Learn more about how we approach Opportunity Briefs.

This brief presents the opportunity to firmly establish environmental data as a public good in both the traditional sense of being non-rival and non-excludable, as well as in expanding the conceptualization of public goods to include utility and equity. To fully reach its potential as a public good, government, community, and academic stakeholders must address four major barriers: (i) lack of awareness of, (ii) overabundance of, (iii) the potential to misuse, and (iv) lack of infrastructure for environmental data resources. The data and its infrastructure must also be workable and useful for users with diverse experiences, capacities, and access to resources.

An initial exploration evaluating how new data governance models (trusts, collectives, commons, guilds) could provide better insights and solutions to the topics of extractive industries, the climate crisis, and natural resource management.

An initial exploration evaluating how new data governance models (trusts, collectives, commons, guilds) could provide better insights and solutions to the topics of extractive industries, the climate crisis, and natural resource management.