Minerals + Materials

A scene from Peak Plastic Foundations new movie Goliath is Wobbling, featuring members of Rise St. James protesting Formosa Plastics plan to build a new multi-billion dollar plastics plant in their Louisiana parish.

We support the realization of a climate-beneficial future through initiatives and solutions that prevent and reduce the harms of transition mineral mining, minimize waste, and seed thriving local economies.

Extractivism is driving overproduction and overconsumption in ways that are excessively harmful to both human health and the health of our planet. This program aims to center climate justice and community health in the materials economy and clean energy transitions, foremost addressing the needs of those most directly and harmfully impacted by extractive and polluting industries.

The global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and electrified transportation is urgently needed but has led to a growing reliance on destructive mining for transition minerals. Our transition mineral grantmaking prioritizes reform of mining practices to prevent and mitigate associated environmental and health harms through advocacy and accountability mechanisms across the battery supply chain. Our grantmaking also works to ensure the self-determination of mining-affected communities alongside these reforms. The program focuses on demand reduction (including reuse, and recycling strategies) that will be critical to the longer term vision of just and sustainable transportation electrification.

Through our materials grantmaking, we support local communities in organizing to mitigate the environmental and public health harms of our linear material economy. Policies that reduce plastic production, ensure producer responsibility, and invest public funding for reuse infrastructure are key. In tandem, we seek to elevate visionary approaches that are equitable, climate beneficial and reuse-based, especially in consideration of packaging, foodware, textiles, and food waste.