The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiative aims to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement by explicitly tackling the largest driver of the climate crisis - fossil fuels - and accelerating a fast, fair and financed transition away from coal, oil and gas. The push for a Fossil Fuel Treaty is spearheaded by a bloc of twelve countries - including two fossil fuel producers - from the Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. The global network behind the proposal is now formed by 2000 civil society organisations, over 3,000+ scientists and academics, 101 Nobel laureates, the World Health Organisation and hundreds of health professionals, a Vatican Cardinal and thousands of religious institutions, the European Parliament, a growing number of grassroots organisations, 9 Peruvian Indigenous nations, thousands of youth activists, 100 cities and subnational governments, more than 600 Parliamentarians across the world and a growing number of businesses.
Director(s): Alex Rafalowicz
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Law Students for Climate Accountability aspires to move legal ethics and practice toward a just transition for our climate, in solidarity with frontline communities, to build an equitable and sustainable world in our lifetimes. By activating and mobilizing the power of law students, Law Students for Climate Accountability aims to transform the legal industry’s role from exacerbating climate injustice to meaningfully supporting a just transition. Law Students for Climate Accountability began with a group of law students who created the Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard, and the initiative has since grown into a movement. Law Students for Climate Accountability believes that lawyers must take action to promote environmental justice, and the project works to change the narrative around what is possible in the legal profession.
Director(s): Haley Czarnek
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Garden for the Environment (GFE) is San Francisco’s dedicated site for gardening and composting education. GFE teaches people about the environment — soil, water, plants, creatures, and climate — so together we can grow a resilient, more beautiful world.
Location: San Francisco, California
Director(s): Maggie Marks
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Rise St. James is a faith-based grassroots organization that is fighting for environmental justice as it works to defeat the proliferation of petrochemical industries in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Nicknamed “Cancer Alley” for the above-average rates of cancer there, the area is home to a high concentration of polluting industries. Despite this, the state has plans to expand this chemical corridor with dozens more factories. Led by Sharon Lavigne, 2021’s Goldman Environmental Prize winner, Rise St. James galvanized community opposition and successfully defeated the construction of a $1.25 billion plastics manufacturing plant in 2019. The group is currently fighting to prevent Formosa Plastics from building a massive multibillion-dollar plastics plant in the parish.
Location: St. James Parish, Louisiana
Director(s): Sharon Lavigne
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Friends of Alemany Farm is a grassroots, community-based project that manages the horticulture, volunteer, and educational programs at Alemany Farm, a 3.5-acre organic farm in southeast San Francisco. The farm feeds at least 7,500 of San Francisco’s low-income, food-insecure residents each year by growing and distributing 25,000 pounds of free, organic fruits and vegetables. Its mission is to sow the seeds of food security, food sovereignty, and food justice among marginalized communities through service, collaboration, and education.
Location: San Francisco, California
Director(s): Abby Bell
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Mapping for Environmental Justice (MEJ) creates easy-to-use, publicly available maps that paint a holistic picture of intersecting environmental, social, and health impacts experienced by communities across the United States. MEJ’s maps display the environmental, public health, and socioeconomic disparities communities experience, enabling advocates and policymakers to identify disproportionately impacted areas.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Adam Buchholz
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Castanea Fellowship is a fellowship for established leaders working at the intersections of food, health, environment, agriculture, regional economies, and community development. Castanea Fellows are building power and shifting cultures and institutions toward a more healthy, equitable, and sustainable food system.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Krysten Aguilar
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Women’s Climate Centers International (WCCI), led by a partnership of women development professionals in Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and the United States, co-creates hubs for sustainable climate solutions with vulnerable communities. WCCI addresses climate change through programming in four key areas: community conservation and restoration, climate-smart technologies, bio-intensive farming, and leadership and entrepreneurship.
