350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

Dear Jeanne,

 

My name is Chris and I’m a member of Third Act Washington. I’m excited to share a big milestone from the Costco Clean Up Your Credit Card campaign: Costco leadership is listening. After months of organizing, demonstrations, and thousands of handwritten postcards, we’ve secured meetings with Costco executives, including the CEO, to discuss the climate impacts from their partnership with CitiBank, one of the top funders of fossil fuel expansion.

 

Costco leadership has been engaged and is listening to our concerns. Their VP told us that our postcards—thousands of them—showed that people genuinely care about this issue. While they need time to consider the resources and recommendations we’ve shared, the dialogue is open.

 

We would never have gotten to this point without the commitment, creativity, and campaigning-smarts from our close partners and our Third Act community. Read more about the campaign update and CEO meeting here.

 

This campaign grew from a simple idea: when I joined Third Act after retiring in 2022, I decided to clean up my finances, starting with my Costco-CitiBank credit card. As I cut it up, I thought, “Citi might not miss me, but they sure would miss Costco.” After all, Costco is the third largest retailer in the world, and one in three Americans shops there.

 

So, at my first Third Act Washington meeting, I suggested writing a letter to Costco about it—and the group encouraged me to send it on their behalf. Costco did respond to me. I spent months engaging with Costco executives, but we weren’t making progress.

 

That’s when Third Act staff and partners like Stop the Money Pipeline, Stand.earth, and Climate Defenders helped expand the campaign nationally. It’s grown bigger than I ever imagined:

Sarah Lassoff (STMP), Roishetta Ozane (Vessel Project), and Vanessa Arcara (Third Act) on our way to meet Costco leadership at their headquarters Issaquah, WA.

Our persistence paid off. Days after the August demonstration, the CEO agreed to meet with us and we’ve now had a couple of productive conversations. Together we’ve been able to start a dialogue with one of the world’s largest corporations—and we won’t stop until Costco takes real action: leveraging their partnership with Citi to stop funding fossil fuels and accelerate clean energy investments.

 

Let’s keep encouraging Costco to do the right thing. You can help keep the momentum going: sign the petition to show Costco you care. Together we’re proving that people power can move even the largest corporations—and I’m so grateful for everyone taking part.

 

Chris G.

Volunteer, Third Act Washington

P.S. Your support makes campaigns like this possible. Consider making a donation to Third Act to help us drive big banks towards stronger climate action.

Third Act
10 Fairgrounds Ave, #445
Nassau, NY 12123
United States
info@thirdact.org

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