Meet the stealth group tackling the world’s biggest problems

For many organizations, one or two goals will provide plenty to tackle — but there's a stealth group that's fighting for climate progress on so many fronts that it's actually hard to define them all.

The Environmental Defense Fund is sending satellites into space to track down methane pollution, it's powering policy change to produce more clean energy and get toxic chemicals out of our products, and it's even working with big companies like FedEx and Danone to find climate solutions.

"EDF's superpower is that it stays focused on hard things and stays committed to fixing them."

That's Joe Bonfiglio, the executive director of EDF in the U.S., who would even go so far as to compare EDF's energy and innovation to the classic superhero Voltron — you know, the giant robot powered by multiple space explorers who protect the galaxy from evil.

"It is an organization that believes it is strongest when the various powers of the individual superheroes come together and make the big robot."

The Cool Down talked with Bonfiglio to learn more about one of the most powerful nonprofits behind some of the most significant climate progress we've seen in history.

🚀 "Optimistic about a climate future … because progress is possible"

EDF is focused on progress and is grounded in optimism about the future.

"And that optimism is not, I like to say, from religion or faith," said Bonfiglio. "It's from knowing that progress is possible."

And that optimism is contagious: EDF now has more than three million members, supporters, and activists lending a hand.

"These big problems don't manifest in a way that is easy to solve with a magic wand or a simple Band-Aid. Climate change is that big problem. It is an incredibly huge challenge for not just my generation, but generations that will follow mine," he said. "To take those important steps, you need to have an organization that's willing to work for sometimes years, sometimes decades to get big things done."

As a nonpartisan org with a four-star ranking on Charity Navigator, EDF has been fighting for climate progress for over 50 years and currently works in 30 countries. Over 1,000 scientists, economists, policy experts, lawyers, and more work at EDF on its wide-ranging initiatives — from clean energy to sustainable fishing, agricultural innovation, chemical safety, and the list goes on.

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🔘 Advancing forest conservation 🌲

🔘 Fighting climate change 🌎

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💨 "Bending the arc of climate change"

Innovation runs deep at EDF, especially when it comes to reducing methane, a polluting gas that's more powerful in the short term than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

About 15 years ago, Bonfiglio told us, EDF's scientists discovered that methane leaks from oil and gas wells, landfills, and agriculture were warming the planet 80 times faster than carbon pollution. They knew that reducing methane could be the single fastest way to slow down the overheating of our planet.

"They [the scientists] recognized that this was one of those things that if we were to focus on and drive real change, we could bend the arc of climate change within our lifetimes," said Bonfiglio.

So EDF started in one state — Colorado — partnering with community organizations, industry players, and lawmakers to pass the first regulations on methane from oil and gas production.

That led to federal policy, the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, enacted earlier this year "to help speed along what will be really transformational progress on methane emissions," Bonfiglio said.

EDF didn't stop there. Since methane is a global problem, the organization set out to develop and launch a satellite earlier this year called MethaneSAT, which flies over our heads to find, catalog, and measure methane emissions around the globe.

The data EDF collects will help government regulators, companies, and nonprofits reduce methane emissions — the goal is a 75% reduction in the next six years from oil and gas facilities, as described in this TED Talk by EDF innovation lead Millie Chu Baird.

"We're going to turn that data into action just the way we did 15 years ago when the first science on this really started," Bonfiglio said. "I'm super excited about that. That's where I get that optimism that this is possible."

⚖️ "The single biggest thing that has ever happened in the history of the planet"

EDF is probably best known for its nonpartisan, pro-solution policy work to create a cleaner world for all.

"If there is someone that is willing to talk with us about solutions, we're going to talk to that person," Bonfiglio said, "and that could be a policymaker, regardless of party in Washington, DC, or at a state house across the country, or a mayor in a town as big as Long Beach, or as small as any sort of rural community that is leaning into their climate future."

More recently, EDF has been a key player behind the scenes of both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

"These are incredibly tangible things," he said, speaking about the Infrastructure Act. "People recognize that highway bills in the past fixed potholes, but this one is going to help school systems afford electric school buses, and it's going to help build out electric charging infrastructure."

As for the IRA? "It is certainly the single biggest thing that this country has ever done on climate change, but it's the single biggest thing that's ever happened, ever, in the history of the planet. And that sounds crazy to say, right? That sounds like this guy has had a cocktail before joining this interview, right? That couldn't be any further than the truth. It is a massive amount of investment that will spur far more private investment and change globally because of the U.S. being a leader in many, many industries."

The impacts will be vast, he said. For example, cleaner, carbon-free technologies will become cheaper to make.

"That's going to reduce the bills of many consumers, especially when their local utilities take advantage of these tax credits and bring more renewables onto their grids," he said. "It is going to change the industrial build out of the United States over the next decade."

According to Bonfiglio, IRA credits have already spurred somewhere over 600 projects in areas that may have gone through a manufacturing downturn — like Bonfiglio's home state of North Carolina, where Toyota has built a massive battery facility in a former manufacturing town that he calls "the single biggest investment in that county in generations."

💼 "We work with businesses because we can drive big change"

EDF works with companies like Walmart, Sephora, and McDonald's to help them make changes (big, small, and everything in between) that will have a positive climate impact.

"We work with businesses and industry because we can drive big change in doing so," says Bonfiglio.

For example:

➡️ In the 1980s, EDF helped Mickey D's ditch the plastic "clamshells" that wrapped every burger — which saved 300 million pounds of packaging in the process.

➡️ Over 20 years ago, EDF worked with FedEx to create a hybrid delivery fleet — with FedEx announcing a few years ago that it'll fully switch to only zero-emission vehicles by 2040.

➡️ And more recently, EDF has partnered with global dairy company Danone to reduce methane in the company's cow and milk production.

"We are pushing companies to do better and be better all the time, and we're doing so by showing them the way and also calling them into account when they choose a different path," Bonfiglio told TCD.

"We think both tracks, a little carrot and stick, really make a big impact in driving what individual companies do, but also how industries shift and change over time."

🫡 "All hands on deck"

Even as EDF makes significant progress, Bonfiglio is quick to point out that the work is ongoing, urgent, and involves each one of us.

"This is an all-hands-on-deck moment," he said.

"The upcoming election is one of those times where the result dramatically impacts the arc of climate progress, not just in this country, but globally.

"I'm not going to tell people who to vote for, but … it takes just a few minutes to both register and do just a bit of research," he says, to figure out where national and local candidates stand on climate. "I would urge folks to consider doing so."

In addition, supporting the work of an organization building a safe and healthy future — like the Environmental Defense Fund — is a significant climate action.

"By being a member," Bonfiglio told TCD, "we are going to be able to help elevate their voice and help drive change faster and further."

"It's a little bit of both, as I think about the climate puzzle. It's a bit of individual action, a lot of collective action, and each of us can find our path."