About

What if information about our environment came from diverse data streams and knowledge was easily accessible and digestible to everyone?

We believe better and more collaborative governance practices could make it so.

What
The Open Environmental Data Project (OEDP) leverages the spirit of collaboration to create multi-sector strategies that strengthen the role of data in environmental and climate governance.

Through pilots, workshops, research, and narrative building, OEDP works to [re]build trust between communities, government, civil society, and science. OEDP articulates improved processes within current environmental governance, while also envisioning generative environmental futures -- leading to the goal of healthier communities, robust natural systems, and collective action paired with matching policy levers.

Why
While environmental and climate data proliferate, the ability to access and use this data does not. OEDP envisions a future where environmental and climate data have a more significant role in collaborative and participatory systems that help us better manage and protect our environmental health. The crises of our time require data and information representative of our diverse ways of knowing, and this is what generates informed and grounded solutions that work for and with people.

How
OEDP forges innovation spaces through four core activities:

Pilots: We collaborate with institutions, nonprofits, individuals and universities to deepen understanding of best practices for new collaborative models in the environmental context.

Workshops: We (co-)host and facilitate events and collaborative spaces where we can articulate and catalyze interdisciplinary solutions.

Research: We provide insights that identify and clarify environmentally generative actions and policies through administrative, political, scientific, legal, economic, and cultural levers.

Narrative Building: We articulate strengthened roles for environmental and climate data through multimedia collaborations.

To learn more about current projects and bodies of work, please visit our Initiatives page.

People

Ampumuza Desire
Social Media Intern
Ampumuza Desire (she/her) began as OEDP's Social Media Intern in January 2024.
Chris Loggins
Web Developer
Chris Loggins is a highly skilled web design and development professional with a passion for leveraging technology to solve business challenges.
Emelia Williams
Policy and Research Associate
Emelia is the Policy and Research Associate with the Open Environmental Data Project.
Josmil Reyes
Bookkeeper
Josmil Reyes (he/him) is a bookkeeper at GritForce Bookkeeping.
JulietGrace Luwedde
Open Climate Coordinator
JulietGrace Luwedde is a dedicated environmentalist and passionate youth climate activist from Uganda working as the Open Climate Coordinator.
Katie Hoeberling
Director of Policy Initiatives
Dedicated to open and cooperative approaches to science, policy, and organizing, Katie works to empower communities to cultivate stronger connections to land and each other.
Madhuri Karak
Open Climate Podcast Host
Madhuri is the host of Data Dialogues: Season 2 and the new Open Climate edition releasing in March 2024.
Matías F. Milia
Research Fellow
Matias F. Milia (he/him) is a sociologist, an OEDP Research Fellow as part of the SEEKcommons project, and a postdoctoral affiliate at the University of Notre Dame.
Megan Zimroth
Business and Operations Coordinator
Megan joined OEDP in April 2023 to provide administrative support.
Michelle Cheripka
Communications & Content Manager
An interdisciplinary media maker passionate about communicating the climate crisis in compelling ways.
Shannon Dosemagen
Director + Shuttleworth Fellow
Shannon is a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and Director of the Open Environmental Data Project.
Karien Bezuidenhout
Board Member
As a Director of the Shuttleworth Foundation, Karien partners with individuals who employ openness as a tool to advance equity and social justice.
Sam Dyson
Board Member
Sam Dyson is an educator and physicist committed to better sharing the power, benefits, and wonder of science with all people.
Christa Hasenkopf
Board Member
Christa focuses on efforts that open up information, resources, and networks so that more people in more places can do more socially beneficial work.
Natasha Udu-gama
Board Member
Natasha supports the development of a robust, impactful community science approach that has, to date, enabled hundreds of communities of all types to co-create tools and solutions that address community priorities.

Past Members / Alum / Collaborators

John Favini
Data Inclusion Specialist
John Favini (he/him) is the Data Inclusion Specialist at OEDP as part of the American Council of Learned Societies' Leading Edge Fellowship.
Alayna Jenkins
Research Fellow
Alayna Jenkins (she/her) was a Harvard University Fellow at the Forefront with OEDP during Summer 2023.
Andres Colmenares
Open Climate Coordinator
Andres (he/him) coordinated Open Climate from 2022-2023.
Karen Andrade
Board Member
An interdisciplinary environmental health scientist by training, Karen Andrade has expertise in community-based participatory research and a robust track record of engaging diverse communities in science.
Jett Zhang
Alum, Climate Governance Research Fellow
Jett was a Harvard University "Fellow at the Forefront" with OEDP during Summer 2021.
Lorelei Kelly
Partner, Civic Voice Governance
Lorelei is an expert on building inclusive and informed democratic systems and is a based at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University as a Fellow.
Edgar Vazquez
Alum
Edgar was the Civic Voice intern with the Open Environmental Data Project from 2020-21.
Angela Eaton
Alum
Angela was the Director of Data Inclusion with OEDP from 2021-22.
Elizabeth Tyson
Alum
Elizabeth co-led strategy and prototype design with OEDP from 2020-21.
Anne-Charlotte Gillard
Research & Policy Fellow
Anne-Charlotte was a Harvard University "Fellow at the Forefront" with OEDP during Summer 2022.

our story

The means and methods to collect environmental data and information have never been greater. However, the accessibility and usability of data require dedicated attention in order to create an environmental governance landscape where the value of different types and places of data and information input is recognized. The burden of proof to demonstrate harm because of pollution has historically landed on the shoulders of impacted communities. While data and monitoring have proliferated as part of the solution, without explicit attention on the infrastructure – social, technical, political – that environmental decision-making relies on, community monitoring and open data from government and academic researchers, are complicated to put to use.

Conceptualized in 2019, the Open Environmental Data Project (OEDP) aims to address this critical point in the lifecycle of environmental governance and decision making. In 2020, with support from the Shuttleworth Foundation, OEDP launched with a focus on working across sectors to envision and work towards stronger, collaborative environmental governance practices.