12 Local Organizations Selected for $900,000 in Grants to Fund Environmental Stewardship and Climate Resilience Projects

Building upon a long history of climate action and environmental stewardship, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and The PG&E Corporation Foundation (Foundation) have awarded $900,000 across two grant programs intended to support climate resilience efforts in PG&E’s hometowns, while also protecting and restoring land, water, and air in habitats and communities across California.

• Through the Better Together Nature Positive Innovation grant program, the Foundation will be awarding $500,000 to five grantees — one in each of PG&E’s five regions — that preserve California’s unique biodiversity, focusing on land, air quality, and water stewardship. 
• Separately, through the Resilience Hubs grant program, PG&E is issuing $400,000 to seven grantees to support communities in building a network of local climate resilience hubs. Both grant programs prioritize projects that address the needs of disadvantaged and/or vulnerable communities.

“When PG&E issued our Climate Strategy Report earlier this year, we recognized that our approach to climate action must be twofold — we have to become more resilient to the impacts being felt today, while also working to heal the planet and avoid the impacts of tomorrow. Through these two grant programs, we’re pleased to work collaboratively with organizations in our hometowns to address both of these challenges with a focus on equity,” said Carla Peterman, Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer for PG&E Corporation and Chair of the Board of The PG&E Corporation Foundation.

Better Together Nature Positive Innovation Grants

As one of the largest landowners in California, PG&E has a long history of responsible stewardship of the natural environment. Through the Better Together Nature Positive Innovation grant program, the Foundation is reinforcing its focus on environmental stewardship and pursuing opportunities to invest in partnerships that will promote protecting and restoring land, water, and air in habitats and communities across our service area.

For 2022, the Better Together Nature Positive Innovation grant program has awarded five $100,000 grants to the following organizations:

• 4th Second – creating ecosystem services and healthy food access in South Vallejo.
• Central Coast State Parks Association – increasing the exposure of underserved K-12 students to coastal habitats.
• City of Fresno, Department of Transportation – supporting public transportation and emissions reduction.
• Family Harvest Farm – developing a regenerative urban farm in an area food desert.
• Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association – providing traditional watershed resource management training and support.

“We appreciate The PG&E Corporation Foundation for recognizing our proposal to engage and work with property owners along the Cobb Area Watershed, which feeds directly into Clear Lake. This stewardship project targets watershed management practices in the Cobb Mountain community by recruiting local property owners to participate in 'hands-on' workshops interweaving resource management training with direct actions to match site conditions and landowner concerns. Every workshop we hold involves tribal knowledge holders and teachers, who will combine their expertise with that of other topical specialists,” said Eliot Hurwitz, Executive Director of the Seigler Springs Community Redevelopment Association.

For more information about the Better Together Nature Positive Innovation grant program, click here.

Resilience Hubs Grants 

Recognizing that communities across California face growing threats from extreme weather events such as coastal and inland flooding, heat waves, wildfires, and more powerful storms, the Resilience Hubs grant program seeks to fund and establish physical spaces, or a set of resources, that support community resilience in the face of these climate-driven events. Once developed, these hubs can also be accessed year-round to build and sustain community-adaptive capacity in a trusted location. 

For 2022, the Resilience Hubs grant program has awarded $400,000 to the seven organizations listed below. These grants will be funded by PG&E shareholders as part of the company’s investments in statewide wildfire resiliency and response, in accordance with a mandate from the California Public Utilities Commission. 

The program awarded $25,000 each to four Feasibility Projects to fund an assessment of resilience hub needs and/or conceptual ideas for a resilience hub:

•  LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired – studying the feasibility of creating a resilience hub at Enchanted Hills Camp for the blind and visually impaired.
• Little Manila Rising – assessing the creation of a hub at an existing local community center.
• Mattole Restoration Council – studying community needs for a resilience center in Lower Mattole.
• North Valley Community Foundation – identifying and evaluating a network of sites across Butte County. 

Additionally, the program awarded $100,000 each to three Design and Build Projects toward the design and/or creation of a resilience hub. Through these projects, the organizations will either plan and design new physical spaces or mobile resources, or retrofit existing buildings or structures to support community resilience:

•  Marin Center for Independent Living – providing an on-site and digital hub to assist people living with disabilities during emergencies.
• Support Life Foundation – retrofitting an existing building into a resilience hub with solar panels, batteries, and other upgrades.
• Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano – installing two refrigerated container units for deployable meals for food insecure individuals during emergency situations.  

“The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano is thrilled to receive funding to strengthen our partners’ ability to serve their communities, especially in times of acute crisis. By storing emergency food in central locations, we will ensure the community has access to critical services — without delay,” said Joel Sjostrom, President and CEO of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. 

For more information about the Resilience Hubs grant program, click here.