive director in the organization's US history, was formerly the executive director of Power Shift, a grassroots Internet-based online community for youth in the climate movement. In a 2014 exit interview with Greenbiz, Radford said Greenpeace USA. played an integral role in pressuring Asia Pulp & Paper to stop deforestation to preserve biodiversity and carbon storage in Indonesia. In launching a corporate campaign, Radford said the organization first conducts extensive research, then approaches a company or industry with a request to negotiate an agreement. If an agreement fails to materialize, Greenpeace will launch a public campaign to pressure the worst corporate abuser, and then recruit the targeted company to support new industry regulations. Radford added another approach when pushing for industry-wide transformation is to launch local and state ballot initiatives.

Current leadership Once jokingly known as an organization of "boys and their boats," Greenpeace USA. is currently headed by two women:

Annie Leonard, co-executive director (2014-2023) In 2014, following the departure of Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA hired Annie Leonard, a single mother, as co-executive director. An author, activist and filmmaker, Leonard produced the popular 2007 web video, "The Story of Stuff," which traces the extraction, manufacture, production and distribution of disposable consumer items. Leonard's activism with Greenpeace USA dates back to 1998, when in her 20s she worked on a campaign to halt the exportation of hazardous waste to poor countries. She travelled the world tracking waste disposal and investigating companies, work that led to the Basel Convention, an international agreement that reduces the exportation of waste from wealthier countries to poorer nations. One of Leonard's top priorities is exposing the influence of oil money in politics, with a focus on billionaires funding climate change denial.

Ebony Twilley Martin, executive director (2021-present) In 2021, Greenpeace selected Ebony Twilley Martin as co-executive director, making her the first Black woman executive director of a national environmental organization in the United States. Prior to the appointment, Twilley had worked at Greenpeace USA as chief officer of people and culture, senior talent acquisition manager and director of human resources. Twilley Martin became an environmental activist in 2008 after her son developed asthma living near a busy Maryland highway. Twilley's goals include a climate emergency declaration and an end to fossil fuel subsidies. In addition, she hopes to act as a bridge between the climate movement and communities of color. In accepting the position, Twilley wrote, "“The environmental challenges we face are enormous–a point that Hurricane Ida has underscored when it slammed into Louisiana’s coast, a site of longstanding environmental health and justice struggles and now on the frontlines of the climate crisis. To address these intersecting crises, we have to build a strong and diverse organization ..."

Tefere Gebre, chief program officer (2022-present) Tefere Gebre, former Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, was recruited to serve as Greenpeace USA's Chief Program Officer overseeing campaigns, direct action and organizing. “I’m not leaving the workers’ movement — I'm bringing workers to the environmental movement,” Gebre told the New York Times. Originally from Ethiopia, Gebre said he wants to focus the organization on the impacts of pollution on people of color, build a climate justice movement and unite trade unionists and environmentalists to resist a xenophobic response to the climate refugee crisis. During his tenure with the AFL-CIO, Gebre grew frustrated with the reluctance of some labor leaders to support the environmental movement.

Campaigns, protests and politics

2020 Presidential campaign Although Greenpeace USA, a tax exempt organization, does not endorse political candidates, it does issue candidate and lawmaker scorecards. In the 2020 presidential race, Greenpeace USA ranked Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) as the best climate candidate with an A+ (94 out of 100) and incumbent president Donald Trump as the worst (0 out of 100). Joe Biden, who went on to win the presidential contest, received a D score for not releasing a plan to tackle the climate crisis. Greenpeace USA based its rankings on the candidates' support for a Green New Deal and an end to fossil fuels.

Climate and militarism

Ukraine and Russian oil In March, 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Greenpeace activists set out in boats to intercept a 50,000 ton Greek vessel delivering Russian oil to the port of New York. Activists unfurled a banner "Oil fuels war" to draw attention to the continuous deliveries of Russian oil despite President Biden's call for sanctions. The protest occurred during a 45-day grace period leading up to the White House's imposition of sanctions against Russian oil and gas imports.

Anusha Narayanan, climate campaign director at Greenpeace USA and a protest participant, told the press,“The oil and gas companies that are responsible for our skyrocketing gas prices are the same companies that are fueling conflicts and death around the globe. A more peaceful, livable, and equal future depends on breaking our addiction to volatile and conflict-driven fossil fuels.”

Pipeline protests

Keystone pipeline

From 2011 to 2013, Phil Radford, executive director of Greenpeace USA, participated in multiple White House protests demanding President Obama order a halt to construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Using flexi-ties to attach themselves to the White House, protesters in business suits conducted a 2011 sit-in on Pennsylvania Avenue, urging Obama to issue executive orders to not only halt Keystone but also implement stricter rules to regulate power plant emissions, block coal and natural gas exports and maximize energy efficiency in buildings. Radford was arrested, along with actress Daryl Hannah, in the 2011 sit-in to protest President Obama's energy policies.

In 2021, Greenpeace USA applauded President's Biden executive order revoking the permit for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, while urging the President to eliminate all fossil fuel subsidies.

Dakota Access pipeline