8. Environmental Organizations



8.1. Broad-Focus Environmental Groups

Sierra Club
Works to inspire all Americans to explore, enjoy, and protect the Earth’s wild places, to practice and promote responsible use of the Earth’s ecosystems and resources, and to work to restore the quality of the natural environment that sustains us.
Greenpeace USA
Uses non-violent direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
Earth Island Institute (EII)
An organization founded by environmentalist David Brower that fosters the efforts of creative individuals by providing organizational support in developing projects for the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the global environment.
Friends of the Earth (FOE)
A global network, representing 74 different countries, that defends the environment and champions a healthy and just world.
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Uses law, science, and the support of its members to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and ensure a safe and healthy environment for all people.
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
Works to stop environmental pollution by encouraging business, labor, government, and citizen groups to cooperate and identify practical policies to protect the environment.
Stand.earth
Challenges corporations and governments to treat people and the environment with respect. Formerly, Forest Ethics.
Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE)
Conducts peer-reviewed research on the full range of sustainable development challenges humanity faces, including climate change, deforestation, extinction, inequality, and poverty, develops innovative solutions such as new measures of progress and new policies to expedite the transition to renewable energy, and also advocates for change, using legislative and administrative processes, the courts, and grassroots mobilization.

Environment America
A federation of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations that use time-tested tools of investigative research, media exposes, grassroots organizing, door-to-door canvassing, and litigation to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote sensible solutions.
Blue-Green Alliance
Unites 12 of our country’s largest unions and environmental organizations and advocates for more and better quality jobs in the clean economy by expanding a broad range of industries, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, the substitution of safer, cleaner chemicals, modern transportation systems and advanced vehicle technology, domestic manufacturing, high-speed Internet and a smart, efficient electrical grid, green schools and other public buildings, improving our nation’s water infrastructure, recycling, and sustainable agriculture.
Earthjustice
A law firm for the environment. Formerly, the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
Serves as the political voice for members of environmental groups by educating citizens about the environmental voting records of Members of Congress.
Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)
Provides technical assistance and information on environmentally sound economic development strategies.
Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)
Shows urban communities locally and all across the country how to develop more sustainably: showing that development that is good for the economy and the environment makes better use of existing resources and community assets and improves the health of natural systems and the wealth of people.

8.2. Environmental Groups Focused on Climate Change

350.org
Works to build a bold and diverse global grassroots movement to stop climate change with an emphasis on direct action.
Sunrise Movement
Works to build an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
US Climate Action Network
An affiliate network of the Climate Action Network (CAN), a worldwide network of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working to promote government, private sector, and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels.
Climate Crisis Coalition
Seeks to broaden the circle of individuals, organizations, and constituencies engaged in the global warming issue, to link it with other issues, and to provide a structure to forge a common agenda and advance action plans with a united front.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby
Grassroots advocacy organization using a respectful, nonpartisan approach to climate education and focused on national policies, particularly advocating for a Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal.
Climate Justice Alliance
A network of frontline groups demanding bold action by governments and industry to address climate change and collaborating toward sustainable, resilient, regenerative economies that benefit all communities.
Action for the Climate Emergency (ACE)
Educates, inspires, and supports young people to lead the fight for their future.
The Climate Reality Project
Launched by former Vice President Al Gore, presents the facts about climate change and its solutions to the general public in an accurate, clear and compelling manner.
Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF)
Protects the scientific endeavor by putting legal expertise to work for scientists who are threatened or silenced for doing their jobs.

8.3. Environmental Groups Focused on Energy and Mining

Vote Solar Initiative
Works to stop global warming and increase energy independence by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.
Oil Change International
Campaigns to expose the true costs of oil and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy.
Power Shift Network
Mobilizes the collective power of young people to mitigate climate change and create a just, clean energy future and resilient, thriving communities for all.
Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS)
An information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues.
Citizens Coal Council
A federation of 48 grassroots citizens groups and individuals who work for social and environmental justice.
Earthworks
Dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the destructive impacts of mineral development (mining, digging, and drilling) in the U.S. and worldwide.

