Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the billionaire owners of Fiji bottled water, have pledged an incredible $750 million to go towards supporting climate change research, making it the largest monetary commitment in history, Business Insider reported.
The couple are known for being passionate entrepreneurs and generous philanthropists, and they’ve now turned their attention towards funding environmental sustainability research.
RELATED STORIES
The money was donated to the California Institute of Technology to support their climate change studies.
“In order to comprehensively manage the climate crisis, we need breakthrough innovations, the kind that will only be possible through significant investment in university research,” Stewart Resnick said in a statement.
He added, “Science and bold creativity must unite to address the most pressing challenges facing energy, water, and sustainability.”
Caltech plans to build a new center dedicated to the powerful, generous couple.
The 75,000-square-foot building, dubbed the “Resnick Sustainability Resource Center”, will serve as the core area for the institute’s climate change research. It will provide state-of-the-art teaching laboratories for undergraduate studies.
The research university says the Resnick’s donation will go towards funding crucial environmental sustainability research.
This includes building smarter electricity infrastructure, converting the sun’s energy into fuels, measuring, modeling and mitigating climate change, managing water resources, and global ecology.
The generous pledge will allow researchers “to tackle issues of water, energy, food, and waste in a world confronting rapid climate change,” Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum said.
The Resnick couple own Wonderful Co., which is the world’s largest producer of almonds and pistachios.
The company’s brands also include POM Wonderful pomegranate products, Halo mandarins, and Fiji Water, amassing the couple’s estimated net worth of $9 billion.
This isn’t the first time the couple have donated to Caltech. They’ve previous pledged $20 million and then later another $15 million to create the Resnick Institute Innovation Fund.
h/t: Business Insider , Forbes
