Annie Leonard

Annie Marie Leonard (born 1964) is an American anti-consumerist activist. She created the animated film The Story of Stuff, which describes the life cycle of material goods. In 2014, she became the executive director of Greenpeace USA.

Biography

Early life and education Leonard was born in Seattle, Washington, where she also grew up. She graduated from the Lakeside School, and received an undergraduate degree from Barnard College in 1987 and a graduate degree from Cornell University in City and Regional Planning.

Career After interning at the National Wildlife Federation in the late 1980s, Leonard began working with Greenpeace on a campaign to ban international waste dumping, traveling around the world to track garbage and hazardous waste sent from developed to less developed countries. "I was sneaking into the factories where it was being disposed, interviewing the workers, taking hair samples and soil samples to prove the environmental health harm," she later explained in an interview with Cornell University.

In 1992, she testified in front of the US Congress on the topic of international waste trafficking.

Leonard is best known as the creator and narrator of the animated documentary about the life cycle of material goods, The Story of Stuff (2007). The documentary began as an hour-long talk and was made into a condensed film version based on popular demand. She also wrote a book version of the film, published in 2010 in the United States by Free Press of Simon & Schuster, in the UK by Constable & Robinson, and in Germany by Econ Verlag.

After The Story of Stuff, she created The Story of Cap and Trade (2009), which addresses emissions trading. Subsequent productions include The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Cosmetics, The Story of Electronics, The Story of Citizens United v. FEC, The Story of Broke, The Story of Change, and The Story of Solutions.

In addition to her work on the Story of Stuff films, Leonard was co-creator and coordinator of GAIA (the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives ), serving on the boards of International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and the Environmental Health Fund. She previously worked for Health Care Without Harm, Essential Information, and Greenpeace International, and was coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption.

In March 2022, actress and climate activist Jane Fonda co-founded the Jane Fonda Climate PAC (political action committee) with Leonard.

In April 2025, Leonard announced that she was working on a new book celebrating the history of protest in the US and the world.

Personal life Leonard lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter Dewi, born in 1999.