LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT.

• Author: Campbell, Bradley
• Position: CONSERVATION MATTERS

Achieving CLF's mission to create a healthy and thriving New England means looking at the "environment" as more than one's natural surroundings. The environment also encompasses the built spaces in which we live, work, play, and learn.

Even as we strive to clean up Vermont's Lake Champlain, we're also rooting out lead poisoning in the state's schools. While we fight to protect New Hampshire's Merrimack River, we are also pushing for more street trees to alleviate heat stress in Manchester's low-income neighborhoods. And, as we hold Shell Oil accountable for its climate deceit in Rhode Island, we are also supporting the growth of a 40-year-old urban land trust in Providence's South Side neighborhood.

This breadth of work builds on CLF's core strengths, from legislative advocacy to legal watchdog. It also lets us use newer tools, including our innovative impact investment strategies.

Central to CLF's effectiveness is our ability to reimagine how we do business--quite literally. Too often, the business community gets painted as the bad guy exploiting our environment and our communities. But, in fact, the market can play a powerful role in achieving environmental equity--particularly when it comes to social investments like the one you'll read about...