The Public Interest Network

The Public Interest Network runs organizations committed to our vision of a better world, a set of core values, and a strategic approach to getting things done.

We work on issues that speak to the need for a new kind of politics. Our campaigns challenge decision-makers, as well as all of us, to stop tolerating problems that are increasingly absurd in an age of advancing technology and growing abundance.

How do we preserve irreplaceable resources like air, water and a livable climate for our grandchildren? How do we transform vast systems of transportation and energy that were designed to meet the needs of a different century? How do we produce food for a growing world in ways that won’t threaten human health and destroy the environment? How do we sustain the democratic ideal of the United States, as civic participation is diminished by consumerism and the rise of corporate personhood?

Questions like these drive all of our work. The 16-plus groups in The Public Interest Network each strive for solutions on their own, while the force of our combined strategies builds pressure for change across the political and economic spectrum.

Take global warming. Environment America has fought for and won state and federal policies that clean up polluting power plants. U.S. PIRG has worked in dozens of states and cities for better public transportation. Bold Alliance has organized citizens to protest dirty oil and gas pipelines in so-called “red states.” Green Century Funds has led the charge for fossil fuel free investing. Frontier Group, our think tank, has researched the vast potential of renewable energy. And that's just one issue, and just some of our groups.

The Public Interest Network has incubated or otherwise provided critical support to other social change organizations as well, including Voices for Progress, Equal Justice Works, Free the Planet!, The Green Life, Ecopledge, Massachusetts Citizens for Safe Energy and many more.

Over the past 45 years, this coordinated strategic approach has helped us win hundreds of victories at the local, state, national and corporate levels. Because of the laws and other policies we’ve won, people are buying healthier and safer products, getting more of our energy from the sun and the wind, drinking cleaner water and breathing cleaner air ... the list just goes on.

But every day brings a new challenge or new opportunity. No matter how big the challenge, we know how to break down problems to a manageable size; set ambitious but achievable goals; work like crazy to win; and build the resources we need to win the next campaign.

We believe that organizing, and the power of bringing people together to call for change in one voice, will always be at the heart of successful efforts to solve America’s problems.