Fred Krupp

Work

In his 25 years as head of Environmental Defense Fund, Fred Krupp has overseen the growth of EDF from a small nonprofit with budget of $3 million into a recognized worldwide leader in the environmental movement. Under his direction, EDF’s full-time staff has increased from 50 to 350, membership has expanded from 40,000 to more than 500,000 and new offices have opened in Raleigh, Austin, Boston, Sacramento and Beijing, China.

Krupp is widely recognized as the foremost champion of harnessing market forces for environmental ends, such as the market-based acid rain reduction plan in the 1990 Clean Air Act that The Economist hailed as “the greatest green success story of the past decade.” Today, this approach has become the leading model for solving the problem of global warming.

Krupp broke new ground by engaging American companies to lessen their impact on the environment. Strategic partnerships with McDonald’s, FedEx, and DuPont, among others, have resulted in the elimination of millions of pounds of waste, the adoption of hybrid delivery vehicles, and an accord to reduce the environmental risks of nanotechnology.

He also helped launch a corporate coalition, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, whose Fortune 500 members—Alcoa, BP, Caterpillar, GE and dozens more—have called for strict limits on global warming pollution. The New York Times says, “Krupp has made a career of successfully pushing companies to make tough environmental changes.” (Environmental Defense Fund accepts no payments or contributions from its partners.)