Key Report Takeaways: 

• For the average person in the U.S., personal banking may constitute a large source of indirect greenhouse gas emissions 
• Every US$1,000 a person has in savings is roughly equivalent to the direct emissions generated by flying from New York to Seattle every year 
• Eleven of the largest U.S.-based banks lend around 19.4% on average – and as high as 30% – of their portfolios to carbon-intensive industries 
• Moving from a carbon-intensive bank to a climate-responsible bank could reduce the personal banking emissions of an average U.S.-based person by 76%
• Switching banks can be a powerful, relatively easy, and affordable climate action

In a report published this week, Project Drawdown, in collaboration with Topo Finance, reveals how personal banking decisions in the United States can undermine or accelerate individual climate action. By comparing the estimated financed emissions of a sample of carbon-intensive banks and climate-responsible banks, the report finds that where a person stores their money is one of the most important consumer decisions they can make related to their greenhouse gas emissions. 

“Around 95% of U.S.-based adults have money in a checking or savings account which banks then use to finance or invest across the economy,” says Jamie Alexander, who co-authored the report and is the director of Drawdown Labs, Project Drawdown’s private sector testing ground for scaling climate solutions. “It may come as a surprise to many of those people that, depending on where they bank, as much as 30% of their hard-earned money could be funding the carbon-intensive industries most responsible for climate change.” 

Using newly available data, the report estimates that across the 11 largest U.S.-based banks, around 19.4% on average and as high as 30% of their portfolios – which includes money from personal banking – were lent to carbon-intensive sectors in 2022, including energy production, utilities, mining, and large-scale manufacturing.

According to the report, this means that every US$1,000 a person has in savings is roughly equivalent to the direct emissions generated by flying from New York to Seattle every year. By switching to a climate-responsible bank, however, the annual banking emissions for the average U.S.-based adult could be reduced by 76%.

This past year was marked by evolution: We refined the goals and strategies of Drawdown Labs to best harness our superpowers as we successfully scale climate action in the private sector. We brought to life new initiatives and resources for funders, employees, and the general public. But through it all, we continued to lead the way on climate solutions. 

Read on to see what we’ve been up to! (For a recap on previous efforts, see our 2022 year in review.)

We grew the Drawdown Business Coalition.

Earlier this year, Ted Otte joined Project Drawdown as senior manager of Drawdown Labs focused on growing the Drawdown Business Coalition and accelerating corporate climate leadership. These efforts were resoundingly successful as we:

• welcomed four new businesses – OLIPOP, Sodexo, Tradewater, and Wana Brands – and a new Implementation Partner – Carbon Collective – to the Drawdown Business Coalition
• benchmarked progress and supported member companies in aligning with the Drawdown-Aligned Business Framework to uncover bright spots and blockers to scaling solutions across our network
• engaged current business leaders on “emergency brake solutions,” educated hundreds of next-generation climate leaders through ClimateCAP, and served as a trusted advisor to our member companies on crucial sustainability decisions
• created the foundation for cross-coalition convenings to bring corporate and investor communities together in service of accelerating climate solutions in the world.

We released a groundbreaking report on the link between banking practices and climate. 

In December, we published innovative research showing that where you bank is one of the most important consumer decisions you make, and how you engage your bank is a powerful lever to catalyze systemic change. The landmark report shows how embracing climate-responsible personal banking can help the world address climate change – and getting started is relatively easy, accessible, and affordable.

We made a splash in the media and beyond. 

We garnered dozens of earned media appearances and reached thousands of people directly through in-person events, including a testimony at the Minnesota House of Representatives, a strong presence at Climate Week NYC, and a powerful Drawdown Ignite webinar. Enjoy some select highlights below:

• News: Jamie Beck Alexander, director of Drawdown Labs, appeared on Al Jazeera to discuss climate finance and in Canary Media on climate-friendly investing. 
• Podcasts: Jamie was a guest on DEGREES to show that any job can be green, and Aiyana Bodi, Drawdown Labs senior associate, appeared on Brown Girl Green to discuss business climate accountability.
• Panels: Jamie and Aiyana appeared on the Earth Day virtual stage hosted by Earth Day Initiative and March for Science New York City.
• Presentations: The Drawdown Labs team led over a dozen presentations and workshops for corporate decision-makers and climate-activated employees.
• Thought leadership: Jamie gave a boundary-pushing talk on the future of capitalism and climate change to almost 800 attendees in a Drawdown Ignite webinar; Ted shared his personal experience making the jump from tech to climate.

