BlueGreen Alliance Foundation

Overview

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a restricted grant to the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation (BGAF). This is one of a series of grants to support an ecosystem of nonprofits working to expand and decarbonize domestic industrial production through increased public and private investment and trade policy that favors cleaner industrial material imports. While most of BGAF’s work is focused on US stakeholders, markets, and policies, we think these efforts, when combined with trade policies such as a carbon border adjustment mechanism, can have a global impact.

This falls within our philanthropic strategy of decarbonizing heavy industry. please see Giving Green’s deep dive report on decarbonizing heavy industry for more information, including risks and potential co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: October 2024

What is BlueGreen Alliance Foundation (BGAF)?

The BlueGreen Alliance Foundation (BGAF) is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2006. Its mission is to align the interests of labor unions and environmental organizations to solve today’s climate and other environmental problems in ways that create and maintain quality jobs and build a clean, thriving, and equitable economy. The BlueGreen Alliance Foundation works with the BlueGreen Alliance (BGA)—a national partnership that unites labor unions and environmental organizations around job-creating climate and environmental solutions—to achieve its mission. BGA’s membership currently includes 14 of the largest U.S. labor unions and environmental groups. 

Why are we funding BGAF, and how could it help reduce emissions?

We think successful industrial policy in the US will depend heavily on engagement and support from labor unions. We believe this to be especially true in the context of trade policy such as a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), for which bipartisan momentum is building. Given the potential for a CBAM to grow domestic industrial production and jobs, we think BGAF’s strong partnerships with labor unions position it to be a driving force behind CBAM design and advocacy. Its work includes:

Ensuring federal investments realize their potential benefits for workers and communities. BGAF conducts administrative advocacy, educational support, and technical assistance to ensure the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) industrial investments achieve transformative emissions reduction, jobs, and equity goals. It is also working to build support for new investments in transforming key heavy-emitting industries like steel, aluminum, and cement. 

Scaling federal and state procurement policy: The Federal Buy Clean Initiative brings together the federal agencies responsible for 90% of government procurement to incorporate the associated emissions of products, including industrial materials, into procurement processes and policies. This initiative also includes federal-state partnerships. BGAF is working to ensure that the relevant funding and programs within the Inflation Reduction Act are disbursed and implemented fully and strategically to lay a solid foundation from which the Federal Buy Clean Initiative can build.

Advancing strategic trade policy: BGAF educates stakeholders and policymakers about the climate, economic, and equity benefits of a strategically designed tariff on high-carbon-intensity imports, including industrial products. Several pieces of legislation have been introduced proposing variants of a CBAM, and BGAF believes that it is a critical time to focus efforts on this policy opportunity.

Building a pro-jobs and climate narrative: BGAF thinks increased support for existing and future climate policies can be built, in part, through efforts to highlight their positive effects on job creation and community revitalization. To this end, BGAF is building a narrative to demonstrate the economic possibilities made possible by green industrial policy.5

Why do we think BGAF will use this funding well? 

Given BGAF’s strong track record and partnerships, especially with respect to developing and advocating for Buy Clean policies, we think it is uniquely positioned to influence policies that strengthen the domestic economy, expand job opportunities, and reduce heavy industry emissions. Overall, we think BGAF’s efforts can broaden support for critical policies such as public procurement and tariffs. 

For more on the difference between the grantees of the Giving Green Fund and our Top Nonprofits, please see this blog post on the Giving Green Fund.

BlueGreen Alliance Foundation is a 501(c)(3) entity and BlueGreen Alliance is a 501(c)(4) entity. As Giving Green is part of IDinsight, which is itself a charitable, tax-exempt organization, we are only offering an opinion on the charitable activities of the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation, and not the BlueGreen Alliance. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.