Location: Africa and United States
Director(s): Elaine McCarty and Sarah Diefendorf
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN) is a coalition of sustainable and organic farming organizations that advocate for state and federal policies to ensure the resilience of California farms and ranches in the face of climate change. The project centers farmer and rancher voices and calls for resources to support sustainable agriculture’s powerful climate solutions and to create a resilient, just, and healthy agricultural system.
Location: CalCAN's physical office is in Sacramento, with remote staff located throughout California
Director(s): Renata Brillinger
Address: 1230 N Street, #214, Sacramento, CA 95814
Planet Earth Arts was founded in 2014 with the belief that the arts, in collaboration with sciences and humanities, play a critical role in transforming the human presence on our planet from a destructive force to one that is beneficial to the entire community of life. The project explores the future of all life while addressing the most urgent environmental and social-justice issues of our time through the lens of arts and human creativity. Planet Earth Arts has incubated more than 200 short plays about climate change, mass extinctions, threats to our oceans, sea-level rise, and environmental justice.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Michael Fried
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Project photo on Our Project Network page: Yosemite Falls © Binh Danh
Action for a Livable Tomorrow works for environmental justice in northwest Louisiana by reducing toxic pollution, protecting children’s health, and creating better solutions to environmental challenges. Its campaign to protect air and groundwater pollution related to the cleanup of a Superfund site has led to working with national partners to end the open burning and detonation of hazardous waste by the Department of Defense and others. The project is also working to prevent childhood lead exposure in northwest Louisiana.
Location: Northwest Louisiana
Director(s): Frances Kelley
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Project photo on Our Project Network page: U.S. Air Force photo/ Samuel King Jr.
1000 Fountains is focused on eliminating the demand for single-use plastic water bottles by building a network of 1000 drinking fountains throughout San Francisco. Once completed, San Francisco will serve as an example for other cities throughout the country and beyond. If we want to reduce plastic waste, we have to reduce the production of plastic products.
Location: San Francisco, California
Director(s): Alexis van Gelder
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Fish bombing is the practice of setting off explosives to kill fish for consumption and sale. It indiscriminately kills animals in the blast area and devastates coral reefs, which can take decades to recover. Stop Fish Bombing uses blast detection technology and law enforcement to deter fish bombers. The project also includes community involvement, which allows people living in and around marine protected areas affected by fish bombing to assess the issues and determine the best ways to solve them.
Location: Borneo, Malaysia
Director(s): Dieter Rudolph
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Project photo on Our Project Network page: Scubazoo
Conservation Kids connects young adults with the environment through the use of photography.
Location: Point Reyes, California
Director(s): Daniel Dietrich
Address: P.O. Box 911, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
Wild Heritage advocates for policies in the United States and internationally that recognize the exceptional value of primary forests. Primary forests are critical to solving many of the world’s most pressing crises, from climate change and the extinction crisis to threats to Indigenous cultures and livelihoods. Wild Heritage works to keep primary forests free from industrial activity and for the restoration of degraded forests so that over time they begin to recover their primary-forest values.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Cyril Kormos
Address: P.O. Box 9451, Berkeley, CA 94709
PGM ONE is an affinity space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) from all over the Unites States to share, learn, collaborate, heal, build community, and live out their vision for racial equity in environmentalism. PGM ONE is a resource hub and refuge for People of the Global Majority. The program creates and fosters spaces to catalyze healing and liberation with the Earth, build personal and communal sovereignty, and fulfill our roles as living ancestors so that abundance and joy are shared between all beings and across generations.
Location: National
Director(s): Jorge Moreno
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Armenian Environmental Network facilitates tangible contributions to Armenia’s sustainable development by increasing awareness of and supporting solutions to environmental issues in Armenia.
