Finding solutions in nature
Cleaner cars, better health, safer climate
The fastest way to slow climate change now
Local clean air, globally
Abundant food FOR a warming world
New land for a vanishing coast
More 2023 Milestones
Thank you
Your global reach, Your local impact
The consequences of climate change are being felt worldwide. That’s why EDF is ramping up game-changing solutions at a global scale.
And, because big ideas are only as good as their real-world impacts, we also partner with people on the ground — fishers facing dwindling catches, farmers struggling through floods and drought, families breathing polluted air.
This year, your generosity once again powered our efforts to stabilize the climate, support people’s health and strengthen the ability of people and nature to thrive.
You strengthened our global influence
Our experts shared the stage with world leaders and delivered data-driven solutions at COP28, the biggest climate conference of the year, and at ADIPEC, the world’s largest energy conference, in Abu Dhabi. We also participated in the first Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, where the discussions focused on opportunities for climate solutions across the continent.
You expanded our regional impact
Your unwavering support is driving down climate pollution in the four regions responsible for about half of the world’s current emissions: China, Europe, India and the United States.
In China, we continued to advise the government on its national carbon market, the largest in the world. In Europe, we are paving the way for new regulations on methane pollution from the oil and gas industry.
In India, EDF experts worked with farmers, researchers and companies — including with the world’s largest milk producer — to improve farmers’ incomes, increase yields and reduce emissions from agriculture and livestock.
And in the U.S., we are working to ensure that the climate and clean-energy investments made in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act are well-spent to help cut America’s climate pollution in half from 2005 levels by 2030.
You advanced our community work
We’re proud to say that the Frontline Resource Institute, which EDF helps support, has completed its first grant cycle, distributing more than $1 million to 13 groups taking action for environmental justice. And this year we launched the Climate Vulnerability Index, which pinpoints the challenges that U.S. communities face due to climate change and shows where resources are most urgently needed.
For your role in enabling this vital work and more, we thank you.
In your words
The McCance Foundation
Signe Ostby & Scott Cook
Judy Powelson
Adam Sweeney
Steve & Linda Velasco
Lukas Walton
The McCance Foundation
“Climate change is the largest threat of our time,” said Elizabeth McCance, Trustee of the McCance Foundation. “To solve it, we need corporations to flip from causing problems to solving problems.”
The McCance Foundation was founded by Henry McCance, Chairman Emeritus of the venture capital firm Greylock Partners, to better the world by supporting results-oriented, innovative programs in four areas: medical research, intergenerational poverty, the community of Fishers Island, and climate change.
Climate change will impact all our lives. The companies that act more sustainably are securing their own futures — as well as ours.
Henry also created the McCance Foundation as a way to bring his family together while supporting worthwhile causes. His daughters, Elizabeth and Ellen, are both Trustees and each member of the family makes personal gifts and recommendations at their annual meeting.
“Philanthropy has been very rewarding,” Henry said. “Involving the whole family has been a great opportunity to pass down the values that my generation holds dear to the next two generations.”
The next big challenge the family is interested in is climate change. The foundation partnered with EDF in 2021 on the Investor Climate Insights Hub, which empowers investor action to accelerate climate and sustainability solutions. In 2022, we launched a new collaboration — the Net Zero Accelerator — that will bring together researchers, business experts and companies to turn corporate climate commitments into tangible actions that drive down carbon emissions.
Elizabeth is encouraged by companies like Walmart, which has committed to achieve zero emissions across its global operations by 2040. She believes we are approaching a tipping point when sustainability becomes business-as-usual because it simply makes economic sense.
“Acting sustainably is increasingly a better business decision,” she said. “Climate change will impact all our lives, and the companies that act more sustainably are securing their own futures — as well as ours.”
Signe Ostby & Scott Cook
Signe Ostby grew up with a deep appreciation of the natural world. “It all started in a garden for me,” she said. “Getting my hands in the dirt helped me understand what creates healthy soil and the importance of clean water and great food. It cemented all the lessons I learned in my formative years about what the land provides for us.”
If you’re interested in giving to environmental issues — whether it’s climate solutions, blue ocean technology, climate smart agriculture or clean air — your first donation should go to EDF.
