New Center for Environmental Policy at the Academy of Natural Sciences

The Academy of Natural Sciences announces new Center to focus environmental debate and produce solutions for action.

The Academy of Natural Sciences is pleased to announce the opening of the Center for Environmental Policy, a new department that will focus on crucial public policy issues related to science and the environment. Supported by a start-up grant from the William Penn Foundation, the Center will analyze key issues of environmental policy, facilitate dialogue and decision-making, and inform the public on a range of environmental issues.

Building on decades of experience researching environmental science and on four years of the successful Town Square program, the Center will bridge gaps between research-based knowledge, practical public policy, partisan advocacy, and effective community action. It will answer the need for a non-partisan, knowledge-based organization that is capable of guiding public and private environmental stakeholders.

The Center is not a traditional advocacy organization, nor will it be involved in lobbying. Rather, it will serve to convene, facilitate, mediate, build collaborations, inject technical expertise, and provide a structured non-partisan venue for dialogue and problem solving. The Center will continue to sponsor and support the Town Square, but also will work to inform debate on specific issues, advise and facilitate decision making, and engage in formal academic research on policy issues.

Several of the Center's projects are already underway. They include spearheading efforts to reduce the environmental impact of Philadelphia's museums and cultural institutions, building networks of faith-based organizations in the Philadelphia region that are working to steward and protect the environment, and cosponsoring public meetings related to future plans for recycling in the city of Philadelphia.

The Academy, as the oldest natural science research museum in the Americas, has both an historic and modern commitment to protecting the environment, and in particular to understanding and influencing the ways human actions affect the environment. The development of the Center for Environmental Policy represents the most recent development in the Academy's ongoing efforts to apply its expertise to practical environmental problems.

For more information contact:

Roland Wall, M.S.
Director
Center for Environmental Policy
The Academy of Natural Sciences
1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.
Philadelphia PA 19103

(215)-299-1108
http://www.ansp.org/environmental
rwall@ansp.org