Project Drawdown is thrilled to announce a generous gift of US$100,000 from the McCance Foundation. This latest donation from the long-time supporter comes at a pivotal moment for Project Drawdown as the nonprofit prepares to launch several new initiatives to help stop climate change as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.

“More than ever before, the world needs guidance on which solutions – deployed when and where – will have the biggest impact on climate change,” says Project Drawdown Executive Director Jonathan Foley, Ph.D. “We are so grateful for the continued support of the McCance Foundation as we work to provide those insights to policymakers, philanthropists, corporate leaders, and the broader public.”

“We are working hard to build the world’s leading climate solutions resource,” says Project Drawdown Managing Director Elizabeth Bagley, Ph.D., “and those efforts are only possible through the generous support of organizations like the McCance Foundation.”

 “The McCance Foundation is honored to support Project Drawdown and is excited about the ongoing advancements in critical climate solutions,” says McCance Foundation Executive Director Katie Cutler. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration to drive impactful progress in addressing climate change.” 

For more information about Project Drawdown or to pledge your own support, please visit www.drawdown.org. 

Shortly after I left academia to take a scientist position with a nonprofit environmental organization, a colleague from the Environmental Protection Agency – a key audience for my science-based advocacy – gave me some advice. 

“You need to understand,” he said, “that the government decision-makers you talk to don’t care about what you know. They care about how what you know can help them do their jobs.”

Climate solutions have powerful new private-sector champions. After launching Drawdown Labs last October, Project Drawdown—the world’s leading resource for climate solutions—is announcing five new partners to round out its pioneering group of private sector climate leaders. 

This consortium of 14 organizations spans nearly every industry, using their resources, influence, employees, community members, and customers to help the world reach drawdown—a future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline. This spring, Netflix, General Mills, LinkedIn, Aspiration, and Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) Stanford Dining join Drawdown Labs to challenge status-quo private sector leadership for faster, safer, and more equitable climate action at unprecedented scale. 

“Net-zero commitments by some date in the distant future just won’t cut it anymore,” says Drawdown Labs Director Jamie Alexander. “Drawdown Labs partners prove every day that any job can be a climate job, whether they’re helping people bank responsibly, find good-paying jobs, feed their families, inspire student climate leaders, or feel entertained at home. Project Drawdown chooses partners that are leading the transformation of their sectors—not simply playing at the edges of real change.”

Leveraging world-class research and analysis from Project Drawdown and cross-industry capabilities of its partners, Drawdown Labs is a testing ground for companies who already have industry-leading climate goals. Potential Labs partners are vetted on the nature of their science-based, independently verified greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets as well as their track record for lobbying, leadership goals, and commitment to climate solutions both within and outside their business operations. As the year progresses, Drawdown Labs partners will meet regularly, share insights, ask critical questions, and enjoy full access to Project Drawdown’s science-based resources and staff members.

“Drawdown Labs only works when you start with companies that are already all-in on climate,” says Alexander. “If a company is pouring money into anti-climate lobbying and suddenly makes a commitment to reach ‘net zero,’ we need to question the authenticity of that commitment. There’s no room for daylight between the pursuit of a just climate future and any other business priority. The superpowers of our five new companies, along with our existing partners, should demonstrate to the world the kind of climate ambition that is possible, achievable, and necessary.”

Joining Drawdown Labs (and its nine existing partners) are:

• Netflix—The streaming entertainment service showcases inclusive stories on climate solutions to hundreds of millions of viewers around the world. Sitting at the intersection of technology and entertainment, Netflix shows how sustainability can be implemented beyond operational footprints through creative, memorable storytelling.
• General Mills—This global manufacturer of branded consumer foods has the reach to create large-scale impact in the food and agriculture industry beyond its own operational footprint. As a Drawdown Labs partner, General Mills brings with it its holistic focus on regenerative agriculture that strengthens both ecosystems and communities.  
• LinkedIn—As the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn is focused on creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. This means providing its members with the tools, resources, and community needed for this transition by spotlighting green economic trends, connecting green job seekers and employers, providing sustainability skills training, and partnering with environmental innovators. 
• Aspiration—Drawdown Labs’ first-ever financial services partner enables customers to keep their deposits out of fossil fuels, automatically plant trees with their card purchases, and track business and personal Planet & People impact scores as they shop. Aspiration shows that people can use their spending and saving to achieve meaningful climate impact at scale. 
• R&DE Stanford Dining—This leading university partner collaborates on many aspects of complex global food systems—from equitable supply chains, climate-smart dining, and regenerative agriculture, to reducing food waste and shifting diets towards plant-forward options. Stanford Dining demonstrates that sustainable, ethical, and healthy food systems can be deployed at scale, while simultaneously inspiring the next generation to improve how Earth’s precious resources are managed.

