2009Our Top10 Outcomes for

AWorld of Results

At WRI, we manage for results and measure our success bythe impact our work is having on protecting the environmentand improving people’s lives.

Among all of our 2009 Outcomes – there are 136 total – the ten featured here stand out as our most significant, largestscale, and highest impact accomplishments.

What is an Outcome?An OUTCOME is a positive change in the world resulting from WRI’s thoughtful ANALYSIS,

innovative SOLUTIONS, and GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS.

To MOVE HUMAN SOCIETY to live in ways that PROTECT

EARTH’S ENVIRONMENT and its capacity to PROVIDE FOR the

needs and aspirations of CURRENT AND FUT UREGENERATIONS.

Our Mission

Each project at WRI moves us closer to reaching Our Goals PEOPLE & ECOSYSTEMS Reverse rapid degradation of ecosystems

and assure their capacity to provide humans with needed goods and services.

GOVERNANCE Empower people and support institutions to fosterenvironmentally sound and socially equitable decision-making.

CLIMATE PROTECTION Protect the global climate system from furtherharm due to emissions of greenhouse gases and help humanity and thenatural world adapt to unavoidable climate change.

MARKETS & ENTERPRISE Harness markets and enterprise to expandeconomic opportunity and protect the environment.

ISABEL MUNILLA, ASSOCIATE, INSTITUTIONS A

ASIAPACIFIC

AND GOVERNANCE PROGRAM

A S I A N D E V E L O P M E N T B A N K E M B R A C E S S U S TA I N A B L E E N E R G YWith a lending portfolio of $10.5 billion in 2008, the Asian Development Bankwields significant influence over the economic development policies ofcountries in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region.

In 2009, the Bank adopted a new energy policy geared toward supporting clean energy and low-carbon economic growth. Key commitments included:requiring carbon footprinting of proposed projects, technical support forcountries to undertake low carbon strategies, and tools to help countriesdetermine more efficient energy options. The Bank backed it up by committingto provide $2 billion annually to clean energy projects starting in 2013. This would represent a doubling of such investments based on 2008 lending.

“Taken together, these initiatives provide some of the strongest commitmentsyet by an international financial institution to clean energy investment,” explainsIsabel Munilla, whose work at WRI focuses on aligning public and privateinvestment with sustainable development and poverty reduction. “It sends astrong signal to other multilateral and regional development banks that they can play a catalytic role in helping developing countries deploy cleaner, safer,renewable and low-carbon energy technologies.” WRI and its partners in theregion played a pivotal role in helping Bank officials develop the new policy.

ADRIANA LOBO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT IN MEXICO (CTS-MÉXICO)

MEXICOFA S T E R , C L E A N E R , S A F E R : G U A D A L A J A R A ’ S M A C R O B U S

In March 2009, Mexico’s second largest city, Guadalajara, unveiled a new busrapid transit (BRT) system. The 27-station, 16-km system services 130,000passengers per day and feeds into light rail and other bus services, with fullyintegrated fares. The project has reduced travel time by 30 percent and isexpected to cut the city’s (CO2) emissions by 36,000 metric tons per year,equivalent to removing about 7,000 cars from the roads.

“It’s the first phase of an ambitious plan to transform the entire transit system inthis city of four million,” says EMBARQ’s Adriana Lobo. EMBARQ – TheWorld Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport – and its alliedCenter for Sustainable Transport in Mexico conceived the project, deliveredfinancing, and helped restructure the entire feeder bus system. “EMBARQ,”explains Lobo, “in effect, served as an extension of city staff to lead the designand implementation of the project.”

By working with cities around the world to improve their transportation,EMBARQ seeks to make cities clean, livable, and prosperous. Since 2002, theEMBARQ Network has expanded into seven countries and employs more than60 experts in fields ranging from urban planning to air quality management, andfrom geography and sociology to civil and transport engineering.

UNITEDSTATES

ALEXANDER PERERA, CO-DIRECTOR: BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT IN CLIMATE AND TECHNOLOGY, CLIMATE AND ENERGY

PROGRAM

CATALYZING THE CORPORATE MARKET FOR GREEN POWERAlexander Perera leads WRI’s work in renewable energy. Looking back to the year2000, he recounts how few companies were thinking about green power optionsand how few utilities offered them. “Commercial and industrial use of renewableenergy in the U.S. totaled less than 250 megawatts – equal to just one quarter theoutput of a large coal-fired power plant.”

Nine years later, a pioneering group of fifteen U.S. companies quadrupled thisoutput, reaching a collective goal of purchasing 1,000 megawatts of new, cost-competitive green power generated from renewable resources. In reaching thislandmark, the Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) has helpedcatalyze a dramatic scale up of the domestic renewables industry.

WRI convened the Group and has worked with companies to explore workablerenewable energy technologies, financing strategies, and partnership arrangements.It also helped the Group establish best practices for green power purchasing.“Companies now obtain green power from a variety of sources,” says Perera,“including solar and wind power, biomass, low-impact hydropower, and landfill gas.”

