Our Funding Rules

We need external funding to make our publications freely accessible. However, this leaves us vulnerable to misleading allegations that our financial contributors may influence our publications or bind us to defend specific interests.

To protect against this risk and remain fully independent, we have a full transparency policy and follow the following rules:

We diversify our income sources and seek grants and support from various scientific institutions, public authorities, corporate partners, foundations, and donors.
Except for SOLVAY's initial funding (may 2001 to 2005), we limit each Corporate Partner's contribution to a maximum of 50 000 € per year, so that it does not form a too significant fraction of our annual income.
From 2006, the total funding from Corporate Partners or Governments shall not exceed 50 % of our annual income.
Corporate funding cannot be directed to an individual GreenFacts Digest. It can however be directed to the production an distribution of paper versions of our existing summaries.
We may secure part of our income by contracting our know-how or licensing our copyrighted Three-Level Structure. Each such contract is subject to the formal approval of our Board of Directors; the total income of these contracts must not exceed
50 % of our annual income.
We refuse any funding that we perceive as infringing on our independence or image.
Our funding figures are communicated online.
After approval by the General Assembly, our annual accounts are published online in our Annual Report.