Nina-Francesca Farac
Nina-Francesca Farac, Ph.D.
Nina-Francesca Farac
Nina-Francesca Farac, Ph.D.

Nina-Francesca Farac, Ph.D., is an applied chemist with expertise in materials development, carbon-based electronics, and circular economy strategies. Her research interests include life cycle assessments, global resource management, and systems-level decarbonization. At Project Drawdown, she focuses on assessing climate solutions in the industry sector. Previously, Nina was an intern scientist at the startup Amber Molecular Inc. She has also worked on interdisciplinary projects investigating waste mitigation of rare earth elements from spent EV batteries and catalysis for commodity chemicals manufacturing, served as the communications coordinator for the Green Chemistry Initiative (GCI) at the University of Toronto (UofT), and was a fellow at the ACS Summer School on Green Chemistry & Sustainable Energy at the Colorado School of Mines. Nina earned her doctorate in Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and her H.BSc in Materials Chemistry at UofT. 

Nina-Francesca Farac

Nina-Francesca Farac, Ph.D.

Research Fellow
Heather McDiarmid
Heather McDiarmid, Ph.D.
Heather McDiarmid
Heather McDiarmid, Ph.D.

Heather McDiarmid, Ph.D., is a climate change mitigation consultant and educator who specializes in decarbonization solutions for the residential sector. She has a strong passion for heat pumps that, while not perfect, are incredibly energy efficient, very effective at reducing building emissions in most regions, and also improve comfort and double as air-conditioners (how can you not get excited about that!). At Project Drawdown, her work focuses on climate solutions related to buildings, electricity, industry, and transportation.

Heather McDiarmid

Heather McDiarmid, Ph.D.

Senior Fellow

Project Drawdown receives US$300,000 grant from the Seeding the Future Foundation for a global food and climate solutions campaign

Submitted by Drawdown Admin on

The funds will help Project Drawdown launch an exciting new food solutions campaign – bringing to life multimedia content showcasing inspiring stories of changemakers around the world who are adopting climate solutions in the food, agriculture, and land use space.

The campaign draws from the insights of Drawdown Food, a comprehensive set of science-based climate solutions focused on the global food system and will also leverage Seeding The Future’s Global Food System Innovation database and network. The scientific underpinnings and approach of Drawdown Food are presented in this TED talk from 2024. 

The Drawdown food solutions campaign will be a timely complement to the Drawdown Explorer, a groundbreaking platform launching in 2025 that offers an interactive and targeted portfolio of climate solutions in all sectors, including food and agriculture. 

This focused campaign is an important part of our deeper commitment to climate storytelling, which has produced our Drawdown’s Neighborhood series and Global Solutions Diary. Our aim with storytelling projects – including this campaign – is to provide the world with a unique combination of science-based content and human-centered multimedia stories to help inspire climate action.

“We believe that this work will have a significant impact, helping to accelerate the world’s movement towards effective climate solutions in food, agriculture, and land use by inspiring action through the power of science combined with a compelling multimedia campaign,” says Jonathan Foley, Executive Director of Project Drawdown. “We’re deeply grateful to the Seeding the Future Foundation for recognizing how important it is to pull every lever possible – especially linking science with effective storytelling and communications – to address climate change and the many challenges in our global food system.” 

Seeding the Future is a natural partner for Project Drawdown, with each organization hosting complementary solutions libraries. Whereas the Drawdown Solutions Library highlights the world’s most promising climate solutions across sectors, the Seeding The Future Global Food System Innovation database and network features nearly 700 pre-vetted, groundbreaking food system-focused innovations. And STF’s database is growing annually by over 100 new entries selected from top applicants from the annual Seeding The Future Global Food System Challenge and other food system competitions. The database also connects solution seekers with solution providers and serves as a resource for intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations FAO. Project Drawdown will draw upon this resource for examples and best practices of impactful innovations for its food and climate solutions campaign. The synergistic nature of both libraries provides policymakers, funders, investors, researchers, and more with the essential solutions needed to feed the planet without destroying it. 