Director(s): Serda Ozbenian
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Food Culture Collective is a community of play democratizing food culture to feed our collective healing and transformation. Including food workers, culture bearers, creatives, and co-conspirators, the Food Culture Collective dares to dream of a future in which our economies and cultures are shaped by care for the land, waters, and people to which we belong. The Food Culture Collective is united by a belief that food is culture and foundational to nourishing the systems, values, narratives, and everyday behaviors that shape our world. The program uses story, art, and experiences to disrupt a culture of extraction and exploitation and collectively reclaim and reimagine our relationships to food.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Director(s): Jovida Ross
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Kelly Creek Protection Project supports community efforts to protect a 58-acre parcel of land at the edge of Petaluma, California, from excessive suburban development. The property is a classic old ranch with habitat for a threatened frog species, oak trees, and iconic red barns. The project aims to expand the adjacent Helen Putnam Regional Park with a new trailhead for public access and preservation of the exquisite natural landscape, plants, and animals.
Location: Petaluma, California
Director(s): Greg Colvin
Address: P.O. Box 2596, Petaluma, CA 94953
Project photo on Our Project Network page: Scott Hess
Ecovet Global brings a veterinary lens to environmental challenges that affect humans, animals, and ecosystems. By improving the health and well-being of animals, locally and globally, Ecovet Global strengthens the health and resilience of the Earth and the people and animals that share its resources.
Location: Global
Director(s): Kate Sulzner
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Wild Oyster Project is dedicated to restoring wild oysters to the San Francisco Bay through restoration, community engagement, and stewardship. The Wild Oyster Project works with local restaurants, oyster farmers, and oyster lovers to recycle oyster shells that are used to build oyster reefs. The project also works with local planners and developers to build sustainable natural habitats to protect against erosion and rising sea levels.
Location: San Francisco, California
Director(s): Linda Hunter
Address: 224 Noe Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
Seeding Sovereignty is a multi-lens nonprofit organization that fights climate change and creates systems of care and resilience for frontline communities. Seeding Sovereignty does this by being in and of communities they serve and innovating opportunities for land, body, and food sovereignty work; community building; and cultural preservation. Seeding Sovereignty holds in its vision a world in which experiences, networks, and the collective wisdom of those outside the patriarchy rise together against the climate crisis, poverty, and ongoing systemic inequities. By investing in women and gender-expansive people and communities of the global majority, we create tangible pathways toward a livable world in which the exploitation of our planet for profit, cultural erasure and oppression, and violence is ended for future generations and we cross the threshold of liberation together.
Director(s): Janet MacGillivray
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Children in Nature Collaborative is part of a global movement to increase children’s equitable access to nature through a regional network of environmentalists, park professionals, educators, pediatricians, artists, and community activists. Its key areas of work are leadership, relationships and culture, collaborative action, and meaningful support.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Director(s): Mary Roscoe
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
West County DIGS supports school gardens in West Contra Costa, California, by providing resources, curriculum, advocacy, partnerships, and more. West County DIGS believes that all children should have the opportunity to connect with nature routinely in a positive way. By transforming the hearts, minds, and eating habits of students through garden and nutrition activities, the program builds community resilience by cultivating wellness, academic achievement, and sustainable practices.
Location: Richmond, California
Director(s): Graciella Rossi
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Environmental Finance Center West (EFCWest) catalyzes capacity in Native American Tribes, vulnerable communities, and organizations in the United States and abroad through leadership, entrepreneurship, and resiliency training. EFCWest emphasizes a systems approach to help its participants address and successfully respond to the complexity of the issues they face, such as climate change, health disparities, environmental degradation, and other inequities, including race, gender, and class.
Location: Oakland, California
Director(s): Sarah Diefendorf
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Shark Stewards works to save endangered sharks and rays from overfishing and the global shark fin trade through education, science, and policy change. The project also works to protect critical marine habitat through the support and establishment of marine protected areas.
