The Cancer Free Economy (CFE) is a network cultivating an inclusive movement to promote healthy environments where no one gets sick because of toxic chemicals where they live, learn, work, and play.
We believe that cancer is an all-too-common diagnosis that devastates families and communities, for which a key opportunity for prevention has been largely left on the sidelines: hazardous chemicals in the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the products we use.
We believe everyone’s health matters, and that the most effective change comes from a holistic approach that engages new voices and strengthens existing movements.
Since 2014, the Cancer Free Economy has built a dynamic collaborative network among a diverse set of teams and stakeholders working together to accelerate progress towards a healthy, regenerative economy.
The Cancer Free Economy proposal was submitted by the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, Breast Cancer Fund (now Breast Cancer Prevention Partners), BlueGreen Alliance, Jenifer Altman Foundation and the New York Community Trust on January 1, 2014, and was chosen for multi-year funding from the Garfield Foundation’s Collaborative Network’s Initiative. A leadership team formed from this partnership and began the multi-year systems mapping process that has deeply guided our formation, and influences how we work today.
Our strategies are derived from an in-depth multi-year process to analyze the “system” that has created an economy that depends on hazardous chemicals. This process gave us strategic insights and built a spectrum of productive, on-going relationships with a common goal—to lift the burden of cancer within a generation—and a shared understanding of how to achieve that goal effectively.
The network is organized into working groups, teams that address different strategic pathways to a safer materials economy including:
Building Power, Health & Science, Shifting the Market, and Policy & Legal.
Policy + Legal
Center for Environmental Health
Garfield Foundation
Building Power
Northern Oakland (Michigan) Branch NAACP
Market Shift
Forbes Funds
Policy + Legal
Yale School of Forestry
Market Shift
At-Large
At-Large
Market Shift
Clean Production Action
Health + Science
Children’s Environmental Health Network
Building Power
Labor Institute
Ann
Blake
Climate, Toxics,
Health & Equity
Polly
Hoppin
Health + Science
University of Massachusetts – Lowell Center for Sustainable Production
Monica
Schrock
2020 Elections
Non-Toxic Revolution
David
Levine
Childhood Cancer Prevention
American Sustainable Business Council
Strategic Director
Policy + Legal Coordinator
Center for Environmental Health
Policy & Legal Engagement Manager
Health + Science Coordinator
Silent Spring Institute
Fundraising Coordinator
Building Power Coordinator
Wind of the Spirit (WOTS)
Communications Coordinator
Market Shift Coordinator
Clean Production Action
The Cancer Free Economy Network is expanding the movement to protect people from harmful chemicals, uniting advocates and scientists working on cancer, public health, fossil-fuel reduction, and economic justice to name a few.