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Clean & Green: Best Practices in Photovoltaics

March 28, 2012

Outlines the impact of using toxic compounds in manufacturing solar panels compared to the effects of fossil fuels and nuclear power; best management and operations practices for protecting workers and the environment; and considerations for investors.

Financial Risks of Investments in Coal

June 15, 2011

Analyzes the regulatory, commodity, and construction risks of investing in coal mining and coal-fired power plants. Examines industry analysts' consensus on viable alternatives to coal, including natural gas, solar, wind, and energy efficiency.

Forks in the Road: The Many Paths of Arts Alumni

May 3, 2011

Presents findings from a survey of visual and performing arts graduates about current employment, satisfaction with training and careers, ability to continue to create or perform, and elements needed to better connect arts training to artistic careers.

2010 Proxy Preview: Helping Foundations Align Investment and Mission

May 12, 2010

Promotes proxy voting as a way for foundations to fulfill missions via social and environmental corporate practices. Outlines trends in shareholder advocacy, 2009 highlights, and 2010 proposals, including animal welfare, human rights, and sustainability.

Proxy Preview '09: Helping Foundations Align Investment and Mission

March 31, 2009

This report aims to help foundations navigate shareholder proposals related to social and governance issues, as a way of identifying the proposals that are relevant to their missions and grantmaking agendas.

Building Solutions: Opportunities for Coloradans to Save Energy and Money Through Efficient Home Heating

September 10, 2008

Proposes ways to improve home heating efficiency to reduce energy use and costs, describes the expected economic benefits to the state, and makes policy recommendations for raising efficiency standards and expanding weatherization assistance programs.

Better Ballots

July 20, 2008

Literacy tests to gain access to the polls were banned in the United States in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act.99 But in November 2008, eight years after an election debacle of historic proportions, millions of voters across the United States will face a literacy test of a different sort after they've stepped into the voting booth. Their intended choices may be recorded only if they can understand instructions written at a high reading level, often using legal and election terminology. And they will only be counted if they successfully navigate ballot designs that are needlessly complicated, where candidates for the same offi ce may be listed on multiple columns or pages, or different contests are inconsistently formatted. As we have tried to demonstrate in this report, ballot design and instructions can have a huge impact on election results. We sampled some of the more "high profi le" ballot design disasters over the last several years; this is not a comprehensive analysis of the cost of poor ballot design on elections and votes counted. But, the examples illustrate how dramatically poor ballot design can affect vote totals -- particularly when a number of design fl aws appear on the same ballot. Not surprisingly, when these mistakes affected many ballots (by appearing on a signifi cant percentage of the ballots in large counties like Los Angeles or Palm Beach, or on most of the ballots in a particular state), tens of thousands -- and sometimes hundreds of thousands -- of votes in a single federal or statewide race have been lost. This does not even include the voters who may have been so confused by a ballot design that they cast their ballot for a candidate for whom they did not intend to vote (for obvious reasons, it is far more diffi cult to determine this than to know when a voter failed to successfully cast a vote at all). Better ballot design will make it far more likely that the preferred candidates of all voters will be declared winners of their contests. Palm Beach County 2000 should have been a wake-up call to legislators, election offi cials, and watchdog groups that ensuring good ballot design is a critical election administration issue that needs to be systematically addressed. Unfortunately, for the last eight years, it has continued to be largely ignored. The predictable result has disproportionately affected low-income and elderly voters, and thrown several important elections into turmoil. The good news is that there is still time before November 2008 to ensure that ballot design fl aws do not throw the results of another closely contested race into doubt, as has happened in several federal and state races in the last decade. And unlike changes to equipment (which, there is no question, could make systems more secure, accessible and usable), improving ballot design and instructions is possible for little or no cost, and a relatively small-scale investment of time.

Wildlife and Human Diseases: Symptoms of Endangered Marine Ecosystems & Climate Change

May 1, 2001

The Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School; Wildlife Trust; the Consortium for Conservation Medicine; and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute hosted a Congressional briefing entitled "Wildlife and Human Diseases: Symptoms of Endangered Marine Ecosystems and Climate Change." The marine coastal environment is being subjected to increased pressure from residential, recreational, and commercial development. The combined effects of spills, leaks and accidents associated with oil extraction and transport further weakens coastal ecosystems leaving them vulnerable to injury. These disturbances, in conjunction with new stresses posed by climate change, is adversely affecting the health of marine life. An increase in disease among marine species raises significant concern on the part of scientists, environmental researchers, and policymakers who believe such events herald heightened risk to wildlife and humans.

Why Is Teenage Pregnancy Declining? The Roles of Abstinence, Sexual Activity and Contraceptive Use

December 1, 1999

Presents analyses based on information from the 1988 and 1995 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth and recent information on rates of teenage pregnancies, births, and abortions in the U.S. to document the breadth of drops in teenage pregnancy.