Environment Grants Awarded in December!

At its December Board of Directors Meeting, The Overbrook Foundation voted to award a total of $698,000 in grants to 13 organizations working to conserve Latin American Biodiversity, foster sustainable consumption and production practices in the United States or publish on environmental or conservation issues across various media platforms. Further investigation of these organizations and their Overbrook supported projects reveals the unique work that each group contributes on a diverse array of environmental issues.

For its biodiversity conservation program, Overbook will award six grants for a total of $293,000. The Foundation will support Amazon Watch with $40,000 grant for its Ecuador Rainforest Protection Program, IMAFLORA with a $43,000 grant for Biodiversity Conservation in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest through Improvements to Cocoa Production and ISEAL Alliance with a $25,000 grant. In Mexico, People and Plants International will use a $60,000 grant to promoting community-based forestry and conservation in Central Mexico and Pronatura Noroeste A.C. will use a $50,000 grant to protect the Cabo Pulmo National Park Region, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Wildlife Conservation Society will receive a $75,000 grant to continue its work conserving Natural Resources and Improving Rural Livelihoods through Community-led Production Systems in the Pantanal and Cerrado of Brazil and Yasuni National Park, Ecuador.

For the Foundation's environmental media program, the University of Washington Foundation is awarded $45,000 grant for Conservation Magazine's 2012 Workplan.

The Overbrook Foundation's commitment to sustainable consumption is furthered with a $75,000 grant to Catalog Choice, a $25,000 grant to the DC Project, a $40,000 grant for ForestEthics, and a $45,000 grant for GreenBlue Institute. Other awarded grants include $125,000 for Global Development Incubator for its project on a strategic analysis of structures and mechanisms to enhance cohesion in conservation community and $50,000 for In Our Backyards (ioby.org) to improve its marketing strategy.

As in previous blog posts announcing these grant awards, you may click on any of the names of the organizations in this post to be transferred to their websites for more information on them and their work. The Overbrook Foundation Staff congratulates these organizations on their new grants and looks forward to the execution of these exciting projects in a time when environmental issues continue to be extremely pressing.

Recycling in the US - Job Creation and Environmental Protection

On November 16, the United States Senate unanimously voted to pass Senate Resolution 251, which aims to increase and expand recycling programs across the United States. In response to slowing rates of increases in US recycling, this resolution expresses the Senate’s support for government policies that promote recycling by rewarding businesses and communities that choose to recycle their goods or create goods made from recycled products. The resolution also stresses the importance of investment in research and development to improve technologies for recycling materials and removing contaminant materials from products that currently prevent them from being recycled. This resolution emphasizes that growing the recycling sector will assist the American economy by creating jobs in the floundering American manufacturing sector.

Several of The Overbrook Foundation’s grantees supported the development of this resolution and took leadership roles in advocating for its support in Congress, including an initiative by the Environmental Paper Network’s RePaper Project, seeking a 75% paper recovery rate for recycling by 2015. In fact, you can learn more about this resolution and the next steps to promote recycling on the Environmental Paper Network’s blog, which also contains the press release from sponsoring Senators, Tom Carper and Olympia Snowe.

Additionally, Overbrook grantees have been involved with a new publication on recycling and its potential to create jobs, More Jobs, Less Pollution: Growing the Recycling Economy in the U.S. This report was released on November 14 by Overbrook grantees the NRDC (Natural Resource Defense Council) and GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) along with other partners from unions and environmentalist organizations. Through this publication, readers will acquire a greater understanding of why this is a critical moment for all Americans to advocate for and personally engage in recycling. It shows how an overall waste diversion rate (recycling rate) of 75% through 2030 will improve both our economic future and our environmental future. To put these numbers into perspective, the current overall waste diversion rate is 33% and if the level of growth in population, resource use and personal recycling remains constant, the overall waste diversion rate would reach 41% in 2030. Obviously, reaching these target levels of recycling would require policy shifts and individual lifestyle changes. However, the payoff would include the creation of 2.3 million jobs in the United States, lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions and of general pollution or toxin levels, and a decrease of ecological pressure associated with the depletion of nonrenewable resources. While this report contains information on environmental factors, it also intentionally taps into the current national attention on the economy by highlighting the potential creation of many more jobs if we change our disposal methods. For instance, waste management systems currently employ fewer individuals than recycling systems or plants manufacturing goods from recycled materials.

The Foundation is deeply concerned with sustainable consumption so we truly hope that this resolution is a step in the direction of increased attention to recycling issues. As echoed in the report, this is a critical moment where we need to grow recycling capacity rather than continuing to use incinerators or other inefficient waste disposal mechanisms in the United States. The inclusion of information on job creation may create a larger coalition of people willing to act on recycling and support the work of our grantees to improve recycling practices, recycling policy, and the implementation of environmentally-friendly packaging programs.

Environmentalists Block Keystone XL Pipeline!

After months of following the debate over the Keystone XL pipeline, we are happy to write of a huge win for Americans and for the preservation of our environment. The Obama administration has announced that it will postpone any decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 election,. Many believe that this delay will essentially block the project from ever going forward. You can read more at the following link to the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/us/politics/administration-to-delay-pipeline-decision-past-12-election.html?_r=1&hp.

This victory reminds us at Overbrook of the importance of philanthropic giving when Foundation's are faced with time-critical projects at tipping points for domestic environmental progress. However, the real credit for this win goes to environmentalists. We particularly applaud the tireless work of Overbrook grantee 350.org and its Tar Sands Action project. Tar Sands Action's Bill McKibben explains that six months ago almost nobody had heard of TransCanada or the Keystone XL pipeline. In the past months, activists have successfully brought this subject to the attention of many Americans by incorporating their research on the environmental ramifications and their concerns over the government's response into the public debate. To achieve this change, the Tar Sands Action and its partners have created a powerful movement through collecting online pledges against the pipeline, helping to organize last weekend's march at the White House, mobilizing legislators at the state and national levels and bringing together unlikely partners to join in the fight. We can't wait to see what this energized group tackles next!

Updates on the Keystone XL Pipeline

To continue our coverage of the Keystone XL pipeline, we want to share some new developments:

1) This past Sunday, thousands of Americans gathered outside of the White House to protest the Keystone XL pipeline and to demand that President Obama halt the plans for its construction. Overbrook supported groups such as 350.org and the NRDC successfully organized this mass protest to show the President and the country that many Americans do not want this project to go forward. With the hard work of these leaders and organizations, Washington and the American public can see the emergence of a strong group that opposes this plan and want to hold President Obama accountable for his campaign promises to protect the environment. Learn more and see footage from the protest from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/thousands-protest-at-white-house-over-oil-pipeline/2011/11/07/gIQAnAjCvM_video.html

2) Major news outlets have also reported the launch of a state department inquiry that will investigate potentially unethical relationships between policymakers and governmental agencies and those promoting the pipeline. Environmental groups and more than a dozen congress members have called for this investigation before the President makes his final decision on the Keystone XL project. For more information, The New York Times writes http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/science/earth/inquiry-into-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit-process.html?hp