ANNUAL REPORT 2021
PEOPLE & NATURE
ANNUAL REPORT 2021
PEOPLE & NATURE
Executive Letter
Throughout 2021, the Sierra Club Foundation witnessed the power of people working together toward the common goal of saving, enhancing, and enabling access to nature. Coalitions united to secure a cleaner future and healthier environment for frontline communities by halting the extraction and distribution of fossil fuels, organizations collaborated to restore natural treasures, and community outreach brought more of us outdoors.
The Sierra Club Foundation leveraged its leadership role as a shareholder, investor, and thought leader to push financial institutions and investment fund managers to stop financing new fossil fuel projects and increase investments in clean energy projects that provide safe and affordable energy for all. We provided catalytic capital to community-centered clean energy initiatives and launched a new grantmaking fund to offer strategic programmatic support to partner and ally organizations that advance the shared goals of the Sierra Club Foundation and the Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club, with fiscal sponsorship and funding support from the Sierra Club Foundation, worked in partnership with frontline communities, Tribes, local grassroots organizations, and municipalities to show that we can protect nature when we catalyze people to be powerful together.
This year’s annual report showcases some of the results of these partnerships. With the new Biden administration came reversals of many of the Trump-era’s disastrous policies, and proactive efforts to enhance environmental protections and the well-being of communities most affected by climate change. Many of these actions were the result of years of Sierra Club activism, such as the final cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, while others, like the goal of preserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, offered us new policy advocacy and organizing opportunities on the state, national, and global levels.
The Sierra Club also continued to reckon with its complex history — one that often failed to recognize and respect Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. We recommitted to meaningfully and permanently following the lead of communities of color in our mission to protect and improve the natural and human environment.
Only with significant and sustained changes can we stave off the dire consequences of climate change. People working for nature, in nature, and with nature are powerful enough to make these changes. This year’s annual report celebrates our growing movement to create a thriving planet with safe and healthy communities where everyone and all life can flourish.
Throughout 2021, the Sierra Club Foundation witnessed the power of people working together toward the common goal of saving, enhancing, and enabling access to nature. Coalitions united to secure a cleaner future and healthier environment for frontline communities by halting the extraction and distribution of fossil fuels, organizations collaborated to restore natural treasures, and community outreach brought more of us outdoors.
The Sierra Club Foundation leveraged its leadership role as a shareholder, investor, and thought leader to push financial institutions and investment fund managers to stop financing new fossil fuel projects and increase investments in clean energy projects that provide safe and affordable energy for all. We provided catalytic capital to community-centered clean energy initiatives and launched a new grantmaking fund to offer strategic programmatic support to partner and ally organizations that advance the shared goals of the Sierra Club Foundation and the Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club, with fiscal sponsorship and funding support from the Sierra Club Foundation, worked in partnership with frontline communities, Tribes, local grassroots organizations, and municipalities to show that we can protect nature when we catalyze people to be powerful together.
This year’s annual report showcases some of the results of these partnerships. With the new Biden administration came reversals of many of the Trump-era’s disastrous policies, and proactive efforts to enhance environmental protections and the well-being of communities most affected by climate change. Many of these actions were the result of years of Sierra Club activism, such as the final cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, while others, like the goal of preserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030, offered us new policy advocacy and organizing opportunities on the state, national, and global levels.
The Sierra Club also continued to reckon with its complex history — one that often failed to recognize and respect Black, Indigenous, and communities of color. We recommitted to meaningfully and permanently following the lead of communities of color in our mission to protect and improve the natural and human environment.
Only with significant and sustained changes can we stave off the dire consequences of climate change. People working for nature, in nature, and with nature are powerful enough to make these changes. This year’s annual report celebrates our growing movement to create a thriving planet with safe and healthy communities where everyone and all life can flourish.
Thanks to your financial support, in 2021 we:
AWARDED OVER
IN GRANTS
$0m
UTILIZED
%
0
OF TOTAL EXPENSES FOR DIRECT PROGRAM SUPPORT
Lands, water & wildlife
Protecting Lands, Water, and Wildlife
Sierra Club expanded access to the outdoors, pushed for solutions to combat climate change, and restored fragile ecosystems that nourish our planet. It is leading the way toward meeting the ambitious goal to protect 30 percent of our lands and water by 2030 by protecting priority lands critical to climate solutions and providing connected wildlands and waters where wildlife, plants, and people thrive, including species at threat of extinction. Sierra Club’s partnerships with Tribal nations led to restored protections for sacred, natural treasures, while a focus on cutting the nature equity gap in half will bring equitable outdoors access — a basic human right — to an additional 50 million people.