We helped businesses take elevated climate action. 

We aggregated business influence for policy advocacy, engaged media creators, and continued to push for a higher standard of corporate climate action. In 2023, we:

• coordinated a group of corporations on a letter praising the U.S. Postal Service for committing to exclusively purchase EVs starting in 2026;
• on the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act – the largest investment in climate ever made in the United States – we supported Climate Power's #MadeByUs campaign, in which 70+ clean energy business leaders (including Business Coalition partners Trane Technologies and Seneca Solar) met with members of the Biden administration in a show of support for protecting federal investments in clean energy; 
• we participated in a steering committee alongside Count Us In, Unilever, Rare, Futerra, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and others to educate and model sustainable behaviors for thousands of social media creators to influence millions across their collective audiences; and
• we worked with a graduate student at Lund University to create a new typology based on the Drawdown-Aligned Business Framework to analyze U.S. companies’ progress on climate action, the findings of which suggest companies have more work to do on truly transformational measures. 

We helped employees across job functions take climate action. 

We continued the “every job is a climate job” drumbeat and created more resources for employee climate advocates:

• We released three new Job Function Action Guides for product managers, product designers, and engineers, with tangible actions to support them in becoming climate leaders, advocates, and practitioners within their teams and companies.
• The Job Function Action Guides were embedded into LinkedIn's new Sustainability Resource Hub, which is open to their 900 million member community.
• We worked closely with Google to release their Sustainability Marketing Playbook, helping identify and scale the most effective sustainability actions and strategies for marketers.
• Working alongside major game developers and the United Nations Environment Programme, we released A Drawdown-Aligned Framework for the Gaming Industry to show how software companies and their employees can help solve climate change.
• Climate Solutions at Work continued to be “the essential guide” on taking climate action in the workplace for sustainability professionals and other climate-concerned employees. Over 1,000 people downloaded it this year, including executive recruiters, heads of operations, and directors of sustainability, who incorporated it into employee trainings.

We launched the Drawdown Capital Coalition. 

We brought on Hannah Henkin to manage the Drawdown Capital Coalition. The Capital Coalition is a new program that aims to help funders align their investments with high-impact climate action and ultimately guide billions of dollars of private capital toward strategic, science-based climate solutions. The program will convene and engage a select group of solutions-oriented funders – philanthropists, impact investors, venture capitalists, financial advisors, and others – to advance effective climate funding together. While this is a new initiative – stay tuned for our formal public launch in 2024 – we’ve already had an influence:

• We examined patterns of climate funding from philanthropy, venture capital, and United States federal spending and identified areas of misalignment with the most urgently needed climate solutions.
• From conversations with family foundations to impact investors, we guided hundreds of funders to develop portfolios that essentially allocate billions of dollars to key climate solutions. (Additionally, philanthropists and investors have independently leveraged our Solutions Library and the Drawdown Roadmap to inform their funding strategies.)
• We established early memberships and founding partnerships, including with the Bentley Environmental Foundation, Spectrum Impact, Toniic, Wana Brands Foundation, and others. 
• We soft-launched the initiative on the main stages at TED Countdown, Climate Week NYC, and the GreenBiz VERGE Conference.
• We led a Climate Week NYC panel on Smarter Investing & Philanthropy with leaders across the funding space and dove deeper with a public webinar on the same topic.

We brought more science to the private sector. 

We grew our scientific expertise, rounding out our new science team with seven world-class scientists who will work with our private sector network and build new tools to accelerate solutions:

• We launched the Drawdown Roadmap, a science-based strategy for accelerating climate solutions. The five-part video series points to which climate actions we should prioritize to make the most of our efforts to stop climate change. The Roadmap for Business video specifically explores how businesses can leverage their clout and employee power to help the world address climate change.
• We initiated essential research by the science team to inform opportunities for the private sector to scale the most effective solutions, including upcoming sector-specific roadmaps with an emphasis on “emergency brake solutions.”

