Community-focused outreach project, Access Clean CA, helped resident in underserved community afford electric vehicle and solar panels

Community-focused outreach project, Access Clean CA, helped resident in underserved community afford electric vehicle and solar panels

California Air Resources Board

Thanks to $440,000 from California Climate Investments through Access Clean California, Latino and Latina Roundtable is connecting residents of environmentally and economically disadvantaged communities with benefits like electric vehicle incentives and solar power. The California Air Resources Board’s Access Clean California is designed to partner with community-based organizations to raise awareness of the incentives available and help California's most impacted communities better access the clean transportation and mobility funding. Access Clean California also works to help build the capacity of community organizations to conduct clean mobility outreach.

Fuel Cell Electric Trucks Reduce Air Pollution Throughout the Central Valley

Fuel Cell Electric Trucks Reduce Air Pollution Throughout the Central Valley

California Air Resources Board

Thanks to $12 million from the Advanced Technology Demonstration and Pilot Projects and $29 million in match funding from multiple project partners, the NorCAL Zero-Emission Regional and Drayage Operations with Fuel Cell Electric Trucks (NorCAL Zero) Project will support the largest commercial deployment of Class 8 hydrogen-powered fuel cell trucks in the country. These zero-emission trucks will improve the air quality of communities between Oakland and Bakersfield by displacing diesel-fueled trucks that emit harmful air pollutants.

New Equipment on a Turlock Dairy Farm Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Produces Co-Benefits

New Equipment on a Turlock Dairy Farm Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Produces Co-Benefits

California Department of Food and Agriculture

Supported by a $565,470 grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Alternative Manure Management Program, Paul Danbom of Brindeiro & Danbom Dairy Farms in Turlock took a significant step towards improving the efficiency of his dairy operation and installed a new solid separation system. Instead of flushed manure being discharged directly into a settling pond and storage lagoon system, it is now pumped through a separator capable of capturing a large portion of manure solids, keeping that organic material from entering and decomposing in a liquid environment where it would produce methane.

Supporting Adaptation and Resilience Planning in the City of Morro Bay

Supporting Adaptation and Resilience Planning in the City of Morro Bay

California Coastal Commission

Using a $65,000 grant awarded under the Coastal Resilience Planning program, the City of Morro Bay engaged with its community to update the City’s Land Use Plan, the first step to updating its Local Coastal Program to include updated adaptation strategies and land use policies that will protect coastal infrastructure and provide resilience to future coastal hazards.

Building the Capacity of a Food Rescue and Distribution Network in Fresno

Building the Capacity of a Food Rescue and Distribution Network in Fresno

The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery

The non-profit Fresno Metropolitan Ministry (Fresno Metro), in partnership with the Central California Food Bank, is using a $300,000 grant from the Food Waste Prevention and Rescue Grant Program to expand their capacity to rescue and distribute more edible food through their Food to Share program. Over the grant term, Fresno Metro will add 20 new food recovery school sites from Fresno Unified and Central Unified School Districts, set up 5 new food distribution sites at local community-based organizations, and increase direct food recoveries by adding 2 new retail locations and 6 urban gleaning sites

Studying the Public Health Effects of Increased Prescribed Burns for Wildfire Management

Studying the Public Health Effects of Increased Prescribed Burns for Wildfire Management

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

Supported by a $500,000 grant from the Forest Health Research Program, the Sequoia Foundation, in partnership with the California Department of Public Health and others, is investigating the impacts of increasing prescribed fire on air quality and public health outcomes. Although prescribed fire plans are designed to limit air quality impacts to communities, they still produce some level of smoke. In this project, this interdisciplinary team will collect information that can help minimize the impacts of this smoke through a combination of smoke modeling, exposure assessment, health analysis, and community engagement.

Kompogas SLO Inc. is Creating Fuel and Compost with Waste

Kompogas SLO Inc. is Creating Fuel and Compost with Waste

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery

Kompogas SLO Inc. received $3 million through the Organics Grants program to build a high-solids anaerobic digester, to be known as the Lancaster Organic Waste Facility, at the existing Lancaster Landfill and Recycling Center in Antelope Valley. With this new anaerobic digester, Kompogas SLO Inc. will be able to process residential food and green waste collected by Waste Management Inc. throughout Antelope Valley, including in the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, and turn it into renewable natural gas and high-grade compost.

Expanding Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification

Expanding Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification

California Workforce Development Board

Using $1.25 million from the Low-Carbon Economy Workforce program, the Expanding Energy Storage and Microgrid Training and Certification (EESAMTAC) project is increasing the number of participating Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Centers from six to 21 centers located across the State. These training centers will help electricians and apprentices earn a certification demonstrating they have the skills to safely handle and diagnose modern energy storage systems and battery technologies.

Climate Resilience Planning for Key Sacramento River Watersheds

Climate Resilience Planning for Key Sacramento River Watersheds

California Wildlife Conservation Board

Supported by $400,000 from the Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program, a coalition of federal, academic, non-profit and private organizations has developed a modeling tool to enhance climate adaptation and resilience planning in five Sacramento River watersheds. These watersheds provide the vast majority of California’s utilized water and over 80 percent of the freshwater to San Francisco Bay. By estimating the ecological returns of conservation and restoration efforts, the modeling tool will help determine what future actions and investments would best restore and protect the health of this important region.