Sierra Club supported a coalition effort led by Tribal Nations to restore protections for key national natural treasures and safeguard their sacred lands and their health. Millions of people sent public comments, made phone calls, attended webinars, and showed up at rallies in support of monument protections. Following this activism and work by the Bears Ears Tribal Coalition (BEITC) and others, President Biden restored more than 2 million acres to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase–Escalante in Utah, reversing cuts imposed by former President Trump that opened sacred lands to oil and gas drilling and uranium mining. Members of the BEITC expect to participate in the development of new management plans for the restored monuments, with the traditional knowledge and place-based conservation strategies of Tribal communities playing a significant role in shaping efforts to conserve and plan a resilient future for this universally beloved landscape.
The administration’s meaningful consultation with Tribes continued by launching a new landscape planning process for the Greater Chaco region in New Mexico, which has been subject to large-scale resource exploitation and a history of Navajo displacement and land dispossession for more than a century. Fracking in New Mexico has made it the nation’s second-largest oil producer and is responsible for nearly half of all federal carbon emissions. Greater Chaco Coalition members, including the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter, look forward to repairing the longstanding damage of mineral resource extraction to the area and the health of local residents, Tribes, and Pueblos with cultural ties to the region.
“Everyone has a stake here, but for us as Native Americans, these are lands we call home. As President of the United States, you can create common ground for all American citizens to stand upon. By honoring the land, you will honor all people who serve as stewards of these public lands for centuries. We are ready to share what we have learned over the past 12,000 years as we chart a path forward together.”
Willie Greyeyes (he/him)
former Chair, Utah Diné Bikéyah
Statement issued to urge the President to protect Bears Ears
The Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign showed the power of people coming together to make nature more accessible and welcoming to all. Sierra Club championed the appointment of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet member in U.S. history. Under her leadership, the Interior Department is leading an effort to ensure that Black, Indigenous and communities of color have a seat at the table in shaping our conservation goals. Out of the gate, Haaland committed $150 million (the largest single investment in history) to expand access to urban parks for millions of people, increased access to national parks, electrified public transit fleets and built more EV charging stations, and launched a task force to review and replace racist place names. The Outdoors for All campaign also supported state outdoors access efforts, including giving fourth graders in California free entry to state parks and leading a New York task force to expand public land access for veterans.
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) stops 99 percent of listed species from going extinct, one of our most effective tools for protecting the planet’s myriad species that contribute to the power of nature. In 2021, the Biden administration began reinstating ESA protections gutted by the Trump administration. Sierra Club and allies scored a key legal victory by restoring protections to more than 800 species of migratory birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, enforcing precautionary measures to prevent power lines or oil spills from killing birds and issuing legal penalties for bird deaths caused by industry actions such as drilling. These victories move us closer to the solutions necessary to slow mass extinction and protect habitats.
Following recommendations from top climate scientists, the Biden administration set a goal of protecting 30 percent of our lands by 2030 to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and environmental decay. The 30x30 initiative is an opportunity to reverse the damage of corporate polluters, invest in equity, and enhance access to natural spaces. California’s Governor Gavin Newsom then commissioned a report charting the action needed to meet this goal statewide, opening a robust opportunity for the Sierra Club to locally implement this national strategy. A statewide coalition to advance the plan’s goals includes the Sierra Club, Native Tribes, conservation organizations, scientists, and land trusts. The Sierra Club California 30x30 Task Force, comprising all 13 chapters in California, shows how local communities are the state’s greatest resource to ensure we meet these ambitious goals in the next eight years.
Expanding Clean Energy and Climate Solutions
It’s not enough to take fossil fuels out of our country’s energy equation; we need viable transitions from dirty energy to clean power sources. New clean vehicle regulations will protect communities of color from the health disaster of breathing in diesel exhaust, while Sierra Club works with the Biden administration to support communities traditionally dependent on the coal plants being retired. Sierra Club’s mobilizations built public support over the past decade that finally led to the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, but there’s still work ahead to raise awareness of other pipelines and the damage they wreak. Together, we have the power to continue elevating the benefits of renewable energy to our health, our communities, and our climate.
“Today’s victory is the result of six years of tireless efforts of the Rio Grande Valley communities in South Texas who have written comments, attended hearings, protested banks, and more to protect their health, their precious coastline and the climate from Annova LNG’s proposed fracked gas project. No LNG export terminal has any place in our communities or our energy future, and today’s news is a step in the right direction to putting an end to exporting fracked gas across the world.”
Rebekah Hinojosa (she/her)
Senior Gulf Coast Campaign Representative, Sierra Club
Along the Gulf Coast, not one of the 20 proposed fracked gas export facilities reached a final investment decision to move forward in 2021. The proposed Annova LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) export terminal in Brownsville, Texas was scrapped by its developer in the face of public opposition and mounting legal challenges organized by the Sierra Club in partnership with Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, Save RGV from LNG, Vecinos para el Bienestar de la Comunidad Costera — a group of local residents from Laguna Heights represented by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid — and the City of Port Isabel. Those same legal challenges, spearheaded by the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, sent federal regulators back to the drawing board on Rio Grande LNG and Texas LNG after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled they’d failed to adequately analyze the facilities’ climate and environmental justice impacts. The oil and gas industry view export facilities as a pathway to drive new markets for dirty fuels, but by exporting pollution overseas, they exacerbate climate change that threatens the health of those not only here but in communities worldwide.
At home, these facilities threaten Indigenous rights, wetlands, community health, and wildlife. The Sierra Club will continue to challenge these proposals to ensure that these setbacks are not the last for these dangerous projects.
Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, one of the most extensive and effective campaigns to take on climate change, achieved significant victories in 2021. President Biden announced an executive order supporting communities traditionally dependent on fossil fuels and aiming for a carbon-free energy sector by 2035 and ended the year with a retirement proposal for one of the country’s largest remaining coal plants lacking modern pollution controls. The Sierra Club and its partners secured retirement announcements for nearly 16 gigawatts of coal capacity in 2021. The successful termination of the proposed Millennium coal export terminal in Washington culminated a decade-long fight against its disastrous climate implications. Subtracting coal is only one part of changing our country’s energy equation — the Sierra Club’s advocacy has contributed to a six-fold increase in wind and solar energy production and supported a robust economic transition in coal-mining communities.
After more than a decade of relentless coalition advocacy, legal battles, mobilizations, demonstrations, and shifting public apathy into genuine concern, the Keystone XL Pipeline was finally canceled in 2021. Legal injunctions won over the years by the Sierra Club and partners stalled construction, giving activism and education the time needed to convince decision-makers and the public that fossil fuel pipelines are an environmental catastrophe. The Keystone XL victory shows that no fossil fuel project is inevitable or unstoppable when people come together to fight back. This hard-won triumph doesn’t end the fight against pipelines — it fuels the ongoing challenges against other projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the fight to hold officials accountable for failing to stop the devastating Enbridge Line 3 in Minnesota. The Sierra Club’s powerful partnerships with Tribes and allied organizations show that together, people can protect nature and themselves.
Car, bus, and truck emissions are the nation’s largest source of air pollution, where the brunt of toxic emissions greatly impact the health of Black, Indigenous and people of color who live in communities often situated alongside busy roadways and near transport facilities. In 2021, five states (OR, WA, MA, NY, NJ) adopted California’s clean truck regulations, while the Sierra Club and its partners are pushing for similar measures nationally. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 includes billions in funding for public transit, electric vehicle charging stations, electric school buses, and cleaning up dirty ports. The Sierra Club and coalition partners contributed 200,000 public comments voicing support for the federal clean cars rule, one of the most significant ways the U.S. can slash climate emissions, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized in December 2021.
Lands, water & wildlife
Supporting Movement Building
From coast to coast, people came together to build power and advocate for environmental justice and equitable climate solutions to benefit their communities and beyond. Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities united with Sierra Club and other organizations to push an ambitious clean energy agenda in Oregon, while coalitions in California made strides toward phasing out drilling and widening the buffer zone between extraction sites and residential communities. Across South Carolina, the Sierra Club mobilized 42 organizations to support a popular plan for cleaner, more just energy policies statewide. Together, people are showing the power of uniting around changes that have the potential to shape a future where everyone can thrive.
Talya Tavor (she/her)
2021 marked the 30th anniversary of the Sierra Student Coalition (SSC). What started as a handful of youth who gathered to sharpen their advocacy and activism skills has grown into a diverse community of young activists from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The SSC has trained more than 3,000 young people in organizing skills and climate and environmental justice issues through the Sierra Club’s summer training program (Sprog). Sprog enables young organizers to deepen their organizing, advocacy, and activism skills and anti-racism analysis in order to build relationships with other youth in their regions, forming a basis for effective campaigns. The Climate Justice Academy has trained more than 500 young people who have an interest in climate and environmental justice to get their start in the world of organizing and movement building.
Building a just and sustainable youth movement means actively centering participants from Black, Indigenous and communities of color, who bear the brunt of climate change and environmental degradation. Through anti-oppression trainings and principles, SSC-ers have created a space where young people from these communities can truly lead and shape every aspect of the work.
Trainings focus on how solving climate change is not just about stopping the warming of our planet, but also about Indigenous land rights, Black liberation, and ending the exploitation of low-income populations and communities of color for the profits of a few.
“My fight in the climate movement started in college. I had been having a three month long asthma attack because I lived two blocks away from the on-campus coal plant. It got so bad that I had to be hospitalized and was told if I hadn't gotten medical help, I would have had three days left to live because my brain wasn't getting the oxygen it needed to survive. I got involved with the SSC because I realized that coal plant was the largest on-campus plant in the country, and if I wanted to have access to clean air, I needed to fight for it.”
Talya Tavor (she/her)
Former MSU SSC President
Senior Eastern Regional Director for Beyond Coal Campaign
Learn more about how SSC engages and inspires new generations of activists (16 minutes)
Sierra Club and local groups pushed California Governor Gavin Newsom to end fracking permits by 2024 and assess phasing out all drilling by 2045. In Los Angeles County, Sierra Club formed a coalition uniting environmental justice and frontline organizations, including STAND-LA and community health councils, and engaged over 140 community organizations to begin the process of phasing out oil drilling at more than 1,600 wells, including the largest urban oil field in the country. The City of Los Angeles quickly followed suit with similar action. In Culver City, years of united advocacy resulted in action to phase out and clean up 41 oil wells by 2026. Sierra Club also partnered with BIPOC-led coalitions to push the California Geological Energy Management Division (CalGEM) to require that poisonous fossil fuel extraction sites be at least 3,200 feet from homes, schools and parks, one of the longest distances in the nation. These accomplishments in California stem from the work of Sierra Club members and partners, especially those communities hit first and worst by corporate polluters.
In South Carolina, where Black residents pay some of the highest electricity bills in the nation, Sierra Club convened 42 community organizations across the state to draft the People’s Energy Plan, a roadmap for the future of energy and climate justice. The group collaborated for months and hosted experts on clean energy and dismantling racism. Group members identified eight key principles and policy recommendations, including energy efficiency, community choice and community-owned solar, equitable and diverse utility and regulatory boards, and a just transition from fossil fuels that provides well-paying jobs and opportunities. As the state’s policymakers consider significant changes to utilities and energy generation, the coalition behind the People's Energy Plan intends to play a critical role, ensuring that everyone has equal access to cleaner air and water and to the economic opportunities that clean energy brings.
As Portland’s temperature reached a record 116 degrees in June 2021, Oregon committed to transitioning its electricity to 100 percent renewable sources by 2040, the country’s most ambitious timeline for emissions-free energy. Oregon also prohibited new fracked gas power plant construction. Sierra Club was a core member of the Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity Campaign, with Verde, Oregon Just Transition Alliance, Rogue Climate, Coalition of Communities of Color, and a dozen other organizations. This campaign united rural, coastal, low-income, and Black, Indigenous and communities of color in advocating for policies mandating 100 percent renewable energy and providing lower electricity rates for those with the highest energy burden. Additionally, over 150 frontline community leaders participated in the Energy Justice Leadership Institute to shape Oregon’s long-term energy policies.
Assets for Impact
The Sierra Club Foundation deploys financial tools and assets to develop climate solutions, while working in strategic partnership with organizations and communities whose voices are essential to shaping a just and equitable future for all. Solving the climate crisis has to account for its disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, and generate clean energy solutions that are equitable, sustainable, affordable, and accessible. To ensure that climate solutions directly benefit communities most affected, the Sierra Club Foundation directs its capital using mission-aligned environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing criteria; catalytic capital impact investing; and strategic grantmaking to prioritize a just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Solar Holler
As part of our commitment to equitably allocating financial support, the Sierra Club Foundation agreed to be a guarantor for Solar Holler, a solar power company advancing renewable energy in the heart of coal country. Solar Holler brings affordable solar systems to Appalachian communities in its home state of West Virginia, as well as Kentucky and Ohio. We guaranteed a $500,000 line of credit for the company to buy solar panels and other equipment to meet the growing demand in the region. In 2021, Solar Holler installed 400 systems, equal to the amount installed over the prior five years, decreasing the region’s reliance on coal and contributing to a just transition to ongoing renewable energy.