Looking ahead to 2024, we’re excited to continue growing our business and funder networks and help them identify and direct resources toward the most effective solutions to the climate crisis. In coordination with our science team, we’ll bring together our Capital Coalition and Business Coalition members to drive collaboration and leadership on scaling climate solutions with strong co-benefits for nature, human health, well-being, and equity.

Finally, we’d like to thank YOU for looking to us as a climate solutions resource! Our work is possible – and impactful – because of all of the climate-concerned corporate leaders, funders, and employees compelled to make a difference. We hope you will consider supporting our work, and if you’ve used any of our resources to take climate action we would love to hear about it.

To keep up with our work, check out Project Drawdown’s YouTube channel and sign up for our newsletter.

After launching in 2022, Drawdown Stories worked this year to more deeply deliver on its core purpose: to “pass the mic” to the climate heroes who often go unheard and, in doing so, invite people everywhere to tap into their unique superpowers to help the world stop climate change. 

In 2023, we connected with communities worldwide, from the more than two dozen climate heroes featured in this year’s Drawdown’s Neighborhood series to the thousands reached through virtual and in-person engagements to the countless others exposed to our work through partners like The Weather Channel.

At Climate Week NYC, in front of an audience of nearly 400 people, Project Drawdown director of storytelling and engagement Matt Scott spoke about why Drawdown Stories does the work that it does:

“The center of the work that [we] do is passing the mic to those that often go unheard and centering underrepresented communities and voices. For a long time, I did not connect with the culture of the environmental space. I didn't connect with the stories that were being told. And when you can't connect, when you don't see yourself represented, you don't enter those spaces… More of us need to see ourselves represented in this space… When I think about the culture I want to shape, I want it to be one where people's stories aren't overlooked. Where they're heard, where they're represented, and where people feel like regardless of where they come from, regardless of what they're wearing or how they show up, that they belong.”

Within Project Drawdown, the Drawdown Stories program uses storytelling to promote new narratives and new voices. We do this to shift the conversation about climate change from “doom and gloom” to “possibility and opportunity,” and to elevate underrepresented climate heroes who have been traditionally excluded from the climate space.

We’re excited to share some of the ways we made progress this year.

We explored drawdown-aligned careers with nearly 30 underrepresented climate heroes nationwide.

The climate solutions short documentary series Drawdown’s Neighborhood continued to build the diverse tapestry of stories celebrated by Project Drawdown. The new stories weaved into the fold center myriad perspectives, including those of Black people, Indigenous people, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people, as well as those from various religions, backgrounds, and traditions. The 28 climate heroes included:

• Doreen Abubakar, Founder and Urban Environmentalist, Community Place-Making Engagement Network (New Haven, CT)
• Nathaly Agosto Filión, Steering Committee Member, Newark Green Team (Newark, NJ)
• Jose Alvillar Hinojosa, Statewide Director of Youth Programs, Unidos MN (Twin Cities, MN)
• Amanda Appelson, Former Marketing Manager, Plantega (Bronx, NY)
• Melody Arcia, Communications Coordinator, SOUL (Sustaining Our Urban Landscape) (New Orleans, LA)
• Joshua Benitez, Co-Director, Common Ground Relief (New Orleans, LA)
• Bob Blake, Owner, Solar Bear; Executive Director, Native Sun Community Power Development (Twin Cities, MN)
• Travis Charles Banks, Project Manager and Principal, Gravel Road Builders & Construction Services (New Orleans, LA)
• Anthony Diaz, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Newark Water Coalition (Newark, NJ)
• Xóchitl Garcia, Environmental Justice Community Organizer (New Haven, CT)
• Jan Hagerman, Manager of New Brighton ReStore, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (Twin Cities, MN)
• Jothsna Harris, Founder and Principal, Change Narrative (Twin Cities, MN)
• Jonshell Johnson, Education Coordinator, Grow Dat Youth Farm (New Orleans, LA)
• Willie Jones III, Green Infrastructure Technician, Groundwork New Orleans (New Orleans, LA)
• Schandra Madha, Compost Coordinator, Mobile Market Co-Manager, and Farm Staff, New Haven Ecology Project / Common Ground Urban Farm and High School (New Haven, CT)
• Emily Mauter, Former Director of Advancement, Repowered (Twin Cities, MN)
• Hailey Miranda, Youth Team Leader, We Stay / Nos Quedamos (Bronx, NY)
• Alboury Ndiaye, Sustainability Specialist, Waste Wise Foundation (Twin Cities, MN)
• Crispin (Cris) Phillips, Former Urban Agriculture Manager, Appetite for Change (Twin Cities, MN)
• Yesenia Robles Pelayo, Fleet Logistics and Shop Assistant Manager, Hourcar Evie (Twin Cities, MN)
• Alex Rodriguez, Environmental Justice Specialist, Save the Sound (New Haven, CT)
• Christian Rodriguez, Community Farm Manager and Organizer, Ironbound Community Corporation (Newark, NJ)
• Jennifer Seda, Volunteer Program Assistant, Bronx River Alliance (Bronx, NY)
• Shelley Stiaes, Wildlife Refuge Manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (New Orleans, LA)
• Whitney Terrill, Former Environmental Justice Program Manager, Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light (Twin Cities, MN)
• Ashley Thompson, Resident Services Coordinator, SBP (St. Bernard Project), St. Peter Apartments (New Orleans, LA)
• Bilal Walker, Chief Executive Officer, Al-Munir LLC (Newark, NJ)
• Tinice Willams, Executive Director, Feed the Second Line (New Orleans, LA)

