Ceres was founded in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska by a group of forward-thinking investors who recognized that environmental disasters caused by corporations carry deep financial, business, and economic risks. They called on companies to adopt more responsible business practices that protect our communities and economies.

Later in the year, Ceres issued “The Ceres Principles,” a 10-point code of environmental conduct for corporations. Ceres spent the next decade engaging with companies to publicly endorse these principles and hold them accountable for their actions and impacts. Many of these companies have since joined the Ceres Company Network.

Ceres and the Tellus Institute established the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a worldwide effort to improve corporate disclosure on sustainability performance. For the next five years, Ceres fostered and built the initiative, eventually spinning it off as its own organization. Since then, it has become the international standard for voluntary corporate sustainability disclosure.

Ceres released a pivotal report, Value at Risk, which laid out climate-related physical and regulatory risks and the financial ripples these risks would create for companies in investment portfolios. It caught the attention of mainstream investors including pension funds and state treasurers who were just starting to recognize that climate risk was impacting business.

Ceres and the United Nations Foundation co-hosted the first Investor Summit on Climate Risk at the United Nations in New York City. At the summit’s conclusion, Ceres and a group of 10 institutional investors launched the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), etching the term “climate risk” into the financial lexicon for the first time. INCR would later become known as the Ceres Investor Network.

Ceres, Environmental Defense Fund, and more than a dozen investors petitioned the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require full corporate disclosure of wide-ranging climate-related business risks—and strategies for addressing them—in their financial filings. Subsequent petitions were filed in 2008 and 2009.

In response to the failure of the American Clean Energy and Securities Act, Ceres launched Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), a new network to help companies voice their support for strong climate and energy policies. Now known as the Ceres Policy Network, this network has helped build crucial support that has led to the passage of new and innovative policies at the state and federal levels.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued new guidance clarifying what publicly traded companies disclose to investors in terms of climate-related material impacts on business operations. The guidance came after Ceres and investors filed three petitions with the agency. It was a major step forward for future climate disclosure rules.

The same year, Ceres also released “The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability,” outlining specific expectations in governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure, and performance that, if met, would help companies transition to sustainable enterprises. The Ceres Roadmap set a new standard, spurring change in industries from apparel to technology and beyond.

The same year, Ceres also released “The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability,” outlining specific expectations in governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure, and performance that, if met, would help companies transition to sustainable enterprises. The Ceres Roadmap set a new standard, spurring change in industries from apparel to technology and beyond.

The International Energy Agency estimated that a $36 trillion increase in investment in clean energy by 2050 can keep us below the 2-degree threshold to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. As a result, Ceres launched the Clean Trillion challenge, calling on businesses, investors, and policymakers to close the gap by investing $1 trillion every year.

After years of Ceres building investor and corporate support for global climate action, the Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 Parties at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. This international treaty on climate action aims to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.”

The AgWater Challenge, led by Ceres and the World Wildlife Fund, engaged major companies with significant agricultural supply chains on water stewardship. The effort supported nine companies — including ADM, Danone North America, Diageo, Driscoll’s, General Mills, Hormel Foods, Kellogg Company, PepsiCo, and Target—to make more than 25 stronger, more transparent, and time-bound and measurable commitments that better protect our limited freshwater resources.

After President Trump announced his plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement in June, Ceres and WWF launched the “We Are Still In” movement where more than 1,100 investors and businesses, along with nine states, more than 145 cities, and more than 220 colleges and universities came together to tell world leaders, “We are still in” and reaffirm their commitment to reaching the goals of the climate accord.

In the fall, Ceres and our partners launched Climate Action 100+, a voluntary investor-led initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action to address the financial risks of climate change. Since its launch, Climate Action 100+ has become the largest-ever global investor engagement initiative on climate change, with growing influence and impact.

To scale up corporate climate commitments and support more corporate action, Ceres launched the Commit to Climate initiative, which led to hundreds of new commitments over the next few years.

Ceres launched the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets to improve the practices and policies that govern capital markets by engaging regulators, financial institutions, and insurers to act on climate risk as financial risk.

Ceres launched the Corporate Electric Vehicle Alliance to accelerate the business transition to electric vehicles (EVs) in all vehicle segments—from light-duty passenger cars to heavy-duty trucks. Members of the Alliance include major brands from multiple sectors that have large transportation fleets and footprints.

With the support of thousands of investors and companies as part of the We Are Still In movement, co-founded by Ceres, the Biden administration re-entered the U.S. into the Paris Agreement.

In July, Ceres launched its Food Emissions 50 initiative to support investors in engaging companies in the food sector on climate action In the fall, Ceres expanded on that effort and launched Ceres Ambition 2030 to drive greater corporate action in six of the economy’s most polluting sectors—banking, electric power, food and agriculture, oil and gas, steel, and transportation—which account for approximately 80% of total U.S. emissions.

Ceres launched the Valuing Water Finance Initiative to support investors engage companies to act on water risk as a financial risk. Later that year, Nature Action 100 was launched to support investors in engaging companies on nature and biodiversity loss.

Ceres launched the Freedom to Invest initiative to bring together investors, companies, and other stakeholders to champion the freedom to consider all material financial risks in their decision-making and to help defeat legislative bans on responsible investing and business practices.

After two decades of pressure from Ceres and investors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission adopted the first-ever federal rule mandating the disclosure of climate-related risks from all U.S. public companies. Since the draft rule was first released in March 2022, Ceres has actively engaged with investors and companies to educate and prepare them as they align their businesses with the new disclosure requirements.