The V.I. Vernadsky Nongovernmental Ecological Foundation (the Vernadsky Foundation) was founded in 1995 on the initiative of PJSC “Gazprom”. The Foundation's establishment launched the formation of environmental policy and culture of the fuel and energy industry enterprises and other sectors of the Russian economy afterwards.
For the first time the issues of solving environmental problems and sustainable development of the country through state, business and society joint efforts began to be raised at the state level. Prudent and careful use of natural resources, preservation of favorable natural environment and its biodiversity for the next generations – these are large-scale and complex tasks that have received the first priority of public administration and social organization nowadays.
t is not by chance the Foundation is named after the great scientist V.I. Vernadsky, who laid the scientific and philosophical groundwork for the sustainable development of humanity. In 1911, he was the first to use the concept of sustainable world existence in an article concerning the geopolitical problems of Russia. According to the teachings of Vernadsky, the biosphere is moving into its new condition, the Noosphere, and it happens due to the scientific thought embodied in the achievements of science and technology.
The Foundation initiates and implements socially significant projects in the field of environmental protection, environmental education, formation of ecological culture in the interest of sustainable development, as well as sectoral programs and projects in the field of industrial ecology. The Foundation is one of the most well-known environmental nongovernmental organizations in Russia and at the international level, it has a consultative status with UNESCO and the UN Economic and Social Council, the Foundation is an observer organization of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference.
We invite to joint cooperation all of you, who share our thoughts and the scientific views of V.I. Vernadsky, recognize his ideas as the fundamental basis of the world community movement towards sustainable development in the context of global environmental changes.