Great Forest founder Richard Fuller’s nonprofit Pure Earth has partnered with supermodel Molly Bair and over 20 leading jewelry designers to curate a special collection of jewelry crafted using recycled, Fairtrade, or mercury-free gold for auction.   “Consumers have probably heard about ‘blood diamonds,’ but few know about gold’s connection with toxic mercury,” Richard told … Continue reading Making A Difference: Great Forest’s Richard Fuller Makes It Into Vogue Magazine With Nonprofit Project →

What do you do after your home and yard has just been decontaminated? Well, you lie down on the freshly cleaned ground! These boys in the Chowa neighborhood of Kabwe, Zambia, are displaying their playful appreciation. When this photo was taken, the nonprofit Pure Earth had just completed the remediation of 24 highly contaminated homes … Continue reading Making A Difference: So Fresh, So Clean →

Did you know that having a great meal in Mexico might also mean being exposed to toxic lead?  This is because much of the beautiful, traditional pottery used in homes and restaurants across Mexico contain lead glazes. At this year’s Festival Internacional Cervantino, one of the most important arts and cultural events in Latin America, … Continue reading Making A Difference: Dinner Served On 960 Pieces Of Lead-Free Pottery Sends Urgent Message Across Mexico →

Getting arrested in Azerbaijan, receiving a late night urgent email from Mexico, and digging up backyards in a toxic “craft” village in Vietnam. Read about these adventures in toxic pollution cleanup in three very different parts of the world. Great Forest proudly supports the work of Pure Earth in fighting global toxic pollution in the world’s … Continue reading Making A Difference: A Tale of Three Cleanups – Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Mexico →

A team from our sister nonprofit Pure Earth recently spent ten days traveling deep into remote areas of Peru to reach current gold mining communities in the Andes mountains and in the rainforest. What they saw amazed them — from the terrible, scarred landscape left behind after gold extraction, to the innovative way some “model” … Continue reading Making A Difference: Peru – A Path Of Gold And Destruction →

This summer, when families return to stake out their spot in the sun along the coast of the Caspian sea in Sumgait Azerbaijan, there will be one crucial difference. The beach will no longer be toxic, and they will no longer be exposed to poisons, especially when they indulge in what locals call a solar bath, … Continue reading Making A Difference: A Toxic Beach in Azerbaijan Gets Cleaned Up →

“Fuller and Pure Earth (Blacksmith) have amassed an impressive record of success…” — Businessweek, Sept. 2014 Great Forest founder Richard Fuller spoke with Businessweek recently about his work addressing global toxic pollution with our sister nonprofit Blacksmith Institute/Pure Earth. The article also chronicled one of Blacksmith’s most dangerous cleanup projects at a former soviet arms site sitting on … Continue reading Making A Difference: Businessweek Features Great Forest Founder’s Global Pollution Cleanup Efforts →

This June, Great Forest founder Richard Fuller addressed the U.N. as president of Pure Earth/Blacksmith Institute, on behalf of the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP), to urge the world to pay more attention to the largest cause of death in the developing world – pollution. [Sign and share the Petition] Pollution is a global killer, causing about 8.4 million deaths … Continue reading Making A Difference: Richard Fuller Addresses U.N., Petition To Stop Largest Cause of Death →

This month we take you to Tajikistan, where mountains cover more than 90% of the country, and half of it sits 10,000 feet or more above sea level. This former Soviet republic at the “roof of the word” is home to some of the most breathtaking views on earth. But beneath the beauty lies a legacy … Continue reading Making A Difference… in Tajikistan, Near the Roof of the World →

2014 is a crucial year. This is the year that hundreds of countries and the world’s leading organizations will decide on a list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that will determine the key issues the world will pay attention to beyond 2015, when the current  Millennium Development Goals expire.  “What is agreed to this year will set the world’s sustainable development … Continue reading Making a Difference: Shaping the World’s Sustainable Development Agenda for the Next Decade →