Reflecting On 2021: Letter From Our Founder And Executive Director

We are living in a moment of transformative change. All around us, the climate, public health, economic inequality, and racial injustice crises bear down on our communities—showing the cracks in our broken systems and the huge challenges that lie ahead of us. Yet, even as difficult as these times are, my team wakes up every morning with the deeply held conviction that this is our moment.

"This is our moment to build a pathway to zero carbon—right here in Southern California—then replicate and scale." - Nicole Capretz, CAC's Executive Director and Founder

In 2021, we built the foundation for this in San Diego and Orange Counties by:

• Successfully advocating for a novel County Regional Decarbonization Plan and a Regional Just Transition Plan with national experts.

• Bringing Community Choice Energy to families and businesses in Escondido, San Marcos, National City, and unincorporated San Diego County

• Winning the first green building ordinances in our region in the cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach.

• Advocating for Irvine to become the first city in Southern California to commit to reaching zero carbon by 2030 and to win $1 million in funding.

• Passing SANDAG’s 2021 Regional Transportation Plan, a game-changing new path for transportation in our region.

• Releasing three major reports to guide policymakers—outlining our vision for sustainable transportation, alternatives to sprawl development, and progress on the City of San Diego’s transportation targets.

• Tapping into new leadership through our Public Health Advisory Council (PHAC), an army of doctor activists.

• Building a grassroots movement for climate, jobs, and justice through the San Diego Green New Deal Alliance.

In the coming months, we will send out our full end-of-year report. In the meantime, check out other highlights from our last year of advocacy here.

Thank You For Supporting Our Work In 2021

2021 has been a wild ride, and we thank you all for being on this journey with us! We are immensely grateful to our community of climate warriors for helping us exceed our end-of-year fundraising goal.

With your generosity, we raised over $23,000 to support our fight for a zero carbon future. If you didn't get a chance to make a donation last year, you can still donate here!

Moving forward, my team will continue to work tirelessly to build a sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future for our communities because this is our moment—and we won’t stop until we win.