“We strongly believe in Project Drawdown’s scientific and evidence-based approach addressing the most critical issues at the nexus of food systems and climate, and we are excited to support the furthering of the Drawdown Solutions Library. We look forward to collaborating with the Drawdown team in the future and providing practical examples and best practices through our Global Food System Innovation Library and Network.”

About Project Drawdown
Project Drawdown is the world’s leading resource for climate solutions. By advancing science-based climate solutions, fostering bold climate leadership, and promoting new narratives and voices, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is helping the world stop climate change as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. For more information about Project Drawdown, please visit drawdown.org. 

About Seeding the Future Foundation
The Seeding the Future Foundation is a private, non-profit organization motivated by its core value that everyone must always have access to safe, nutritious, affordable, appealing, and trusted food. It seeks to inspire collaborative initiatives for innovative solutions that can help transform food systems to be more sustainable and benefit the health of people and the environment. The Foundation provides seed funding and support to promising ideas and high impact innovations along the entire food value chain to improve food systems globally, support technologies to reduce post-harvest losses or food waste, as well as provide grants to foundational food system related work in academia and research. For more information about Seeding The Future, please visit seedingthefuture.org.  

An image of an agricultural field. A graphic overlay reads 'Project Drawdown Funding Announcement'
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Project Drawdown is honored to announce a US$300,000 grant, to be awarded over three years, from the Seeding the Future Foundation (STF).

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Our mission is to help the world reach “Drawdown" as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.
Ruthie Burrows
Ruthie Burrows, Ph.D.
Ruthie Burrows
Ruthie Burrows, Ph.D.

Ruthie Burrows, Ph.D., is a population-environment researcher with interdisciplinary experience in geography, demography, and epidemiology. At Project Drawdown, her work focuses on developing methods to integrate demographic data into climate solutions analyses. Ruthie earned her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Minnesota, where she was also a Population Studies Trainee in the Minnesota Population Center. Her dissertation research examined the role of social and natural environmental contexts on child health outcomes in Senegal. Previously, she worked at the Center for a Livable Future, contributing to research on local food systems in Baltimore, Maryland. Ruthie holds master’s degrees in Epidemiology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from Johns Hopkins University. 

We need synergies, not silos, to solve humanity’s greatest challenges

Climate change is often framed as humanity’s greatest challenge. And for good reason. 

Every fraction of a degree of warming – the planet is currently about 1.2°C (2.2°F) warmer than before the Industrial Revolution – leads to more heatwaves, wildfires, and other extreme and erratic unnatural disasters. Moreover, stopping climate change requires more than just tinkering with one aspect of society; it demands a total reimagining of how our world operates across sectors and geographies.  

Michael Dioha
Michael Dioha, Ph.D.
Michael Dioha
Michael Dioha, Ph.D.

Michael Dioha, Ph.D., works at the intersection of research, policy, and real-world solutions. He is currently a Senior Energy Researcher at Clean Air Task Force, where he focuses on energy systems analysis and modeling, Africa’s energy transition, and energy policy and planning. At Project Drawdown, he contributes to efforts in assessing climate solutions in the electricity sector. Previously, Michael was a postdoctoral researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science, where he studied the role of electric vehicles in deeply decarbonized electricity systems. He has worked on global projects, collaborating with experts from diverse backgrounds and advising organizations such as the International Renewable Energy Agency. His research is widely published in reputable academic journals, and he serves on the editorial board of Environmental Research Letters.

Michael Dioha

Michael Dioha, Ph.D.

Research Fellow

EVs are a small part of the better transportation system we all deserve

Imagine yourself on your dream vacation. Perhaps it's a relaxing all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean or an excursion to a remote campsite. 

Or maybe it's an urban adventure to Paris or Barcelona. People have very different tastes in the places they like to go to relax and unwind. But many of the most popular vacation destinations have something important in common: When you get there, you don’t have to do much driving.

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