Our History
Building coalitions for more than three decades.
Since 1993, Sustainable Conservation has built coalitions of people with different interests to catalyze conservation success. By listening deeply and honoring all perspectives, we locate common ground on which to forge a better path forward for our Golden State.
Challenging conventional wisdom, Sustainable Conservation’s founders posed a simple, but bold, question…“What if protecting the environment could also be good for business?” The answer to that has been our driving force for more than three decades.
Milestones in our history
What if protecting the environment was good for business?
Not your typical environmentalists, our visionary founders hailed from the corporate world. Concerned by the time, money, and goodwill lost to avoidable courtroom and political battles, they considered the private sector an untapped ally in solving California’s pressing environmental challenges. Working with business – not against it – they knew California could achieve true sustainability, balancing both environmental and economic needs.
As each new initiative brought tangible results, Sustainable Conservation earned the trust and respect of a diverse set of stakeholders – from industry and scientists, to government and other environmental leaders. We’ve turned a simple question into a unique brand of environmental problem-solving, and a powerful model for the rest of the world to follow.
Turning cow waste into renewable energy.
Starting in 2000, Sustainable Conservation has promoted methane digesters – which convert cow waste into renewable electricity and fuel – on California dairies to reduce harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs), generate renewable energy to power farms and the state’s economy, and promote a healthy climate.
Our work resulted in the generation of enough clean, renewable energy to power more than 3,000 homes and offset $2 million in energy costs to farmers each year. We’ve reduced California agriculture’s GHG emissions by 12,000 tons – equivalent to taking 40,000 cars off the road.
Now, we’re taking two decades of experience in understanding available technologies and where more research is needed to help California lead the nation in reducing harmful GHGs. California’s recent legislation and investment in reducing methane means we have a chance to reduce GHGs in ways that provide multiple environmental benefits, like cleaner water and clearer air.
We’re working with state agencies and other stakeholders to determine what and how regulations should be implemented because we see an opportunity to guide real solutions with sound policy, informed investment and multi-stakeholder participation.
- LA Times: From waste to watts
- KQED: From Waste to Watts: Biofuel Bonanza
Copper-free brakes benefit clean water and fish.
Sustainable Conservation and its partners scored one of the major environmental triumphs of 2010 when Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 346— powerful legislation that phases out copper from vehicle brake pads to make the state’s urban waterways safer for salmon and other species, save cities billions of dollars in potential environmental cleanup costs, and enable manufacturers to provide safe, reliable brakes for drivers.
The bill was born from an unusual 15-year collaborative effort led by Sustainable Conservation to understand and address the environmental impacts of brake pad debris generated during the use of motor vehicles. Environmental organizations, stormwater agencies, and the vehicle and brake manufacturing industries worked together to study the science and agree on a practical way to stop this form of water pollution at the source while providing drivers with safe, reliable brakes.
- SF Gate: New state law reduces copper in brake pads
- San Diego Union-Tribune: Crackdown on copper: threat to wildlife, water
Alliance forms to restore groundwater in California.
In 2011, we launched a project with an innovative San Joaquin Valley farmer named Don Cameron to flood 1,000 acres of wine grapes, alfalfa and open land with floodwater from the Kings River. Our aim? Recharge the depleted groundwater aquifer below.
Now, we’re working across the Central Valley to continue piloting on-farm groundwater recharge. We’ve grown from one demonstration site to the potential for hundreds across a large swath of diverse farmland. We joined forces with private and nonprofit leaders on constructing a dedicated groundwater recharge basin in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley. We also developed a first-of-its-kind tool, the Groundwater Recharge Assessment Tool (GRAT), to help water managers plan where to site the best possible groundwater recharge for the most impact.
On-farm groundwater recharge, done on the right crops at the right times, has the potential to significantly bolster our water supplies to help Californians weather future droughts and provide water communities and agriculture can count on.
Central Valley dairies partner to boost clean water.
The Central Valley struggles with critical nitrate pollution of groundwater, a key resource for communities and agriculture. The dairy industry is one of the largest sources of this pollution, but is also a big part of the solution.
In 2013, Sustainable Conservation began working with Netafim USA and De Jager Farms to demonstrate how clean water, a thriving dairy industry and healthy communities can go hand in hand. Using a first-of-its-kind subsurface manure drip irrigation system, we demonstrated that dairy producers can grow healthy silage corn using just the right amount of nutrients, delivered straight to where they need it most, while protecting groundwater quality and making good use of limited water resources.
Based on the success of our pilot, in 2016 Sustainable Conservation was awarded a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant to scale the system to additional dairies, all with the aim to encourage wider industry adoption. The manure drip system provides a balanced, “win-win” solution of on-farm nutrient use and water savings that, if implemented at scale, could be a game-changer for farmers and communities that rely on clean water.
America’s largest plant retailers help Californians PlantRight.
Between 2014-2015, the Sustainable Conservation-led PlantRight campaign welcomed The Home Depot, Lowe’s and Orchard Supply Hardware as “big box” teammates committed to promoting safe, non-invasive plants to benefit the state’s environment and people. This includes more than 200 The Home Depot stores in California. Using PlantRight’s invasive-plant list as a guide, The Home Depot, Lowe’s and Orchard Supply Hardware continue to phase out problem plants from their product mixes.
“Partnering with PlantRight in California is the right thing to do for our communities,” says Brian Parker, Senior Merchant Live Goods with The Home Depot. “We’re committed to providing the best plant options for California, including drought tolerant and non-invasive varieties. Our growers are solid partners in these efforts, as we all are committed to protecting California’s landscape, wildlife and communities.”
- LA Times: Effort to fight invasive plants in California targets nurseries
- San Jose Mercury News: Avoiding invasive plants
Habitat restoration get a boost from a new law.
California has ambitious plans to restore critical habitat, but the time and cost of securing voluntary restoration permits remains a barrier for many restoration advocates, including landowners.
In 2014, Governor Brown signed into law the Sustainable Conservation-sponsored Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Act, the first statewide effort to accelerate voluntary restoration on private lands through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Act established a simplified permitting process to empower landowners, government agencies and conservation organizations to take on small-scale, voluntary habitat restoration across California. Simplified permits accelerate the restoration of rural habitats, urban watersheds and coastal waterways without sacrificing key environmental protections.
Since 2013, restoring California’s coast has gotten a lot easier as a result of our partnership with the California Coastal Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Voluntary habitat restoration has sped up significantly along the entire 1,000-mile California coastline thanks to two major Sustainable Conservation-backed Commission rulings.
- Edible Marin & Wine Country: Sustainable Conservation: Revving up Restoration for Redds and Red-Legged Frogs
Putting worms to work on California dairies.
Sustainable Conservation began testing a novel biological wastewater treatment system in 2014 that employs millions of surprisingly tiny nitrogen gobblers: worms. At the Fanelli Dairy near Modesto, wastewater is pumped through a series of filters to remove sand and other solids before it’s sprayed via sprinklers into the so-called worm box – a concrete container housing the worms, their microbial buddies, and layers of wood shavings and rocks. The worms munch their way through organic matter in the wastewater as it percolates through the layers – removing up to 80% of total nitrogen from the liquid.
Treated wastewater moves on to irrigate the crops that feed the dairy’s cows, and the worms leave behind their own nutrient-rich co-product, known as castings, that can be sold as a high-value soil amendment to operations like nurseries and vineyards.
Managed by Sustainable Conservation, the Fanelli Dairy demonstration project showcases this unique system’s promise to promote clean water, thriving farms and healthy communities.