Ideas Into Action
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World Resources Institute Ideas into Action WASHINGTON, D. C. 1 Contents Overview 3 From the President/Jonathan Lash 4 From the Chairman/ William D. Ruckelshaus 5 Board of Directors and Officers 6 A Record of Achievements/Jonathan Lash 8 A Team of Exceptional People/Patti Adams and Tony LaViña 11 A Program to Meet Global Challenges 14 To Reverse Damage to Ecosystems/Tony Janetos, Nigel Sizer, and Kenton Miller 14 To Expand Participation in Environmental Decisions/Frances Seymour, Christine Elias, and Changhua Wu 18 To Avert Dangerous Climate Change/Nancy Kete, Liz Cook and Paul Faeth, Gwen Parker and Rob Day 22 To Increase Prosperity while Improving the Environment/Matthew Arnold, Patricia Londoño, and Michael Totten 26 A Commitment to Put Ideas into Action/Allen Hammond 30 Recent Partners 32 Recent Financials 35 Recent Contributors 36 Global Council 39 2 World Resources Institute provides information, ideas, and solutions to global environmental problems. Our mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment for current and future generations. Our program meets global challenges by using knowledge to catalyze public and private action. To reverse damage to ecosystems. We protect the capacity of ecosystems to sustain life and prosperity. To expand participation in environmental decisions. We collaborate with partners worldwide to increase people’s access to information and influence over decisions about natural resources. To avert dangerous climate change. We promote public and private action to ensure a safe climate and sound world economy. To increase prosperity while improving the environment. We challenge the private sector to grow by improving environmental and community well-being. 3 From the President WRI puts ideas into action to change the world. "In the Summer of 1997, eighteen environmental protesters were arrested as they sought to block logging operations in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. The Great Bear, they said, was a remnant of ancient forest too precious to cut. In court, they pointed to WRI’s ground-breaking study, The Last Frontier Forests, the first global account of the loss of original forests – 80 percent gone and disappearing rapidly — to explain their actions. Our work is not designed to spur civil disobedience, but it is intended to catalyze action. Action is urgent in a world that must reverse the accelerating trends of biotic impoverishment, climate destabilization, and ecosystem destruction, even while it finds means to provide new opportunity to more people. Jonathan Lash Our tools are information, ideas, and communication. In the pages that follow we report on our work to bring ideas into has led the World Resources action, to dispel myths with facts, and to meet problems with practical solutions: Global Forest Watch, an innovative global Institute as its president network to marry satellite data to the work of local activists. The Safe Climate, Sound Business collaboration in which we worked with major companies to develop measures to make preventing global climate change a good business opportunity. since 1993 and co-chaired The Millennium Assessment project in which we are coordinating the work of a score of institutions to catalyze a first-ever the President’s Council on global assessment of the current and future capacity of the world’s ecosystems to continue to provide the environmental Sustainable Development goods and services. and the Organisation for Those protesters were found to be in contempt of court. But we were astonished and fascinated when the largest of the Economic Co-operation and logging companies operating in British Columbia showed up in our offices seeking advice on how to shift their practices Development's High-Level toward sustainability. Ideas can indeed be put into action to change the world." Advisory Group on Environment. 4 From the Chairman WRI is working as well as any institution in the world to put sustainable development into practice. William D. Ruckelshaus, chairman of WRI’s Board of Directors since 1998, “WRI has done all kinds of good worldwide on environmental issues. I was in Buenos Aires in November is a principal of the 1998 for the international negotiations on climate change. I could see firsthand the excellence of the WRI staff, the deep Madrona Investment Group respect that representatives of foreign governments held not just for Jonathan Lash but for all the staff of WRI. I wasn't in Seattle, Washington. surprised that they had this level of understanding and respect, but it was really gratifying to see how many people in the world understand the excellence of this institution and the work that it does. The global concern for environmental action has had a deep impact on me. As