Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE)

Context

According to the World Bank, 16 of the world‘s 20 most polluted cities are in China. However, there exists information asymmetry between companies and consumers regarding environment pollution. Consumers are not aware of the environmental threats caused by the massive and unethical production of companies and their suppliers. Due to the weak enforcement of environmental policies within China, companies bear little cost or consequence for breaching the law and lack incentives to improve polluting behaviors.

Solution

• IPE collects publicly sourced data to track company violations. IPE then aggregates and publishes the information via two geographically mapped pollution databases (water & air), two supply chain indexes (textiles and technology devices) and coverage of publically traded companies and asset managers to increase transparency of environmental quality

• IPE initiates Green Choice Alliance (GCA) worked actively with ~150 international companies to improve environmental performance in their supply chains, and helped polluting factories take steps to decrease pollution

Impact depth

IPE's works towards making communities understand the hazards in the surrounding environment, thus promoting widespread public participation in environmental governance. Working in 113 cities IPE aims to make a Green Choice Alliance with 20 brands and 400 suppliers per industry.

IPE thereby contributes to:

• Improved health: Communities benefit from improved health through IPE’s engagement to discover and eradicate land, air, and water pollution around them
• Increased environmental governance: Accessible and easy to use data empowers press, investors, and citizens to hold suppliers, multinational corporations, and local governments accountable
• Consumer empowerment: People around the world can use the data to make environmentally responsible consumer decisions which will incentivize brands to make greener purchasing/production decisions

By investing in IPE, we align with and contribute to seven of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.