KR Foundation has made its first imprints
17 May 2017
From the outset, the idea behind the new international environment foundation KR Foundation has been to support international projects, preferably with long-term effects and, in general, 'help to remove the root causes of climate change'.
Many projects have been launched
Within the first two years, the KR Foundation has already made grants to more than 90 projects, such as think tanks and grassroots organisations that reconsiders/innovates everything from sustainable investments and finance models to consumer behavior and a new imagery. This is to illustrate and strengthen the understanding of climate changes.
Climate and environment at the center of the economy
Future decision-makers within economics and finance unite.
In 2016, the KR Foundation selected two programme areas for their support: 'sustainable investments' and 'sustainable behavior'.
An inclusive environmental foundation
The KR Foundation is an international environmental foundation founded in the autumn of 2014 and launched in January 2015.
VILLUM FONDEN and descendants of Villum Kann Rasmussen are behind the KR Foundation.
VILLUM FONDEN makes DKK 100 million in grants a year, which amounts to a total of up to DKK 1 billion over ten years.
Very Inclusive grants
On several occasions chair of the board Connie Hedegaard has expressed that:
"The KR Foundation is established to support projects dealing with the more structural things that need to be changed to deal with climate change. This may be the ways in which society operates or something, which identifies the barriers to make us act faster and more effectively on climate change."
"From the family's point of view, it has been the very intention of the KR Foundation to support completely different projects, which would otherwise not be able to achieve grants. It is written in the foundation's trust deed that the foundation should be able to grant support in a very inclusive way."
The board of KR Foundation:
- Connie Hedegaard (Chair), Former European Commissioner for Climate Action and Danish Minister for Climate and Energy (DK)
- Astrid Kann-Rasmussen (Vice-Chair and co-founder), Chair of V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation (US)
- Anthony A. Leiserowitz, Research scientist & Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University (US)
- Tim Jackson, Professor of sustainable development & Director of the Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group, University of Surrey (UK)
- Johan Rockström, Professor of water systems and global sustain-ability & Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University (SE)
Executive Director Brian Valbjørn Sørensen is head of day-to-day management of the KR Foundation.
