ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED

Though the climate news is dire and the problems are complex, we have the greatest opportunity in a generation to help create a world where people and nature can flourish. With your support, EDF’s scientists, economists, attorneys and policy experts are working in 30 countries, alongside hundreds of partners, to fight climate change and protect people and the planet. We are grateful for your steadfast commitment and partnership.

Together, we can avoid the most damaging consequences of a warming climate and create a vital Earth for everyone.

For more than 50 years, EDF has helped drive lasting change that supports a cleaner, healthier and more stable world. We address the most urgent environmental challenges by applying our science, economics and innovation expertise. We match these efforts with a commitment to ensuring that our work protects the rights of all people to have clean air and water, and a healthful environment – including those most vulnerable to climate change and other environmental threats. We aim to systematically integrate environmental justice (EJ) into our work around the globe and strengthen our capacity to collaborate with EJ, community-based and frontline organizations to address local and global problems.

Just as communities depend on their roads, bridges and public utilities, EDF depends on its infrastructure of information technology, facilities, financial and legal expertise and—most of all—people to maximize our donor resources and achieve our environmental goals.
Today's difficult environmental challenges—and the increasingly global program goals of this ambitious new strategic plan—underscore the need to strengthen EDF to perform on a new scale that reaches around the world.
Human resources: Our strength as an organization depends on a highly skilled staff, Board and network of partners. We aim to recruit and train an international workforce comprised of top-flight talent, and build a robust pipeline of leaders and experts to carry our mission forward. When our work takes us into new geographies, we will rely on strong local leadership, forge partnerships with effective local stakeholder organizations, and ensure that our internal managerial capacity keeps pace with our growth.
Diversity: EDF envisions a world in which people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected to the environmental challenges we face and are engaged in creating durable, equitable solutions. We will realize this vision by continually increasing the diversity of our staff; growing our cultural competency; and partnering with diverse communities on environmental
justice activities. We are among the first green groups to have a senior position on diversity; 63% of our workforce are women, 26% self-identify as people of color, and 25% of senior leadership self-identify as people of color.
Legal and corporate services: As EDF's global presence expands, we will ensure that our infrastructure is working as effectively and efficiently as possible; that we are adhering to local and national laws in diverse geographies; and that we have proactive plans to keep staff and their assets safe and protected everywhere they work or travel. Information technology and facilities Powering a complex global organization requires top-notch systems, including a best-in-class information technology infrastructure that integrates data and users across the globe, while safeguarding their privacy and security. When it comes to facilities, our goal is to find the most innovative and cost-effective solutions while alsoreducing our environmental footprint, as in a recent reconfiguration of our New York headquarters that accommodates 20% more staff comfortably in the same space, with a more efficient design for lighting and heating to save energy and costs.
Finance: Our finance team acts as a trusted adviser and business partner to organizational leaders, identifying opportunities for better allocating scarce resources, improving processes and reducing business risk. We are also examining all of our expenditures to ensure that we are maximizing cost savings and leveraging EDF's buying power.

CLIMATE
The Growing Partnership between the United States and China to Confront Climate Change. The leadership commitments that President Obama and President Xi made when they reaffirmed aggressive carbon reduction targets in September 2015 sparked the adoption of the United Nations (UN) Climate Accord last December in Paris.

One year later, both countries formally joined the accord in a meeting with UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon. At the same meeting, the U.S. and China also reaffirmed their commitment to work with the UN Aviation Agency to ensure carbon-neutral growth by 2020 for the aviation industry—the eighth largest contributor to global carbon pollution. Further, both countries reiterated their commitment under the Montreal Protocol to phase down hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), a potent climate pollutant.

Continuing to drive down emissions from the world's two largest carbon polluters is a top tier priority for us next year. We'll work with both countries to drive down emissions and promote clean energy innovation.

OCEANS
International Expansion: Experiences from Namibia to Chile and the U.S. demonstrate that with good management, fisheries near collapse can rebound, bringing more fish, more food and more prosperity to fishing communities. Early research led by EDF and our partners shows that sustainable fishing could help 79% of ocean fisheries worldwide become healthy within 10 years—and change the story of global ocean doom to hope. EDF is working to spread these fishing solutions to key countries in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

ECOSYSTEMS
Endangered Wildlife: EDF has developed an innovative idea to bring wildlife conservation into the 21st century. Called habitat exchanges, the program gives private landowners, industry and conservationists the incentive to work together, so that both wildlife and local economies can prosper. Ranchers and farmers are rewarded for improving habitat on their working lands and playing host to wildlife threatened by development. So far, habitat exchanges have helped the New England cottontail rabbit recover from the brink of extinction. They will soon help the greater sage-grouse and the monarch butterfly while also boosting local economies.

HEALTH
Food Safety: Only about half of the 10,000 plus additives allowed in food have been tested for safety. EDF has launched an initiative to spur leading grocers and food manufacturers to move hazardous chemicals out of food and promote the use of safer chemicals in their products.