Our Initiatives

We need a “Digital Service for the Planet” for environmental agencies to become better buyers, partners, and consumers of the technology and innovations that are necessary to support the country’s conservation, water and stewardship priorities.

Understanding that environmental justice exists at the intersection of environmentalism and structural racism, we are committed to using data to bridge the digital infrastructure gap between overburdened communities and access to lasting, equitable forms of climate and environmental relief. We support initiatives to empower community engagement and use of best-available data to overcome environmental justice issues.

We shouldn’t have to wonder who supplies our water and whether it’s safe to drink. Thanks to new data from the EPA, we no longer have to. Working with SimpleLab and the Internet of Water Coalition, we engaged over 120 academic, nonprofit, industry, and government partners to prototype the first national dataset of drinking water service area boundaries. That work spurred a broader effort at EPA that culminated in the nation’s first comprehensive map of water system service area boundaries and a new federal drinking water justice metric.

Federal environmental agencies have a range of options at their disposal to innovate around data and technology tied to mission goals. These “tools in the toolbox” can help agencies partner with other agencies or industry to make real improvements in data and tech use, respond to urgent needs for tech expertise, and ultimately accelerate progress across thorny environmental management problems. We provide insights on how agencies can leverage these tools.

We built a tool to help understand the durability of—and prioritize future investments in—water systems across East Texas. This interactive, web-based application displays rich drinking water data that policymakers, advocates, non-profits, and technical assistance providers can use to improve drinking water quality and access for Texans.

As shifting climate risks strain our nation’s forests and rangelands, land managers at the Forest Service (USFS) need the capacity to anticipate—and adapt—to changing conditions. Read our report highlighting the barriers we see to adopting the innovative data and tools the Forest Service needs.

Using AI to extract data from US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) public notices, this dashboard follows federal permitting developments and their impacts on sensitive lands and waters along the Gulf Coast.

Historic investments in climate resilience, the clean energy transition, and new infrastructure will all hinge on our government’s ability to efficiently permit, site, and build key projects. That’s why we made an inventory digital permitting tools drawn from across government agencies, NGOs, and tech companies. Our goals with this first iteration were to survey tools for interested users, open up lines of dialogue for cross-application learning, and highlight where we see a need for investment in permitting tech.