Generating and testing new solutions to urgent environmental challenges

• Project leads: Rainer Romero-Canyas and Helen H. Joo
• Issue area: Advocacy and legal
• Innovation type: Raising new voices
• Project status: In progress

Summary

In order to sustain support for climate change policy amongst voters, the team will develop an intervention technique based on the socio-psychological mechanism of “shared reality”. This practice is proven by behavioral science research as an effective tool in conflict resolution and political depolarization. Once a group can agree on universal priorities and problems, they can work as a unit to identify viable solutions. As the only large environmental non-profit that houses social scientists, the team is uniquely positioned to take on this work. This technique will be tested in workshops, and the results and methodology will be compiled and shared with other grassroot nonprofits. If successful, the deployment of these research-proven techniques could unify support for climate policy across political lines.

• Project lead: Christie Hicks
• Issue area: Advocacy and legal
• Innovation type: Raising new voices
• Project status: Completed

Summary

In legal and regulatory environmental cases, decisions are based on traditional “experts,” while everyday community members bear the costs of those decisions. These residents have a depth of local knowledge that at present holds no legal standing, and this project aims to change that. The team plans to counter reliance on epistemic expertise by building legal precedent through two pilot cases. The team will receive training in established story collection techniques and will work with local organizations to identify residents whose stories advance shared priorities. Finally, through a variety of processes, the team will attempt to render the stories legally admissible. If successful, community voices could be incorporated into environmental legal and regulatory decision-making to ensure more equitable outcomes.

Update

In the summer of 2023, seven community members became the first-ever Certified Energy Justice Intervenors. Each completed six trainings and submitted testimony in Illinois Commerce Commission proceedings – totaling 14 pieces of community testimony, plus several technical and academic experts whose analyses supported their perspectives. In partnership with Blacks in Green, the team launched the CommunityVoicesInEnergy.org website that hosts a Toolkit with training summaries, sample testimonies from community experts and technical experts; resources; and opportunities for others to get involved.

Learn more at communityvoicesinenergy.org.

• Project leads: Dan Mueller, Hisham Mundol and Vanessa Puig-Williams
• Issue area: Agriculture
• Innovation type: Utilizing new approaches
• Project status: In progress

Summary

Global groundwater levels are at a crisis point - leading to severe water scarcity, poor crop yields, and reduced farmer incomes and livelihoods. India is being impacted drastically, as the world’s largest user of groundwater. The team will partner with JalTara, whose approach to dig small recharge pits in Indian villages has led to improved water tables, land use, and farmer income, to design and implement a pilot program to inform potential expansion of the recharge pits. The team will test the technical, environmental and economic viability of the approach at scale within India and abroad. If successful, the approach at scale has the potential to impact 100,000 villages in the next five years, resulting in recharging 30 trillion liters of groundwater annually and positively impacting the lives of 150 million people.

• Project lead: Jamie Collins
• Issue area: Climate
• Innovation type: Deploying new tools
• Project status: In progress

Summary

Cost-effective technology to accurately measure what are thought to be low greenhouse gas emissions in mangroves or other “blue carbon” ecosystems have limited their ability to act as potential high-quality carbon credits. This technological challenge is exacerbated in developing countries, where most of these ecosystems are located. With university partners, the team hopes to assemble and deploy low-cost sensors to quantify fluxes in CO2, CH4, and N2O within a mangrove restoration project already underway in Ecuador. With this valuable data, the team will collaborate with other research centers to apply results to carbon crediting projects. If successful, this network of tools can help understand the potential of mangroves to act as high-quality carbon sinks and credits, all through a lens of equity.

• Project lead: Lauren Guite
• Issue area: Education
• Innovation type: Utilizing new approaches
• Project status: In progress

Summary

In recent years, misinformation—defined as false or misleading information that is spread deliberately—has skyrocketed, yet environmental non-profits have not been able to effectively address the issue. This project works to expand the research on how to protect audiences from this misinformation, often called inoculation or “pre-bunking”, in a real-world context. In partnership with the social scientists, the team will work with veteran creative agencies in misinformation to deploy messaging and measure its impact. The project will ultimately produce a suite of content, messaging tactics, and guidelines that others can apply to their work and address other topics of misinformation. If successful, we will learn effective strategies for combating misinformation on a range of environmental issues, with an enormous potential for impact across EDF and allies.

