These businesses are closing for Friday's climate strike

Thousands of people are planning to walk out of work or school on Friday to press global leaders for solutions to rapidly escalating climate change. And while it was students who started the movement, more and more workers—and even companies—are joining them in support.

Some businesses are letting workers take the day off to protest, while others plan to close their doors outright. They tend to be small or mid-sized businesses — most of the country's largest corporations have yet to weigh in on the strike, although plenty of people who work at them might yet participate when walkouts are set to start Friday afternoon.

Here are the ways workers and companies are supporting the strike.

Walkouts

• Amazon is expected to see more than 1,500 employees walk out, with the largest contingent exiting its Seattle headquarters, as they push the company to cut ties with fossil-fuel companies and stop funding groups that deny climate science. The company on Thursday announced it would make its operations carbon-neutral by 2040 and run entirely on renewable energy within a decade.
  
• More than 900 Google workers and unknown numbers of workers from Facebook, Atlassian, Cobot, Ecosia, Microsoft and Twitter are vowing walkouts. The strikers have details at Tech Workers Coalition.

Some smaller companies are giving workers paid time off to participate in the walkouts. These include Atlassian, Sustain Natural, Grove Collaborative and others.

Closures

• Ben & Jerry's corporate offices in South Burlington, Vermont, will be closed during the strike on Friday, while shops worldwide will either be closed or open later than usual. The company is also stopping production at its manufacturing plants in Vermont and the Netherlands, according to Adweek. "We recognize that climate change is an existential threat to our planet and all its inhabitants, and therefore we are proud standing with the youth-led movement demanding bold action in response to the climate emergency," a spokesperson said.
  
• Patagonia is closing its retail stores for 24 hours on Friday. "For decades, many corporations have single-mindedly pursued profits at the expense of everything else — employees, communities and the air, land and water we all share," CEO Rose Marcario wrote on LinkedIn. "[C]apitalism needs to evolve if humanity is going to survive."
• Lush Cosmetics will close its manufacturing facilities and retail outlets on September 20 in the U.S. and on September 27 in Canada. It's also halting online sales on Friday.
  
• Badger Balm is closing for the day and giving workers paid time off to demonstrate or volunteer. The company is also donating 5% of online sales from September 16 to 27 to AmazonWatch.org to aid in preserving the shrinking Amazon's ecological systems, it said.
• Burton, the outdoor retailer, is closing its offices and owned retail stores on September 20th or 27th (depending on their country of location). It also won't make any online sales for 24 hours on Friday.
• SodaStream, the seltzer maker owned by PepsiCo, is shuttering its headquarters and closing e-commerce on Friday.

Digital doings and more

The heart of the strike will be in the streets, but that doesn't mean the action stops there. More than 7,000 companies have pledged to draw attention to the protest by either donating ad space or putting banners on their sites. Participants include Tumblr, WordPress, Imgur, Kickstarter, BitTorrent, Tor,  BoingBoing, Greenpeace, Change.org, among many others.

In addition, several hundred other businesses are supporting the strike by giving workers time off, closing corporate offices or otherwise drawing attention to the strike, according to the American Sustainable Business Council. They include: 

• 450 Architects
• A Better World
• A-Ray
• A.K. A Coach and Co.
• Aegis Renewable Energy
• AGL Media Group
• Allbirds
• Alston C. Lundgren, M.D.
• Alter Eco
  
• American Sustainable Business Council
• Appropriate Technology Group
• Arcadia Power
• Aspen Leaf Wealth Management
• At The Epicenter
• Bandidas Taqueria
• Bird + Stone
• BitTorrent
• Blackledge Furniture
• BrandGeek
• Brattleboro Savings & Loan
• Breast Cancer Prevention Partners
• Carbon Analytics
• Chelsea Green Publishing
• Circularity Edge
• City of Las Cruces
• CleanChoice Energy
• ClearTech
• Clif Bar & Co.
• Climate Changers
• Collaborative Solutions
• Cooperative Economic Alliance of New York City
• Coyuchi
• Creator
• Credo
• CVOEO
• Danforth Pewter
• David Brothers Landscape Services
• Detour
• Dock to Dish
• Dr. Bronner's
• EcoPlum
• EDB Organization
• Eikosphere
• Eileen Fisher
• Emerson Gardening Services
• Encore Renewable Energy
• Environmental & Public Health Consulting
• Etsy
• Ever Better PBC
• Evolution Marketing
• ExactSolar
• Fairware
• First WORLD
• FlixBus
• Florida for Good
• Folia Water
• Good for Business
• Good-Loop
• Grassroots Solar Inc.
• Greenvest
• Groennfell Meadery
• Ground Floor Partners
• Group14 Engineering PBC
• HELM Construction Solutions
• HigherRing
• Ideaction Corps
• Image Relay
• Imgur
• Indigo Agriculture
• Intex Solutions
• Intrepid Travel
• Jim Schulman Architect
• Johnnie Brook Creative
• Keap
• Kickstarter
• Legacy Vacation Resorts
• Lemonade
• Liberty Commercial Finance
• M&E Engineers
• Mamava
• Manale Realty
• Marin Sunshine Realty
• Matouk
• Medicine Buddha Coaching
• MegaFood
• Mercury Press International
• Mightybytes
  
• Modern Species
• Montgomery & Granai PC
• Mountain Sports
• Namasté Solar
• Nature's Path Foods
• New Chapter
• New Jersey Sustainable Business Council
• North American Climate, Conservation and Environment
• Ohio Sustainable Business Council
• One Green Planet LLC
• Opening Ceremony
• Opinionated
• Our Natural Homes
• Outdoor Voices
• Package Free
• Partnership Studies
• Paul Millman
• Pipe Organs/Golden Ponds Farm
• Pips
• Principia
• Real Pickles
• Responsible Leader Group LLC
• ReVenture
• REY architecture + interiors
• Salt Palm Development
• Schmidt's
• Scream Agency
• SerendipiTea
• Seventh Generation
• Shifting Patterns Consulting
• Sir Kensington's
• Small Wonder Communications
• Solberg Manufacturing Inc.
• Specialized
• Sterling College
• Sticky Paws Meadery
• Stone's Throw Strategies
• Stonyfield
• Stuffst
• SunCommon
• Sunsprout Farms of Central Ohio LLC
• Sustainable Heating Outreach & Education Inc.
• Swap Society
• Telecom for Charity
• The Alchemist
• The Green Engineer Inc.
• TheHumbleBrag
• The Jia Group
• The John Leary Organization
• The North Face
• Thinx
• Toast Ale
• Transformative Wealth Management
• Tumblr
• West Hill Shop
• Wieden+Kennedy London
• Wiltse Kitchen
  
• Wisconsin Green Growth
• WOBProject
• WordPress