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Thriving Environment

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OUR WORK

Children’s Health Benefits from Reduction in Air Pollution

In the spring of 2020, New York City was the site of an inadvertent and deeply unwelcome natural experiment. Over a two-month period—from March 15 to May 15—the nation’s largest city was effectively shut down by a rapidly spreading novel coronavirus pandemic. During this time, automotive traffic was 60 percent lower than it would normally be; there were also sharp declines in emissions from air traffic and construction.

Researchers from Abt and Columbia University estimated that this interruption of normal activity resulted in a 23 percent reduction in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations—pollution—across the five boroughs. We then extrapolated this reduction across a hypothetical five-year period. What we found was astonishing. A reduction of this scale, for this length of time, would result in nearly 2,400 fewer autism-spectrum disorder cases; almost 8,000 fewer asthma-related cases; and the avoidance of nearly 8,000 adult deaths. The economic savings from these and other health impacts was estimated at anywhere between $31.8 billion and $77 billion.

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Improving the environment can address the inequities facing communities of color and eliminate serious—and costly—health issues for adults and children.

—David Cooley, Senior Associate

Generating estimates of public health benefits from changes in air pollution is nothing new for Abt; the CO–Benefits Risk Assessment (COBRA) tool that we developed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been extensively used to help state and local governments understand the economic value of air pollution reduction policies by estimating adverse health impacts avoided from asthma exacerbations and workdays lost to heart attacks and deaths.

What is innovative about this study is that we also focused on implications for children and infants—cohorts that are typically left out of health benefits assessments of air pollution control and climate change mitigation strategies. : The benefits we uncovered included significant reductions in autism spectrum disorder cases and reduction in pre-term births, low birthweights, and even infant deaths.

After layering in geospatial data on zip codes and equity markers, we found that low-income, Black, and Latinx neighborhoods would experience more significant health gains from such a reduction in airborne particulates, compared to other neighborhoods. For example, neighborhoods with more than 80 percent Black or Latinx population would experience more than half a million dollars in annual benefits per 100,000 people, while neighborhoods with smaller Black and Latinx populations would receive lower average benefits. 

Integrating Data to Identify Who Lives Near Pollution

One of the barriers to addressing environmental justice is the difficulty in identifying communities that are overburdened in the first place. U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) Program has been facilitating transparency about facility-based toxic chemical releases into air, water, and land for decades. Abt has supported TRI’s efforts for nearly 30 years through modeling health and toxicity data, researching pollution prevention opportunities, training facilities to report the data, and more. Recently, Abt helped EPA create a new demographic profile in online tools that incorporates data from EPA’s EJSCREEN environmental justice screening and mapping tool, which includes data at the Census block group level across the entire country.

The demographic profile included in the TRI Search displays an overlay of demographic indicator information with the location of TRI facilities to help provide context for who lives near TRI facilities with toxic chemical releases. Integrating and layering this data uncovers potential impacts of TRI chemical releases in marginalized and already underserved communities. Identifying specific types of releases, such as surface impoundments, can also uncover additional potential hazards to consider in communities prone to more flooding from sea level rise or increased hurricane activity and intensity due to climate change. This tool makes the burden of environmental pollution faced by marginalized communities more visible to policymakers, enabling them to make more informed decisions.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

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UN Global Compact Principles

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Impact

Questions We Addressed

Client & Project

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; The John and Wendy Neu Foundation, the John Merck Fund; and New York Community Trust

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    Potential Health Benefits of Sustained Air Quality Improvements in New York City: A Simulation Based on Air Pollution Levels during the COVID-19 Shutdown

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Driving the Transition to a Clean Energy Future

Energy consumption across Southeast Asia is projected to double by 2040. If the region continues to rely heavily on conventional energy sources such as coal to meet demand, the negative impacts on ecosystems, human health, and livelihoods throughout the Mekong River basin and beyond will be far-reaching. Abt is working to encourage power-sector investments in clean, grid-connected, renewable energy sources throughout the region—driving toward a vision of stable clean power sustainably supplied across the Lower Mekong.

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We facilitate increased private-sector investment in renewable energy production and help improve the resilience of the energy sector, drawing upon decades of experience supporting governments, utilities, and investors with long-term planning, energy policymaking, and governance assistance. Abt brings a deep understanding of vulnerabilities and climate adaptation approaches across the region and has collaborated with diverse partners and regional organizations in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Lessons learned and best practices have been shared among other countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia.

Even as avoiding the worst climate scenarios requires transitioning to clean power, climate change already upon us requires a deep understanding of vulnerabilities and climate adaptation approaches across the region. Laos, for example, has abundant hydropower but is highly dependent on rainfall and sensitive to disruptions in weather patterns.

Working with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Abt supported the development of a long-term integrated resource and resilience plan to help Laos meet multiple energy, economic, and societal objectives. The plan included two resilience actions: monitoring and enforcement of power systems codes and standards, and developing resiliency standards for power equipment and systems. When implemented they are projected to reduce power sector losses due to extreme precipitation, flooding, and landslides by 75 percent. Long term, the reduction in generation and storage costs more than pay for the initial investment.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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UN Global Compact Principles

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Impact

RESULTS WE GENERATED
  • 16 new clean energy policies proposed, adopted, and/or implemented.

  • USD $7 billion in investment for renewable energy mobilized

  • 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity facilitated, preventing >90 million tons of CO2e over the next 15 years

  • Supported development of the 3rd ASEAN Interconnection Masterplan Study to enable regional energy trading and power supply resilience

  • Supported preparations to launch Laos's first solar pilot auction

Client & Project

  • U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)

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    USAID Clean Power Asia

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Informing Climate Risk Management Practice in Development Programming

Climate change impacts exacerbate the development challenges we work to address across virtually all sectors. From health (shifting patterns of infection and disrupted medical supply chains), to women’s empowerment (heightened incidence of gender-based violence during droughts and natural disaster events), to critical economic infrastructure (vulnerability of energy grids, roads, and bridges).