• Project lead: Danielle Carey
• Issue area: Energy
• Innovation type: Utilizing new approaches
• Project status: In progress

Summary

Global CO2 emissions from the fishing industry grew by almost one third between 1990 and 2011. Small-vessel combustion engines, such as fishing boats, can cause negative impacts on marine environments, human health, and fishers’ livelihoods. The team will conduct a feasibility assessment with local partners in The Bahamas to co-create a pilot project to retrofit small fishing boats with battery motors, charged by energy from solar panels placed near shorelines. Through knowledge sharing, training, and community involvement in every step, the team aims to co-create a local, sustainable initiative that empowers locals to lead in the design and subsequent implementation. If successful, the project could be adjusted, replicated, and scaled within the Caribbean region and potentially around the world, especially in small island states and least developed countries in Africa.

• Project leads: Pamela MacDougall and Larissa Koehler
• Issue area: Energy
• Innovation type: Deploying new tools
• Project status: Completed

Summary

The increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather conditions has led to more and more blackouts in communities. As a result, critical facilities and services need greater access to emergency power that will allow them to stay operational under any circumstance. The team will develop a vehicle-to-building (V2B) use case which they will investigate the ability of electric school buses to provide emergency power to critical facilities, such as schools. This work will compare the potential of this solution to existing emergency power solutions, such as back-up diesel generators. This use case will investigate opportunities to extend access to vehicle electrification and clean emergency power options in communities where financing is limited. If successful, this pilot will be a stepping stone toward validating V2B technologies and capabilities using medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles and be scaled and replicated in vulnerable regions.

Update

• Project lead: Alissa Sasso
• Issue area: Justice and equity
• Innovation type: Raising new voices
• Project status: Completed

Summary

Toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals are disproportionately present in products marketed to women of color. Although some progress has been made to reduce toxins, it is not occurring equitably across all products. The team will work with social media influencers to raise consumer awareness of this beauty justice issue. Using AI-driven listening tools that scan reams of public online conversations around these concerns, they will craft micro-targeted messaging campaigns to reach the right audiences. They will also ensure these messages come from the right messenger. If successful, the pilot will help increase consumer pressure on key retailers and product manufactures to address racial inequity in personal care products.

Update

The team carefully selected and onboarded six beauty influencers, all women of color, to use their Instagram channels to educate their followers about racial disparities in clean beauty. The influencers, who have strong relationships with their audience and are seen as trusted voices and sources of information, were the sole messengers. The influencer campaign reached 1.1 million people, including directing people to a website with clear actions to take on the issue and resources to be informed and amplify the message. Since the influencer campaign, EDF joined a coalition of nonprofits to co-create larger strategies on beauty justice, partnered with retailers to help create chemical policies with beauty justice being a central focus, led a second influencer campaign, and released the Clean Beauty Justice Roadmap for Retailers.

Learn more at cleanbeautyjustice.org.

• Project lead: Jonathan Camuzeaux
• Issue area: Justice and equity
• Innovation type: Raising new voices
• Project status: In progress

Summary

Many people feel left out of taking climate action because the way climate issues are talked about doesn't match everyone’s daily experiences - creating feelings of isolation and distrust. At the same time, local leaders who understand the community well face limitations and aren't heard enough. The team will partner with Make Justice Normal (MJN) to pilot a model for urban public space climate engagement using participatory and social practice arts. The team will host a one-day event during Climate Week NYC 2024 that will work to reframe narratives, inspire action, embody democratic practice and build a blueprint for replicability. If successful, the approach can be replicated into dozens of events in neighborhoods across the country every Earth Day, Climate Week, and beyond, dedicated to climate solutions that match their community challenges.