Core members of the GPMDG include Alcoa, Dow Chemical, DuPont, FedEx,GM, Georgia-Pacific, Google, IBM, Interface, J&J, Michelin NA, Natureworks,Pitney Bowes, Staples, and Starbucks.

INDIAAND

INDONESIA

ELLA DELIO, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NEW VENTURES

A S I A N D E V E L O P M E N T B A N K S U P P O R T SS U S TA I N A B L E E N T E R P R I S E SThe Asian Development Bank was established in 1966 to help its forty-eight developing member countries reduce poverty and improve thequality of life of their citizens. In 2009, the Bank launched a newprogram of technical assistance to encourage the growth of small- andmedium-enterprises (SMEs) in India and Indonesia that provideenvironmental and social benefits.

Ella Delio works in WRI’s New Ventures project, whichpromotes business solutions that align the need for soundfinancial returns with environmental and social goals. She and her team were the Bank’s primary advisors in developing the newprogram. “SMEs,” Delio explains, “are the engines of equitableeconomic growth in emerging market nations. Accounting for anaverage of 34% of the GDP and employing in excess of 60% ofthe labor force, SMEs are great sources of innovation and oftenprovide strong linkages to poor communities. They have thecapacity to transform the economic development paradigm bydelivering business models that are pro-poor and pro-environment.”

JOHN LARSEN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, CLIMATE AND ENERGY PROGRAM

UNITEDSTATESA D VA N C I N G A C L E A N E N E R G Y F U T U R E

The passage of the American Climate and Energy Security bill by the House of Representatives in June 2009 represents the biggest step yet taken toward anambitious national climate policy. The bill sets forth a long-term roadmap toshift the U.S. economy to a low carbon path.

John Larsen is a senior associate on WRI’s forty-person climate team. For threeyears, he has analyzed the greenhouse gas emission reduction trajectories innumerous proposals in the run-up to the bill.

“There’s a real appetite on Capitol Hill for WRI’s objective research andanalysis,” says Larsen. “Lawmakers turn to our climate experts to betterunderstand the bill’s impact on complex issues like U.S. competitiveness, trade,and jobs.” Larsen’s own work helped inform the bill’s targets and timetables.WRI, he believes, helped make the bill as strong as politically possible.

No bill would have been possible without buy-in from the business community.As a co-founder of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), WRI helpedbring leading businesses and environmental organizations together to urgesignificant and mandatory regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. USCAPrecommendations helped shape the bill’s provisions and were widely cited inCongress as a basis for the legislation.

WORLDWIDE

ALEXANDER PERERA , LESMITA NAKHOODA, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, INSTITUTIONS AND

A , LEAD, RENEWABLE ENERGYGOVERNANCE PROGRAM

SUPPORTING INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS TO REDUCE GHGEMISSIONS FROM FOREST LOSSForest loss and degradation are major contributors to global GHG emissions. Yet, theissue has not played a significant role in international efforts to combat climate change.

This is changing, explains Smita Nakhooda, a senior associate in WRI’s Institutionsand Governance Program. “Several large-scale multinational initiatives haveemerged to help developing countries reduce emissions from deforestation andforest degradation. REDD is the shorthand for this objective, which will likely bepart of any new global climate change agreement.”

Improving forest governance – the rules and practices that determine how decisionsabout forest resources are made – will be critical to the success of REDD efforts.How will governments balance the need to maintain forest cover and the need forother land uses? How will they ensure that the rights of forest dependentcommunities and indigenous peoples are respected?

WRI’s timely and sound analysis on forest governance has been pivotal in shapingnew REDD initiatives at the UN and World Bank. “The battle against climatechange cannot be won without protecting the world’s forests, and the communitiesthat depend on them for their livelihoods,” says Nakhooda. “WRI is committed toensuring REDD programs are as robust as possible.”

DR. LARS LAESTADIUS, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, PEOPLE AND ECOSYSTEMS PROGRAM

RUSSIAR U S S I A P R O T E C T S I T S A N C I E N T F O R E S T S

Russia’s forests are the largest in the world. Stretching from the Baltic to the Sea ofJapan, they encompass the last wild forests of Europe, make up the vast wildernessof Siberia, and provide habitat for the highly endangered Siberian tiger.

In recent decades, road-building, logging, and wildfires have increasingly degradedthese ancient and previously largely intact forests. To protect some particularlyvaluable forests, the Russian government used data provided by Global Forest WatchRussia, a partnership between WRI and several Russian forest conservation groups.

Dr. Lars Laestadius leads WRI’s work in Russia. “The Russian government’s attitude toward non-governmental organizations is very cautious, but, at the sametime, it realizes they have unique biodiversity data and maps on the country’sforests. Using satellite imagery and field visits, the Global Forest Watch Russianetwork mapped conservation values in Russia’s forests and made the resultspublicly available.”

