Blacksmith Institute has changed its name to Pure Earth. Our work and commitment remain the same.
“… in the end, it was Dev Patel, the brilliant actor who played the hero of Slumdog Millionaire, who pushed us to choose Pure Earth. This name tells the mission and goal of the organization in two words – Pure Earth” — Richard Fuller, President, Pure Earth.
Read: Q&A with “Slumdog Millionaire”: Dev Patel on his Belated Birthday Present – A Pure Earth
When Blacksmith Institute was founded in 1999, our goal was to tackle toxic pollution problems in low- and middle-income countries. In order to do that, we would handle problems no one else wanted to touch.
As founder Richard Fuller states in his upcoming book The Brown Agenda, ‘we would employ scientists, public health experts, and environmental engineers who would put boots on the ground and dirty their hands in some of the worst polluted places on the planet.’
Similarly, the blacksmith has a very dirty job. The blacksmith puts his whole being, muscle and mind, into his job, taking raw materials and making them into useful products. Therefore the name Blacksmith Institute came to fruition.
Learn more about our name change.
Our new logo combines three symbolic meanings:
1. The rounded diamond shape – this shape was taken from construction and hazardous warning signs used in construction.
2. The shovel – a symbol of labor, construction and working with the environment. In the U.S. important construction projects begin with a ceremony, where all the project leaders use shovels to start the work on the site by symbolically digging to begin the construction.
3. The color gradient from orange to green – In the U.S. orange is used as a color for chemical warning labels. Green represents nature in its pure state. The gradient from orange to green symbolizes the transformational work Pure Earth does – helping communities restore contaminated sites to pure ones.
* Please visit our new website www.pureearth.org for the latest information on our projects.