GreenFacts Digests
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Response to an article about GreenFacts on SourceWatch.org

In short:

Our independence has sometimes been called into question because of our initial sources of funding. Most notably, an article published on the Wiki SourceWatch.org implies that we are a "front group", i.e. "an organization that purports to represent one agenda while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is hidden or rarely mentioned".

This page explains how we have always ensured our independence and the impartiality of our publications, no matter what our sources of funding are, and why we can honestly certify being nothing of a "front group".

What is GreenFacts?

GreenFacts a.s.b.l. is an independent, non-advocacy, non-profit organization founded in December 2001 (see about pages). Our mission is to bring complex scientific consensus reports on health and the environment to the reach of non-specialists.

We have a multi-stakeholder governance that equally involves individuals from academic institutions, environment and health non-profit organizations, and corporations (see list of Full Members).

We had decided from the begin that our full members would only be individuals acting in a personal capacity - i.e. not representing their affiliations - to better ensure our independence. This is now expressed without ambiguity on our website and our press releases since 2005.

Moreover, we build partnerships with different organizations, including scientific institutions, media organizations, corporations, and environment or health non-profit organizations (see list of partners). We are willing to collaborate with any organization that share our vision and are prepapred to support our mission.

GreenFacts is also a member of the IUCN and an observer organization at the IPCC.

Summarizing Scientific Consensus Documents

Our main activity is to publish www.GreenFacts.org, which presents clear summaries of authoritative scientific consensus reports on environment and health topics (including diet and nutrition). The scientific consensus report we summarize are produced by large panels of experts and published by recognized international scientific organizations (such as WHO, UNEP, FAO, EU Scientific Committees, Millennium Assessment...). They present the current state of scientific knowledge at the time they are published.

To ensure that our summaries are unbiased and faithful to their source documents, they are written with and peer-reviewed by experts following a rigorous process. Our Scientific Board composed of independent experts selects the reference documents to be summarized, controls the peer-review process, and authorizes the final publications

To supplement the information, we also provide links to a few third party websites that either:

provide factual information,
provide examples of "Other Views" differing from the scientific consensus view presented in our Digest (we do not endorse these websites and therefore add a disclaimer), or,
have made a link to the our website; we do not not necessarily endorse the content of these websites and therefore also add a disclaimer.

Our summaries enjoy increasing recognition. They are already linked to from the websites of many reputable organizations, including WHO, UNEP, the European Commission, IUCN, FAO, UNAIDS, CBD, and the Millennium Assessment. As a part of our mission to provide non-specialists with unbiased scientific information, we promotes such links and offers practical webmaster tools used by a growing number of organizations including non-profit associations, business and industry, and scientific organizations (see some of these websites).

In 2006, we have started producing paper versions of some of our existing summaries, which have been sponsored and/or widely distributed by many organizations, including several companies, NGOs and UN organizations.

Our Funding

We have set strict funding rules to ensure that we remains independent and our publications impartial. These rules notably stipulate that all sponsors must recognize GreenFacts' independence and accept – in line with our statutes – that they cannot influence the content of our publications or the decisions of our Boards.

As explained in our Genesis page, we were launched thanks to an initial funding of the SOLVAY Group. Its management was convinced that there was a real need for better access to impartial scientific information, both among its staff and all interested stakeholders. SOLVAY made clear that this initial financial support would be limited to the time necessary for us to set up our structures, create our independent Scientific Board, and publish a first set of Digests.

After two years, we began searching for new funding sources. Since we were not yet eligible for most government and institutions subsidies or foundation grants, we had to find financial support from other Corporate Sponsors and individuals.

In 2005, we had existed for three years and it became eligible for funding from foundations, governments, and public institutions which, together with donations, contributed to just more than 50% of our income. In 2006, 42% of our income came from Corporate Sponsors, and we fully complied with our funding rules - notably no single corporate contribution greater than 50 000 Euros.

Increasingly, we receive funding from international organizations that have published or sponsored the scientific reports we summarize, including WHO, FAO, CBD, UNEP, World Bank, and UNCCD.

In 2006, we won a contract with the European Commission to produce faithful summaries of three reports produced by its Scientific Committees and publish them on the EUROPA website (see our Co–publications)

We do not accept industry funding directed to the production a specific publication, but we do accept it for the production of paper versions of our existing summaries.

See our Funding Figures for more information.

Policy Engagement

We are a non-advocacy organization and do not take position in policy debates. However, we believe that better scientific information on environment and health issues will contribute to bridging the gap between scientists and the public, and promote constructive debates and informed decision making.

Therefore, we engage in some communication activities aiming to fulfill our role and mission, publicize our websites, or network with all types of stakeholder organizations. For instance:

We participate in selected conferences and events,
We have organized a few events bringing together different stakeholders around the theme of science communication, and
We issues a newsletter and occasional press releases.

We acknowledge that two of our past communication activities have been perceived as taking position in debates. This was accidental and unintentional: as an organization, we do not want to influence policy in any way other than by providing wide access to scientific consensus information. We have now taken the necessary steps to prevent possible misunderstandings in our future communication activities.

Conclusion

We endeavor to be an independent, non-advocacy, multi-stakeholder non-profit organization, providing non-specialists with unbiased scientific information on environment and health matters.

Our objective is to contribute to constructive debates, informed decision making, and effective protection of the environment and health, for the benefit of all.

Although we receive some funding from businesses and industries, we do not defend any particular interest and have no hidden agenda. We hope that the ongoing diversification of our funding sources will make this even more evident.

We had sometimes used the word "sound science" in our earlier communication, but have long banned it from our vocabulary after realizing that it is often used by some self-proclaimed "science advocacy groups" that actually use "junk science" to negate or minimize environmental or health problems.

We invite the author(s) of the SourceWatch article to review their position and, if needed, to contact us for additional information and open dialogue.