Funding Case Studies

The following are examples of how funding awarded to The °Climate Group has been put to use and the positive outcomes that have been achieved as a result.

> JPMorgan Chase

> Barclays

> The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

 

JPMorgan Chase

With generous seed funding support of major global bank JPMorgan Chase, The °Climate Group was able to ramp-up efforts for the 2008 US launch of Together.

Together is a consumer engagement campaign that unites brands, cities, NGOs and individuals in an unprecedented effort to help Americans to reduce their individual carbon footprint by two tonnes a year.

The Climate Group is approaching twenty of the top US household brands, the ten most influential cities and an array of other non-profits to take part in the North American launch of Together – scheduled for June 2008.

JPMorgan Chase’s seed funding enabled The °Climate Group to build the Together team; design and produce essential print and online promotional materials for the campaign; and enlist Ogilvy & Mather, Freud Communications [our PR and activation partners] to craft a dynamic and engaging three-year PR and media strategy. The funding also helped us secure Simran Sethi, NBC’s green correspondent, as the campaign spokesperson. What’s more, Chase’s generous funding has allowed us to partner with Act Now Productions on the creation of a climate action starter kit that will be available for citizens living in any of the participating Together cities.

Together is online at www.together.com and we are proud to have Chase as the campaign’s Founding Corporate Partner.

 

Barclays

Barclays, a major global financial services institution, kindly supported the production and launch of The °Climate Group’s seminal report, In the Black: the Growth of the Low Carbon Economy. The report - which looks at the myriad of low carbon products and services, and showcases the rapid growth experienced by companies investing in and providing these innovative solutions - demonstrates that certain sectors of industry are already enabling the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while generating revenues, jobs and shareholder value.

Data gathered from four countries – Germany, Japan, the UK and the US – and from four key areas – Low Carbon Power, Energy-Smart Products, Low Carbon Vehicle Technologies and Low Carbon Financing/Carbon Markets – provides a growing body of evidence of the increase in income, profits and employment being generated by companies taking the lead in providing climate-related solutions.

With sponsorship from Barclays, The °Climate Group was able to fund the data collection, research for the content and the design and production of the publication itself. Barclays also hosted a successful launch event for the publication which brought together key leaders in the low carbon industry and served to promote the findings of the report to the wider business community. In the Black provides an overview of the ‘supply-side’ of low carbon solutions and builds on the ‘demand-side’ illustrated by the mass of pro-active organisations whose activities in emissions reductions are reported in The °Climate Group’s sister publication, Carbon Down Profits Up. A summary report of key findings from In the Black has also been produced, which allows for the key headline findings of the research to be distilled in an easily understandable format. 

 

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

In June 2005, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, one of the largest independent grant-making foundations in the UK, awarded The °Climate Group a grant which funded the development of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS).

The VCS Programme provides a robust global standard, programme framework and institutional structure for validation and verification of voluntary greenhouse gas emission reductions or removals.

Work to develop the Voluntary Carbon Standard was initiated by The °Climate Group, the International Emissions Trading Association and the World Economic Forum in late 2005.
Over the following two years, with the support of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The °Climate Group and associate partners worked to deliver this robust, new global standard and programme to bolster and ensure the credibility of voluntary carbon offsets.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development joined the initiative as a founding partner in 2007, and VCS 2007 was launched on 19 November 2007. The VCS is now managed by the independent, non-profit VCS Association.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation funding covered the costs of the programme from its outset and allowed The °Climate Group to hire a full-time project manager to oversee the development of the VCS. The grant also covered the associated costs of the consultation periods which the standard underwent, the creation of the final written standard and its related website.

The VCS is an excellent example of how with dedicated project funding, such as that generously provided by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The °Climate Group is able to expand on its central work programmes, and collaborate to deliver additional tangible climate change solutions which can assist its partners and the wider global community to take action on emission reduction.

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