About Us

The America’s WETLAND Foundation, a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, has established Climate, Energy & the Coast: The New Sustainability initiative. The project seeks to ensure a sustainable Gulf Coast, and to define sustainability based on the lessons learned and intellectual capital created around comprehensive coastal protection and restoration

The initiative has several components:

• Climate Energy & the Coast Policy and Information Center
• America's Energy Coast initiative
• University Collaborations
• Ecosystem Restoration Action Network
• World Deltas Collaborative

The Policy and Information Center will assess and define information on the linkage of issues around climate, energy and the coast. The Center will promote rigorous, nonpartisan research, study and policy analysis.

America’s Energy Coast initiative, bringing together for the first time, leaders in industry, the national environmental and conservation community, academia, and major coastal interests throughout the region of the four energy-producing states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The purpose of the initiative is to develop common solutions to ensure a sustainable coastal environment and the activities that take place there, so critical to the energy and economic security of the United States.

Building true science and engineering capacity in the region is critical for the Gulf Coast states, and especially Louisiana, as they plan and implement large-scale ecosystem restoration. The idea is to bring together the coast's brainpower to a critical mass that can address the huge sustainability issues.

The Restoration Action Network focuses on working with Congress and Federal agencies to modify and expedite the way coastal ecosystem restoration efforts are addressed. Currently, these projects are authorized through the Water Resources Development Act - which historically, has been a slow and complicated process. Organizations and agencies concerned with coastal ecosystem restoration will be invited to join the Network, including, America's WETLAND, the Everglades, the Chesapeake Bay area, the Great Lakes, Upper Mississippi, Puget Sound and California among others.

The World Deltas Collaborative will be a series of summits to bring together representatives of governments, policy makers and scientists from around the world to participate in discussions of sustainability challenges and solutions. Best practices and latest findings will be presented to those interested in deltaic systems such as the Mississippi River, the Nile, the Yangze, MeKong and Amazon.