ICM Falk Foundation Announces Grant for Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment to Tackle Plastic Pollution in Southeast Asia | Rare

(ARLINGTON, VA) – This week, Rare’s Center for Behavior & Environment (BE.Center) received the Circular Innovation Grant from the ICM Falk Foundation to help organizations in Southeast Asia build behavior-based solutions to tackle plastic pollution at the source. The ICM Falk Foundation’s Grant program supports upstream and circular innovation initiatives aimed at uncovering new and innovative solutions to address the general waste and pollution problem effectively in Vietnam and within the ASEAN region. The Grant will support the BE.Center in empowering local and regional organizations to incorporate behavioral science in their projects through helping them design effective behavioral interventions for their identified challenge and target audience.

“While behavior change campaigns are often considered in ‘end consumer’ contexts, behaviorally informed solutions are critically important at all stages of the plastics lifecycle,” said Katie Heffner, Senior Director of Partnerships & Engagement for the BE.Center. “Thanks to the support of the ICM Falk Foundation, we can help startups and companies reduce plastic waste right now, and then ensure future reduction efforts by sharing lessons learned and best practices to ultimately transform how plastic programs operate.”

“Changing consumer behavior is paramount when responding to one of the most critical challenges to creating sustainable business and impact models for emerging sectors such as upstream circularity,” added Gautam Ramnath, Executive Director at the ICM Falk Foundation. “Through this grant and the expertise of the BE.Center, startups in Asia will benefit from the cumulative, global experience of others to address Asia-focused behavior change.”

As a pilot under this grant, the BE.Center will engage Mekong Inclusive Ventures (MIV) in Cambodia. The BE.Center will work with MIV in support of its Phase 1 feasibility study to develop a technological tool that facilitates refill adoption behaviors.

To learn more about the ICM Falk Foundation, visit the website here and reach out to them at contact@icmfalkfoundation.org

About the ICM Falk Foundation

The Ida C. & Morris Falk Foundation is a private, 501c3 family foundation that seeks to support innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership that drives positive, equitable and sustained impact for the world’s communities and ecosystems.

Building upon its strong legacy of radical innovation, the Ida C. and Morris Falk Foundation focuses on encouraging a global commitment to the Circular Economy through local solutions that permanently reduce the amount of waste production and pollution within ASEAN.

In the spirit of its founder’s ethos, the mission of the family foundation is to support innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership that drive positive, equitable, and sustained impact for the world’s communities and ecosystems. ICM Falk Foundation supports innovative, scalable and sustainable solutions through a collaborative, collective impact approach, in order to undertake “a lot with a little” whilst upholding its core values.

About Rare

Rare is an international non-profit organization specializing in social change for people and the planet. For nearly 50 years, Rare has partnered with individuals, communities, and local leaders on the frontlines of conservation to promote the adoption of sustainable practices. With a behavior-based approach, Rare empowers individuals and communities to better manage and protect nature on which we all depend. Learn more at rare.org.

The Center for Behavior & the Environment (BE.Center) harnesses the science of human behavior to inspire this change. As conservation’s first center to explore the intersection of behavioral science and design for conservation, the BE.Center transforms how the environmental field tackles our global challenges.