Environmental Defense Fund

Description

Environmental Defense Fund, known as EDF, is a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in New York.

It began in 1967 when a group of scientists and a lawyer on Long Island worked to get the pesticide DDT banned. It now works on climate change, ecosystem restoration, oceans and human health. It uses scientific evidence, economics, partnerships, advocacy and legal action to shape policy and push for environmental protections.

EDF has offices across the United States and staff working in other countries. It builds alliances with businesses, governments and communities to design market-based solutions such as emissions trading and catch shares for fisheries. It also runs the Climate Corps program, matching students with organizations to find energy savings.

More recently EDF developed MethaneSAT, a satellite launched to track methane emissions from major oil and gas regions worldwide, with the aim of making the data public.