What Environmental Research & Education Foundation does

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation founded in 1994 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its mission is to advance scientific research and education for sustainable materials management, particularly within the solid waste industry. Over more than 30 years EREF has funded more than $23 million of research, built a network of academic grantees, and assembled proprietary datasets spanning 351 landfills and 1,500+ PFAS-related reference items. It serves three principal constituencies: the waste-management industry (operators, haulers, and their trade associations), academic and applied researchers, and federal/state policymakers who rely on its nonpartisan research.

Name

Environmental Research & Education Foundation

Legal name

Environmental Research & Education Foundation

Website

https://erefdn.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1994 that funds and conducts scientific research and education on sustainable solid waste management for the waste industry, academia, and policymakers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Raleigh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Charitable Donations: EREF operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Primary funding comes from charitable donations from individuals, companies, and organizations in the waste and recycling industry. They mention needing $50 million investment over 5 years to fast-track research.
2. Annual Charitable Auction: EREF holds an Annual Charitable Auction that raised over $4 million in 2026. The auction includes donated items, sponsorships, and direct giving from industry leaders, companies, and supporters.
3. Publication Sales: EREF sells certain reports and publications. Some reports like the 2024 Analysis of MSW Landfill Tipping Fees are free, while others like the 2023 Landfill Tip Fee List are priced at $125.00.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

EREF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research foundation that funds and conducts scientific research on sustainable materials management and the circular economy. Its core offerings include research grants to universities, graduate scholarships, data aggregation and analysis programs, free educational webinars (Science Sessions), proprietary computational tools for landfill emissions and heat balance modeling, and an extensive library of industry reports and resources.

Product overview

EREF operates as a research foundation offering a portfolio of interconnected programs rather than a unified software product. The core offerings include: (1) the Data Analysis program that aggregates data and policy information for sustainable materials management; (2) Research Grants funding for institutions addressing waste management challenges; (3) Scholarships supporting graduate students in solid waste research; (4) Science Sessions as brief interactive educational webinars; and (5) an Education Platform with courses across seven focus areas. These programs are supported by specialized knowledge resources on PFAS and Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs), as well as published research reports including computational tools like the Python-Based Landfill Heat Balance Model and SWICS Landfill Emissions Model. The foundation also produces authoritative tipping fee analyses and economic data reports for the waste industry.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Data Analysis A program that aggregates data and policy information to provide unbiased analyses for sustainable materials management, serving researchers and decision-makers in sustainability and environmental policy.
• Research Grants A grants program that provides funding to cutting-edge research institutions to address challenges in sustainable materials management, with grant amounts ranging from $15,000 to over $500,000.
• Scholarships Scholarship program supporting graduate students pursuing excellence in solid waste management research, with doctoral scholarships up to $16,000/year and master's scholarships up to $10,000/year.
• Science Sessions Brief, interactive educational webinars centered on EREF's strategic research priorities including greenhouse gas emissions, emerging contaminants, and materials circularity.
• EREF Education Platform Educational courses across seven focus areas: waste collection, waste diversion, waste to energy, waste reduction, special wastes, landfills, and recycling.
• PFAS Resources A curated catalog of over 1,500 data-driven PFAS-related articles and technical resources covering consumer products, drinking water, environment, health, and treatment.
• ETLF Resources Resources focused on understanding Elevated Temperature Landfills (ETLFs), including research reports, monitoring tools, and best practices for prevention and management.
• Python-Based Landfill Heat Balance Model An open-source computational tool using a compartment-based heat balance approach to simulate temperature dynamics within municipal solid waste landfills, featuring a graphical user interface.
• SWICS Landfill Emissions Model (LEM) An Excel-based tool that uses site-specific operational parameters to calculate landfill gas emissions for regulatory and sustainability reporting.
• Analysis of MSW Landfill Tipping Fees Comprehensive data-driven insights into tipping fee trends across the U.S. waste industry based on data from 351 landfills, covering MSW, C&D waste, and emerging waste streams.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $23 million invested in research since 1995
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 February 2026EREF and SWANA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance research and education in waste and resource management. This partnership combines EREF's research capabilities with SWANA's industry membership and advocacy reach to promote sustainable materials management practices.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Environmental Defense Fund (EDF): EDF is one of the largest environmental advocacy and science organizations globally, producing original research, policy analysis, and field programs on topics including methane emissions, PFAS, and circular materials. It is a comparable in that it combines scientific research funding with policy translation, but on a much broader environmental mandate and at much greater scale.
• National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA): NWRA is the primary private-sector trade association for the U.S. waste and recycling industry, representing haulers, landfill operators, and equipment manufacturers. It is comparable to EREF in serving the same waste-industry base, but focuses on advocacy, lobbying, and operational standards rather than independent research funding.

Direct peers

• Closed Loop Partners: Closed Loop Partners is an investment platform and nonprofit combination focused on the circular economy, including the Center for the Circular Economy which produces applied research. It is a peer because it convenes consumer goods companies, waste haulers, and policymakers around data-driven circular-economy research — directly overlapping EREF's mission.
• The Recycling Partnership: The Recycling Partnership is a nonprofit that funds recycling infrastructure, research, and consumer education across the U.S. Like EREF, it is an industry-funded 501(c)(3) producing data-driven research and reports on materials management, but with narrower focus on residential recycling rather than full waste stream.
• GreenBlue: GreenBlue is a nonprofit that works on sustainable materials and packaging, producing original research and convening industry working groups through programs like the Sustainable Packaging Coalition. It overlaps with EREF in funding industry research, providing technical guidance, and supporting circular materials work.
• Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI): EESI is a nonprofit that produces policy-focused research and educational programming on sustainable materials, energy, and climate topics for federal policymakers. It is comparable to EREF as an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit producing research and convening stakeholders on sustainability issues with relevance to the waste and circular economy space.
• Container Recycling Institute: CRI is a nonprofit research organization focused on beverage container reuse and recycling data, policy analysis, and reporting. It is a narrower vertical peer of EREF, both being nonprofit research organizations producing proprietary data and policy analysis on specific waste/recycling streams.
• Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA): SWANA is the largest professional association for the solid waste industry in North America and EREF's formal MOU partner. Both serve overlapping waste-industry stakeholders with education, research, and advocacy — SWANA more on the professional/advocacy side and EREF on the research/funding side.

Emerging players

• Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University: The Earth Engineering Center at Columbia University conducts academic research on waste-to-energy, recycling, and sustainable materials management and has historically published alongside EREF. It is comparable as a producer of independent scientific waste-management research, though operating in an academic rather than nonprofit-grant-making model.
• Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA): GAIA is a global alliance of NGOs working on waste prevention, reuse, and zero-waste alternatives, with active research and policy work in the U.S. It is comparable to EREF as an independent organization producing research on sustainable materials management, though with an explicitly anti-incineration advocacy orientation rather than EREF's nonpartisan stance.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PLdDVYi5W9-8qD1BISvKO1ujOtFKaRXYzA
• Xx.com/erefnews

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Environmental Research & Education Foundation