The organization was founded in 1967, with only 10 people at first. They advocate that everyone must take practical actions for environmental protection, not just at the level of discussion. Now the organization has 300,000 members and 150 full-time staff, half of whom are scientists, lawyers, economists and other full-time staff.

The Environmental Protection Foundation of the United States started its own environmental protection campaign against the use of DDT pesticides, which finally prompted the United States to ban the use of DDT pesticides nationwide from 1972, becoming the first country in the world to take measures to control pesticide pollution through government actions. In the early days, the organization mainly promoted legislation by legal means, and urged local governments to enforce the law, otherwise they went to court. Later, they changed their strategy and realized that truly effective environmental protection cannot be prohibited by coercive measures alone. They must also learn to cooperate with enterprises, establish partnerships and discuss with them what they can do. The successful cooperation between the organization and McDonald's is a classic example: they asked McDonald's to transform plastic packaging boxes into degradable paper packaging. This reform measure is beneficial to enterprises and environmental protection.