The Environmental Defense Fund, or EDF (previously called Environmental Defense), is a nonprofit organization based in the United States. It works to address issues such as global warming, restoring natural habitats, protecting oceans, and improving human health. The group uses science, economics, and laws to create solutions that help the environment. EDF does not support any political party.

The organization’s main office is in New York City, and it has offices throughout the United States. Scientists and policy experts from around the world work for EDF.

Fred Krupp has been the president of EDF since 1984. In May 2011, Krupp was part of a group of experts chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy to suggest ways to improve the safety and environmental impact of fracking, a process used to extract oil and gas from rock layers.

In 2007, EDF was ranked first among environmental groups in a study by the Financial Times, which examined 850 partnerships between businesses and nonprofit organizations. Since 2012, Charity Navigator, an independent group that evaluates charities, has given EDF a top rating of four out of four stars.

History

In the mid-1960s, the founders of the organization, including Art Cooley, Robert Burnap, George Woodwell, Charles Wurster, Dennis Puleston, Victor Yannacone, and Robert Smolker, found that ospreys and other large birds of prey were disappearing quickly. Their research showed that spraying DDT to kill mosquitoes caused the eggshells of large birds to become thin. This discovery connected to Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, published in 1962, which explained the dangers of DDT and its harmful effects on birds. Carson, who died in 1964, is known as the scientist who helped start the environmental movement. EDF’s founders worked to ban DDT in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. Later, they banned DDT across the entire state and then expanded their efforts to the national level.

When the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 was passed, top EPA officials who helped implement the law remembered that EDF published a research study showing a link between chemicals and cancer rates in New Orleans. This study received a lot of media attention and helped lead to the law’s creation.

On April 11, 2018, the group announced plans for MethaneSAT, a satellite designed to find global methane emissions, focusing on 50 major oil and gas areas that produce 80% of the world’s methane. The satellite launched on March 4, 2024. EDF plans to share the data publicly. The goal is to reduce methane emissions by 45% by 2025. Funding for the project comes from The Audacious Project, which is part of the worldwide TED conference group.

Areas of work

• Corporate partnerships – EDF gets money from groups connected to large companies, such as the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart).
• Environmental economics – The organization uses market methods and rewards to help solve environmental problems. Examples include catch shares and a system called cap-and-trade, which is part of the Clean Air Act in the United States.

Key accomplishments

Key accomplishments of the Environmental Defense Fund include:

• 1967 – A group of scientists starts the organization and works to ban DDT (successfully banning it in 1972). (See DDT ban.)
• 1970 – Works to stop the hunting of whales.
• 1974 – A report by the Environmental Defense Fund about health risks in Mississippi River water, based on EPA studies, helps create the Safe Drinking Water Act. This law sets the first nationwide standards for safe drinking water.
• 1985 – Helps federal regulators phase out lead from gasoline, which greatly reduces childhood lead poisoning.
• 1986 – Encourages McDonald's to use biodegradable food-packaging containers.
• 1987 – Plays a major role in a treaty to stop using CFCs, chemicals that may harm the Earth's ozone layer. However, CFC-22 was allowed to continue, later renamed H-CFC-22 to avoid a ban.
• 1990 – Designs Title IV of the Clean Air Act, which uses market-based methods to reduce air pollution and acid rain. These measures cut sulfur dioxide pollution faster and at lower costs than expected.
• 1990 – Helps McDonald's improve packaging to reduce waste through a major corporate partnership. This happened after many groups protested McDonald's use of styrofoam, and the company wanted to appear supportive of environmental efforts. The Citizens Clearinghouse on Hazardous Waste, started by Lois Gibbs, helped organize the protests.
• 1993 – EDF is one of seven environmental groups funded by foundations that supports the NAFTA Treaty.
• 1995 – Creates the Safe Harbor plan, which gives landowners new ways to help protect endangered species on their property.
• 2000 – Seven of the world's largest corporations join Environmental Defense in a partnership to address global warming and set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• 2001, 2004, 2008 – Helps pass measures that make vehicle exhaust from trucks, ships, and other vehicles cleaner.
• 2002 – Starts a campaign to remove the O'Shaughnessy Dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
• 2004 – Completes a four-year partnership with FedEx to develop hybrid electric trucks. These vehicles reduce smog-forming pollution by 65%, cut soot by 96%, and travel 57% farther on a gallon of fuel.
• 2006 – Co-writes the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
• 2006 – Leads the adoption of catch shares, a science-based method to manage fishing and stop fish population declines.
• 2007 – Helps create the United States Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP), a group of major corporations and environmental organizations that support action on global warming. This group includes companies like GE, DuPont, and Duke Energy, and non-profit groups like the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the World Resources Institute.
• 2007 – Helps negotiate an environmental addition as part of Texas Pacific's buyout of TXU.
• 2008–2011 – Starts and develops the Climate Corps program, which connects organizations with MBA and MPA students to find energy-saving opportunities.
• 2011 – Successfully works to clean up highly polluting heating oil in New York City.
• 2011 – Builds a coalition to stop Proposition 23, a ballot initiative that would have blocked California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32).

Criticism

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has faced criticism for its partnerships with large companies, including McDonald's, FedEx, Walmart, and the Texas energy company TXU. EDF has worked with these companies to reduce emissions and create more environmentally friendly business practices. EDF believes that working with large businesses and trying new methods can help achieve environmental goals.

In 2009, an opinion article in the trade journal Fishermen's News by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Association claimed that EDF's approach to managing fisheries in the Pacific Northwest might harm smaller, local fishing businesses. These businesses often focus on protecting fish populations and reducing accidental catches of non-target species. Some fishermen worry that EDF's methods could give larger, non-local companies an advantage, harming independent fishing operations, including boats, fisheries, and ports.

EDF argues that fisheries management must change to protect fishermen, fish, and coastal communities. In a report about economic waste in global fisheries, EDF promoted a system called "catch shares." This system sets a scientifically based limit on the total number of fish that can be caught each year. That limit is then divided among individuals or groups, who can sell or rent their shares to fishermen. EDF claims that concerns about large companies taking control of fisheries are not valid.

EDF has been accused of funding and sharing studies that use science and economics that some say are not reliable. It has also used political lobbying to support fisheries policies that may favor large, corporate-owned fishing operations over smaller businesses. EDF has denied that these policies harm fishing families and communities.

EDF has held meetings with private investors where its West Coast vice president, David Festa, promoted buying fishing rights as an investment that could lead to very high profits. This contradicts EDF's claims that these rights are meant to help fishermen financially. Many non-profit groups have expressed frustration with EDF's support for these policies. Recent studies show that, despite EDF's claims, catch shares often do not stop overfishing and rarely lead to long-term environmental benefits.

EDF supports the Rigs-to-Reefs program in the Gulf of Mexico, which turns old oil platforms into permanent artificial reefs. EDF believes this helps protect the underwater habitats that these platforms already support.

EDF sees natural gas as a way to replace coal quickly, with the hope that natural gas will eventually be replaced by renewable energy sources like wind or solar. EDF supports stricter rules for gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing but does not call for banning these practices. In November 2013, EDF representatives joined spokespeople from Anadarko Petroleum, Noble Energy, and Encana to support tighter regulations on emissions from oil and gas production in Colorado. EDF has also funded studies with the petroleum industry to examine the environmental effects of natural gas production. Some environmentalists have criticized this policy. EDF's counsel and blogger, Mark Brownstein, responded by saying that opposing natural gas production everywhere could make it harder for the U.S. to move away from coal.