(Atlanta, Georgia, November 17, 2020) Launched last month, Drawdown Georgia -- the first state-centered effort to crowdsolve for climate change -- today announced the formation of a Leadership Council. Chaired by Jasmine Crowe, founder and CEO of Goodr, Inc., Roy Richards, Jr., chairman of the board for Southwire, and Nathaniel Smith, founder and chief equity officer of Partnership for Southern Equity, the Leadership Council will help guide and advance the effort to scale the 20 climate solutions identified as having the most potential to reverse climate change in Georgia in coming years.

“We’re indebted to the Leadership Council co-chairs for agreeing to help us create a groundswell of support for Drawdown Georgia among our constituencies,” said John A. Lanier, executive director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation and a founder of Drawdown Georgia. “Successfully implementing the Drawdown Georgia framework depends on a wide diversity of effort, and a shared commitment to lifting up everyone in our state while we Drawdown emissions.” 

Jasmine Crowe’s Goodr is tackling hunger as a logistics issue versus a scarcity issue, recognizing that the food supply ecosystem isn’t designed to get food into the hands of those who need it efficiently or effectively. While hunger has first and foremost a human impact, food waste has significant climate impacts, and reducing food waste has been identified as one of 20 climate solutions in the Drawdown Georgia framework. 

Entrepreneurs and industry have the power to move us farther faster when it comes to Drawdown, and Roy Richards, Jr., as the retired chief executive and current chairman of Southwire Company, has led or served on nearly two dozen academic, social service, and public and private company boards. Currently he teaches in the fields of family business and corporate governance, and leads three social enterprises in environmental advocacy, land conservation, and climate change.

The Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE), founded by Nathaniel Smith, advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South. PSE’s focus on energy, opportunity, growth and health is aligned with Drawdown Georgia’s commitment to a focus on impacts Beyond Carbon. 

The three co-chairs have jointly issued the following statement:

“As co-chairs of the new Drawdown Georgia Leadership Council, we are passionate about the natural beauty of our state and believe that people across Georgia have much to gain from cutting Georgia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Scaling solutions identified by Drawdown Georgia can put our state on a path toward carbon neutrality while advancing equity, creating jobs, improving public health, and protecting the environment. Further, scaling Drawdown solutions can deliver significant economic returns that can, and should, be shared by all in our state. Georgians are already being impacted by a changing climate, and now is the time to lift up people across our state as we work to Drawdown emissions.”

Leadership Council members will be announced in the coming weeks.

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About Drawdown Georgia

Informed by Project Drawdown, the world’s leading resource for climate solutions, Drawdown Georgia is the first state-centered effort to crowdsolve for climate change. The goal is to catalyze and scale 20 high impact solutions so Georgia can do its part to advance Drawdown -- that point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.

The Drawdown Georgia roadmap was vetted by an expert team of Georgia-based academics, climate scientists, and researchers led by Georgia Institute of Technology, in partnership with Emory University, Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. Drawdown Georgia estimates that the state's current carbon footprint is 125 megatons, with the potential to cut Georgia's carbon impact by about 35% in ten years, to 79 megatons.

The solutions are based on five focus areas with the best potential to create the most change in Georgia: Electricity, Transportation, Buildings & Materials, Food & Agriculture, and Land Sinks. Currently funded by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, Drawdown Georgia is bringing climate solutions home. Visit our home page.