Location: Sausalito, California
Director(s): David McGuire
Address: P.O. Box 617, Sausalito, CA 94966
The Green Life’s environmental leadership training and education program for formerly incarcerated adults aims to address the intersecting issues of environmental justice, poverty, public health, and restorative justice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Multiple environmental and public health studies have reported that the communities of East and West Oakland bear a disproportionate burden of environmental pollution, poverty, poor health outcomes, and mass incarceration compared to other communities within Alameda County. The Green Life’s program supports the leadership of those most directly impacted by environmental injustices by providing accessible training with a multi-disciplinary focus on environmental problems and solutions, incorporating the perspectives of environmental science, climate change, food systems, energy, public health, economic development, public policy, and environmental justice. It also includes a job readiness component that strengthens labor-market skills and provides detailed information on the green economy, green jobs, and career pathways.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Director(s): Angela Sevin
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Cultivate Oregon is a woman-led organization of farmers and educators focusing on regenerative agriculture issues and building local seed and food system resiliency. Through education and advocacy, Cultivate Oregon is growing a diverse and equitable food system that promotes biodiversity, pollinator and soil health, heritage seeds, and resource conservation.
Location: Southern Oregon
Director(s): Rhianna Simes
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Numi Foundation’s mission is to nurture and empower thriving communities. The project envisions a world in which all basic human needs are met and people have the resources to fulfill their greatest potential. Globally, Numi Foundation provides Numi Organic Tea’s fair trade farming communities with access to clean, safe drinking water; and in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sonoma County, California, it offers experiential gardening and arts curricula to low-income elementary public schools.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area and Sonoma, California; Madagascar, India, and South Africa
Director(s): Darian Rodriguez Heyman
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94710
Ultimate Civics works toward a government of, for, and by the people by empowering youth in activating democracy to emerge as game-changers. Through educational tools and lesson plans for middle-school and high-school students and teachers, Ultimate Civics engages and inspires future leaders.
Location: Vashon Island, Washington, and Haines, Alaska
Director(s): Riki Ott
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley CA 94704
Alter Terra takes an innovative approach to addressing the environmental and socioeconomic effects of unplanned urbanization by promoting initiatives that reduce poverty, create jobs, and improve general health of neighborhoods that lack sanitation and healthcare. Focusing on biodiversity and watershed-based planning, we create locally specific solutions for environmental conservation in impoverished regions of Americas.
Location: San Diego County, California, and Tijuana, Mexico
Director(s): Oscar Romo
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The ALERT (A Locally Empowered Response Team) Project strengthens environmental justice leadership by working collaboratively to reduce toxic exposures from oil-chemical activities in frontline communities, and advocates for stronger laws to reduce and protect workers and the public from oil-chemical exposures. The ALERT Project’s vision is to make healthy people and healthy communities part of our energy future.
Location: Pacific Northwest
Director(s): Riki Ott
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Serengeti is one of the world’s great natural treasures, yet it’s facing a host of critical threats from climate change, water shortage, invasive species, roads and dams, and a fast-expanding human population with growing needs. Serengeti Watch’s mission is to build lasting protection of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem by and for the people of East Africa.
Location: Ithaca, New York
Director(s): David Blanton
Address: 706 Cayuga Heights Road, Ithaca, NY 14850
Green Schoolyards America inspires and supports systems change to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into living schoolyards that improve children’s well-being, learning, and play, while strengthening their communities’ ecological health and climate resilience. The project works to change the paradigm for school ground design, use, and management so all children will have access to the natural world in the places they visit every day. Their work has a strong equity focus, and prioritizes locations that have the greatest need for educational, environmental, health, and open space improvements.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Sharon Danks
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, California 94704
Public Lands Media is an independent, non-partisan source of ecological and conservation information with the goal of providing scientifically informed perspectives on current environmental issues. Public Lands Media researches, writes, and publishes articles, essays, and editorials on a variety of natural resource and environmental topics. It also provides information and assistance to scientists, the public, conservation groups, and others so they can make informed decisions on complex ecological issues.
Location: Western United States
Director(s): George Wuerthner
Address: P.O. Box 8359, Bend, OR 97708
Wild Hope publishes inspiring stories of individuals and organizations endeavoring to safeguard wild species with the purpose of raising awareness of the need to preserve Earth’s biodiversity heritage and motivate readers to get involved in protecting other species with whom we share this planet.
