GreenFacts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
GreenFacts, formerly the GreenFacts Foundation, is an international non-profit organization founded in 2001 in Brussels, Belgium. It is primarily funded by industrial companies such as Solvay, which has made the information it disseminates the subject of some criticism.
GreenFacts' primary function is to provide summaries of scientific consensus reports on environment and health issues (such as climate change and tobacco). GreenFacts' aim is to rewrite these highly technical, scientific publications into something more easily understood by lay readers. The summaries are subjected to a review ([1]) by experts in that field for faithfulness to the original document. The peer review process is overseen by an independent scientific board ([2]). These summaries are then published on the organization's Website, listed below.
The organization's industry funding has led some to question the information it presents. GreenFacts was founded in December 2001 with seed money from chemical company Solvay and continues to receive the bulk of its funding from industry, including Solvay, Carrefour, Procter & Gamble, Suez and others ([3]). However, GreenFacts has stated that it plans to distance itself from industry funding in 2006, instead seeking subsidies from public authorities such as the European Commission and the Belgian government. Such subsidies are not generally made available to organizations that have existed for less than three years. In 2005, GreenFacts estimates its total income at €680,000 ([4]).
GreenFacts states that one of its missions is to foster dialogue between environmentalists, industry and others by providing accessible and neutral information. However, its reports have been criticized as biased toward the concept of "sound science" — which is viewed by many in the scientific community as a nebulous, essentially political term often used to justify a predetermined (generally opposing) worldview.
GreenFacts has distanced itself from activists, instead stressing its commitment to "dialogue and co-operation, rather than activism and confrontation." (The Research Headlines, published by the European Commission ([5])