Learn more about Drawdown Labs online, follow Project Drawdown on social media, and sign up for email newsletters for inspiring real-world Labs updates throughout the year. Looking for a deeper dive into the climate solutions driving Drawdown Labs partners to think big? Climate Solutions 101 presented by Project Drawdown—the world’s first educational effort focused solely on global solutions—is free, full of hope, and streaming now.

About Drawdown Labs
Drawdown Labs is Project Drawdown’s private sector testing ground for scaling bold climate solutions quickly, safely, and equitably. This consortium of visionary partners goes beyond “net zero” to scale global climate solutions, within and outside their own operations. Leveraging world-class research and analysis from Project Drawdown—and the cross-industry capabilities of participating organizations, businesses, and funders—Drawdown Labs experiments with collaborative ways to address climate change at unprecedented scale, and offers the world a transformative vision for private sector climate leadership. Drawdown Labs members include Allbirds, Aspiration, Copia, General Mills, Google, Grove Collaborative, IDEO, Impossible Foods, Intuit, Lime, LinkedIn, Netflix, R&DE Stanford Dining, and Trane Technologies.

Project Drawdown is pleased to announce the election of Stephan Nicoleau—Partner at FullCycle, an investment firm focused on addressing the climate crisis—to its Board of Directors.

Nicoleau is an investor, advisor, and founder with more than 15 years of experience in the social and environmental impact space. He joins eight longtime Project Drawdown Board members during a time of remarkable growth for the nonprofit organization.

“We couldn’t have found a more passionate climate advocate to join our Board,” says Project Drawdown Executive Director Jonathan Foley, PhD. “Stephan knows how to think long-term while taking action on the best investment climate solutions we have in-hand today. Project Drawdown is proud to have his support—and an opportunity to learn from him—as we significantly level up our efforts to help the world reach drawdown quickly, safely, and equitably.”

Visionary social, environmental, and financial leadership

At FullCycle, Nicoleau heads capital solutions for the firm, managing institutional relationships and the firm’s capital formation for its fund vehicles. He began his career as a management consultant, as a founding member of Coalition Ltd., a boutique strategy consultancy, which advised the executive management teams of the top global investment banks such as JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital. 

Later—in founding Critical Value Advisors (“CVA”)—Nicoleau built an advisory practice which served private investors managing several billion in assets, working to source emerging managers and impact investment opportunities globally. CVA structured and advised investments in venture, real estate, and infrastructure, playing an integral role in identifying investment opportunities that would achieve environmental, social, and financial returns for private and institutional investors. In 2016, he founded LaGuardia Development Partners (“LDP”), a minority-owned infrastructure financing vehicle focused on the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport—a project that was integral in reshaping the public private partnership (“P3”) to be more inclusive of minority and women-owned funders and operators. 

In addition to serving on the board of Project Drawdown, Nicoleau serves on the boards of Monument Lab, a public arts studio leading national conversations about public space and history; and Future of Cities, a regenerative placemaking coalition focused on sustainable urban development. Nicoleau is an active mentor to entrepreneurs in his community, lives in New York City, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

In his own words

Project Drawdown: When did you first become passionate about climate change and solutions?
Nicoleau: I have been an impact investor for over 15 years, so climate has always been part of my work. However, as the science became clearer for us all, I understood my role in having impact would be to work on this existential issue. My passion to have an impact is met by my desire to be as effective as possible in my work—and I’m grateful to do it every day. Because I have experience as an investor, operator, and finance professional, I feel especially lucky that I can meaningfully apply my lived and professional experience to addressing the greatest challenge of our times.

PD: What are you doing to help the world reach drawdown—the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline?
Nicoleau: I’d say this is most prominent in my work at FullCycle, where we are actively scaling climate-critical infrastructure that has the capacity for significant abatement and drawdown of CO2 and its equivalents. My advocacy for an “all-hands-on-deck” approach has been a hallmark of my efforts to help us meaningfully drawdown GHGs, and has spurred dialogue and action well beyond the fund with policy makers, philanthropists, and community stakeholders.