Abt is enriching and advancing USAID’s Climate Risk Management policy to show the value—in monetary and human terms—of protecting those most vulnerable to climate change impacts. USAID will have a rich repository of models and evidence to consult as it builds CRM considerations into future programs.

With more than USD$160 billion spent on development programming worldwide, donors want solutions to systematically incorporate increased climate risk and vulnerability and protect them from lost investments. Since 2016, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has mandated integration of climate risk management (CRM) into all its development programming. Although many USAID programs are actively practicing CRM, few are taking a systematic approach to quantifying and monetizing the benefits of CRM actions.

Enter USAID’s Climate Integration Support Facility (CISF), through which Abt is building USAID’s knowledge of how implementers are using CRM in practice. In collaboration with USAID missions, implementing partners, and the people targeted by programs, we apply a CRM lens to USAID programs across sectors and geographies to document actions and monetize benefits. Our results are case studies and blogs that show USAID and other donors exactly how integrating climate risk management into program design and implementation protects investments—with a dollar value attached.

In Kosovo, Abt evaluated a suite of CRM approaches taken by a five-year USAID agricultural growth program to decrease water use per unit area and protect crops from the impacts of more frequent storms and extreme temperatures. We found CRM approaches like early warning systems, efficient irrigation systems, and crop protection measures increased yields of fruits and vegetables by 50-300 percent, with higher values ranging from $1,300-$61,000 per hectare. These approaches also reduced irrigation water demand by up to 4,000 cubic meters per hectare and avoided crop losses of up to 80 percent.

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Other case studies are underway. Abt will examine and quantify the benefits of CRM actions taken by a USAID family planning and maternal health program in the Philippines to overcome the effects of climate disasters that disrupt delivery of health services in rural areas. In Haiti, Abt will evaluate the effectiveness and payoffs of four main CRM actions taken by a USAID water and sanitation project to target high-risk areas, screen activities, and build climate considerations in infrastructure design and construction while training stakeholders to manage impacts.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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UN Global Compact Principles

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Impact

Questions WE Addressed
  • How is climate risk management integrated into development programming across sectors?

  • What are the monetized benefits of climate risk mitigation within an agricultural growth program in Kosovo?

Client & Project

  • U.S. Agency for International Development

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    Climate Integration Support Facility (CISF)

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OUR PEOPLE AND OPERATIONS

Setting a New Science-based GHG Reduction Target

Among its countless other hard lessons, COVID-19 has given us a stark preview of what climate change might have in store for our future—from massive disruptions to exacerbated socioeconomic inequities. As an organization, we are committed to substantively addressing climate change to do our part in avoiding the worst-case scenario.

Before COVID-19 struck, we were able to reduce our U.S.-based greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 49.7 percent compared to 2012 levels. With the suspension of non-essential business travel and commuting and with most offices transitioning to fully remote work, by the end of 2020 Abt achieved a 71.7 percent reduction in emissions. Emissions from teleworking accounted for 17 percent of the total, providing insight into what business-as-usual could look like in the future.

Informed by the pivots and agility required by the COVID-19 response, we set out to develop our new GHG reduction target—committed to grounding it in science and aligning with the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Redoubling our efforts to decarbonize by 2050, we arrived at a new near-term target and set a new baseline year: we are committed to reducing our global GHG emissions 33 percent by 2025 compared to 2019 levels.

This science-based target has an expanded scope that includes Abt Australia and Abt Britain, as well as additional emission sources such as project site offices and teleworking, which has become increasingly material in the wake of the pandemic. As we look to a post-pandemic “new normal,” we will continue to reimagine our operations to ultimately bring our emissions down to zero.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

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UN Global Compact Principles

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Impact

  • GHG Reductions since 2012
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  • EVIRONMENTAL RECOGNITION FY21
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Global Reporting Initiative Index

OUR COMMUNITIES

Protecting the Habitat in Our Backyard

On issues as massive as environmental preservation, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the very meaningful differences we can make in our own communities.

Since 2015, Abt’s Cambridge, Massachusetts office has partnered with the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA) to remove invasive water chestnuts by canoe in our surrounding community. Even though we could not physically help in 2020, we continued to support this partnership financially to advance MyRWA’s habitat-protection and environmental-education efforts. We cannot wait to get back on the water!

UN Sustainable Development Goals

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Impact

  • MyWRA cleanup impact since 2018:
  • 34 volunteers

  • 74 baskets of water chestnuts removed

  • 204 hours of cleanup support

Celebrating 50 Years of Earth Day

Every year, as part of our Earth Month celebration, we invite Abt staff from around the world to submit a drawing on behalf of a child that answers a question about our planet. All “EcoKids” are recognized for their work and get to vote on which animal Abt should “adopt” in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

In 2020, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, 23 EcoKids aged 2-17 from eight countries submitted drawings in response to the question: "How does climate change impact you and what are you doing to combat it?”

We were struck by the seriousness and sophistication of their responses. The kids overwhelmingly voted to adopt a koala as the WWF partnership animal—but it was not just because koalas are so cute and fuzzy. They were responding to the devastating Australian bushfires of early 2020 and knew enough about that calamity that they wanted to help this specific species.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals

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Impact

  • EcoKids participation since 2016:
  • 122 drawings submitted

  • by 97 unique EcoKids

  • living in 20 countries