Sustainable Development
The Sustainable Development program advances global stewardship that is ecologically based, economically sound, socially just, culturally appropriate, and consistent with intergenerational equity. Human activity is causing global warming, rapid loss of biodiversity, and accelerating degradation of Earth’s life support systems. With the recognition that the impact of unchecked climate change threatens all other conservation efforts, the program focuses its grantmaking on advancing solutions to climate change.
Justin Maxson, president of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), was recognized by environmental news site Grist.org as an individual leading change toward a more sustainable world. MACED is an RBF grantee that finances environmentally sustainable, community-supported, economic development strategies in Kentucky.
An op-ed by 350.org founder Bill McKibben, which appeared in The Washington Post on May 23, has been adapted into a video about the connection between recent natural disasters and climate change. The video, a narration of the essay accompanied by powerful images of weather events, was produced by Stephen Thomson.
RBF grantees Center for Climate Strategies and Global Environmental Insitute have been selected as one of six teams to participate in the U.S. Department of State and Chinese National Development and Reform Commission's EcoPartnerships program. The EcoPartnerships program was established to facilitate collaboration among Chinese and U.S. governments and organizations working toward advancing solutions to environmental issues.
Jessica Bailey, program officer for the Sustainable Development program, discusses why it makes sense for RBF grantees 1Sky and 350.org to merge, amidst a different and challenging political landscape for those working to strengthen the climate movement.
$50,000 for 1 year
For the creation of training materials for its Business Ethics Network.
$200,000 for 1 year
For its Science First project.
$200,000 for 1 year
For its project on ocean acidification.
$100,000 for 1 year
For general support.
NativeEnergy has published a summary of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s carbon footprint from 2007-2009. Since partnering with NativeEnergy in 2005 to calculate and decrease its carbon footprint, the Fund has reduced more than 2,400 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
In its latest climate action report, the Presidential Climate Action Project provides a new set of recommendations for President Obama to initiate before the United Nations' 16th Conference of the Parties meets this November in Cancun.
The Pinchot Institute for Conservation and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, both RBF grantees, have released a joint report examining sustainability questions in wood energy development.
The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an RBF grantee, has released a report examining the role of climate change in global security.