Liz Lazar

In 2017, as a result of the Trump administration’s “Muslim Travel Ban”, the home-sharing company Airbnb released a statement that said the company would provide free housing to refugees not allowed in the United States. The program, Open Homes, has teamed up with organizations like Heartland Alliance to place people in secure housing. Journalist Liz Lazar brings us this story.

Last month, hundreds of thousands of people rallied in the nation’s capital and across the U.S. in March for Our Lives, a protest demanding meaningful gun control laws. The demonstration was organized by students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in the wake of the 2018 mass shooting that killed 17 students and teachers at their school on Valentine’s Day. But Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and their classmates don’t think of gun violence as only their problem, or as a school safety problem. The Parkland activists know that just a few days following their tragedy, it was just another Friday on the neglected streets of Chicago. In this installment of “Dollar Vote,” a Worldview series that examines conscience-driven consumerism, reporter Liz Lazar talks with activists from Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood and to the leader of a new grassroots calling system that pressures corporations to act on the issue of gun violence. Lazar also explores the phenomenon of companies cutting ties with the National Rifle Association.

In light of growing moral demand on institutions and corporations, Worldview has developed Dollar Vote, a recurring segment that investigates ethical consumption, production, and marketing from some of the world’s biggest brands. Since spring is the time when everyone likes to get their workout back on track, we’re going to kick the inaugural Dollar Vote off with a review of Adidas and sizing up how they score in the corporate social responsibility game. Adidas produces hundreds of millions of sneakers every year, most of which depend on virgin plastic. A company press release has stated they want to completely eliminate that from their supply chain. They have a running start in the way of their collaboration with the conservation organization Parley for the Oceans. With the partnership of Parley, Adidas has updated one of their most popular shoes, the Ultra Boost, with yarns made out of upcycled plastic ocean waste collected from beaches and coastal communities in the Maldives. Journalist Liz Lazar looked into whether Adidas’ greenwashing is earned.