Director(s): Kathryn Arnold
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The Global Women’s Water Initiative collaborates with women in Sub-Saharan Africa to bring sustainable water solutions to their communities. Through training, women become water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) technicians and entrepreneurs, bringing clean water, health, and wealth to the region.
Director(s): Gemma Bulos
Address: 285 Brooks Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711
All One Ocean’s mission is to educate communities about the destructive impact of litter on our oceans and waterways and to provide simple, sustainable, and effective ways to reduce that impact. Through its innovative youth leadership program (Ocean Warriors) and its beach cleanup programs, All One Ocean encourages community members of all ages to make responsible choices that will reduce or eliminate marine debris.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Director(s): Nicole Cibellis
Address: P.O. Box 263, Fairfax, CA 94978
Since 2009, Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp has been training aspiring progressive activists from all over the country and beyond to make a bigger difference in the world. YEA Camp’s life-changing sessions not only train campers to be more strategic and effective changemakers for the social justice causes they care about, but campers often describe YEA Camp as one of the best experiences of their life. YEA Camp also offers online resources to help people of any age get started or get serious in their activism, including the free ebooks The Beginner’s Guide to Changing the World and Kid-Friendly Vegan Cookbook. YEA Camp is for youth ages 12-17, and it offers financial aid for those who need it. Anyone too old to attend is invited to apply to be on staff over the summer.
Location: National
Director(s): Nora Kramer
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Transition Earth links the issues of population, health, and the environment to support the empowerment of people and a thriving world. The project engages with people — especially global youth — on issues related to population growth, such as sexual and reproductive rights, climate change, and the overconsumption of resources.
Location: San Francisco, California
Director(s): Suzanne York
Address: P.O. Box 460943, San Francisco, CA 94146
KIDS for the BAY believes that “Everyone Is an Environmentalist!” The project provides engaging environmental education programs in the classroom, in the local watershed, and on special field trips to creek, bay, and ocean habitats for under-resourced school students, teachers, and families. KIDS for the BAY is committed to equitable access to environmental science education and to restoring a healthy environment for all communities. Students learn that everyone has the right to live in a clean and healthy environment, take action to help solve environmental problems in their local watersheds, and become environmental stewards and leaders in their families and schools.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Mandi Billinge
Address: 1771 Alcatraz Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94703
Since 1982, the International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) has been a global leader in protecting whales and dolphins and their ocean habitats. IMMP pioneered the Dolphin Safe tuna fishing standard, stopping the intentional chasing and netting of dolphins by many tuna companies and preventing tens of thousands of dolphin deaths annually. IMMP directed the historic rescue and release of the orca whale Keiko, made famous in the movie Free Willy, and is fighting to end the tragic slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, as featured in the Academy Award–winning film The Cove. In addition, IMMP continues its ongoing campaigns to stop all trade in live dolphins and whales; to end the captivity of whales and dolphins for circus performances; and to fight pollution and plastics in the ocean, particularly the entanglement of marine life in fishing gear.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): David Phillips
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Project Coyote promotes compassionate carnivore coexistence through education, science, and advocacy. Its representatives and supporters include scientists, conservationists, educators, artists, and citizen leaders. The project works to educate the public and decision makers about why native carnivores are critical to thriving ecosystems and to change laws and policies to protect them from persecution and mismanagement.
Location: Larkspur, California
Director(s): Camilla H. Fox
Address: P.O. Box 5007, Larkspur, CA 94977
The Borneo Project brings international attention and support to community-led efforts to defend forests, sustainable livelihoods, and human rights in Malaysian Borneo. Protecting human rights and environmental integrity in Borneo is a critical component of the global movement for a just and peaceful world.
Director(s): Jettie Word
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Richmond Trees promotes the urban forest and green infrastructure in Richmond, California, through community tree planting, tree care, education, and advocacy in order to improve the health and well-being of the diverse Richmond community. Its vision is one of a healthy urban forest that covers at least 40 percent of the city and is cared for by partnerships between local community organizations and the City of Richmond.