Community Outreach and Education through the Clean Air Ambassador Program

Community Outreach and Education through the Clean Air Ambassador Program

California Strategic Growth Council

Supported by $2.4 million from a $23 million Transformative Climate Communities implementation grant, a coalition of community members, non-profits, and public-sector agencies called Green Together, is working to build a new generation of air quality ambassadors in the Pacoima and Sun Valley communities of the San Fernando Valley. The Clean Air Ambassadors Program, established as part of the Green Together Community Engagement Plan, trains community youth organizers through workshops covering air quality monitoring, health, climate change and air pollution. Through the program, ambassadors learn how to collect and interpret data using scientific tools to measure local particulate matter pollution. Ambassadors also learn how to communicate air pollution principles and advocate for data-informed clean air solutions. In 2021, the Clean Air Ambassadors Program hosted its inaugural class of youth leaders.

Supporting Farmers and Rancher’s Access to Grant Funding

Supporting Farmers and Rancher’s Access to Grant Funding

California Department of Food and Agriculture

Supported by $3.57 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Climate Smart Agriculture initiative provides technical assistance to help farmers find funding and implement projects that support their work while helping to achieve the State’s climate goals. These funds, which were leveraged by California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Strategic Growth Council, support 10 Community Education Specialists, a group of technical experts with the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Since 2019, these Community Education Specialists have assisted over 850 farmers and ranchers across the State with applications to programs under the Climate Smart Agriculture initiative.

Supporting Families with Affordable Housing

Supporting Families with Affordable Housing

California Strategic Growth Council

Supported in part by nearly $23 million award from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, Resources for Community Development (RCD) will provide 87 affordable rental homes in the city of Berkeley through the Maudelle Miller Shirek Community project. In addition to large, family-sized apartments and permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless residents, the ground floor of the building will become the headquarters of Healthy Black Families, Inc., a South Berkeley-based nonprofit dedicated to the health of Black families in the community. This project will help Black families and formerly homeless individuals live healthier lives and receive health services through on-site programs and services offered by Healthy Black Families, Inc.,, RCD’s resident services, and the City of Berkeley Mental Health department and third-party service providers.

Launching a New Capacity Building and Community Empowerment Project

Launching a New Capacity Building and Community Empowerment Project

California Strategic Growth Council

The Partners Advancing Climate Equity (PACE) pilot program is a capacity-building program administered by the California Strategic Growth Council and funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The year-long pilot program began in 2021 and supported 22 participants – all local leaders deeply rooted in their communities across the state – and sought to increase their ability to advance equitable and community-driven climate solutions.

Advancing Ecological, Cultural, and Community Resilience with Tribal Nations in Southern California

Advancing Ecological, Cultural, and Community Resilience with Tribal Nations in Southern California

California Strategic Growth Council

With a $990,350 award from the Climate Change Research Program, the Resilient Restoration project – led by the Climate Science Alliance Tribal Working Group, University of California Riverside, and San Diego State University – is promoting Tribal resilience by developing knowledge and supporting actions that enhance persistence of cultural practices with a focus on preserving the ecosystems and species that are integral to Tribal communities.

Supporting Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Generation in Multi-Family Farmworker Housing

Supporting Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Generation in Multi-Family Farmworker Housing

California Department of Community Services and Development

People’s Self-Help Housing was awarded over $630,000 from the Low-Income Weatherization Program’s (LIWP) Multi‑Family Energy Efficiency and Renewables program to invest in the health and well-being of its low-income farmworker community in Santa Maria, known as Los Adobes de Maria. The homes of the 65 farmworker families living in Los Adobes de Maria will receive energy efficiency upgrades that will reduce energy consumption and lower their bills.

Partnership Helps Protect San Diego County Forests

Partnership Helps Protect San Diego County Forests

California Natural Resources Agency

The Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County (RCD) is using their $1.4 million grant awarded in 2019 from the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity program to develop the region’s capacity to restore the health of its forests and protect them from severe wildfires in the future. To carry out this work, the RCD has partnered with several California Native American Tribes, the Cleveland National Forest, a private cattle company, and the Palomar Observatory to manage the region, which includes the last mixed conifer forest in San Diego County. The RCD is also developing training programs for several Fire Safe Councils in San Diego County serving 46 communities, so they can support this work.

Healthy Soils Through Whole-Orchard Recycling

Healthy Soils Through Whole-Orchard Recycling

California Department of Food and Agriculture

David Viguie of Viguie Farming is revitalizing soil health on 44 acres of a 28-year-old French prune orchard located in the city of Winters. Prior to receiving a Healthy Soils Program grant, David conventionally farmed his orchard. In his pursuit to restore the property's soil health, David applied to the Healthy Soils Program and received a $38,378 grant from California Climate Investments to achieve his goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing soil carbon by removing a prune orchard through whole-orchard recycling.

Demonstrating Emissions-Reducing Solutions for the Freight Sector

Demonstrating Emissions-Reducing Solutions for the Freight Sector

California Air Resources Board

The San Joaquin Valley Flexible Solutions for Freight Facilities project, supported with $22.6 million in funding from the Zero-and Near Zero-Emission Freight Facilities Project along with $22.6 million in matched funds from project partners, demonstrated advanced technologies on locomotives and hybrid and zero-emission equipment around rail yards. For one part of this multi-component project, the Wabtec Corporation designed, manufactured, and commissioned a battery-electric locomotive to operate in tandem with two diesel locomotives from BNSF Railway, operating like a hybrid vehicle.

Woodstove Replacements Heat Homes in Butte County

Woodstove Replacements Heat Homes in Butte County

California Air Resources Board

More than 54 Butte County households have replaced their old woodstove or stove insert with a new, cleaner alternative that heats their home, improves indoor air quality, and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, harmful particulates, and black carbon, a particularly potent climate pollutant, thanks to vouchers provided by the Woodsmoke Reduction Program. Among the residents who have benefitted from the program are Dennis and Deb, who replaced their 1979 woodstove insert, and Riki, who replaced the woodstove that came with their farmhouse, built before 1900.