News

On Thursday, April 21, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented an updated agenda with new goals for PlaNYC, the city's landmark effort to ensure long-term sustainability and improve all aspects of the city's environment. New initiatives include plans to install solar power plants on capped landfills, offer loans to businesses to help pay for energy-efficient upgrades, and launch a program to help buildings switch to cleaner heating fuels.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has updated its Sustainable Development guidelines. The new guidelines clarify the Fund's definition of 'sustainable development' as well as its focus on the single goal of advancing solutions to climate change with four accompanying strategies.

Jared Duval’s book, Next Generation Democracy: What the Open Source Revolution Means for Power, Politics, and Change debuted as the number one bestseller in Amazon’s Democracy and Civics category on Nov. 9. The book began as a project about youth organizing, climate change, and democratic renewal for Demos.

More than 259 investors from around the world with collective assets totaling more than $15 trillion have signed a statement on climate change calling for "national and international policies that will spur private investment into low-carbon technologies."  The signatories, which include the RBF, cited "potential climate-related GDP losses of up to 20 percent by 2050 and the economic benefits of shifting to low-carbon and resource-efficient economies."

Rachel Kleinfeld, CEO of the Truman National Security Project, a Sustainable Development program grantee, was recognized as a civic leader in Time Magazine's list of "40 Under 40." The Truman National Security Project is an organization that recruits and trains leaders to make an impact on national security issues, which include climate change and the energy debate.

RBF grantee 2030 Inc.'s Architecture 2030 has unveiled its new Web site, which showcases the progress it has made since its inception in 2006. The new site features a comprehensive and up-to-date tool for researchers interested in the building sector, where they are able to examine how the building sector relates to energy, climate change, and economic problems as well as potential solutions.

Sustainable Development Program Director, Michael Northrop, discusses the government's role in investing in renewable energy in this podcast hosted by Mary-Charlotte of Santa Fe Radio Café.

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.

RBF grantee Sustainable Markets Foundation's 350.org launched its new Web site, gearing up for "10/10/10, the Global Work Party" on October 10, 2010. Organizers are encouraging individuals worldwide to do something to combat global warming in their communities.

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.