Location: Richmond, California
Director(s): Jan Mignone
Address: P.O. Box 2887, Richmond, CA 94802
Nature in the City connects all people in the San Francisco Bay Area with nature. It creates local solutions to global biodiversity loss through habitat restoration projects and hands-on volunteering at its native plant sites, leads nature walks and events, and provides tools and educational resources for people to participate in citizen science and lifelong learning. Embedding a philosophy of equity in its work, Nature in the City makes community participation and partnership its cornerstones.
Location: San Francisco, California
Director(s): Amber Hasselbring
Address: P.O. Box 170088, San Francisco, CA 94117
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) empowers women’s leadership to protect our environment, end the climate crisis, and ensure a just, thriving world. Since 2006, WEA has catalyzed more than 25,000 women-led environmental justice projects in almost 30 countries, ensuring health, safety, economic stability, educational opportunities, and wellbeing for thousands of women — all while proliferating life-saving solutions like safe water and sanitation, food security, clean energy, waste management, and reforestation. WEA invests in and equips grassroots women leaders with the technical tools, entrepreneurial skills, financial resources, and networks of support they need to scale their solutions for change: because when grassroots women leaders take action to prevent environmental destruction and build healthier and more climate resilient communities, real transformation takes root.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Amira Diamond, Melinda Kramer, Kahea Pacheco
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Since 1984, the Sacred Land Film Project has produced a variety of media and educational materials to deepen the public’s understanding of sacred places, Indigenous cultures, and environmental justice. Its mission is to use film, journalism, and education to rekindle reverence for land, increase respect for cultural diversity, stimulate dialogue about connections between nature and culture, and help protect sacred lands and diverse spiritual practices. The project produced the award-winning film In the Light of Reverence (2001), and the four-part PBS series Standing on Sacred Ground (2013).
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Christopher (Toby) McLeod
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 440, Berkeley, CA 94704
For more than 25 years, the John Muir Project (JMP) has been at the forefront of the fight to protect our national forests, national parks, roadless areas, and other federal public lands from logging to ensure that these forests can fully support native plants and animals, contribute the most toward mitigating climate change, and create the best opportunities for respite and recreation. JMP relies on in-house original scientific research, forest watch, public education, national policy development, and the enforcement of environmental laws through litigation to ensure that our native forest ecosystems will be shaped by natural processes, such as fire, rather than chainsaws and profit.
Location: Ridgecrest, California
Director(s): Chad Hanson
Address: P.O. Box 897, Ridgecrest, CA 93556
Food Shift reduces wasted food, nourishes neighbors, and creates community opportunities. Food Shift’s social enterprise kitchen recovers food that would otherwise go to waste and upcycles or redistributes it with the help of Food Shift’s culinary training program apprentices who are overcoming employment discrimination. Creating and implementing solutions for the people, by the people, and with the people is the focus of Food Shift’s holistic vision for regenerative communities and the environment.
Location: Alameda, California
Director(s): Yuka Nagashima
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Project photo on Our Project Network page: Lisa Winner
Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT) is an environmental and social justice organization that aims to promote equitable access to outdoor activities and dismantle systems of oppression such as racism, sexism, and classism. BAWT provides training for teachers and youth leaders to lead middle-school age groups on outdoor experiences, and loans camping and hiking gear to these groups from our own Gear Library. BAWT prioritizes services for low-income youth and youth of color and ensures that our programs, organizational practices, and partnerships are inclusive and support their ideals and priorities.
