Pew Environment Group

Who we are

Pew Environment Group is the conservation arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent non-profit organization headquartered in Philadelphia and Washington DC, which is dedicated to solving today's most challenging problems through the application of a rigorous, analytical approach to improving public policy, informing the public and stimulating civic life.

Our mission

The mission of Pew Environment Group is to help protect the natural environment and the rich array of life it supports. Our aim is to strengthen environmental policies and practices in ways that produce significant and measurable protection for both terrestrial and marine systems worldwide. In doing so, we work to advance the frontiers of scientific understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental problems, to design innovative policy solutions to these problems and to mobilize public support for implementing strong conservation policies.

Our efforts are focused on reducing the scope and severity of three major environmental problems:

1. Dramatic changes to the earth's climate caused by the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere;
   
   
2. The loss of large wilderness ecosystems that contain a great part of the world's remaining biodiversity, and;
   
   
3. The destruction of the world's oceans with a particular emphasis on global marine fisheries,

The way we work

Pew Environment Group employs more than 100 scientists, attorneys, economists, public policy experts and communications professionals dispersed over four continents—Europe, North America, South America and Australia—and various regions.  Our work encompasses two principal activities:

• Harnessing science to solve environmental problems
  
  Pew sponsors highly applied research that helps to inform the policy debate on how certain environmental problems should be addressed and managed. These studies, conducted independently by outstanding scientists from universities and research institutions throughout the world, are subject to peer review and published in leading scientific journals. Their findings are communicated to the media as well as to policymakers, resource management agencies and regulatory bodies to enhance and inform public understanding and government decision making.
  
  
• Promoting strong conservation policy
  
  Most of the major decisions affecting the world's most serious environmental problems will be made by governmental bodies. Recognizing this, Pew Environment Group focuses on designing strong environmental policies at the regional, national and international levels of government, and promoting the adoption and enforcement of these policies through targeted advocacy campaigns. Some of these campaigns we undertake alone, using our extensive team of policy experts and field personnel. Others involve coalitions of non-profit organizations often staffed by a central team of campaign professionals employed and guided by Pew.