Green NGOs You Should Know About

• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) -- The Carbon Disclosure Project is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world.
  

• Carbon Trust -- The U.K. government established the Carbon Trust as a nonprofit to help the business community move toward a low carbon economy.

• Ceres -- Since 1989, Ceres has brought together investors environmental and public interest groups to promote corporate responsibility with the goal of getting the marketplace to recognize and reward companies that incorporate sustainability into their business practices.

• Clinton Climate Initiative -- The William J. Clinton Foundation created the CCI to battle climate change by making energy-hungry cities more efficient, ramping up green power generation, and keeping the world's carbon-storing forests standing.

• Conservation International -- It has crossed paths with dozens of companies through its efforts to preserve and protect biodiversity since its founding in 1987.

• EarthShare -- Its member charities founded EarthShare in 1988 as a facilitator of workforce giving programs to support environmental charities not represented by traditional programs -- sort of a United Way for green groups.

• Environmental Defense Fund -- Its 1990 collaboration with McDonald's eventually ended the company's use of foam-plastic sandwich boxes, which it says is the first corporate-NGO partnership of its kind.

• GreenBlue -- Founded in 2002, GreenBlue works mostly with the private sector to make manufactured goods and systems more environmentally sustainable.

• The Nature Conservancy -- Formed in 1951, The Nature Conservancy is one of the world's oldest and largest environmental NGOs. It prides itself on its scientific capacity and skill in implementing conservation programs.

• Rainforest Alliance -- Twenty years ago, Rainforest Alliance could only find a single multinational corporation to work with -- Chiquita -- but its work certifying the company's banana farms and independent producers precipitated a transformation of Chiquita's production practices, leading to better working conditions and yields, reforestation, and lower chemical use, among other improvements.

• Rocky Mountain Institute -- Calling itself a "think-and-do-tank," RMI works with companies that want to stretch boundaries and do things that haven't been done before in energy efficiency, transportation, buildings and energy generation.