New Company "Intersectional Environmentalist" Changes Face of Sustainability Movement
Leah Thomas, IE founder. (Picture provided by Leah Thomas)
When COVID-19 hit the U.S., activist Leah Thomas, also known as Green Girl Leah, was furloughed from her job at Patagonia. But during this time, something happened that changed her life forever, and she is now the Founder and Creative Director of her own company, Intersectional Environmentalist (IE).
“I was starting to get fed up with the outdoor industry and sustainability spaces as a whole because it was not as diverse as it needed to be. And it wasn’t because there was a lack of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] people in this space, but there was a lack of representation in leadership specifically,” Thomas said. “I could no longer proceed with the type of environmentalism that seemed to only benefit wealthy white people.”
IE is a platform that prioritizes both people and the planet. The term intersectional comes from Kimberlé Crenshaw, who attached it to feminism. IE was created to share the stories of multiverse climate activists and people who have been advocates for environmental justice, according to Thomas. Their website offers information through organic articles and blogs, exploration of different communities in relation to the environmental space, and resources that are provided for various topics in the environmental field like agriculture, energy, waste and more.
“Hopefully IE will become a cool media house and database that’s educational for people to learn about intersectionality, environmentalism and justice. We want to find the stories that are not being reported,” she said.
Graphic by Leah Thomas goes viral.
George Floyd was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, and in response to this, Thomas posted a graphic on her social media account “Environmentalists For Black Lives Matter.” The post went viral over the next few days and now has over a million views and 51,000 likes. Her account @GreenGirlLeah grew what seemed like overnight, with now having 171,000 followers. But Thomas wanted to use her new audience to bring attention to a bigger cause. This is how she started her company IE with co-founders Diandra Marizet, Sabs Katz and Phil Aiken.
Thomas has been interested in the environmental justice space since college. She majored in environmental science at Chapman University in Orange, CA, graduated in 2017 and became very interested in environmental justice. Environmental justice is the fair treatment of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income in relation to environmental policy. But Thomas always saw in sustainability spaces that environmental justice was seen as an afterthought, not at the forefront of the movement.
“People who I had gone to climate marches with for the smallest of endangered species didn’t seem to realize the connection of endangered Black lives. I’m supposed to be advocating for like, endangered fish but y’all don’t wanna say anything about Black people,” Thomas said. “...I wasn’t expecting [the post] to go viral but I knew that I didn’t want it to be just about me. I wanted to create a separate entity.”
Social Media has played an important role in the organization’s success since its inception. So far, it’s been run entirely on small donations. The organization quickly gained success with an Instagram account made up of 162,000 followers. It has even gained the attention of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Jesse Galvez is the Social Media Intern who runs the account where they focus on creating captions, hashtags, scheduling and engagement. They’ve been interested in environmental justice since high school but learned about environmental racism after taking some policy classes in college.
“I started to ask myself, why are all these communities POC (people of color) communities? I’m not seeing a food desert in Newport beach. For me I realized, wow there is something going on. There needs to be people who are fighting [against] this,” Galvez said.
As for the future, some of the ideas in-store are a non-profit arm, a mentorship program and internships. IE is considering partnerships with over 300 brands. They recently announced their new partnership with TAZO, the tea company. Thomas and her team are very big on ethics. They believe in fair compensation for all work dedicated to the company. The funds from TAZO will go to getting their internship program off the ground and paying interns a living wage.
“The story behind why we’re a social enterprise is because a lot of people on our team are people of color who have been exploited by nonprofit structures… not being compensated as volunteers,” Thomas said. “It’s a great work environment, it’s my favorite work environment.”
Galvez said what gives them hope for the future of environmental justice is the response IE has received.
“I feel like everytime we post something it just outdoes itself again and again. We are diving into topics that people don’t want to talk about. I go through DMs and it brings so much warmth, getting messages saying I love what you guys are doing,” Galvez said. “There are so many people out there who care about this issue and care about this Earth as a whole.
To find out more about Intersectional Environmentalist, click here.