Evergreen Collaborative

Overview

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a restricted grant to Evergreen Collaborative, a US-based, climate policy advocacy group. 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 Evergreen Collaborative’s work is focused on US stakeholders, markets, and policies, we think that 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 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 Evergreen Collaborative?

Evergreen Collaborative is a US-based climate policy advocacy group that was founded by former staffers of Washington State Governor Jay Inslee’s 2020 presidential campaign. Since its founding, Evergreen has focused its efforts on supporting policies that aim to power the economy with 100% clean energy, invest in jobs, support environmental justice, transition the US from fossil fuels, and influence US leadership to confront climate change. Building on its strong track record of influencing federal legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act, Evergreen has expanded its advocacy efforts to federal regulatory agencies and state policy. 

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

Evergreen Collaborative is building its work on industrial decarbonization, leveraging its expertise and experience to target key policy, legal, and regulatory mechanisms. We think this multi-faceted approach could be highly effective in decarbonizing heavy industry production in the US. Its ongoing and future work includes:

Promoting robust and equitable trade policy: Evergreen Collaborative is supporting legislative efforts toward a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a tax on imports based on carbon intensity intended to increase the competitiveness of clean, domestic industrial production and incentivize decarbonization internationally. Evergreen Collaborative emphasizes the need to complement trade policy with initiatives to protect LMICS, such as strong international finance commitments, robust technology transfer, and exemptions for least developing countries and small island developing states.

Pushing for increased environmental regulations and enforcement: Through the Clean Air Act, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate air pollution from industrial sources. Evergreen Collaborative is bringing attention to the fact that EPA has not updated its rules for decades and is pushing the agency to take specific action on updating New Source Performance Standards to include greenhouse gas emissions.

Advancing market shaping efforts: The Buy Clean initiative, a federal procurement effort for low-carbon materials such as steel, cement, asphalt, and glass, includes commitments from 12 leading states. Evergreen Collaborative is working to expand and strengthen state programs to amplify the effectiveness of these federal-state partnerships.  In addition, Evergreen Collaborative is advocating for a federal advance market commitment that may be more suitable than procurement for emerging clean technologies and materials.

Advocating for new and increased federal funding for industrial decarbonization: Evergreen Collaborative advocates for increased funding for existing programs such as the Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstration Program and the Buy Clean initiative mentioned above. In addition, Evergreen Collaborative is promoting the adoption of a performance tax credit to subsidize clean industrial products such as low-carbon cement and steel.

Why do we think Evergreen Collaborative will use this funding well? 

We think Evergreen Collaborative’s strong track record, legal and policy expertise, network, and partnerships will enable it to effectively drive critical industrial decarbonization efforts domestically that could have a significant impact beyond US borders.

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. 

Evergreen has 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) entities. 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 its 501(c)(3) arm, Evergreen Collaborative, and not on its 501(c)(4) entity, Evergreen Action. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.