Community action/California

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism across California. It's an introduction to local networks, groups, events, community resources and assets.

• California community climate action and ecological restoration is a separate page.

• Eco Vista Community, Taking The Community Of Isla Vista Into The Future added 09:02, 25 April 2020 (UTC)
• NorCal Community Resilience Network, "...activates and supports community-based and ecological solutions to climate change, economic instability and social inequity toward a Just Transition away from fossil fuels. Our vision is to transform our homes, neighborhoods and communities into self-sufficient, regenerative places." NorCal Resilience Network on facebook
• Communities for Sustainable Monterey County, A Transition Initiative
• A Place for Sustainable Living, Oakland
• Sustainable Fairfax
• Transition United States, listing of official (local) initiatives
• Transition Joshua Tree
• Transition Pasadena
• University of California, Santa Cruz, Office of Sustainability, UCSC Education for Sustainable Living Program
• UC Santa Barbara Environmental Affairs Board

Near you

Los Angeles - Long Beach - San Diego - San Francisco

Cosmolocal discovery club

Each week 3 different short videos from across the world.

Folkemødet på Bornholm

Authors: Destination Bornholm, 1.07 mins.

Date: 2019-02-04

We Are The Coalition To Keep Berkeley Money Local

Authors: Coalition to Keep Berkeley Money Local, 2.07 mins.

Date: 2026-04-20

The Power of Cycling, Official Launch Trailer

Authors: European Cyclists' Federation and Content With Purpose, 2.38 mins.

Date: 2029-09-17

Community action/Denmark, Community action/California, Cycling activism / ...This week's featured UK videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism

Global or International events

2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events

We Are The Coalition To Keep Berkeley Money Local

Authors: Coalition to Keep Berkeley Money Local, 2.07 mins.

Date: 2026-04-20

Californians Step Up: GO-Serve 2025 Year in Review

Authors: CaliforniaVolunteers, 2.55 mins.

Date: 2025-12-29

Andrea Vidaurre on the Goldman Prize and the transportation revolution

Authors: Mongabay, 5.25 mins.

Date: 2024-07-30

The ancient Calfornian giants destroyed by climate change

Authors: BBC News, Nov 2021

Advocacy Academy - Lessons From the Best Biking Cities - San Luis Obispo, CA.

Authors: PeopleForBikes, Nov 17, 2020

The Cool Block—A Deeper Dive

Authors: Empowerment Institute, 2016

• Engaged California, first-in-the-nation deliberative democracy program to help community members directly influence and inform the ongoing Los Angeles firestorm rebuilding and recovery. Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s first Digital Minister and creator of vTaiwan: “Instead of just one idea dominating the conversation of the entire population, we can have thousands of different ideas and meld them together into something that is working with the people, not just for the people. And the digital participation infrastructure that enables this, I see a great future in California continuing to lead in this direction.” added 09:54, 7 May 2025 (UTC)
• Participatory Budgeting Vallejo

Video archive

• Power of Your Voice - Participatory Budgeting Vallejo, City of Vallejo, 7 Sept 2016 on youtube.com

• Regenerate Cascadia, 501(c)3 social movement organization developing a long-term bioregional vision and process that works with on-the-ground communities to design and implement new frameworks of governance, ecology, and economy for the regeneration and health of the Cascadia bioregion along the northeast Pacific rim of North America and beyond.
• Bay Delta Trust, "a convening and weaving initiative seeking to improve bioregional coordination in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta." added 14:51, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Fibershed, Local fibres, local dyes, local labor - Willits Economic Localization

CA's first solar-covered water canal now generating power

Authors: ABC7 News Bay Area, 2.00 mins.

Date: 2025-10-13

Food Forward: A Decade of Sharing Abundance

Authors: Food Forward, 1.00 min.

Date: 2019-01-17

• Food Forward, fighting hunger and preventing food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people experiencing food insecurity, and inspiring others to do the same. Video: Food Forward on youtube.com, added 13:48, 13 October 2024 (UTC)
• Lunch at the Library, free meals and learning opportunties added 16:04, 30 September 2020 (UTC)
• Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (BASIL)
• Benicia Community Gardens
• Food Commons Fresno
• Harvest Club of Orange County
• Homeless Garden Project, Santa Cruz
• Altadena Community Garden
• OC Food Access Coalition

See also: Urban agriculture in California, Category:Locally Delicious

• Local Clean Energy Alliance, Bay Area membership organization
• Lancaster Choice Energy

Solar power in California

From Wikipedia:Solar power in California

Solar power has been growing rapidly in the U.S. state of California because of high insolation, community support, declining solar costs, and a renewable portfolio standard which requires that 60% of California's electricity come from renewable resources by 2030, with 100% by 2045. Much of this is expected to come from solar power via photovoltaic facilities or concentrated solar power facilities.

At the end of 2023, California had a total of 46,874 MW of solar capacity installed, enough to power 13.9 million homes in the state. California ranked as the highest solar power generating state in the nation, with solar power providing for 28% of the state's electricity generation. The Solar Energy Industries Association predicts that California will increase its solar capacity by over 20,000 MW over the next five years, the second highest increase in solar capacity in the country behind Texas at 41,000 MW.

The state government has created various programs to incentivize and subsidize solar installations, including an exemption from property tax, cash incentives, net metering, streamlined permitting for residential solar, and, in 2020, requiring all new homes to have solar panels.