We connected with thousands of people from around the world through in-person and virtual engagements.

This year, we shared our message far and wide, including with FEMA’s Resilient Nations Partnership Network, the Great Northern Festival, the Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey, the National Environmental Justice Conference, the Philadelphia School District, the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the Climate Museum, the Planet Forward Summit, the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference, Pinterest’s Creator Inclusion Fund, and Ecochallenge.org – through the annual Drawdown Ecochallenge – as well as through a range of events with K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. At Climate Week NYC alone, Drawdown Stories hosted several events in collaboration with the Ingka Group’s Action Speaks Summit, the Nest Climate Campus, and the Marketplace of the Future.

We also hosted three Drawdown’s Neighborhood preview screening celebrations in locations where the series was filmed, including in the Twin Cities, New Orleans, and New York City. Through these events, we reached around 500 community members including public and private sector leaders, climate professionals, environmental justice advocates, educators, faith-based organizers, and everyday climate heroes from a wide range of locally and nationally recognized institutions.  

In addition, through the Drawdown’s Neighborhood series, we connected viewers with learning and action resources from ChangeX, Climate Generation, Ecochallenge.org, Solutions Journalism Network, and SubjectToClimate, as well as Project Drawdown resources like the Drawdown Labs Job Function Action Guides, Climate Solutions 101 video series, and the Drawdown Solutions Library.

We collaborated with major media platforms to “pass the mic” like never before.

The Weather Channel’s Pattrn streaming TV channel is on a mission to explore, inform, engage, and revel in the patterns of our amazing planet. In 2023, Pattrn added Drawdown’s Neighborhood, a climate solutions short documentary series presented by Project Drawdown centering underrepresented climate heroes, to its regular lineup.

Matt Scott, who created and hosts Drawdown’s Neighborhood, appeared on The Weather Channel to speak with The Pattrn Show’s Stephanie Abrams and Jordan Steele about the significance of the series and the stories it shares.

In addition to our collaboration with The Weather Channel, we worked with Newsweek to publish profiles of some of the interviewees featured in Drawdown’s Neighborhood in the outlet’s Planet Heroes series.

Now, we are prepared to welcome new stories in 2024.

While Drawdown Stories’ storytelling work to date has focused on passing the mic to voices that often go unheard through Drawdown’s Neighborhood, we plan to take things a big step further next year.

In 2024, the Global Solutions Diary will serve as a community-generated library of climate solutions stories, inviting everyday people from around the world to join the conversation by submitting a short video showcasing how they are taking action and making a difference. The Global Solutions Diary will include a virtual interactive map featuring many of the submissions and inviting communities to engage in a conversation that has often only highlighted traditional leaders.

We encourage anyone interested in staying up-to-date on this exciting new endeavor to subscribe to the Project Drawdown newsletter where you will be among the first to have the opportunity to share your drawdown-aligned story and join us as we pass the mic.