PD: What’s your favorite part of your work with Fullcycle?
Nicoleau: There is a lot to love about FullCycle’s mission—we’re invested with incredible capital partners and operators, and we’re a team that deeply cares about making a difference. This  compelling, activated community and ecosystem that we have built inspires me every day. The innovations we see —and indeed, those that we select to commercialize—are transformative, which gives me hope that we can mitigate the impact of climate change while investing and building the future that we and future generations deserve.

PD: Which climate solution(s) do you wish the finance and investment community would adopt today to make an impact?
Nicoleau: We’re going to need to accelerate investment in all of the available emissions-abating technologies, practices, and solutions that are available now. But because the climate crisis is so urgent, the order in which we invest matters significantly. Solutions that have the highest carbon abatement potential (per dollar invested) must be prioritized alongside those solutions that are ready for market and implementable at scale. For investors, that means investing with managers that are designed to accelerate solutions and deliver measurable climate and financial returns—galvanizing the global markets to invest trillions into climate restoration. Focusing on infrastructure is the most effective way for asset managers to have a meaningful impact, as climate change is mostly driven by the operations of our global systems.

PD: How should nonprofits like Project Drawdown commit more deeply to equity and justice in their climate work? How would you like to see this organization grow?
Nicoleau: Project Drawdown can play a substantial and important role in identifying the critical link between climate solutions and a more just transition to a low-carbon future. As we identify the best innovations, practices, and nature-based solutions that actively drawdown greenhouse gases, we must consider the reparative power of implementation at every frontline and in communities that have been underserved. This intersection between the work to overhaul our aging infrastructure and the work to build a more equitable world is an important one for us to explore and activate through the solutions work at Project Drawdown. This includes working to include the voices of traditionally underrepresented communities and stakeholders in our conversations about a just transition to a low-carbon, more equitable, and increasingly resilient global economy.

About Project Drawdown
Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach “drawdown”—the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline. Since the 2017 publication of the New York Times bestseller Drawdown, the organization has emerged as a leading resource for information and insight about climate solutions. We continue to develop that resource by conducting rigorous review and assessment of climate solutions, creating compelling and human communication across media, and partnering with efforts to accelerate climate solutions globally. Cities, universities, corporations, philanthropies, policymakers, communities, educators, activists, and more turn to Project Drawdown as they look to advance effective climate action. We aim to support the growing constellation of efforts to move climate solutions forward and move the world toward drawdown—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Project Drawdown is funded by individual and institutional donations.

In the wake of the most recent headline-making IPCC report, the need for sweeping climate transformation has never been more apparent. The private sector, with its vast resources, must play a crucial role in this transformation—and employees can help lead the charge. Drawdown Labs, a program of the nonprofit organization Project Drawdown, aims to help global employees step into their power and shift the private sector beyond “net zero” as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. Climate Solutions at Work, presented by Project Drawdown, creates a new standard of business climate leadership, driven by employees equipped to take bolder action at work, making every job a climate job. Readers can explore their company’s enormous untapped potential for climate action by finding their inroad—regardless of job function—to moving their company toward the world’s best science-based climate solutions. This free, easy-to-browse guide is available today.

“Inside most businesses, only a handful of people with ‘sustainability’ in their title consider climate issues as part of their work day,” says Jamie Beck Alexander, Director of Drawdown Labs. “But the scope and scale of the climate challenge calls on all of us to find our inroad. Climate Solutions at Work is a playbook for employees—no matter what you do or where you work—to help your business take bolder climate action.”

Pushing beyond “net zero”

In its infancy, “net zero” was meant to embody a long-term climate goal used by entire countries to track Paris Agreement progress—a global goal to reach net zero by 2050 to keep increased warming to 1.5°C. Over the years, “net zero” has shifted from a collective goal to a leadership position from individual companies. This type of vague, long-term target only works if every company makes the same commitment with a shared deadline—a highly unlikely prospect.

Today’s definition of business climate leadership centers on companies doing less harm, gradually reducing their emissions—and the damage they cause—over time. Employees can demand a more expansive view, one that taps every company’s leverage points and the passion of every employee to scale climate solutions available right now, dramatically boosting expectations for business climate leadership around the world. Project Drawdown’s research shows the world can reach drawdown by mid-century so long as global interests make the best use of all existing climate solutions. Climate Solutions at Work focuses on the private sector so employees have a better sense of where to start—or intensify—their business climate action.

