Earth Day 2016 at Abt Global: Global Research and Action

April 20, 2016

Abt’s Jette Findsen explains how our environmental work in the U.S. and the Philippines is addressing pollution and climate change. Climate change already has had wide-reaching effects on people, places, and livelihoods around the world. On Earth Day, observed on April 22, Abt Global joins others working toward a healthier, more sustainable planet to say that action now will have significant benefits in the future.

Abt Global’s climate change experts are addressing critical challenges of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, assessing risks, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and evaluating response strategies. We convened a public discussion on the role of cities and financing climate change in Washington, D.C. ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. And we contributed to a groundbreaking assessment of the potential future health impacts of climate change in the United States.

Abt also serves as an important advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other agencies, states, and entities on issues such as clean water standards, the health impact of lead exposure, and natural resource damage assessment and restoration.

Residents of Flint, Mich. pick up bottled water to avoid use of contaminated drinking water. Abt research is supporting the EPA’s efforts to develop a household action level for lead in drinking water.
Photo credit: Shutterstock All of this is part of Abt’s larger environmental portfolio.

“Our unique ability to integrate environmental science, economics, engineering, and policy analysis enables us to provide cutting-edge primary research and multi-disciplinary solutions. We are working with our clients to solve some of the world’s most complex challenges,” said Josh Lipton, Abt division vice president for Environment and Natural Resources.

Acting Globally

But environmental sustainability is more than a research subject at Abt. We have a formal Global Sustainability Program that is helping us reduce our environmental footprint.

In 2015 we pledged to decarbonize our operations by the year 2050. To ensure we remain on track, we have set interim reduction targets, the first of which is a 25 percent reduction by 2021 from the 2012 base year. To date, we have achieved a 17 percent reduction, with strategies in place to make or exceed our first goal.

As part of Abt’s effort to reduce our carbon footprint, we provide U.S. staff with subsidies for bicycle maintenance and supplies and mass transit. “Our environmental commitment is not new,” said Olga Faktorovich Allen, director of Abt’s Global Sustainability Program. “Abt, under the leadership of company founder Clark Abt, in 1976 installed solar panel technology on the roof of its Cambridge headquarters as a first-of-its-kind demonstration project.”

“We are proud of our environmental achievements and are ready for the challenge of meeting ever-higher goals,” Allen said.

To learn more about environmental efforts by Abt staff, check out #OneGreenAbt, follow Abt’s Instagram feed, and by visit Abt’s Global Sustainability Program page.

Read more about Abt’s environmental work: