Data, Reports & Resources

Building Batteries Better: Doing the Best With Less

July 10, 2023 ReportUnited StatesJordan Brinn

Reducing the amount of mining needed through improvements in battery technology, second-life applications for vehicle batteries, and better recycling is key to reducing harms caused from battery supply chains.

Clean Energy Now for a Safer Climate Future

April 26, 2023 ReportUnited StatesJacqueline Ennis, Amanda Levin

Pathways to net zero in the United States by 2050

Tapping the Power of Wetlands to Secure a Thriving Planet

February 16, 2023 Issue BriefUnited StatesKate Poole

Even though wetlands cover only about 5 percent of the land in the coterminous United States, they support nearly half of all species federally listed as threatened or endangered, harbor more than 30 percent of plant species, and provide essential…

State-Based Food Waste Policy Gap Analysis and Inventory Reports

January 5, 2023 ReportMaryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, ColoradoDarby Hoover, Yvette Cabrera

Food waste costs the US $408 billion each year. Producing food that we do not consume swallows up roughly 18 percent of America’s cropland and 14 percent of our fresh water, and generates about 270 million metric tons CO2 equivalent…

Strengthening U.S. Leadership to Deter Illegal Seafood: Implementation Challenges and Recommendations for the Seafood Import Monitoring Program

January 4, 2023 Issue BriefUnited States, InternationalSandy Aylesworth, Molly Masterton

As the world’s largest seafood-importing nation by value, the United States holds outsize purchasing power and the market leverage necessary to help transform the seafood industry and eliminate destructive illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

U.S. Livestock Industries Persist in High-Intensity Antibiotic Use

December 1, 2022 Issue BriefUnited StatesDavid Wallinga, MD

Curbing overuse is critical to slow the spread of antibiotic resistance.

Building Climate-Ready Fisheries and Fishing Communities

November 8, 2022 Issue BriefUnited StatesDr. Lisa Suatoni, Molly Masterton

Warming waters are driving a mass migration of life beneath the sea—and a decades-old fishery law cannot keep up without climate-ready science and policy.

Grow Organic: The Climate, Health, and Economic Case for Expanding Organic Agriculture

October 27, 2022 ReportUnited StatesLena Brook, Allison Johnson

Organic agriculture holds significant and largely untapped potential to address multiple crises facing our society

The Case Against New Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf

May 26, 2022 Issue BriefUnited States, East, WestLauren Kubiak, Brad Sewell, Sarah Chasis

To meet our climate commitments, the United States must significantly reduce its current level of fossil fuel exploitation, including by not leasing new areas for development.

Exhausted: How We Can Stop Lithium Mining from Depleting Water Resources, Draining Wetlands, and Harming Communities in South America

April 26, 2022 ReportChileAmanda Maxwell, James Blair

Many green technologies, such as electric vehicles and renewable power plants, depend on lithium-ion batteries, which require lithium. Lithium may play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but a climate-friendly future cannot come at the expense of destroying…

Feeding a City: Food Waste and Food Need Across America

October 19, 2021 ReportUnited States, Denver, New York City, NashvilleAndrea Collins

The first step in reducing municipal food waste is data gathering: understanding the amounts and sources of wasted food at the local level, as well as the amounts and sources of surplus food that potentially could be rescued instead of…

A Bad Biomass Bet: Why the Leading Approach to Biomass Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage Isn't Carbon Negative

October 12, 2021 Issue BriefUnited States, InternationalNathanael Greene, Sami Yassa

Chain Reaction: How Top Restaurants Rate on Reducing Antibiotic Use in Their Beef Supplies

July 14, 2021 ReportUnited StatesLena Brook

Since 2015, NRDC and our allies—Consumer Reports, U.S. Public Research Interest Group, Friends of the Earth, Food Animal Concerns Trust, and Center for Food Safety—together representing millions of consumers, have reviewed and rated the top fast-food and -casual restaurant chains…

Corporate Irresponsibility: JBS’s Inaction and Disregard for Worker Safety have Increased the Spread of COVID-19 in the United States and Brazil

May 25, 2021 Issue BriefUnited States, BrazilJessica Carey-Webb, David Wallinga, MD

Throughout the pandemic, JBS workers in both Brazil and the United States have reported a culture in which employees have to work while sick (there is no sick leave) and facemask and social distancing rules are routinely not enforced.

Resilient Seas: Why We Need to Protect 30 Percent of America’s Ocean by 2030

November 18, 2020 Issue BriefUnited StatesAlison Chase

Warmer and more acidic than ever before, ocean conditions are driving marine life to search for cooler waters, helping fuel harmful algal blooms, and destroying important habitats like coral reefs. We must take real and immediate action to help our…

Installing Turbo Fladry: An Informational Guide

October 29, 2020 Issue BriefWyoming, Wisconsin, Oregon, Montana, Minnesota, Idaho, CaliforniaDr. Jennifer Sherry

Reducing the risk of wolf predation on livestock is key to ensuring both people and wolves can thrive throughout wild and working lands. Turbo fladry is a relatively simple fencing tool designed to protect livestock from wolves, that, when used…

Better Burgers: Why It’s High Time the U.S. Beef Industry Kicked Its Antibiotics Habit

June 25, 2020 Issue BriefUnited StatesDavid Wallinga, MD

The United States is grappling with COVID-19, the worst public health crisis in a century. Another worsening health crisis is staring us in the face, one caused by antibiotic-resistant infections. Without urgent action to stop the overuse of antibiotics, including…

Antibiotic Consumption in U.S. Pork, Beef, and Turkey Industries Vastly Outstrips Comparable Industries in Europe, and the U.S. Chicken Industry

February 4, 2020 Issue BriefDavid Wallinga, MD

Our analysis shows the U.S. livestock industry consumes medically important antibiotics almost twice as intensively as the industries in 30 European countries.

Guide to Building Healthy Soil

January 24, 2020 Issue BriefNorth Dakota, Montana, Idaho, United StatesArohi Sharma

As farmers prepare for the future, they cannot overlook the importance of soil health.

Bigger than Bees: How Neonics Contaminate Water, Threaten Ecosystems, and Cause Human Health Concerns in New York

January 21, 2020 ReportNew YorkDaniel Raichel, Dr. Jennifer Sass

Neonic use has been linked to a dramatic decline in insects, including plummeting bee and butterfly populations, disrupting entire ecosystems and harming birds, fish, and other wildlife.