8.4. Forest Protection Groups

Rainforest Action Network (RAN)
Works to protect the Earth’s rainforests and supports the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action.

8.5. Other Specific-Focus Environmental Groups

Clean Water Action (CWA) / Fund
A national citizens’ organization working for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work.
Oceana
Works to win specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals, and other sea life.
Ocean Conservancy
Promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and opposes practices that threaten ocean life and human life
Endangered Species Coalition (ESC)
A coalition of environmental, conservation, religious, scientific, humane, sporting, and business groups around the United States that serves as the guardian of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA).
Center for Biological Diversity
Works to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction, by means of science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
Campaigns to replace pesticides with ecologically sound alternatives.
Center for Environmental Health (CEH)
Works to protect people from toxic chemicals and promotes business products and practices that are safe for public health and the environment.
Basel Action Network (BAN)
Conducts both domestic (US) and international programs to halt toxic trade in toxic wastes, toxic products, and toxic technologies, that are exported from rich to poorer countries and to ensure national self-sufficiency in waste management through clean production and toxics use reductions.
Population Connection
Advocates for progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources. Formerly, Zero Population Growth (ZPG).

8.6. International-Focus Environmental Groups

Friends of the Earth International (FOEI)
A federation of autonomous environmental organizations from all over the world.
EarthRights International (ERI)
Documents human rights and environmental abuses in countries where few other organizations can safely operate through campaigns, reports, and articles and litigates in U.S. courts on behalf of people around the world whose earth rights have been violated by governments and transnational corporations.
Global Green USA
Encourages collaborative approaches and crosscutting solutions to environmental challenges by acting as a catalyst, facilitator, and mediator in cooperation with individuals, industry, and government.
Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
Trains local people and communities who are directly affected to investigate, expose, and combat environmental degradation and abuse.
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Contributes to sustainable development by advancing policy recommendations on international trade and investment, economic policy, climate change, measurement and assessment, and natural resources management.
Pacific Environment
Works to protect the living environment of the Pacific Rim by promoting grassroots activism, strengthening communities, and reforming international policies.
International Rivers
Works to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them by opposing destructive dams and the development model they advance and by encouraging better ways of meeting people’s needs for water, energy, and protection from destructive floods.
Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE)
A research institute at Tufts University dedicated to promoting a better understanding of how societies can pursue their economic and community goals in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.
Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)
An entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining.

8.7. Environmental Research and Public Policy Groups

Environmental Working Group (EWG)
Uses the power of public information to protect public health and the environment, creating analyses, databases, and maps to help inform the general public as well as scientists and government officials.
Energy and Policy Institute (EPI)
A watchdog organization that exposes attacks on renewable energy and counters misinformation from fossil fuel and utility interests.
New Economy Coalition (NEC)
Convenes and supports those who might contribute to an economy that is restorative to people, place, and planet, and that operates according to principles of democracy, justice and appropriate scale.

8.8. Conservation Groups

Wilderness Society
Devoted to preserving wilderness and wildlife, protecting America’s prime forests, parks, rivers, deserts and shorelands, and fostering an American land ethic.
Defenders of Wildlife
Dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities, particularly focusing on (1) the accelerating rate of extinction of species and biological diversity and (2) habitat alteration and destruction.
National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA)
A non-profit, private organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and enhancing the U.S. National Park System.
Coral Reef Alliance
Dedicated to keeping coral reefs alive by integrating ecosystem management, sustainable tourism, and community partnerships.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Seeks to protect endangered species and their habitats worldwide.
American Forests
The nation’s oldest citizen conservation organization, founded in 1875, which has helped create the conservation movement and the National Park and National Forest systems in the U.S.
American Rivers
North America’s leading national river-conservation organization.
American Farmland Trust
Dedicated to protecting our nation’s strategic agricultural resources.