End of Year Roundup 2022

✅ But first: All donations made via Gen E are fully tax-deductible. Look out for your 2022 philanthropy statement next month, which should help to make tax-time a bit easier.

Hello Environmental Philanthropists, aka Gen E!

We hope everyone is happy and making time for reflection and rest as we close out the year. And what a year it was! 2022 saw some of the boldest decisions ever made on climate right here at home, with an estimated $500B in federal funding now committed for clean energy and climate tech over the next decade, thanks to the passage of three key laws.

The momentum building for an environmentally responsible world is undeniable. Yet we’re barely out of the first inning when it comes to actual change, action, funding, and progress. But that doesn’t get us down or out. We are in it to win it, where winning means we’ve restored a healthy balance for our climate and biodiversity.

The ever growing number of enlightened humans wanting to do something about the planetary crisis is encouraging. And Gen E is here to support all of us on the journey to take back what it means to be an environmentalist in our modern world. Environmentalism is fundamental to our vision of a clean, healthy planet. It simply means: concern about and action around protecting the environment.

I’m confident that all of us here and everyone else out there feeling like things have got to change, and feeling excited about all the innovation, the startups, the pledges, the possibilities around bettering our relationship with the environment – that we all qualify as concerned about and wanting to protect the environment. That makes us all environmentalists. It transcends all other labels.

At Gen E, we stand for Modern Environmentalism, which is about living your best life while also respecting and protecting the natural environment. Our seamless micro-philanthropy app is a tool we designed to help you do exactly that. That’s Modern Environmentalism, and we are proud to stand for it. We hope you are too.

Below you’ll find all good things, including highlights from the work of some of our platform nonprofits that your dollars and change helped fund. And it wouldn’t be an end of year email without a few “mosts”, and a roundup of roundups.

So THANK YOU for your trailblazing commitment to prioritizing the environment on this shared journey towards a thriving, healthy planet Earth.

Cool wishes, love, and cheers to a dynamic 2023!
Kristen

Making Change By Giving Your Change in 2022:

🌄 Northeast Wilderness Trust reached a five year goal to forever protect 25,000 acres by 2025 this year – three years early! Read about the now forever wild lands in the Northeast that accomplished this goal. Amazing!

🌊 The Ocean Cleanup successfully put its technology to work towards its much anticipated mission of cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). This year it took 8 trips into the GPGP and removed 337K lbs of plastic, with 99.9% of total catches comprising only plastic (and not marine life). Read more about this initiative, the tech behind it, and how they’ll be making improvements before the next deployment in Spring 2023.

🏄‍♀️ Surfrider Foundation had 54 victories this year (defined as decisions by governing bodies that protect the coastal and ocean environment). From the local to federal level, here are a few: helped pass California ordinances prohibiting mass balloon releases, banned smoking on beaches in Florida (cigarette butts are the most common form of ocean litter), and fought for the Dept of the Interior’s order to phase out single-use plastic on public lands. Read on to end the year on a high note!

🌾 Mad Agriculture’s Perennial Fund works with 24 farmers across 13 U.S. states and offers farmer-friendly financing for the transition to organic and regenerative farming. The Fund, now dubbed Mad Capital, has spun out of the 501(c)3 to become a public benefit corporation (welcome to the club!) in order to grow its mission of financing the regenerative revolution in agriculture. And it just closed a $4M seed round to boot. Mad Ag also launched its Regenerative Research Program “that will provide unparalleled data and new insights into the financial, ecological and social benefits of regeneration”.

✊ Stand.earth launched a campaign that aims to get lululemon to transition its manufacturing supply chain away from coal-burning energy and towards 100% renewable energy. See how Stand’s research and analysis has scored some of the most popular fashion brands on environmental impact (spoiler alert: very poorly). Here’s their scorecard on Big Tech.

🧗‍♀️ The Honnold Foundation awarded $2 million dollars in grant funding this year for community-centered solar energy projects around the world.

🤝 EDF worked behind the scenes influencing and negotiating federal environmental policy, like helping push forth the Inflation Reduction Act (arguably the biggest climate win of the year), getting the EPA to set new clean car standards, and decades of their research and rules supported new draft regulations to cut methane pollution.

Gen E Micro-Philanthropy Mosts:

Most added to Environmental Portfolios:
🌊 The Ocean Cleanup

Most funded:
⚓️ GreenWave

Most popular impact action:
🌳 Planting trees where they’re most needed

🌎 A Roundup Of Positive Roundups:

Bloomberg lists the top 6 reasons 2022 has been a year of great progress on climate.

National Geographic notes 6 environmental wins that give them hope in 2022.

One Tree Planted (a Gen E member favorite nonprofit) rounds up 31 good environmental news stories from 2022.

✌️ out, 2022! xo