These maps influenced the Russian government as it prioritized new areas forprotection and drew the boundaries of three new national parks. Similarly, theforest-rich Republic of Karelia bordering Finland relied on Global Forest WatchRussia maps and data for its new forest plan, which outlines thirteen new protected areas and identifies future areas for protection.

TURKEY

SIBEL BULAY, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT IN TURKEY (SUM-TÜRKIYE)

ISTANBUL AT A CROSSROADSThe ancient metropolis of Istanbul is now a sprawling megacity, struggling withcongestion, air pollution, and the submergence of its cultural heritage beneath new overpasses and car infrastructure.

EMBARQ – The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport –introduced Istanbul transportation officials to the concept of bus rapid transit(BRT) five years ago. A first line opened on the European side of the city in 2007,and is now one of the most heavily traveled BRT lines in the world. In March 2009,the city unveiled the world’s first inter-continental BRT corridor across the famousBosphorus Bridge, a major bottleneck for travelers between Europe and Asia.

EMBARQ developed the plan in coordination with city officials, conducted traveldemand studies, and recommended the particular routing and station locations thatultimately were built. At each step, EMBARQ provided critical technical assistanceto enable the project to move forward. “Crossing the bridge by car takes as long as3 hours, but commuters using BRT now cross in about 30 minutes and produce95% fewer CO2 emissions than drivers,” says Sibel Bulay, director of theEMBARQ Network’s Center for Sustainable Transport in Turkey. “It is a veryvisible symbol of the city’s commitment to sustainable transit solutions.”

LALANATH DE SILVA, DIRECTOR, THE ACCESS INITIATIVE

BOLIVIAB O L I V I A ’ S N E W P R O - E N V I R O N M E N T C O N S T I T U T I O N

In a nationwide referendum in early 2009, Bolivia overhauled its federalconstitution. Among its sweeping changes are new legal rights for citizens to takepart in public policy planning and to be consulted and informed on decisionsthat may affect environmental quality and natural resource use. The constitutionalso establishes the country’s first environmental and agricultural court, givingcitizens and communities a forum to air grievances.

These provisions are largely the result of work by WRI and PRODENA, one of Bolivia’s oldest environmental advocacy organizations. “Using a toolkit WRIdeveloped, together we identified weaknesses in Bolivia’s proposed newconstitution regulating public access to environmental information, participation,and justice,” explains Lalanath de Silva, director of WRI’s Access Initiative (TAI).PRODENA is a member of TAI, the world’s largest network of civil societyorganizations working to ensure that people have the right and ability toinfluence decisions about the natural resources that sustain their communities.Based on these assessments, and with WRI support, PRODENA advocatedtirelessly for the inclusion of such rights, which Bolivia’s government adoptedinto the text of the constitution.

“It’s a great result,” continues de Silva, “the type we envisioned when we launchedThe Access Initiative a decade ago.”

PIERRE METHOT, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, PEOPLE AND ECOSYSTEMS PROGRAM

THEDEMOCRATIC

REPUBLICOF

CONGO

P R O T E C T I N G F O R E S T S A N D C O M M U N I T Y R I G H T S I N T H E D R C The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s richest countries interms of natural wealth, yet among the poorest in terms of GDP. Forests blanket 60% of the country.

Following decades of mismanagement and two civil wars, the DRC is taking steps topromote sustainable forest management. In 2005, with World Bank financing, thegovernment launched a process to review and convert old logging titles into forestconcessions aligned with the country’s new forest code.

Pierre Methot directs WRI’s forestry work in Central Africa. He explains WRI’s role,“Acting as the international independent observer, alongside our Belgian partnerAGRECO, we designed the review methodology, provided technical support, andensured compliance with the law. We insisted the process and results be made publicly available and that local and indigenous populations be involved.”

Of 156 logging titles reviewed, only 65 were deemed legal for new concessions. The remaining titles – 12 million hectares of rainforest – were set for cancellation.

“Protecting hectares is important,” says Methot, “but more importantly, this process was transparent and involved multiple stakeholders – a first for the DRC. It sets thegroundwork for an accountable approach to forest and natural resource management.”

WORLD

RESOURCES

INSTITUTE

JONATHAN LASH, PRESIDENT, WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE

H O W Y O U C A N S U P P O R T W O R L D R E S O U R C E S I N S T I T U T E

Today’s environmental challenges are complex and global in nature. Finding solutions to these challenges is what the World Resources Institute is all about.

Our 2009 Outcomes exhibit WRI’s trademark craft: practical solutions and ambitious action grounded in sound science and objective analysis. It’s the kind of work that has distinguished WRI for more than 25 years. It’s work that leaders in industry, government, and civil society rely on.

IT’S BIG WORK WITH BIG IMPACTS.We rely on the generosity of our donors. Please support our efforts to achieve big outcomes, year after year, by investing in our work.

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