Take a look at our Sustainability Facts, shared each week in our e-newsletter. You can find more great information in our archive of weekly newsletters.

  • More than 1000 gallons of water are necessary to produce a pound of meat, while only 25 gallons of water can yield a pound of wheat.
    Source: How Much Water Does it Take to Make One Steak?
  • The US is the global leader in food waste. 30-40 percent of the US food supply is wasted. Americans discard 80 billion pounds of food annually. That's a lost value of more than $161 billion. We waste approximately 219 pounds of food/person/year.
    Source: Food Waste in America in 2021, rts.com
  • About 19 million people in the US, or roughly 6% of the population, lived in a food desertEven before the pandemic hit, some 13.7 million households, or 10.5% of all U.S. households, experienced food insecurity at some point during 2019.
    Source: Food Insecurity In The U.S. By The Numbers, NPR
  • Research shows mindfulness may improve performance, enhance relationships, increase emotional well-being and improve physical health, including reducing symptom severity of chronic diseases, enhancing quality of sleep and improving immune function.
    Source: University of MN Center for Spirituality and Healing 
  • An estimated 33 billion pounds of plastic enter the marine environment every year. This is roughly equivalent to dumping two garbage trucks full of plastic into the oceans every minute.
    Source: Oceana
  • 61% of Black Americans said they think local police treat people of color more harshly than white people. 25% of white respondents agreed.
    Source: NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, May 4-10
  • Over 4.7 million hectares of forests – an area larger than Denmark – are lost every year.
    Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  • For every million dollars a Minnesota utility proposed to spend on rooftop solar, it would create 30 times more jobs than $1 million spent on utility-scale solar.
    Source: Institute for Local Self Reliance
  • Enbridge averages 1 spill every 20 days and 46 spills per pipeline for those that are less than 10 years old.
    Source: stopline3.org/resources
  • The average shower (8-10 mins) uses 15-25 gallons of water and flushing the toilet can use up to 5-7 gallons.
    Source: Water Footprint Calculator
  • Fur-bearing animals and many birds “eat” life-essential Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) from their fur or feathers that are exposed to sunlight by licking their fur (grooming) or rubbing their beaks on their feathers (preening).
    Source: Pine Street Foundation
  • The United Nations estimates that 4.2 billion people —more than half of the world's population — live without any access to safely managed sanitation. No septic systems. No waste treatment plants.
    Source: NPR, Fresh Air
  • Sharks are amazing as they: help the Earth’s carbon cycle stay balanced by absorbing carbon dioxide, limit the population of lethal box jellyfish that cause more deaths than sharks, keep tourist economies thriving and have unique healing abilities that offer hope for cures for cancer and other diseases.
    Source: 10 Reasons to be Grateful for Sharks (Even Though You're Scared of Them)
  • Recycling one aluminum can can save enough energy to run a 14 watt CFL bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.
    Source: US EPA
  • The pandemic's health impact has been disproportionate: From 2019 to 2020, Hispanic people experienced the greatest drop in life expectancy — three years — and Black Americans saw a decrease of 2.9 years. White Americans experienced the smallest decline, of 1.2 years.
    Source: the New York Times
  • The average American family uses more than 300 gallons of water per day at home. Roughly 70 percent of this use occurs indoors.
    Source: EPA
  • Elephants are a keystone species, which means they create and maintain the ecosystems in which they live and make it possible for a myriad of plant and animal species to live in those environments as well. The loss of elephants gravely affects many species that depend on elephant-maintained ecosystems and causes major habitat chaos and a weakening to the structure of nature itself.
    Source: National Today
  • Sales of non-dairy alternatives reached $2.95 billion in 2020, leaving the estimated value of the plant based market at $4.5 billion.
    Source: National Today
  • Construction of the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline is polluting our waters, extracting over 5 billion gallons of our groundwater and adding 50 coal plants worth of fuel to the climate crisis each year it operates, while violating treaty lands and the rights of Indigenous people.
    Source: MN Environmental Partnership
  • In 2021, 49 states have introduced more than 400 anti-voter bills and at least 18 states have passed 30 of them.
    Source: AAUW
  • Nearly 15% of all healthcare spending is wasted dealing with events caused by a lack of keeping patients safe. Staying focused on patient safety can reduce healthcare costs and make health care delivery more efficient.
    Source: National Today
  • We no longer need to use valuable drinkable water to flush equally valuable, nutrient-rich urine and then put it through expensive chemical water treatment plants. That urine can be transformed into a low cost, natural fertilizer. French biotech company TOOPI has developed an efficient process that closes the food-waste-food loop to help create a circular economy. The French government is developing an entire system featuring it and waterless urinals at the 2024 International Summer Olympics in Paris.
  • Close to one out of every 5 Americans is Hispanic or LatinX but in media they appear at less that 1 in 20.
    Source: David Remnick, New Yorker Radio Hour
  • In the last 170 years, we added 2.4 trillion tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. Half of this was added in the last 35 to 50 years. For more facts about the environment and instant metric updates, check out The World Counts.
  • While COVID made 2020 a terrible year for many, the wealthiest Americans continued to enjoy good economic times. Collectively, the personal fortunes of the 400 richest billionaires increased 40 percent over the past year to $4.5 trillion, up from $3.2 trillion the year prior. Nearly all are richer than they were a year ago, Forbes said, and the top 20 are worth $1.8 trillion.
    Source: Patch.com
  • Most of the planet's 2.12 degree F warming since the late 1800's were in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest. Source: NASA
  • For every thermostat degree reduction you can save 3-5% in heating costs. Set the thermostat at 65 F and lower the thermostat to 58 F when you're away.
    Source: CenterPoint Energy
  • This excellent, balanced Healthline article shows the benefits of reducing or eliminating meat from your diet. It concludes: “Eating a diet with no or limited meat may benefit your health and the environment...” The article has tips for reducing meat consumption and showcases the healthy results.
  • A Tanzanian takes eight years to consume as much electricity as an American consumes in one month. A freezer in the U.S. consumes 10 times more electricity than a Liberian does in one year, according to the 2017 Atlas of Africa Energy Resources on Bloomberg.
  • "A single adult oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water a day."
    Source: Organic Consumers Association
  • November 25 is also the National Day of Mourning for the Native American people of New England, "a day of remembrance and spiritual connection as well as a protest of the racism and oppression which Native Americans continue to experience." Source: Delish
  • "Average paid leave by country: In Finland they have an average of 161 weeks of paid family leave for mothers. In Hungary it's 160 weeks. In Norway it's 91 weeks. In Germany it's 58 weeks. In Sweden it's 55 weeks. In the United States, it's 0. Zero weeks."
    Source: Alice Tepper Marlin
  • About 24 million hectares of rainforest were destroyed in Indonesia from 1990 to 2015, that’s an area the size of the UK. Palm oil and paper companies are the main causes of this destruction. To learn more and help stop this, see Greenpeace.
  • 93% of brands surveyed by the Fashion Checker (2020) aren’t paying garment workers a living wage. For more astounding facts on fast fashion, check out this article from good on you.
  • 66% of all Americans believe our democracy is threatened, 68% that the Jan 6, 2021 events are a sign of increasing political violence, 17% approve of what happened Jan 6 and 62% expect there will be violence by whoever loses the next Presidential election. Source: CBS News Poll