She served as an EDF Trustee for more than 20 years and continues to serve in an advisory role. “I loved every minute of it,” she said. “I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to serve, and I am confident in the results we achieved and the progress we will continue to make.”
Before and throughout Signe’s board service, she and her husband Scott Cook were impressed by the incredible caliber of scientists and economists on staff. She also appreciates how EDF works with partners in business and government to find innovative solutions that are environmentally beneficial and economically advantageous.
Their favorite example of this approach is when EDF worked with Walmart to develop and update their sustainable chemicals policy. As a result of this program, everyone who uses household cleaning and beauty products in the U.S. — in any store, not just Walmart — is exposed to far fewer toxins.
“People feel the challenges we face with the climate, ocean health and pollution are so huge that they can’t really make a dent in them,” she said. “I want them to know they can make a dent. If the current state of the world is important to you, you should support EDF because this organization is making progress on the greatest challenges we face.”
Judy Powelson
Judy Powelson embraces a philosophy of prioritizing the future over the present. “Climate change is humanity’s greatest threat,” she said.
The retired engineer lives in Honolulu, Hawaii where she enjoys bike-friendly weather, folk dancing, and interacting online. She passionately prefers bicycling over driving and is grateful she no longer needs a car.
Climate change is humanity’s greatest threat. There is no Planet B. We have to repair this planet.
She became a member of EDF in 2017 and joined the Osprey Legacy Society in 2021 by including EDF in her estate plans. “I chose EDF due to its size, influence and focus on addressing climate change,” she said.
When she received an inheritance in 2021, she donated it entirely, along with other assets, to EDF. “I heard about the CARES Act on the news,” she said of the pandemic-era tax incentives for charitable giving. “I realized it was a great opportunity to maximize the amount I was able to donate and minimize my overall taxes, while supporting a cause I care deeply about.”
Judy encourages everyone to think about how their actions today will impact future generations. “There is no Planet B,” she said. “We have to repair this planet.”
Adam Sweeney
Adam recognizes that we have a limited opportunity to act to reduce the impacts of climate change. That’s why he created a climate technology and infrastructure investment fund. He also retrofitted his house to be fossil fuel free, which reduces his carbon footprint and sets an example for his community.
He has also become politically active through grassroots efforts at the local and state level, and he supports EDF and our advocacy partner EDF Action.
All of us need to get behind the effort to protect the climate and push as hard as we can. Together, we can win this fight.
“The biggest levers we can pull to have an impact on climate are in business and politics,” he explains. “When it’s successful, the business world delivers results at a tremendous scale. Our government is even more important. It sets the policies that incentivize and regulate all of our efforts to clean up our air and water and protect our climate.”
Adam respects how EDF uses science and economics with non-traditional partners in the business world, and he appreciates the policy and advocacy work of EDF and EDF Action.
“Accelerating the efforts of EDF and EDF Action experts is one of the best ways I can help,” he said. “Voters are going to drive a lot of how this will happen, and getting people to contact their representatives and vote is how we’re going to make the biggest difference to change the world.”
Steve & Linda Velasco
Environmental protection is a passion Steve and Linda Velasco have shared for more than 50 years. One of the first things they did after they met in 1972 was go backpacking in Mineral King Valley in California. “At the time, Disney was proposing building a ski resort there,” Linda said, “We decided on that trip to get involved in the campaign to stop the development — and we persevered. Today, the valley is part of Sequoia National Park.”
Knowing people at EDF are working to help the planet gives us hope for the future.
Linda’s interest in environmentalism began when she witnessed the results of an oil spill near her university, while Steve’s began during his service in Vietnam. They appreciate how EDF works to address major issues — such as tropical deforestation, methane emissions and air pollution — and how EDF helps to educate people about how they can live more sustainably. “Everything EDF does is really important.” Linda said.
They have been members of EDF for more than 20 years. And in 2020, they joined the Osprey Legacy Society when they added EDF to their estate plans.
“We decided to include EDF in our trust because we want to help EDF continue its important work as the world changes,” Steve said. “This gift gives us hope that there’ll be a little bit of us helping the environment and helping EDF in the future.”
