The National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE) was established in the fall of 1993 to help religious communities in the United States respond to the global environmental crisis. As religious leaders started to recognize the spiritual dimensions of the ecological crisis, they began to call for a faith-based environmentalism that would mobilize the religious community to take better care of the Earth. One catalyst of this emerging environmental awareness was the circulation in 1991 of an “Open Letter to the American Religious Community” written by prominent scientists and Nobel laureate. The letter encouraged religious leaders to address the spiritual and moral dimensions of the ecological crisis and to incorporate environmental awareness into the various dimensions of religious life. Through organizations such as the United States Catholic Conference, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Eco-Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches, and the evangelical Leaders of World Vision, religious leaders responded by issuing statements and publications and by gathering for discussions about how to proceed. In March of 1992, prominent religious leaders met in the nation’s capital to plan an inter-religious environmental initiative, which resulted in the birth of the NRPE the following fall.

Since 1993, NRPE and its institutional partners have sponsored or facilitated a number of initiatives. Most recently, in November 2002, COEJL and the NCCC launched the Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign. This campaign has educated tens of thousands of people about the need to manufacture and drive vehicles with greater fuel economy. Fuel economy fairs were held in congregations in fifteen states featuring sermons, distribution of educational materials, and displays of hybrid electric automobiles in congregational parking lots following services. An Open Letter to American Automobile Company Executives was signed by more than 100 heads of denominations and senior religious leaders describing fuel economy as a matter of “values, not just vehicles; ethics, not just engineering,” and campaign leaders met with automobile executives and United Auto Workers leaders in a delegation to Detroit, following a press conference releasing the Open Letter. Concurrently, EEN launched a national campaign called “What Would Jesus Drive?”, which focused attention on the need for fuel economy. Other recent initiatives by NRPE partners address children’s environmental health; the Catholic Coalition for Children and a Safe Environment (CASE); EEN’s educational efforts and website; and a four-state campaign on children’s environmental health involving leaders from Women of Reform Judaism and the National Council of Catholic Women in 2001–2002. In addition to these and other recent initiatives, NRPE moved the headquarters of its secretariat from New York to Amherst, Massachusetts in 2002.