Apple is one of the world’s richest, most powerful companies, but Ekō members have still held the company to account over its human rights record. Many of the parts Apple uses to make its iPhones and iPads are sourced from manufacturers operating under the watch of the government of China. Pressure from our incredible community forced Apple to publish its first-ever human right policy, as well as be more transparent about steps it was taking to make sure its suppliers don’t use Uyghur forced labour in western China. Your donations helped us win against Apple by supporting the filing of shareholder resolutions, creative actions outside flagship stores like New York to grab the attention of customers and employees, and producing inspiring videos to tell the story of our campaign and build a movement to force Apple to do better.

Syngenta’s toxic pesticide, Chlorothalonil, is banned in over 30 countries because it’s suspected to cause cancer in humans. But because Syngenta didn’t want to take a hit on profits, it kept selling it in countries in the Global South. We teamed up with a local community in Costa Rica, who were seeing the terrible health impacts of pesticide in their drinking water, to make sure the national government followed through on their promise to ban this poison. The community was worried massive pressure from industry would force the government to back off. So Ekō members jumped into action, signing petitions and lobbying government officials to ban Chlorothalonil for good. And we won! Together we sent a strong signal to reckless companies like Syngenta that they can’t just dump toxic pesticides in the Global South.

When the mining industry was gearing up to develop the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, our community sprung into action to help United Tribes of Bristol Bay fight back. The mine would have polluted pristine streams and wetlands, endangered the 60 million sockeye salmon that come to the bay each year, and threatened the livelihoods of local and Indigenous fishermen and Indigenous people. Ekō members donated to fly Alaskan Native leaders to a massive annual shareholder meeting in London to call on the second biggest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto, to divest from Pebble Mine. And the day before the leaders’ arrival, Rio Tinto announced that it would sell all of its Pebble Mine shares, dealing Pebble Mine its first loss. But Rio Tinto’s divestment was just the first step. In 2022, 160,000 Ekō submited comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency opposing the project...and they listened! The Agency used its powers to protect Bristol Bay and stop the mining project once and for all.

One leak from the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) could poison the water of Africa’s largest lake that 40 million people depend on for food, farming, and their livelihoods. Without the backing of a handful of insurance companies, this pipeline will never get off the ground - and thanks to pressure from Ekō members we are forcing insurers to drop out one by one. Through advertisements and billboards, as well as media and advocacy - paid for by donations - we have successfully pressured insurers like Munich Re, Riverstone and Enstar to pull out. We won’t stop until every single insurer has confirmed they won’t insure this carbon bomb pipeline.

Indonesia is ground zero in the fight to stop Orangutan habitat destruction. These majestic animals are our closest living relatives and are beloved globally at an unprecedented level. But a global demand for palm oil is bringing them to the brink of extinction. Indigenous stewards of Indonesia’s forests have tried for decades to fight back against the razing of the land. They have almost always failed and when the Mau people found themselves about to lose their ancestral land to an illegally obtained deforestation permit, it seemed like the same sad story would repeat again. Ekō members jumped in to help. They came together in the thousands to raise the profile of the Mau peoples’ fight, they raised thousands in microdonations to pay for official land tracking and research to support a land claim, and they beat back the timber company in court.