Watch CBS News

Owners Of Fiji Water Give Caltech $750 Million To Support Climate Research

PASADENA (CBSLA) — Caltech announced Thursday an "unprecedented" $750 million donation from the owners of The Wonderful Company to support environmental sustainability research.

The donation is the largest in Caltech's history, and the second-largest gift to a U.S. academic institution, according to university officials. Caltech says it is also the largest gift ever for environmental sustainability research.

2-2019_Caltech_LRR_SAR_6582_DL_rgb
(credit: Caltech)

The gift was pledged by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, the owners of The Wonderful Company -- which includes brands like Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, Fiji Water, and Halos mandarin oranges -- and will establish the Resnick Center. Caltech says the Resnick Center will include laboratories focused on ecology and biosphere engineering and translational science and engineering, as well as a solar science and catalysis center, a high-performance computing center, a water and environment lab and a remote sensing center.

This is not the Resnicks' first gift to Caltech , nor its first to go toward studying the effects of climate change. The couple, along with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, donated $30 million to establish the Resnick Sustainability Institute a decade ago and an additional pledge to start the Resnick Institute Innovation Fund – all to support new ideas in clean energy and sustainability science.

The donation will "permit Caltech to tackle issues of water, energy, food and waste in a world confronting rapid climate change," President Thomas F. Rosenbaum said in a statement.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.