Circle of Blue

Circle of Blue is a U.S.-based nonprofit news, information, and convening organization reporting on fresh water worldwide as it intersects food and energy security, economic and environmental stability, and social systems. Its tagline is "Where water speaks."

Its operating statement is: "Circle of Blue delivers a voice for fresh water, combining trusted front-line journalism, science, data analytics, systems design, and convening toward solutions."

Funding comes from foundation grants, special project support, and individual donors. Circle of Blue operates independently and adheres to journalism standards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Society of Environmental Journalists, and Associated Press.

Achievements
Circle of Blue's approach has informed the shift of national policy in China around the water-energy nexus, engaged students in international design competitions, convened World Water Day at the Vatican with Pope Francis, which reached millions, and informed policymakers. It publishes online through its website, newsletters (Daily Stream; Federal Water Tap; Fresh: A Great Lakes Policy Briefing), and through affiliate partners. Its Global ChokePoint series has revealed the strategic connections between water, food, energy, and equity in the changing climate. Circle of Blue curates the World Economic Forum Intelligence Maps for Water and is an advisor to the Forum's UpLink Challenge. For creating a "cumulative feedback loop" of information and impact, its founder was recognized with the Rockefeller Foundation Centennial Innovation Award.

ChokePoint China
In 2013-2014, the ChokePoint China project, in partnership with the Wilson Center China Environment Forum, drew international attention for spotlighting China’s confrontation between rising energy development and diminishing water reserves. ChokePoint China reports and convenings influenced the 2014 U.S.-China Climate Agreement, were catalysts for the country’s shift to more water efficiency in the energy sector, and drove scenario sessions with government and corporate leaders at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Major projects

Circle of Blue has drawn attention to the rising price of water in the U.S., and exposed dangerous food and water safety issues in India when farmers turn to raw sewage and industrial waste when wells go dry. The Great Lakes News Collaborative, involving four non-profit news organizations — including Circle of Blue, Michigan Public, Bridge Magazine, and Detroit Public Television — was awarded the 2022 U.S. Water Prize for its “Water’s True Cost” series. In 2023 Dalberg Catalyst invited Circle of Blue into its accelerator program as a “systemic solution that has a tangible and durable impact on the pressing societal and planetary challenges of our time.” Together, Dalberg Catalyst and Circle of Blue, with additional partners, are creating the initiative, “Designing Water’s Future: An operating system for the world’s fresh water” that applies the process recognized by the Rockefeller award.

Founding history
From its founding in 2003 and until 2018, Circle of Blue was fiduciary sponsored by the Pacific Institute, the water-climate research organization, and became an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in 2018. The organization's legal name is Circle of Blue, which is trademarked.

Circle of Blue has received project funding from foundations, individuals and institutions, including Alpern Foundation, Asian Development Bank, Brookby Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Cherry Republic, Climate Justice Resilience Fund, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation, Daniel Soref Charitable Trust, Energy Foundation, Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Ford Foundation, Herrington-Fitch Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Pine Hollow Institute, Packard Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Rhodes Trust, Society for Environmental Journalists, Skoll Global Threats Fund, Suntory Group, TSE Foundation, Wallace Genetic Foundation, Water Funders Initiative, Wege Foundation, and the World Bank. It has received a "Gold" rating from Guidestar, the online resource that tracks nonprofit organizations. Circle of Blue is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News, the consortium of nonprofit journalism organizations that promotes investigative and public service journalism.

Milestones
In 2006, with support from the Ford Foundation, Circle of Blue published the multimedia journalism project, Tehuacan: Divining Destiny, an in-depth look at Tehuacán, a Mexico community facing severe water stress from over-pumping of groundwater by factory farms. It was among the first reports to characterize water scarcity as a driver of human migration.

In 2007, Circle of Blue was recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative for its innovative reporting about water security worldwide.

In 2008, Brian Collins, chief creative officer of the communication design firm, COLLINS, and J. Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue's managing director, co-presented the session, "Designing Water's Future," at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The session led to the international initiative, Designing Water's Future, which engaged more than 10,000 college-aged communications design students in a design competition in collaboration with the INDEX Awards and AIGA.

In 2009, it published The Biggest Dry, about Australia's epic drought, including in-depth field reports from the Murray-Darling Basin.

In 2010, it launched the first of the ChokePoint reporting projects, ChokePoint: U.S., which explored U.S. energy sector's copious use of water.

In 2012, Circle of Blue's ChokePoint China series of more than a dozen articles and 17 convening events across China sparked policy change in China.

In 2013, ChokePoint India: Leopard in the Well unveiled India's mounting water challenges. See e-book.

In 2014, ChokePoint Index covered increasing water stress related to agriculture in the United States.

In 2015, Circle of Blue hosted a series of online convenings about California's drought and was featured by the White House Climate Data Initiative.

In 2016, it produced HotSpots H2O, an ongoing series about areas under severe water stress. It also produced the special report "Unearthing Water Risks of The Global Mining Industry."

In 2017, it created and produced "Watershed: World Water Day" at the Vatican, opened by Pope Francis.

In 2018, Circle of Blue reporter Brett Walton led an investigation into Legionnaire's Disease, which motivated regulators to change national policy. Another investigation into water affordability and pricing revealed that water shutoffs for poor households was a becoming a significant social justice issue. Deep reporting of groundwater contamination revealed "fear and fury" in communities where groundwater is contaminated.

In 2019, Circle of Blue published a project, "A Sinking Metropolis," with the Wilson Quarterly about Jakarta's endangered water supplies. It presented at major international events, including the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in The Hague and the World Economic Forum India Summit. The annual water rates survey was cited widely, including by National Public Radio and the New York Times. With APCO Worldwide and the World Economic Forum, it hosted a series of work sessions, "Designing Water's Future," about new models for journalism and public engagement.

In 2020, Circle of Blue's series, Water: Texas explored consequences of development and  constraints on the supply and quality of fresh water in Texas. Circle of Blue partnered with Texas Tribune in publishing the series.

In 2021, the three-part series, WASH Within Reach, reported the global status of universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene through the lens of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Supported by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the series was republished by the Wilson Center and World Economic Forum.

In 2022, long-form reporting included toxic algae in the Great Lakes, elevated cancer rates in rural Nebraska, and the drought in the American West. Reporter Brett Walton received the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications for local and regional reporting.

In 2023, Toxic Terrain became an ongoing series of reports about water contamination caused by agricultural pollution in the United States. The series, reported by Keith Schneider and in collaboration with The New Lede, was excerpted, referenced or republished by the New York Times, The Guardian U.K., Minn Post, Investigate Midwest, Winston Herald, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and others. Reporting was supported by an investigative journalism fellowship grant from the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

Reception
Robert Giles, Pultizer Prize-winning editor and Nieman Foundation for Journalism Curator, wrote for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: "The organization seeks to provide authoritative, in-depth coverage of a major global problem–the freshwater supply–that few, if any, mainstream news organizations can match. It offers one possible form for the newspaper of the future: an online publication narrowly focused on a specific topic, with content that includes interpretation, analysis, investigative reporting, and interactive engagement and that utilizes all of the tools of multimedia storytelling. In its singular focus, it may fulfill on a global scale an important mission of the local daily newspaper–that is, community influence."