World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global research non-profit organization established in 1982 with funding from the MacArthur Foundation under the leadership of James Gustave Speth. Subsequent presidents include Jonathan Lash (1993 - 2011), Andrew D. Steer (2012 - 2021) and current president Ani Dasgupta (2021-). WRI studies sustainable practices for business, economics, finance and governance, with the purpose of better supporting human society in six areas: food, forests, water, energy, cities, and climate. The institute's flagship report series is the World Resources Report, each of which deals with a different topic. WRI encourages initiatives for monitoring, data analysis, and risk assessment, including global and open source projects. WRI has maintained a 4 out of 4 stars rating from Charity Navigator since 1 October 2008. Organization The mission of the World Resources Institute (WRI) is to “move society to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations”. It seeks to promote a sustainable human society with a basis of human health and well-being, environmental sustainability, and economic opportunity. WRI partners with local and national governments, private companies, publicly held corporations, and other non-profits, and offers services including global climate change issues, sustainable markets, ecosystem protection, and environmental responsible governance services. The World Resources Institute maintains international offices in the Brazil, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States and is active in over 50 countries. A report by the Center for International Policy's Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative of the top 50 think tanks on the University of Pennsylvania's Global Go-To Think Tanks rating index found that during the period 2014–2018 World Resources Institute received more funding from outside the United States than any other think tank, with a total of more than US$63 million, though this was described as "unsurprising" given the institute's presence in so many countries. In 2014, Stephen M. Ross, an American real estate developer, gave the organization US$30 million to establish the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.