Through storytelling, we can build power, shape culture, and change behavior. To do so as widely and equitably as possible, we must diversify the stories we tell, and not only amplify the stories of others but share our own to get our friends, families, and communities on board. In 2024, we look forward to you becoming an even greater part of the stories we tell as we work collectively to stop climate change. 

To support this important work elevating the climate solutions stories that too often go unheard, please consider donating to our end-of-year campaign at drawdown.org/donate.

Lisa Feldman is the senior director of culinary for Sodexo, a multinational food service company that works with institutions like hospitals, college campuses, senior living centers, and company offices. 

When Suzume Soryo* started working as a technical writer at a software company, she jumped immediately into the climate community at her new organization. 

Getting clean, affordable, reliable electricity has always been a challenge for the electric sector. Electrical grids must balance supply and demand almost instantaneously to keep from interrupting service or damaging equipment – and curbing emissions means the game is changing. 

A new Project Drawdown initiative is advancing science and sharing insights at the intersection of food, agriculture, land use, and climate change.

When we think of the causes of climate change, the first thing that comes to mind is often fossil fuel use for electricity production, transportation, or industry.

At the same time, an equally significant, yet far less recognized, contributor to climate change often gets short shrift: the global food system. A whopping 22–33% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from food, agriculture, and land (and ocean) use. 

The new Capital Coalition for philanthropists, impact investors, and their advisors will leverage Project Drawdown’s scientific expertise to guide capital to the most promising solutions.

Private capital has a critical role to play in funding climate solutions. While funders spend billions of dollars annually to stop climate change, many seek more support to ensure their giving and impact investments are focused on the most effective, science-backed strategies. To this end, Project Drawdown has launched the Drawdown Capital Coalition, a new program and community for impact investors, philanthropists, and their advisors that aims to guide billions of dollars in private capital to climate solutions that maximize impact with respect to sector, timing, geography, and benefits for human and environmental well-being. 

“Science shows us where we should focus our efforts and resources to stop the climate crisis,” says Project Drawdown executive director Jonathan Foley, Ph.D. “The Capital Coalition provides an opportunity to rapidly accelerate funding for science-based climate solutions that will safeguard a more just, sustainable, and equitable future.” 

Project Drawdown has specialized in evaluating and identifying critical climate solutions and is now partnering with experts in vetting philanthropic and impact investing opportunities aligned with these solutions. As a result, the Capital Coalition will equip and empower a broad community of funders with the latest climate science, identify critical solutions for reducing emissions, and ultimately inspire more and better investments. It will also spur a new wave of solutions-focused climate funding by providing a foundation for funders across the capital stack – from family foundations to impact investors – to collaborate and share knowledge. 

“Scaling climate solutions requires prioritization, coordination, and collaboration across sometimes siloed scientific and capital realms,” says Drawdown Labs program manager Hannah Henkin. “The Drawdown Capital Coalition and its expert slate of partners will bring together a wide range of funders to explore and chart the best ways to work together to advance critical solutions.” 

Every member of the Capital Coalition will have access to Drawdown Briefings – private, in-depth webinars on the latest in climate science and solutions hosted by Project Drawdown’s world-renowned scientists. Members will also be invited to participate in Drawdown Deep Dives – multi-week, interactive workshops produced in partnership with leading nonprofits like the Climate and Land Use Alliance, Climate Lead, ReFED, and Toniic that will help members better understand the unique and powerful levers at their disposal to scale climate solutions. Project Drawdown continues to explore how our science, communication, and sustainability experts can best support Capital Coalition members in advancing climate solutions.

The Capital Coalition was launched with support from many. For our full list of founding partners, please check out our website at drawdown.org/capital-coalition or see below. 

“As a founding partner of the Drawdown Labs Capital Coalition, we are incredibly proud to be supporting this first-of-its-kind program aiming to bridge the current disconnect between what the science tells us, and where climate investments are going,” says Wayne Bruce, chief communications and DEI officer at Bentley Motors, who is responsible for the Bentley Environmental Foundation.

