The 2016 Environmental Performance Index provides a global view of environmental performance and country by country metrics to inform decision-making. Launched at the World Economic Forum, the EPI is in its 15th year and more relevant than ever to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and carrying out the recent international climate change agreement.
The 2016 Environmental Performance Index is a project lead by the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (YCELP) and Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group at Yale University (Data-Driven Yale), the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, in collaboration with the Samuel Family Foundation, McCall MacBain Foundation, and the World Economic Forum.
About YCELP
The Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, a joint research institute between the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and Yale Law School, seeks to incorporate fresh thinking, ethical awareness, and analytically rigorous decision making tools into environmental law and policy.
About Data-Driven Yale
The Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group seeks to address critical environmental challenges using cutting edge data analytics and other innovative methods. Launched in 2015, the research group is an interdisciplinary collaboration of policy experts, data scientists, visual designers, and interactive programmers at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale-NUS College, Singapore.
About CIESIN
The Center for International Earth Science Information Network’s mission is to provide access to and enhance the use of information worldwide, advance the understanding of human interactions in the environment, and serve the needs of science and public and private decision making.
About the Samuel Family Foundation
The Samuel Family Foundation has a long history of supporting the arts, healthcare and education. In recent years, it has broadened its mandate internationally, to engage in such partnerships as the Clinton Global Initiative, and participate in programs aimed at global poverty alleviation, disability rights and human rights advocacy, environmental sustainability, education and youth programs.
About the McCall MacBain Foundation
The McCall MacBain Foundation is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and was founded by John and Marcy McCall MacBain. Its mission is to improve the welfare of humanity through focused grants in education, health and the environment. Believing that strong, dedicated and creative leadership are required in these areas to achieve positive outcomes, much of its funding is designed to identify and support individuals having such qualities.
About the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
Suggested Citation
Hsu, A. et al. (2016). 2016 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale University. Available: www.epi.yale.edu.
Creative Commons License
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This report was made possible by the generous support of the Samuel Family Foundation and the McCall MacBain Foundation.
Authors
- Principal Investigator and Director
- Professor Angel Hsu, Yale-NUS College and Yale University
- Yale University
- Nikola Alexandre, Research Assistant
- Sam Cohen, Research Assistant
- Pamela Jao, Research Assistant
- Elena Khusainova, Data Analyst
- Don Mosteller, Research Fellow
- Yuqian Peng, Research Assistant
- Carlin Rosengarten, Writer and Editor
- Jason D. Schwartz, Researcher and Writer
- Ariana Spawn, Research Assistant
- Amy Weinfurter, Research Fellow
- Kaiyang Xu, Data Analyst
- Daphne Yin, Research Assistant
- Alisa Zomer, Manager
- Yale-NUS College
- Maria Ivanenko, Data Analyst
- National University of Singapore
- Professor Alex R. Cook, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, NUS and NUHS, Yale-NUS College
- Jie Min Foo, Data Analyst
- Ji Yi, Data Analyst
- Interactive Design and Programming
- Jayshree Sarathy, Yale College
- Diego Torres-Quintanilla, Yale College
- David Wong, Yale College
- Cameron Yick, Yale College
- Anna Young, Yale College
- Infographic Design
- Peter Hirsch, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Anne Householder, Yale School of Architecture
- Cory Nestor, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Shreya Shah, Yale School of Architecture
- Yinan Song, Yale College
- Chendan Yan, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University
- Marc A. Levy, Deputy Director
- Alex de Sherbinin, Senior Research Associate
- Malanding Jaiteh, GIS Specialist
- Tricia Chai-Onn, GIS Specialist
- Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
- Professor Daniel C. Esty, Director
- Lisa Dale, Associate Director
Editors
- Carlin Rosengarten
- Theodore Rosengarten
Report Design and Production
- Caren Weeks
- Interactive Graphics: Constructive Design (formerly MSDS)
Expert Contributors
- Noah Adamtey, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture
- Ricardo Barra, University of Concepción/GEF STAP
- Mark Bomford, Yale University
- Mark Bradford, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Richard Burroughs, Yale University
- Roman Carrasco Torrecilla, National University of Singapore
- Christopher Corbin, UNEP Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit
- Crystal Davis, World Resources Institute
- Daryl Ditz, World Resources Institute
- Elizabeth Dooley, Ecologic Institute
- Aaron van Donkelaar, Dalhousie University
- Syma Ebbin, University of Connecticut
- Knut Ehlers, German Federal Environment Agency
- Jay Emerson, Yale University
- Kara Estep, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
- Mohammad Forouzanfar, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
- Joshua Galperin, Yale Law School
- Marcus Gilbert, Free University of Brussels
- Johannes Friedrich, World Resources Institute
- Jeffrey Geddes, Dalhousie University
- Patrick Gerland, United Nations Populations Division
- Andres Gomez, Columbia University
- Andres Gonzalez, University of Minnesota
- Ramon Guardans, Sound Plots
- Julien Hardelin, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Peter Hawkins, Work Bank
- Arjen Hoekstra, Water Footprint Network
- Alessio Ippolito, European Food Safety Authority
- Walter Jetz, Yale University
- Hoi-Seong Jeong, Institute for Environment and Civilization
- Carmen Josse, Nature Serve
- Steve Katona, Conservation International
- Ki-Ho Kim, Research Institute for Climate Change Response
- Kristin Kleisner, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration
- Werner Kratz, Free University of Berlin and NABU Brandenburg
- Vicky Lam, Sea Around Us
- Ruta Landgrebe-Trinkunaite, Ecologic Institute
- Jeremy Malczyk, Yale University
- Omar Malik, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies ‘13
- Randall Martin, Dalhousie University
- Denise Mauzerall, Princeton University
- Marjorie Naybuti, United Nations Environment Programme
- Ephraim Nkonya, International Food Policy Research Institute
- Ifeyinwa Monica Okpara, Department of Soil Science, University of Nigeria
- Thong Nguyen Ba, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership
- Thomas M. Parris, iSciences
- Daniel Pauly, Sea Around Us
- Maria Porras, Mexico Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources
- Ferdinand Quinones, Water Resources Consultant Puerto Rico
- Rachael Peterson, World Resources Institute
- Alam Rafay, Saleem, Alam & Company
- Peter Raymond, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
- Katie Reytar, World Resources Institute
- Tim Robinson, International Livestock Research Institute/CGIAR
- Olivier Rousseau, International Fertilizer Industry Association
- Ali Sayed, World Wide Fund for Nature
- Tien Shiao, World Resources Institute
- Nigel Sizer, World Resources Institute
- Bozena Smreczak, Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation, State Research Institute
- Rolf Sommer, International Center for Tropical Agriculture
- Nat Springer, University of California Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute
- Tom Tomich, University of California Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute
- Yanan Tong, Northwest A&F University
- Tristan Tyrrell, Tentera
- Ernst Überreiter, Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment & Water Management
- Aimable Uwizeye, Food and Agriculture Organization
- Jorge Mendoza Vega, Ecosur-Unidad Campeche
- Arnaldo Walter, University of Campinas
- Paul C. West, University of Minnesota Global Landscapes Intitative
- Berndt-Michael Wilke, Bundesverband Boden
- Sun-Jin Yun, Seoul National University
- Dirk Zeller, Sea Around Us
- Xin Zhang, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science