Building a “drawdown-aligned” business

For many employees committed to meaningful change, accelerating climate action at work can feel restricted to staff with “sustainability” in their job title. If a business is serious about their climate ambition, then they will welcome all employees to the work of helping them get there and holding them accountable.

“Project Drawdown wants employees to have the resources to identify and push for bigger climate ambition in the workplace,” says Alexander. “We’ve outlined a drawdown-aligned business framework that allows anyone, anywhere to make their job a climate job.” 

This drawdown-aligned business framework zeroes-in on eight key leverage points—and corresponding actions—that businesses must tap to help the world achieve drawdown quickly, safely, and equitably: 

1. Emissions reductions
2. Stakeholder engagement and collaboration
3. Products, partnerships, and procurement (the “three Ps”)
4. Investments and financing
5. Climate disclosures
6. Climate policy advocacy
7. Business model transformation
8. ​Long-term thinking

By moving step-by-step through topics primed for transformation, Climate Solutions at Work is a new north star for employees looking to push beyond net zero. Explore how to help build a “drawdown-aligned” business that leverages all of its social, political, financial, and employee power to secure a stable climate and just future for all.

About Drawdown Labs
Drawdown Labs is Project Drawdown’s private sector testing ground for scaling bold climate solutions quickly, safely, and equitably. This consortium of visionary partners goes beyond “net zero” to scale global climate solutions, within and outside their own operations. Leveraging world-class research and analysis from Project Drawdown—and the cross-industry capabilities of participating organizations, businesses, and funders—Drawdown Labs experiments with collaborative ways to address climate change at unprecedented scale, and offers the world a transformative vision for private sector climate leadership. Drawdown Labs members include Allbirds, Aspiration, Copia, General Mills, Google, Grove Collaborative, IDEO, Impossible Foods, Intuit, Lime, LinkedIn, Netflix, R&DE Stanford Dining, and Trane Technologies.

About Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown® is a nonprofit organization that seeks to help the world reach “drawdown”—the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline. Since the 2017 publication of the New York Times bestseller Drawdown, the organization has emerged as a leading resource for information and insight about climate solutions. We conduct rigorous review and assessment of climate solutions, create compelling and human communication across media, and partner with efforts to accelerate global climate solutions. Project Drawdown aims to support the growing constellation of efforts to move climate solutions forward and move the world toward drawdown—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Project Drawdown is funded by individual and institutional donations.

To be a business climate leader in the 21st century, doing incrementally “less harm,” relying on offsets, and making far-off emissions reductions commitments no longer make the grade. And while the U.S. Congress repeatedly fails to lead on climate, the private sector must dramatically level up its ambition and action. We need a new definition of business climate leadership, one that not only dramatically reduces emissions, but also mobilizes capital, skills, and technologies—as well political and cultural influence—to scale climate solutions, quickly, safely, and equitably in the broader world. 

Drawdown Labs engages businesses, investors, and philanthropies to take bolder and more expansive climate action. Below are key highlights of our 2021 work and impact.

This year: We worked to make every job a climate job.

• We published Climate Solutions at Work, a how-to guide for employees poised to help companies take bolder climate action—encouraging every employee to find their inroad. The guide introduced a framework for the drawdown-aligned business, an ambitious new north star for the private sector. We presented this new framework to over 700 employees (across hundreds of businesses) in the last two months alone, and shared with many more via social and press (enjoy features in Fast Company and GreenBiz). 
• We built community and shared tangible steps to grow climate engagement at work. In a collaboration with The All We Can Save Project, we launched an expanded edition of All We Can Save Circles, specifically designed to help employees foster dialogue and action around climate in their workplaces. To celebrate the launch, our organizations hosted a virtual event with 450 attendees across dozens of organizations and industries. (Join our Slack community, today!) 
• Collaborating with our partners to develop job-specific playbooks for climate action, including a guide for marketing teams at a large tech company to integrate climate action into their jobs.

