Data, Reports & Resources

NRDC is a leader and trusted source in environmental policy and research. 

From reports to issue briefs, we ensure accountability through peer review led by our Science Office, which provides data and scientific analysis that help shape and guide NRDC’s policies and positions. We also offer a range of other resources, such as 101 guides and consumer-focused scorecards to increase access to knowledge about how everyone can be a catalyst for change. 

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A plastic cup among a pile of wet leaves and branches on the ground

Single-Use Plastics 101

GuideUnited StatesCourtney Lindwall
Here’s everything you need to know about the most ubiquitous (and avoidable) kind of plastic waste: the kind made to be tossed in mere minutes.
A pipe sits atop dirt next to a building

Will Funds for Water Infrastructure Flow Fairly?

ReportUnited StatesBecky Hammer, Erik D. Olson
These report cards grade all 50 states on water funding equity.
A view of the cross-section of a cut water pipe

Getting the Lead Out: Removing Lead Pipes Would Yield Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Health Benefits

Issue BriefUnited StatesErik D. Olson
Removing lead service lines could save the United States an estimated $786 billion from avoided health impacts over the next 35 years.

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Commercial Whaling 101

GuideInternationalLauren Evans

Despite an international ban on commercial whaling since 1986, the animals are still being hunted and killed across the world’s oceans, with devastating impacts on global populations.

What Is Environmental Racism?

GuideUnited States, InternationalMaudlyne Ihejirika
This form of systemic racism disproportionately burdens communities of color.

Wildlife Trade 101

GuideInternational, United StatesChia-Yi Hou

Wildlife trade is big business, with wild plants, animals, and products made from them sold around the globe, legally and illegally. It’s also a leading cause of the planet’s accelerating biodiversity crisis and resultant ecosystem collapse.

Keystone Species 101

GuideInternational, United StatesMelissa Denchak
From coastal tide pools and rolling prairies to African savanna and arctic terrain, the earth is home to myriad ecosystems, each one regulated by interlinking parts, including the creatures that call them home.

Causes and Effects of Lead in Water

GuideUnited States, Flint, Michigan, IllinoisKeith Mulvihill

How this harmful neurotoxin got into our taps and what it’ll take to get it out.

Air Pollution: Everything You Need to Know

GuideUnited States, InternationalJillian Mackenzie, Jeff Turrentine
How smog, soot, greenhouse gases, and other top air pollutants are affecting the planet—and your health.

What Are the Effects of Climate Change?

GuideUnited States, InternationalCourtney Lindwall

A rapidly warming planet poses an existential threat to all life on earth. Just how bad it gets depends on how quickly we act.

Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know

GuideFlintMelissa Denchak
After officials repeatedly dismissed claims that Flint’s water was making people sick, residents took action. Here’s how the lead contamination crisis unfolded—and what we can learn from it.

Biodiversity 101

GuideInternational, United StatesCourtney Lindwall

How do we define and measure biodiversity—and just why is it so important?

Connecting Communities and Science at American Geophysical Union 2020

ResourceKristi Pullen Fedinick, Meleah Geertsma, Marisa Guerrero, Yukyan Lam
The Union of Concerned Scientists and NRDC co-convened a panel to connect the latest research—especially on the disparate and cumulative environmental burdens affecting low-income communities and communities of color—to effective policymaking for environmental justice.

Community Clean Mobility Programs Under ACC II

Fact SheetUnited States, New JerseyYeh-Tang Huang, Kathy Harris

Best practices for designing community-based clean mobility programs under the Advanced Clean Cars II rule, in New Jersey and beyond

Jackson Water Crisis

Fact SheetMississippi, JacksonSarah Tallman, Kimberly Leefatt
The drinking water system in Jackson, Mississippi, has suffered from serious safety and reliability problems for decades. Despite recent attention from federal officials, including a lawsuit filed against the city of Jackson in late 2022, the water system’s problems have…

Protect Latin America’s Natural Resources

OverviewColombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, ChileCarolina Herrera, Amanda Maxwell
NRDC is working to protect the region’s natural treasures from exploitation and to support sustainable development.

Connectivity and Conservation: Grizzly Bears in the Lower 48

OverviewUnited States, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho
These interactive maps discuss the issue of grizzly bear conservation and present potential corridors that could help reconnect the Yellowstone grizzlies with populations to the north.

Stop the Fortress LNG Export Project

OverviewNew Jersey, PennsylvaniaMark Izeman, Marisa Guerrero, Kimberly Ong, Sahana Rao, Rich Schrader
Communities across Pennsylvania and New Jersey are fiercely fighting the Fortress LNG export project, a proposed massive export facility that would send liquefied natural gas overseas.