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Why It Works
Leaders throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed face a critical point in their efforts to protect and restore one of the most remarkable natural resources in the world. They have the science and technological know how to take immediate action; the missing piece is the financing. In order to bring back the Bay's health, three states and the District of Columbia have committed to cut nitrogen pollution in half — from about 350 million pounds of polluting nitrogen a year to 175 million pounds. While policy will drive the necessary mandates, long-term funding still presents a monumental challenge. The Chesapeake Fund offers a new way to amass funds aimed directly at nitrogen reduction.
Here's the Plan:
Our goal is to facilitate the reduction of one million pounds of nitrogen annually by building a marketplace that rewards actions to improve water quality in as most efficient and effective a manner as possible. The Fund's structure is based on four basic processes:
First, the Fund helps citizens, businesses, and organizations estimate their impact on water quality using nitrogen calculators and accounting processes developed by Chesapeake Fund partners. Our goal is to develop a better understanding of our "nitrogen footprint" and to use this information to guide behavior change and investment decisions that will reduce nitrogen loads to the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Second, the Fund encourages citizens and businesses to make a real difference by reducing their nitrogen footprint by making simple behavior changes, such as reducing stormwater runoff, electricity use, lawn fertilizer use, and auto emissions.
Third, for those emissions that can't be reduced, we encourage citizens and businesses to purchase nitrogen "offsets" through the Chesapeake Fund.
Fourth, the Chesapeake Fund invests the offset purchases in on-the-ground, cost-effective nitrogen reduction projects and practices. These investments will result in real, quantifiable nitrogen reductions.
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