The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) commissioned Roper Starch Worldwide to conduct a series of surveys to better assess the public understanding of the environment and environmental education, as well as how prepared they are for the environmental challenges facing all Americans.

In 2005, Environmental Literacy in America offered an assessment of environmental literacy in America that was both sobering and hopeful. The report was a summary of almost a decade of NEEF collaboration with Roper Reports provided a loud wake-up call to the environmental education community, to community leaders, and to influential specialists ranging from physicians to weathercasters. At a time when Americans were confronted with increasingly challenging environmental choices, we learned that our citizenry was by and large both uninformed and misinformed.