Ceres

At our founding, Ceres introduced a bold new idea: we do not need to choose between a healthy economy and a healthy environment. By working with investors, businesses and policymakers, we can build a sustainable economy. Ceres is uniquely positioned to bring about the changes needed to address climate change. We're a small organization working with the biggest players on the most important environmental issues. We challenge major corporations to reduce their negative impacts on the environment by using more renewable energy, reducing carbon pollution and other waste, and conserving water throughout their operations. Ceres developed the Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability, an innovative tool designed to help businesses of all sizes and across all sectors create their own successful strategy to address climate change risks and opportunities. The Roadmap set a new standard for corporate sustainability and Ceres is mobilizing hundreds of companies to integrate the 20 key expectations into their business goals and plans as well as report their progress. Ceres is the only nonprofit organization to harness the power of some of the largest institutional investors. Through shareholder resolutions and other activities investors have the ability to change the harmful practices of the companies they own, protecting, not only the environment, but also their investments in the long term. 10 years ago, Ceres launched INCR, a growing coalition of more than 100 members with an astonishing $12 trillion in assets, to address climate and other key sustainability risks. We coined the term “climate risk”—making the concept of climate change not just an environmental concern, but an economic imperative.. This spring, Ceres and our Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) network unveiled the Climate Declaration, a powerful statement from major companies that “Tackling climate change is one of America's greatest economic opportunities of the 21st century”. With more than 700companies, such as GM, Nike, Microsoft, and Unilever, and thousands of individuals signing, the Climate Declaration has gained traction across the U.S. and from President Obama as he announced his climate action plan. The Climate Declaration has brought Ceres' message, that businesses are ready to take action when it comes to climate risk, that businesses can make money and do the right thing when it comes to the environment, to Congress and the nation. Ceres relies on individuals and foundations to support our work harnessing the power of investor and business leadership to address the threat of climate change, water shortages and the depletion of our natural resources and spur investment in low-carbon, clean energy solutions on a global scale.