a result of my two tenures as director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, I saw the global nature of environmental problems. If we made progress in the U.S. but did not mirror that progress across the world, the chances of reversing global environmental deterioration were really quite slim. As the U.S. representative to the World Commission on Environment and Development, or the Brundtland Commission, I had the opportunity to travel the world to assess the best direction for environmental action worldwide. Out of that experience came the report, Our Common Future, which proposed the concept of sustainable development as the way in which the world deals with the environmental and social problems created by the legitimate desire for development. The concept of sustainable development is central to the work at WRI. Being able to help the world understand and pursue pathways of development that are consistent with protecting the environment is a broad and important assignment. I think WRI is working as well as any institution in the world to put sustainable development into practice.” 5 Michael R. Deland Board of Vice Chairman American Flywheel Systems, Inc. Directors Washington, DC USA Sylvia A. Earle as of September 1, 1999 Chairman Deep Ocean Exploration William D. Ruckelshaus and Research Chairman Oakland, California USA Principal, Madrona Investment Group, L.L.C. Alice F. Emerson Seattle, Washington USA Senior Advisor Andrew Mellon Foundation Julia Marton-Lefèvre Arlington, Massachusetts USA Vice Chair Executive Director, Leadership for José María Figueres Environment & Development Former President of Costa Rica (LEAD) International Cartago, Costa Rica New York, New York USA Shinji Fukukawa Manuel Arango Chairman and CEO Chairman Dentsu Institute for Human Studies Fundación Mexicana Para La Tokyo, Japan Educación Ambiental, A.C. Mexico DF, Mexico David Gergen Editor at Large Frances G. Beinecke U.S. News and World Report Executive Director Arlington, Virginia USA Natural Resources Defense Council John H. Gibbons New York, New York USA Former Director Office of Science and Technology, Bert Bolin Executive Office of the President Chairman The Plains, Virginia USA Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change William M. Haney III Österskär, Sweden Fellow Kennedy School of Government Robert N. Burt Harvard University Chairman & CEO Cambridge, Massachusetts USA FMC Corporation Chicago, Illinois USA Cynthia R. Helms Former Chair of WorldWIDE (World David T. Buzzelli Women in the Environment) Director and Senior Consultant Washington, DC USA Dow Chemical Company Harbor Springs, Michigan USA Calestous Juma Visiting Fellow Deb Callahan Kennedy School of Government President Harvard University League of Conservation Voters Cambridge, Massachusetts USA Washington, DC USA Yolanda Kakabadse Minister for Environment of Ecuador Quito, Ecuador Jonathan Lash Stephan Schmidheiny President Chairman World Resources Institute ANOVA Holding AG Washington, DC USA Hurden, Switzerland Jeffrey T. Leeds Bruce Smart Founder and President Former Chairman and CEO Officers Leeds Group, Inc. The Continental Group New York, New York USA Upperville, Virginia USA Jonathan Lash President Jane Lubchenco Scott M. Spangler Distinguished Professor Chairman Matthew Arnold Department of Zoology Chemonics International, Inc. Senior Vice President Oregon State University Washington, DC USA and Chief Operating Officer Corvallis, Oregon USA James Gustave Speth Anthony Janetos William F. Martin Dean Senior Vice President Chairman School of Forestry and and Chief Program Officer Washington Policy Environmental Studies, and Analysis, Inc. Yale University Marjorie Beane Washington, DC USA New Haven, Connecticut USA Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer Matthew Nimetz Alvaro Umaña Quesada Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton President Lucy Byrd Dorick and Garrison Center for Environmental Study Vice President for Development New York, New York USA Heredia, Costa Rica Kenton R. Miller Ronald L. Olson Pieter Winsemius Vice President for International Munger, Tolles and Olson Director Development and Conservation Los Angeles, California USA McKinsey and Company Amsterdam, The Netherlands Donna W. Wise Peter H. Raven Vice President for Communications Director Wren Wirth Missouri Botanical Garden President St. Louis, Missouri USA The Winslow Foundation Washington, DC USA Florence T. Robinson Assistant Professor Department of Biology Southern University Baton Rouge, Louisiana USA 7 AA RecordRecord ofof AchievementsAchievements 1982 WRI is founded under the direction of James Gustave Speth as the world’s first organization devoted to understanding the interconnections between environmental protection and economic development. 1984 WRI’s first major