Location: Oakland, California
Director(s): Genevieve Gandal
Address: 1100 57th Avenue, Oakland, CA 94621
The Mississippi Farm to School Network connects farmers with schools and early childcare education (ECE) centers to bring Mississippi-grown products into school cafeterias. The project advocates for local farmers and schools because it believes that purchasing locally-grown, locally-sourced food benefits everyone. But their mission doesn’t end there. The team is dedicated to strengthening the local agricultural economy and educating Mississippians on the importance of eating locally-grown, nutritionally-dense foods. At schools and ECE centers around the state, the Mississippi Farm to School Network teaches students how to grow their own gardens because they believe that if a child helps grow something, they will want to eat it.
Location: Mississippi
Director(s): Umi Mills and Tomika Bell
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94710
ÉnergieRich establishes local small-scale manufacturing of renewable-energy-powered appropriate technology. Communities throughout West Africa rely on imports of energy products and systems, thus missing critical opportunities for knowledge and technology transfers, such as innovative design, quality control, and local employment. ÉnergieRich partners with communities to design and locally manufacture clean-energy solutions.
Location: Santa Barbara, California, and West Africa
Director(s): Dena Montague
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Raptors Are The Solution (RATS) educates the public about the ecological role of raptors and the enormous danger to raptors and all wildlife, as well as pets and children, from the wide use and availability of rat poisons. RATS partners with organizations, government agencies, scientists, municipalities, and others to work toward eliminating toxic rodenticides from the food web.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Lisa Owens Viani
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Project photo on Our Project Network page: Pamela Dimeler
The California Institute for Community, Art & Nature (California I CAN) was launched in 2016 by Malcolm Margolin shortly after his retirement from the venerable publishing house he founded in 1974, Heyday Books. California I CAN is dedicated to showing people what a different world might look like — a world in which the integrity of nature is honored; where love of place shapes and defines us; where community gives us the security we need to become our true, unique selves; and where a widespread engagement in the arts connects us to the natural world and to each other. We immerse people in stories, observations, visions, and adventures that expand our imaginations and provide tools for engaging with a changing world. Our programs are revelatory and emotionally moving. In the words of the Ohlone language spoken in the San Francisco East Bay, “tappe ta-k hinnan” (we learn with the heart). Our three main program areas are: preserving and supporting California Indian arts and culture; promoting the City of Berkeley, California, as a center of social, cultural, and political innovation; and creating public programming weaving the arts and the environment together.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Malcolm Margolin
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
WildFutures advances the conservation of mountain lions, builds the skills of environmental leaders, and advises major donors to allocate funding to effective organizations addressing climate change and species extinction.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Sharon Negri
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Viva Sierra Gorda is part of the Sierra Gorda Alliance, which works to protect and support the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in the mountains of central Mexico.
Location: Querétaro, México
Director(s): Laura Pérez-Arce and Patricia Pérez-Arce
Address: Mailing address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
South Coast Habitat Restoration works to protect, conserve, and restore the various habitats and native biodiversity of the Santa Barbara and Ventura areas of California. Working with private landowners and local agencies, South Coast Habitat Restoration conducts regional fish enhancement projects, non-native invasive plant removal, fire and flood mitigation, and support for community-based watershed groups.
Location: Santa Barbara and Ventura, California
Director(s): Mauricio Gomez
Address: P.O. Box 335, Carpinteria, CA 93014
Spoonbill Action Voluntary Echo (SAVE) International works to protect the endangered black-faced spoonbill and its habitat throughout its flyway. SAVE International convenes experts across disciplines with grassroots communities to co-generate and implement plans that spatialize bird science into land-use requirements for threatened species and build support for habitat-preservation initiatives.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Marcia McNally
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Save Our Soil works to stop the use of hazardous and industrial wastes in fertilizer, soil amendments, and animal feeds due to their impacts on human health and the environment.
Location: Quincy, Washington
Director(s): Patricia Martin
Address: 617 H Street SW, Quincy, WA 98848
Ethical Traveler uses the economic clout of tourism to protect human rights and the environment. Through an annual Ten Best Ethical Destinations report, news stories, and ethical journeys that adhere to the highest fair-trade and sustainability standards, Ethical Traveler works to educate travelers and maximize benefits to host communities.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Jeff Greenwald
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
EcoVillage Farm Learning Center is a community-based farm in Richmond, California, that promotes sustainable urban agriculture, hands-on environmental education, economic and social justice, youth leadership, and community building.