Lukas Walton
Builders Vision is an impact platform dedicated to supporting people and organizations that are building a more humane and healthy planet. The team works across investing, philanthropy and advocacy to shift markets and minds for good in three interconnected sectors: Oceans, Food & Agriculture and Energy.
Our focus at Builders Vision is to work with partners and organizations dedicated to finding positive, long-lasting solutions that drive transformational change for the environment and our society. We provide collaborative learnings and insights to enlist others to come build with us.
“We work with companies, change makers and innovators every day who are on the frontlines addressing some of the most urgent social and environmental challenges of our time,” said Lukas Walton, Founder and CEO of Builders Vision. “We see EDF as a premier NGO in the environmental space whose work is grounded in scientific data and aligns with our orientation toward market-based solutions.”
A core belief of Builders Vision is to constantly learn from its partners, and that a data-driven mindset is critical to applying the right approaches that will lead to lasting change for the planet. This commitment led them to invest in MethaneSAT, a satellite that will be launched by EDF in 2024 to measure global methane emissions. Builders Vision also made a grant to add the capability to the MethaneSAT mission to measure carbon dioxide emissions at the same time, which will be a quantum leap forward for emissions data on a scale that has never been attempted before.
“There is a global need to understand the sources and amounts of methane emissions, and by joining with EDF, we can make it possible to understand emissions on a granular level,” Lukas said. “This is an opportunity to explore a new technology that will create data that will have real impact and drive political and regulatory progress.”
Builders Vision and EDF are also working together in the U.S. to develop climate-resilient, sustainable aquaculture that generates economic prosperity, increased nutrition and food security.
You make our work possible
The majority of EDF’s funding comes from you, our supporters.
Thank you for advancing our efforts to stabilize the climate, strengthen communities and support people’s health.
EDF Leadership Team
- Fred Krupp
President - Amanda Leland
Executive Director - Catherine Nardone
Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Development Officer - Gwen Ruta
Senior Advisor - Sean Cook
Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources & Administration Officer - Angela Churie Kallhauge
Executive Vice President, Impact - Pete Harrison
Executive Vice President, Regions - Tom Murray
Executive Vice President, Solutions - Joe Bonfiglio
Executive Director, US Region - Lea Borkenhagen
Senior Vice President, EDF+Business - Margot Brown
Senior Vice President, Justice and Equity - Mark Brownstein
Senior Vice President, Energy Transition - Elizabeth Gore
Senior Vice President, Political Affairs - Steven Hamburg
Senior Vice President, Chief Scientist - Suzi Kerr
Senior Vice President, Chief Economist - Qin Hu
Chief Representative, China - Amy Middleton
Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer - Lou Mkanganwi
Senior Vice President, Chief Finance & Technology Officer - Rory Muhammad
Chief Diversity Officer - Hisham Mundol
Chief Advisor, India - Mandy Rambharos
Vice President, Global Climate Cooperation - Eric Schwaab
Senior Vice President, People and Nature - Helen Spence-Jackson
Executive Director, Europe - Tokë Vandervoort
Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary - Sarah Vogel
Senior Vice President, Healthy Communities
Officers
- Mark W. Heising
Chair
Managing Director, Medley Partners; Vice Chair, Heising-Simons Foundation - Matt Cohler
Vice Chair
General Partner, Benchmark - Katherine Lorenz
Vice Chair
President, Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation - Peggy M. Shepard
Vice Chair
Co-founder and Executive Director, West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT for Environmental Justice)
Trustees
- G. Leonard Baker, Jr.
Limited Partner, Sutter Hill Ventures - Joshua Bekenstein
Managing Director, Bain Capital - Georges C. Benjamin, MD
Executive Director, American Public Health Association - Michael D. Bills
Founder and CIO, Bluestem Asset Management - Shelby W. Bonnie
Co-founder, CNET Networks - Christopher A. Cole
Chairman, Ardea Partners, LLC - Christopher Costello
Professor of Natural Resource Economics, Bren School UCSB
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research - Rachel Crane
Former Space, Science and Innovations Correspondent, CNN
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research - Leslie Dach
Strategic Consultant - Ruth DeFries, Ph.D.