“At Wana Brands and the Wana Brands Foundation, we're committed to our people and our planet. Investing in programs like the Capital Coalition at Project Drawdown allows us to stay in touch with climate science experts, keep up-to-date with current sustainability trends, and adopt solutions that minimize our environmental impact,” says senior community impact manager Kaylyn Fern. “Our friends at Project Drawdown have been instrumental to our climate action plan success as we navigate the nuances of sustainability in the cannabis industry.” 

“As emissions continue to rise globally, simply investing is not enough,” says Dario Parziale, managing director at Toniic, a community of impact investors. “Investors must focus on the most effective solutions to cut emissions as rapidly as possible. Toniic members’ contribution to the Capital Coalition is a powerful example of how collective action can amplify science-based climate investments and push for significant, rapid advancements in climate action.” 

Support was also provided by: 

• Anne and Don Bice Climate Fund
• Anne Hale and Arthur W. Johnson Fund
• Caldwell Fisher Family Foundation
• Consilium Capital
• Deer Dancer Impact Fund
• Excelsior Impact Fund
• Gratitude Fund 
• Joseph and Vera Long Foundation
• Seabright Ventures Fund
• Spectrum Impact
• Studio Kakapo
• Xancharlize Fund

The Capital Coalition is designed for impact investors, philanthropists, and their advisors deploying or planning to deploy at least US$50,000 per year toward climate change solutions.

Membership is by invitation and may include:

• foundations, family offices, individual donors, and their advisors 
• accredited impact investors and their advisors
• impact investment firms and asset managers
• philanthropic or impacting investing networks or service providers.

Please reach out if you or your organization are interested in learning more.

Project Drawdown is pleased to announce the election of Stephan Nicoleau, partner and managing director at the impact investment firm FullCycle, as its next board chair. 

Nicoleau, an investor, advisor, and founder with nearly two decades of experience in social and environmental impact, rises to board chair during an exciting time for Project Drawdown. 

“All of us at Project Drawdown congratulate Stephan on being elected board chair,” says Project Drawdown executive director Jonathan Foley, Ph.D. “Since joining the board in 2021, Stephan has been more than generous with his time and expertise on climate solutions, particularly those around reducing methane emissions. We look forward to his continued leadership as board chair as together we work to stop climate change as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.” 

“Our collective response to climate change is mostly an exercise of implementing and scaling solutions as effectively as possible. Making policy, investment, and infrastructure decisions based in science is critically important,” Nicoleau says. “Project Drawdown has been at the forefront of a science-based approach to climate solutions for nearly a decade, and I’m thrilled and honored to have been elected chair of the board during this pivotal moment of our growth and the larger global effort to stabilize the climate.” 

Project Drawdown is also thrilled to announce the re-election of Jennifer Caldwell, president of the Caldwell Fisher Family Foundation, as board secretary. Among other achievements, Caldwell has been instrumental in the launch and success of the Drawdown Capital Coalition, which aims to guide private capital to strategic, science-based climate solutions.

“It’s critical that we do all that we can to champion climate solutions informed by science and Project Drawdown provides that,” Caldwell says. “Through our Capital Coalition, we invite funders to join us in building funding portfolios that meet their philanthropic as well as professional climate goals.”

Lastly, Project Drawdown and its Board of Directors would like to extend a warm thank you to Brad Palmer, the outgoing board chair, for all of his hard work on behalf of the organization. During Palmer’s tenure, Project Drawdown experienced tremendous growth, building a world-class science team while expanding the scope and impact of the organization’s programs. 

To learn more about Project Drawdown, visit drawdown.org. 

This spring, six researchers set out on an exciting new task: to develop the next generation of the Drawdown Climate Solutions with the goal of bringing the latest, most effective, science-based climate solutions to the world. 

Chosen from more than 600 applicants, the new Project Drawdown research fellows will spend the next nine months identifying, analyzing, and synthesizing the latest science from around the world to chart the best path forward for stopping climate change as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.

“This group exceeded our hopes for the level of expertise and commitment to research integrity that we wanted for our new research fellows,” says Project Drawdown senior scientist Amanda Smith, Ph.D., who is leading the initiative. “Each fellow came to us with impressive research accomplishments of their own, and they have already demonstrated how thoughtfully they approach these assessments of climate solutions.”