Location: Richmond, California
Director(s): Shyaam Shabaka
Address: 21 Laurel Lane, Richmond, CA 94803
EcoEquity is a small, activist think tank that has had an outsized impact on the global climate equity debate. It has done this primarily, but not exclusively, by way of its fair shares campaign, in the context of a global emergency climate mobilization. This campaign has been pursued, first, via the Greenhouse Development Rights project and, more recently, by way of its successor the Climate Equity Reference Project.
EcoEquity is focused on political and theoretical work on global climate solutions that are fair enough to actually work. Through its participation in domestic and international networks of activists and scholars, it argues for emergency climate strategies that protect both nature and the poor, and more generally protect the rights of all people to dignified levels of just and sustainable development.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Tom Athanasiou
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Alaska Clean Water Advocacy works to prevent the degradation of public waters in Alaska through advocacy, education, litigation, legislation, and marketing campaigns in support of the fundamental goals of the federal Clean Water Act.
Location: Haines, Alaska
Director(s): Gershon Cohen
Address: P.O. Box 956, Haines, AK 99827
Baikal Watch engages both local and international partners in an effort to promote the permanent protection of biologically rich areas within the larger Lake Baikal watershed. Baikal Watch also undertakes numerous conservation initiatives in neighboring parts of Siberia, Mongolia, and northern Asia.
Director(s): Gary Cook
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Guias Unidos works to inspire community-based, conservation-minded tourism in Nicaragua by unifying local and international expertise and resources.
Location: Ometepe, Nicaragua
Director(s): Kathryn and Jeff Zylland
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
The California Trade Justice Coalition (CTJC) is a growing alliance of labor, environmental, public health, immigrant rights, human rights, and socially conscious business leaders working on better trade policy to build a strong California economy that works for all.
Location: Berkeley, California
Director(s): Will Wiltschko
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Eurasian Wildlife and Peoples’ mission is to protect the interconnected web of wildlife on our planet, reverse losses of wildlife and habitats, and amplify the voices and concerns of Indigenous peoples and local communities across Eurasia. Together with conservation groups, scientists, and community leaders and activists across Eurasia and in the United States, we facilitate conservation science to study and protect threatened wildlife and landscapes; amplify Indigenous voices and raise awareness of community struggles for basic human rights and environmental justice; and support and participate in activism to prevent or mitigate potentially destructive development.
Director(s): Jennifer Castner
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Friends of Muonde supports locally driven efforts to foment creativity and sustainable development in the Mazvihwa and neighboring areas of south central Zimbabwe. Through educational, agricultural, and community extension programs, Friends of Muonde backs local initiatives that maintain connections between spirit, community, and ecology.
Director(s): Ken Wilson
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Plastic Pollution Coalition is a nonprofit communications and advocacy organization that collaborates with an expansive global alliance of organizations, businesses, and individuals to create a more just, equitable, regenerative world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts.
Location: Los Angeles, California, and Washington, D.C.
Director(s): Dianna Cohen and Julia Cohen
Address: 4401A Connecticut Avenue NW, #143, Washington, DC 20008
Project photo on Our Project Network page: © aryfahmed
California Urban Streams Partnership is a network of local, regional, and statewide groups that protect, restore, and steward urban streams in California.
Location: Sebastopol, California
Director(s): Josh Bradt
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704
Junior Wildlife Ranger instills in children from all backgrounds and communities a lifelong sense of environmental stewardship and love for the natural world. Through free hands-on science activities, hiking, and bird-watching at local parks and National Wildlife Refuges, its programs teach youth the significance of public lands and wildlife protection.
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Director(s): Lynnea Shuck
Address: c/o Earth Island Institute, 2150 Allston Way, Suite 460, Berkeley, CA 94704