KR Foundation was established on 21 December 2014 by VILLUM FONDEN and the descendants of civil engineer Villum Kann Rasmussen. The foundation is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, but works internationally. We collaborate closely with The Velux Foundations and the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.

Mission 
The mission of KR Foundation is to help provide answers to, stimulate mind shifts about, and encourage action on, the long-term challenges posed by current and future generations living on a planet with finite resources, fragile ecosystems, and climate change.

Focus
At its fundamental level, every man-made product is composed of natural resources, which, in most instances, are finite or only slowly regenerated. The increasing exploitation of these scarce resources – e.g. through mining, fossil fuel extraction, deforestation etc. – has led to depletion of nature’s resources, to destabilization and pollution of ecosystems, and not least to global climate change, which calls for urgent mitigation efforts.

The root cause of these severe challenges is to be found in the structure of the current economy and the behaviours that accompany it. Our economic system does not acknowledge the fact that the planet’s ecosystem services are finite and fragile – often due to externalities being priced inadequately or not at all.

In order to balance humanity’s needs with the planetary boundaries, there is an urgent need to transform the current understandings of how we measure and value growth and of how we relate to and manage natural resources. Transforming the current unsustainable production and consumption patterns requires a global mind-shift and behaviour change towards fully sustainable practices.

As a philanthropic foundation, KR Foundation typically engages in areas where neither governments nor markets actors seem to have incentives to act. We are not restricted by short-term considerations and profit concerns. KR Foundation therefore engages in non-profit activities with long-term impact.