We spread the word about climate solutions by:

• Advocating for climate action—and the private sector’s role in scaling solutions—far and wide: on CNN, The Weather Channel, and the Second Transition and Your World, Your Money podcasts. We also publicly challenged companies in various outlets, while we supported our committed business partners to accelerate their action.
• Facilitating crucial knowledge sharing of solutions and bringing in the experts. Our partner Google presented to the Drawdown Labs consortium on the impact of their 24/7 Carbon Free Energy (CFE) initiative, inspiring others to learn more and take related action at their own companies through the recently launched Carbon Free Energy Compact.
• Providing insights to dozens of philanthropies, startups, and impact investors on the most impactful climate solutions, helping build awareness of and shape strategies for—much-needed climate financing.

We convened private-sector partners to help galvanize outsized impact by:

• Partnering with ENGIE Impact, Rare, Count Us In, and Netflix's "Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” to collaborate on a new platform for individuals to identify the solutions that resonate most in their own lives and calculate the positive impacts those choices make. Project Drawdown’s own Chad Frischmann and Crystal Chissell also published an article on individual and household climate action, encouraging adoption of these solutions.
• Bringing together Intuit, Aspiration, and Copia to launch Intuit’s Climate Action Marketplace, enabling small businesses to take climate action. 75 percent of small businesses believe environmental sustainability is important to the future of the economy, and because small businesses comprise 90 percent of the global business population, Intuit’s new marketplace is harnessing a massive and untapped opportunity for collective climate action.

We utilized private-sector influence to help the world achieve drawdown by:

• Sending a message to Congress and state legislators that the private sector supports bold climate policy. Drawdown Labs business partners signed a joint letter in support of the climate provisions in the Build Back Better Act—a crucial piece of climate legislation that passed in the House in November with the help of vocal private sector support, despite experiencing serious setbacks in the Senate this week. We also worked with our partner Allbirds to express public support for California’s Senate Bill 260, the Climate Corporate Accountability Act, which would require all U.S.-based businesses in California with over $1 billion in gross annual revenue to report their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and set science-based emissions reduction targets. 

In 2022, you can help expand our work to leverage the influence of the private sector and make every job a climate job.

1. Read Climate Solutions at Work, the employee guide to the drawdown-aligned business 
2. Start a workplace-focused All We Can Save Circle
3. Sign up for our newsletter
4. ​Support the work of Project Drawdown 

Stay tuned for more from Drawdown Labs in the new year.

Universal education and voluntary family planning are essential human rights that lead to dramatic improvements in gender equality and health. A new policy brief by Drawdown Solutions, a program of Project Drawdown, shows how achieving these basic rights can contribute to reducing the impacts of climate change as well—with greenhouse gas reductions of up to 70 gigatons possible by 2050.

“The UN Sustainable Development Goals call for universal access to quality education and sexual and reproductive health-care services,” says Drawdown Solutions senior director Chad Frischmann, who co-authored Drawdown’s Health and Education Solution: The cascading benefits of access to universal education and voluntary family planning with Amrita Namasivayam, Alisha Graves, and Christina Kwauk. “Achieving these goals can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over time at a fraction of the cost of comparable climate solutions, helping to create a healthier planet for future generations at the same time we ensure gender equality and health for the current one.”

Project Drawdown has evaluated the potential of more than 80 practices and technologies to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Nearly all focus on reducing sources of greenhouse gases and enhancing carbon sinks. The Health and Education solution is unique in that it substantially cuts greenhouse gas emissions by advancing basic human rights.

Among the report’s conclusions:

• Significantly increasing investment in, and access to, universal education and voluntary family planning is an effective way to ensure inclusive, equitable economic development and boost health outcomes across generations.
• Improved reproductive health and education have a ripple effect on population over time, which in turn can impact global demand for resources.
• Adopting Drawdown’s Health and Education solution between now and 2050 could avoid nearly 70 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Without critical investments in education and health, other efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals will be less effective, cost more, and take longer to achieve.
• Enabling the right to education and family planning for all people is central to empowering communities and enabling their participation in other climate solutions.

“Solutions like universal access to education and voluntary family planning important climate solutions not only because these are the rights of every person, especially girls and women, on the planet, but also because they advance gender equality,” said Kwauk, an education consultant. “Together, these have the added benefit of helping to improve climate resilience and achieving drawdown.”

“Investing in universal education and voluntary family planning services is really a win-win-win, for people, their communities, and the planet,” said Namasivayam, a Project Drawdown research fellow. “We’re talking about the improved overall health of women and their families, economic empowerment, reduced intergenerational poverty, and climate benefits that are positive ripple effects of this increased access and agency."

Learn more and download the report here.