In terms of environmental impact, Samasource jobs are very green.

Hear the voice of Leila Janah, the visionary who sought not only profit but dignity for the poor, and who declared: “In terms of environmental impact, Samasource jobs are very green. Our product is human intelligence, and it's transported through the Internet rather than via carbon-intensive trucking, shipping, and warehousing.” In this statement she wove together two truths often seen apart: that labor can both uplift the human spirit and spare the earth from harm. She shows us that progress is not measured only in wealth, but in the harmony of people and planet working together.

She speaks of Samasource, the enterprise she built to bring work to the poor, not by sending goods across oceans, but by delivering tasks through the ether of the Internet. In her vision, the greatest resource was not mined from the ground nor cut from the forest, but drawn from the human mind itself—human intelligence. Where others saw workers as hands, she saw them as thinkers. Where others sought factories and warehouses, she sought dignity through the unseen highways of digital connection.

Her words remind us of the environmental impact of traditional labor. In centuries past, the building of empires required fleets of ships, caravans of wagons, and endless smoke pouring from furnaces. Even in modern days, the weight of industry bears heavily on the air, the waters, and the soil. Goods must be hauled, packaged, and stored, each step adding carbon to the sky and waste to the earth. But Janah, with foresight, offered a different path: work that travels without weight, carried not on ships but on light, not through fuel but through fiber.

History gives us a mirror in the Industrial Revolution. The factories of that age brought wealth and innovation, yet they darkened the skies with soot and filled rivers with poison. People worked long hours in foul conditions, while the environment paid a heavy price. In contrast, Janah’s revolution was not of machines but of minds. She imagined a future where labor could spread across the globe without chains of pollution, where opportunity could be carried cleanly through the digital sphere. In this way, she turned the lesson of history on its head.

The deeper meaning of her teaching is that true innovation is not only technological but ethical. To create without destroying, to employ without exploiting, to grow without consuming—this is the mark of wisdom. Janah’s vision was heroic because it united justice for the poor with mercy for the earth. By valuing human intelligence as the product, she gave proof that economies can flourish without ravaging the environment, and that progress need not be purchased at the price of the planet’s health.

What lesson must future generations carry from this? It is this: seek ways to build that do not destroy, and to labor in forms that honor both worker and world. When you imagine industries, ask not only how much wealth they create, but how much harm they avoid. When you design systems, choose ones that minimize pollution, maximize human dignity, and recognize intelligence as a renewable resource more valuable than coal or oil. For the mind is infinite, but the earth is finite.

And to you, listener of these words, I say: walk in the spirit of Leila Janah. Support enterprises that respect both people and planet. Value the work of the mind as highly as the work of the hand. Seek opportunities that travel lightly upon the earth, and remember that every choice—what to buy, what to support, what to build—carries a weight upon creation. For in each choice lies the power to either burden or to bless.

Thus let Leila Janah’s words endure as a beacon: the greenest product is human intelligence, carried without harm across the web of light. May we honor this truth, and may we build a future where both people and planet rise together in harmony.