World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute (WRI) maintains international offices in the United States, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.[4][5] The organization's mission is to promote environmental sustainability, economic opportunity, and human health and well-being.[6] WRI partners with local and national governments, private companies, publicly held corporations, and other non-profits, and offers services including global climate change issues, sustainable markets, ecosystem protection, and environmental responsible governance services.[7][8] WRI has maintained a 4 out of 4 stars rating from Charity Navigator since 1 October 2008.[9]

In 2014, Stephen M. Ross, an American real estate developer, gave the organization US$30 million to establish the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.[10] A report by the Center for International Policy's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative of the top 50 think tanks on the University of Pennsylvania's Global Go-To Think Tanks rating index found that during the period 2014-2018 World Resources Institute received more funding from outside the United States than any other think tank, with a total of more than US$63 million, though this was described as "unsurprising" given the Institute's presence in so many countries.[11]

WRI's activities are focused on seven areas: food, forests, water, energy,[12] cities, climate and ocean.

WRI initiatives include:

• The Access Initiative, a civil society network dedicated to ensuring that citizens have the right and ability to influence decisions about the natural resources .[13]
• Aqueduct, an initiative to measure, map and understand water risks around the globe.[14]
• CAIT Climate Data Explorer, offering chart tools for historic GHG data, Paris contributions and more. As of May 2020 this is being integrated into the similar platform Climate Watch.[15]
• Champions 12.3, a coalition of executives to accelerate progress toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 to tackle food loss and waste.[16]
• Global Forest Watch, an online forest monitoring and alert system.
• The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides standards, guidance, tools, and trainings for business and government to quantify and manage GHG emissions.[17]
• LandMark, a platform providing maps and information on lands that are collectively held and used by Indigenous peoples and local communities.[18]
• Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), a public-private collaboration platform and project accelerating focusing on building the circular economy. PACE was launched during the 2018 World Economic Forum Annual meeting; from 2019, WRI is supporting the scale-up of PACE and establish an Action Hub in The Hague.[19]
• Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance,[20] is an alliance of large clean energy buyers, energy providers, and service providers that is unlocking the marketplace for all non-residential energy buyers to lead a rapid transition to a cleaner, prosperous, zero-carbon renewable energy future.[21] It has over 200 members including Google, GM, Facebook, Walmart, Disney and other large companies, and reached 6 GW capacity in 2018.[22]
• The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) helps companies transition to a low-carbon economic profile by setting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in line with climate science.[23]
• WRI Ross Center helps cities grow more sustainably and seeks to improve quality of life in developing countries around the world.[24]
• World Resources Report, WRI's flagship report series. Each report deals with a different topic.[25]

• Rafe Pomerance