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Activities
The following article has been written by Sarah Diefendorf, Executive Director of the Environmental Finance Center at Dominican University and member of the Women’s Earth Alliance delegation to threatened Native American sacred spaces in Nevada and Arizona.
EFC9 and the Women's Earth Alliance delegation visited threatened tribal sacred sites in Nevada and Arizona. They met with elders from the Shoshone, Havasupai and Navajo to learn more about how we might help them with their environmental justice efforts. We are exploring the threats to lands held sacred by indigenous peoples throughout Nevada and Arizona from mining and recreational interests.
We began our journey in northern Nevada, where the Western Shoshone people confront threats to their way of life and holy places due to forced relocation, mineral extraction and nuclear waste disposal. From there, the Delegation traveled to the Alpine terrain of Northern Arizona, where we met the leaders of the Save the Peaks Coalition, a movement to defend the sacred San Francisco Peaks mountain – holy to 13 tribes, including the Navajo – from desecration through the use of reclaimed wastewater as artificial snow on the mountain’s ski resort. We traveled to the Grand Canyon, and meet with the women at the helm of the Havasupai tribe’s campaign to protect their ancestral homelands from uranium mining. Follow our week on Facebook page.
Hair Care Product Presentations
EFC9 proudly presents the Healthy Hair Guide, a user friendly guide to download your favorite hair style usi
ng “green” products. This guides shares information to achieve beautiful trend setting styles and techniques, and information on chemical use and the potential effects on your hair and body.The guide also 
shares tips on selecting safe, less toxic ingredients
Download the Top Ten Ingredients of Concern
Recent Activities
EFC9 attended the 17th Annual Region 9 Tribal EPA Conference in Tucson, Arizona, Octob
er 21 - 23, 2009, which is sponsored by the Tohono O'odham Nation. In October, EFC9 attended the 2009 Western U.S. Pollution Prevention and Sustainability Conference in San Diego, California.
EFC9 visited the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians and toured the reservation facilities in preparation for project work for 
in spring 2010. Three GreenMBA students will prepare two business plans for the tribe, one for the new tribal recycling center and another for an ecotourism program. EFC9 staff and students pitched tents on the tribal campgrounds and then spent the next three days meeting with various tribal members and La Jolla staff, assessing recycling markets and beginning the process of characterizing the tribal waste stream. For more info: Tribal Recycling projects page.
EFC9 presents our
Mapping the Nail Care Industry Report.
Nail care is the fastest growing sector in the beauty industry, generating more than $6 billion annually in sales nationwide. Nail products are one segment in the U.S. personal care product industry; the approximately 750 personal care products companies generated approximately $40 billion in annual revenue. Scientific studies have shown a correlation between health problems in nail salon workers and daily exposure to chemicals in nail care products. The purpose of this report is to present information on key stakeholders in the nail products industry, their processes and products, in order to identify barriers and opportunities to developing greener and healthier products.
Please visit our Facebook page to comment on how you will use: Mapping the Nail Care Industry.
Download our white paper: Increasing Recycling and Related Green Business Opportunities for Northern Nevada Tribes
This report identifies mechanisms to increase recycling and improve financial profitability on the northern Nevada tribal lands. The diversity of locations and populations poses operational challenges which are further aggravated by plummeting prices of recycling commodities and the lack of a mandated market for recycling by the State of Nevada. Thus the report looks holistically at what can be done through broad resource recovery efforts including a range of process improvements, as well as business concepts and future enterprise possibilities.
Download our white paper: A California Green Plan: Making the Case for Business
This report examines the current structure of regulation and legislation in the state of California, and the negative impact of uncoordinated or conflicting state, regional and local efforts; the experience with green planning in three other countries (the Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore); and the impact on business at home and around the world of the European Union’s pioneering and ambitious environmental regulations.
Download our report: Green Technology Feasibility Study for the Torres Martinez Reservation
The Torres-Martinez Reservation in Riverside County has been the dumping ground for large amounts of illegal waste in the Coachella Valley. Under the direction of the Torres Martinez Solid Waste Collaborative, a 25 member collaborative with representatives from the Tribe, federal, state, regional and local agencies, and community-based organizations, 27 illegal dump sites were identified and an action plan developed to address the issue.
EFC9 was awarded a grant from the U.S. EPA to conduct an analysis evaluating the feasibility of developing a small environmental pilot project. The results of report are not intended to dictate a future use of the former dump sites, but to provide information about possible options.
Twenty potential technologies were identified and evaluated based on their ability to satisfy feasibility conditions as outlined by the tribe. The research team concluded that eight best met the tribe's criteria.
Following this assessment, the team then looked to identify potential Green Technology
Enterprise Opportunities that might also satisfy the tribe's conditions and came up with a number of projects could be developed by the tribe or by a third party. To assist in the process, EFC9 identified
potential funding sources ranging from third party developers to bonds, loans and grants from public and
private sources.