Denning Family Professor of Sustainable Development, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University - Susan Ford Dorsey
President, Sand Hill Foundation - Stanley Druckenmiller
Investor - Nikki Eslami
Founder & CEO, New Theory Ventures;
Founder & CEO, Wild Elements - Kirsten J. Feldman
Retired Managing Director, Morgan Stanley;
Chair, Steep Rock Association - Carl Ferenbach
Chairman, High Meadows Foundation - Lynn R. Goldman, M.D., M.P.H.
Pediatrician; Dean, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services - Charles J. Hamilton, Jr.
Senior Counsel, Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP - Alice Hill
David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment, Council on Foreign Relations - Coddy Johnson
Partner, Goodwater Capital - The Honorable Thomas H. Kean
Former Governor of New Jersey;
Chairman, THK Consulting - Lisa Keith
Development Consultant - Richard J. Lazarus
Howard J. and Katherine W. Aibel Professor of Law, Harvard University - Abby Leigh
Artist - Frank Loy
Former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs - Secretary Ray Mabus
Former Secretary of the Navy - Susan Mandel
ZOOM Foundation - Marie Lynn Miranda, Ph.D.
Chancellor and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Illinois Chicago - Kathryn Murdoch
President, Quadrivium Foundation - Susan Oberndorf
President, Susan and William Oberndorf Foundation - Kenneth Olden, Ph.D.
Former Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program/National Institutes of Health;
Former Director of the National Center for Environmental Assessment/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Stephen W. Pacala, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Princeton University - Bruce V. Rauner
Former Governor, State of Illinois
Former Chairman, GTCR - Spencer Robertson
- Virginia Sall
Co-founder, Sall Family Foundation - Lise Strickler
Three Cairns Group - David S. Vogel
CEO & Chief Scientist, Voloridge Investment Management
Honorary trustees
- Gene E. Likens, Ph.D.
- N. J. Nicholas, Jr.
- George M. Woodwell, Ph.D.
Founding trustee
EDF advisory trustees
- Nancy Alderman
- Karen M. Barnes
- Rod Beckstrom
- Wendy Benchley
- Sally Bingham
- W. Michael Brown
- Keith Campbell
- Tom Castro
- Norman L. Christensen, Jr., Ph.D.
- David G. Crane
- John S. Curry, J.D.
- Ann Doerr
- Christopher J. Elliman
- Jeanne Donovan Fisher
- Jane Geniesse
- Hannelore Grantham
- Jeremy Grantham
- Pricey Taylor Harrison
- Griff Harsh
- Norbert S. Hill, Jr.
- Freeborn G. Jewett, Jr.
- The Honorable Ricardo Lagos, Ph.D.
- Dani Lambert
- Dr. Sarah Liao Sau-tung, Ph.D.
- Gretchen Long
- Jane Lubchenco
- Susan Manilow
- Harold A. Mooney, Ph.D.
- Robert W. Musser
- David O’Connor
- Signe Ostby
- Robert M. Perkowitz
- Lewis S. Ranieri
- E. John Rosenwald, Jr.
- Adele Simmons
- Farwell Smith
- W. Richard West, Jr.
- Joanne Woodward
- Blaikie Worth
- Xue Lan
- Joy B. Zedler, Ph.D.
EDF UK board
- Carl Ferenbach
Chair
Chairman, High Meadows Foundation - Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach
Regional Economy Adviser, EMEA, Goldman Sachs International - Ravi Gurumurthy
Chief Executive Officer, Nesta - Connie Hedegaard
Chair of KR Foundation - Mark W. Heising
Chair
Managing Director, Medley Partners; Vice Chair, Heising-Simons Foundation - Roland Kupers
Author and Institute for Advanced Study, Amsterdam - Andrea Monge
Chief Executive Officer, Rebold - Hannah Wanjie Ryder
Chief Executive Officer, Development Reimagined - Jens Ulltveit-Moe
Founder & CEO, Umoe - Lance West
Private Investor
EDF Europe board
- Carl Ferenbach
Chair
Chairman, High Meadows Foundation - Connie Hedegaard
Chair of KR Foundation - Mark W. Heising
Chair
Managing Director, Medley Partners; Vice Chair, Heising-Simons Foundation - Roland Kupers
Author and Institute for Advanced Study, Amsterdam - Andrea Monge
Chief Executive Officer, Rebold - Hannah Wanjie Ryder
Chief Executive Officer, Development Reimagined - Jens Ulltveit-Moe
Founder & CEO, Umoe Group
North Carolina advisory board
- Marian Johnson-Thompson, Ph.D.