By acting as a credit guarantor, the Sierra Club Foundation used its assets in an innovative way to support visionary clean energy entrepreneurs and demonstrate a new model supporting companies providing energy and economic solutions to communities traditionally reliant on fossil fuels.
“Last year Solar Holler’s work helped 350 families and businesses go solar and save an estimated $8.1 million over the life of their systems.”
Dan Conant (he/him)
Solar Holler founder and CEO
The Sierra Club Foundation established a Catalytic Capital Fund (an impact investing portfolio) to support Black, Indigenous, people of color, and other communities most affected by climate change, whose leadership is vital to achieving the large-scale social and economic progress we need for sustainable solutions. The Fund’s investment goals include deploying and scaling clean energy, energy storage, and energy-efficiency solutions for historically marginalized populations; enhancing equitable and just access to affordable clean energy and climate solutions; creating well-paying jobs in frontline communities that support the transition to a low carbon economy; and supporting natural systems solutions to take carbon out of the atmosphere. We are committed to backing companies and funds led by historically marginalized founders and managers who have plans for inclusive and sustainable economic growth and a demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice.
Approved in September 2021, the Sierra Club Foundation’s Movement Forward Fund provides strategic programmatic grant support to partner and ally organizations of the Sierra Club Foundation and the Sierra Club. The primary, though not exclusive, focus is supporting efforts that advance shared climate and social justice goals toward a just, equitable, and sustainable future for all. Outcomes sought by the Fund include ending unjust pollution in Black, Indigenous and communities of color; ensuring universal access to clean energy beginning in frontline communities most affected by fossil fuels; advancing Indigenous sovereignty in our lands and pipeline work; providing nearby nature for communities without easy access to the outdoors; and prioritizing BIPOC community perspectives to inform investment decisions of the Sierra Club Foundation’s Catalytic Capital Fund. The Movement Forward Fund is a new way for the Sierra Club Foundation and the Sierra Club to collaborate through a joint advisory process towards shared goals, and to grow and strengthen our organizational relationship.
The Sierra Club Foundation promotes efforts to educate and empower people to protect and improve the natural and human environment.
The Foundation for a healthy planet
Our goals
Solve the climate crisis primarily through a successful transition to a resource-efficient, clean energy economy that better serves people and nature.
Secure protections for public lands and waters, promote healthy ecosystems and communities, and fight for clean air and water.
Expand opportunities for more people to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet by supporting programs and policies that reach across economic, cultural, and community lines to get people outdoors.
Build an equitable and inclusive environmental movement that reflects and represents today’s American public and prioritizes important connections between environmental health and social justice.
Jemez principles
The Sierra Club Foundation uses the Jemez Principles to guide its work as a grantmaker, investor, and fiscal sponsor. The principles were created during an environmental justice summit in 1996, with the goal of helping mainstream environmental organizations to be more just and equitable.
Be inclusive
Emphasis on bottom-up organizing
Let people speak for themselves
Work together in solidarity
and mutuality
Build just relationships
among ourselves
Commitment to
self-transformation
Thanks to our donors
Heartfelt thank you
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our generous individual, corporate, and foundation donors. Your support builds upon our momentum to accelerate environmental solutions that are just, equitable, and inclusive. Thank you for joining with us and making a difference together.
Creating legacy
We offer deep gratitude to our Rachel Carson Society members, who have made an extraordinary pledge to protect Earth’s natural resources for future generations. Thank you for making the Sierra Club part of your legacy and for ensuring that our vibrant natural world lives on.
Who we are
An independent, volunteer Board of Directors, supported by a professional staff, governs the Sierra Club Foundation. Outstanding programmatic, financial, and administrative management expertise are the pillars of our efficiency and effectiveness.
© 2022 Sierra Club Foundation. The Sierra Club Seal is a registered copyright, service mark, and trademark of the Sierra Club
PHOTOS: Bears Ears, Bryon Powell; Moonhouse at Bears Ears National Monument, Bureau of Land Management/Bob Wick; Yosemite, pablo fierro on Unsplash; Wind turbines, Laura Penwell from pexels; Protest Background, Frances Denny, The Luupe; Protest ‘Save our Planet’, Svetlana Jovanovic, The Luupe; Mountain, Vincent Ledvina on Unsplash; Coastline, Blue Arauz from pexels; Hikers, Tom Fisk from pexels