Wind power in California

From Wikipedia:Wind power in California

The initiative and early development of wind power in California came during Governor Jerry Brown's first two terms in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The state's wind power capacity has grown by nearly 350% since 2001, when it was less than 1,700 MW. According to the California Energy Comission, as of 2025, California had approximately 6,330 MW of wind energy capacity installed across the state. In 2025, wind projects in California generated 15,171 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity, accounting for 7.38% of all power generated within the state. Additionally, California imported 17,981 GWh of wind energy from out-of-state projects. Combined, wind energy supplied 12.39% of California's total system power in 2025. Most of California's wind generation is found in the Tehachapi area of Kern County, with some large projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well. California is among the states with the largest amount of installed wind power capacity. In recent years, California has lagged behind other states when it comes to the installation of wind power. It was ranked 4th overall for wind power electrical generation at the end of 2016, behind Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma.

• WEAll California, Wellbeing Economy Alliance California, envisions a harmonious, just, and regenerative economy that allows all Californians to thrive. Wellbeing of all people and the planet are put above profit and growth. Pilot project in Pomona. added 08:59, 17 December 2024 (UTC)
• California Doughnut Economics Coalition, California Doughnut Snapshot, published Dec 4, 2024, and includes an invitation to collaborate, " ...join in updating the California Doughnut." added 12:41, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
• Cooperation Humboldt, building a solidarity economy on California's north coast, added 16:34, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
• Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives
• California Center for Cooperative Development
• Cooperation Richmond

As part of a privately funded experiment in Universal Basic Income in 2019, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (S.E.E.D.) conducted a pilot project that gave a $500 stipend to 125 randomly selected residents for an 24-month period with “no strings attached." It was made possible by the Economic Security Project, an advocacy group chaired by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, which provided the first $1 million for the program, and a dozen other Silicon Valley organizations and private donors who funded the rest of its $3 million budget. The positive benefits of the program during the first year were described in an interim report published in March 2021. ^W

Santa Cruz Warming Shelter Program

• omnicommons.org
• Library of Things, service from the Sacramento Public Library
• Northern California Land Trust, the oldest CLT in California
• The Ecology Center, Berkeley
• Energy and Sustainable Development, information from the City of Berkeley

Sharing

Toy Cycle, Platform for Families to Swap Toys

Citizens data initiative

The Wellbeing Project, information from the City of Santa Monica's Office of Wellbeing.

Embassy Network Coliving, Silicon Valley

In 2006, Jessy Kate Schingler and four young engineers landed jobs at NASA in Silicon Valley. Instead of opting for cheaper housing with a long commute in one of the most expensive housing markets in the U.S., they rented a large house nearby and started the first coliving community, Rainbow Mansion. They discovered there was a glut of mansions in the area. They saw a way to create a better quality of life at a lower cost by sharing a mansion, but what was most important to them was growing as people. So, they created an environment to accelerate their personal and professional development through collaboration. In addition to sharing rent, utilities, cars, and food, they began supporting each others' professional projects including startups. They also sought out other people who were interested in changing the world for the better. They hosted workshops and events to learn and network beyond the four walls of their home. They often kept one or two rooms open so young innovators from other countries could visit.

Following Rainbow Mansion's example, many early coliving communities became hubs of learning, innovation, and social activity. Thus the pattern for coliving was set. Now there are hundreds of coliving communities worldwide.

Jessy took this one step further by creating Embassy, a network of coliving houses that give tenants access to many communities. She describes this lifestyle as, "one rent, many locations." Others have followed her lead, and the coliving movement grows as young workers have a great need for affordable housing, meaningful friendships, and professional development. My friend Chelsea Rustrum says of the coliving experience:

"You develop deeper, more real relationships and have the potential to actually work together, actually help each other. Not just in professional ways but in personal ways also."...@Shareable

• Californians Against Waste
• Repair Café Palo Alto
• Wikipedia:City of Oakland's Zero Waste Program: The City adopted a Zero Waste Strategic Plan in 2006, detailing a road map for the City to follow toward the implementation of a Zero Waste System by 2020. Oakland residents have played an important role in moving the City toward Zero Waste. Using their buying-power, consumers can tell industries that products must be non-toxic, reusable, recyclable or compostable or they will stay on the shelf.

Campaigns

Californians Against Fracking on facebook

California is known for its relatively progressive policies on sustainability and support of renewable energy, as well as its natural beauty, including redwood forests.

From Wikipedia:California

California is a state in the Western United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. With a population of over 39 million across an area of 163,696 square miles (423,970 km²), it is the most populous U.S. state and the third largest by land area.

Before European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization by the Spanish Empire. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, as a result of its successful war for independence. Following the U.S. conquest of California, part of the Mexican-American War, California was ceded to the United States in 1848. The California gold rush started in 1848 and led to social and demographic changes, including the California genocide. It organized itself and was admitted as the 31st state in 1850 as a free state, following the Compromise of 1850.

Video archive

• Streetfilms-Bike Boulevards (Berkeley, CA), StreetfilmsVlog, 2008 on youtube.com

Past events

• May 3, 2014, Pasadena Earth & Arts Festival

External links

• Ecology of California, Environment of California, Water in California, Environmental issues in California (category)
• Environment California (Wikipedia, Criticism)
• Sustainability, information from the City of Ventura