Chair
Professor Emerita, Biology and Environmental Science, University of the District of Columbia - Ethan Blumenthal
Chairman and CEO, Good Solar - Thomas F. Darden, II, JD, MRP
CEO, Cherokee Investment Partners - Shana Fulton
Attorney at Brooks Pierce - Kathryn Heath, Ph.D.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Flynn Heath Holt Leadership - Olivia B. Holding
President, EF Properties, Inc.; President, Ella Ann L. & Frank B. Holding Foundation - David M. Jones, DVM
Former Director, North Carolina Zoological Park - Frank E. Navarro
Managing Principal, Navarro Lowrey, Inc. - Tom Okel
Director, Barings Capital Investment Corporation - Shannon O’Shea
Director of Operations, Thread Capital - Jane Preyer
Former Director, NC EDF Office - Sagar Sane
Director at High Lantern Group - Elizabeth Sasser
Lecturer, University of North Carolina
Texas Advisory Board
- Marilu Hastings
Chair
Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, The Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation - John S. Broude
Attorney, Broude, Smith & Jennings, PC - Robert D. Bullard
Dean, Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, Texas Southern University - Jeffrey Fearon, MD
Physician, Craniofacial Center, Medical City Dallas - Rick Fine
Partner, Brusniak Turner Fine, LLP - Catherine Flowers
Principal Consultant, TCF Professional Services - John C. Kerr
Senior Advisor & Partner, Moorman Kerr Interests & Seeker Partners - David C. Lake
Architect, Lake/Flato Architects - Lila Luce, Ph.D.
- Melissa Miller
Co-Chair, CleanTX - Gilberto Ocañas
Senior Advisor, Ocañas Group - Susan Reese
Attorney, Madison Partners, LLC - David Todd
Attorney, Chiltepin Charitable Fund - Pablo Valdez
Straughan Environmental Program Manager, NASA Johnson Space Center Environmental Program - Sue Wagley
Community Volunteer, The Partnership Foundation - Mary Wallace
Community Volunteer - Anne Elizabeth Wynn
Writer and President, AeLK Foundation
Digital Advisory Council
- Michael Bassik
CEO, Optimal - Eric Berry
Co-Managing Partner, Co-Founder, Bedford Bridge - Ginger Conlon
Thought Leadership Director, Genesys - Weston Gaddy
Partner, Radian Capital - Christian Kugel
SVP, Global Head of Insights, R/GA - Mary Gail Pezzimenti
Head of Creative, Washington Post Creative Group - James Slezak
CEO and Co-Founder, Swayable
Economics advisory council
- Spencer Banzhaf
North Carolina State University - Jing Cao
Tsinghua University - Danae Hernandez-Cortes
Arizona State University - Nada Eissa
Georgetown University - Meredith Fowlie
UC Berkeley - Rashid Hassan
University of Pretoria - Catherine L. Kling
Cornell University - Michael Livermore
University of Virginia - Lala Ma
University of Kentucky - E. Somanathan
Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi - Maria Alejandra Velez
Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Senior economic advisors
- Dallas Burtraw
- Frank Convery
- Chris Costello
- Maureen Cropper
- Janet Currie
- Carolyn Fisher
- Michael Hanneman
- Geoffrey Heal
- Paul Joskow
- Bob Litterman
- Juan-Pablo Montero
- Richard Revesz
- Thomas Sterner
National council
- Barbara Bowman
- Brook H. Byers
- Douglas Campbell, Jr.
- Howell Ferguson
- Tim Gomes
- Alison Holtzschue
- Al Jubitz
- Barbara Kingsolver
- Roger Liddell
- George A. Miller
- Gilman Ordway
- George D. Phipps
- Samuel Reeves
- John Sall
- Roger W. Sant
- Lynn Stern