San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative
2023 ANNUAL REPORT
REFLECTIONS Dear Climate Action Co-Conspirators, The close of another year brings an opportunity for reflection. For us, it means taking a pause from the excitement of the new beginnings, opportunities, projects and programs of 2024–it’s important we share our incredible accomplishments of 2023. This past year, our capacity as a team to serve our members grew tenfold–through two new full-time staff members, CaliforniansForAll College Corps Fellows, and other partner support–and SDRCC grew our membership to include 10 new partners, totaling our year end count to 45 member organizations. The energy of 2023 was electrifying: in response, we launched a new Regional Energy Resilience Working Group, maintained updates to the Energy Education Hub, and began work on a new Regional Energy Academy. In June we released the San Diego Region Coastal Resilience Roadmap, a landmark consensus-building document that we hope will catalyze a suite of resilience projects across the region. In 2024, we hope to continue directly supporting our members as they drive towards implementation of our collective climate action goals. We have big plans to ensure that the transformative climate funding and investments make their way into our region. With an eye towards knowledge sharing, learning and community building for our network, our focus on programs and projects will continue to build our region’s capacity and leadership for climate action. We look forward to our continued partnership and growth in the San Diego region that can only be accomplished together. In Partnership, The San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative Advisory Board & Staff
STAFF & NETWORK This year, SDRCC doubled our full-time team size to a mighty team of four, hosted four University of San Diego undergraduate CaliforniansForAll College Corps Fellows in the 2022-2023 academic year, and is currently hosting five in the 2023-2024 academic year. DARBI BERRY, DIRECTOR Darbi continues to expand SDRCC’s programs to better serve our regional partners. Darbi also supported our statewide connections, serving as ARCCA Board Chair and presenting our projects at the California Adaptation Forum. She is also now the proud parent to several quail. GABBY YAMHURE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS Gabby’s first year with SDRCC included leading the Energy Resilience Working Group and developing the Funding Subcommittee. Gabby also supported Latinx in Sustainability by raising awareness on the unique experience of the immigrant workforce in the region. A-BEL GONG, CLIMATE RESEARCH MANAGER A-bel's highlight of working at SDRCC in 2023 was leading the multi-media Cost of Inaction Toolkit for the San Diego Region Coastal Resilience Roadmap project. A-bel also made two sharky appearances this year on National Geographic's Sharkfest and PBS Terra. BRENDA CASTRUITA, CLIMATE RESEARCH ASSOCIATE Brenda started at SDRCC in April 2023 and helped implement SDG&E’s Equity-First Community Engagement Plan. Brenda also worked with the Center for Health Disparities Research at UC Riverside providing Spanish translations for their podcast “Healthy Disruptions.”
WELCOMING NEW MEMBERS IN 2023 4 NONPROFIT PARTICIPATING MEMBERS Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, The Energy Coalition, I Love a Clean San Diego, and Tree San Diego
2 SPECIAL DISTRICT PARTICIPATING MEMBERS San Diego Water Board and Caltrans District 11
1 CITY PARTICIPATING MEMBER City of Escondido
2 FOR PROFIT WORKING GROUP MEMBERS Black & Veatch and Schneider Electric
OUR SOCIAL MEDIA @SDClimateCollab Connect with us and be part of our thriving online community! With over 1,000 engaged followers on LinkedIn and a growing audience of 400+ on X, our social media platforms are buzzing hubs for updates on all things SDRCC and resources. Special thanks to the Nonprofit Institute’s Communications Manager, Daniela Olguin, for sprucing up our communications materials!
SDRCC ADVISORY BOARD Our Advisory Board guides our strategic vision and helps amplify our program impact, making them an invaluable supportive resource and integral part of our SDRCC team. We’d like to express a special thanks to Kelly Bray, Jeff Hoyos, and Rimga Viskanta for their service as Advisory Board Members in 2023, as well as to Hilary Ego for serving as our Advisory Board Chair from 2022-2023!
MEAGAN OPENSHAW, CHAIR City of Imperial Beach
CORY DOWNS, VICE CHAIR City of Chula Vista
HILARY EGO City of La Mesa
CHRISTIANA DEBENEDICT San Diego Foundation
KATIE HENTRICH City of Carlsbad
RALPH REDMAN San Diego County Regional Airport Authority
KRISTEN GOODRICH Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve
CRYSTAL NAJERA City of Encinitas
NICHOLE WISSMAN University of San Diego
JASON ANDERSON Cleantech San Diego
SHELBY BUSO City of San Diego
LILY TSUKAYAMA Port of San Diego
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS SDRCC's 2023 programs aimed to build upon the great work done by community partners around the region. Through regionally responsive research and connecting our network through collaborative opportunities, SDRCC serves as a research and resource hub for everyone in the San Diego region.
SAN DIEGO REGION COASTAL RESILIENCE ROADMAP In collaboration with Resilient Cities Catalyst and CivicWell, the San Diego Region Coastal Resilience Roadmap was designed to build the capacity of mobilized partners across the San Diego region in order to help build more connectivity between our coastal and inland communities to move the needle on implementation of new projects that build coastal resilience to climate impacts. The project documents include the Roadmap report, a living Actions Database of past, current, and future projects in the region, an interactive ESRI Storymap on the cost of coastal inaction, and a case study detailing best practices and lessons learned. This project was supported through funding from the California Ocean Protection Council’s Proposition 68 grant program and was completed in July 2023. The case study was presented by the team at the California Adaptation Forum in August 2023.
BINATIONAL RESILIENCE INITIATIVE The Climate Collaborative supported the San Diego Foundation and International Community Foundation, who partnered together, with support from Resilient Cities Catalyst to launch the Binational Resilience Initiative in 2022 to preserve the Cali-Baja coast for current residents and future generations. The initiative had its second round with $1,024,066 in grants to twelve environmental nonprofits located in the U.S-Mexico border region.
FUNDING ACHIEVEMENTS
$770K SECURED to support our programs $2M LEVERAGED to support regional projects
COLLEGE CORPS FELLOWS
SDRCC played an integral role in College Corps' inaugural year at the University of San Diego, matching 30 fellows with community partners around the San Diego region. In the 20222023 academic year, SDRCC hosted four College Corps fellows, who supported staff in research and events. This academic year, SDRCC is hosting five College Corps fellows, who are supporting research related to extreme heat, energy, and coastal resilience. A huge thanks to Liv Frigyes, Nicole Fassina, Avery Aquino, and Itzamara Fajarado for their service in 2022-2023. We are excited to continue working with Nicole in the 2023-2024 school year along with Lex Padilla, Xochitl Felix, Diana Montoya-Herrera, and Jordan Amper!
Water Conservation Garden
CLIMATE & ENERGY FUNDING TRACKER
SDRCC developed their Climate and Energy Funding Tracker as an accessible tool for members and partners to tap into available funding resources for our region. The Tracker is updated biweekly and is separated by federal and state funding opportunities. With feedback from our members, the tracker was updated to be filterable by area of interest and to increase accessibility to essential information such as match funding and grant partner requirements.
El Centro Cultural de la Raza
NETWORK MEETINGS & WORKING GROUPS
SDRCC hosted four Network Meetings throughout 2023. Meetings covered a variety of themes, and SDRCC closed out the year with a San Diego Regional Recap, a poster session for SDRCC members to showcase their projects and hard work from the year. Each venue held its own unique showcase as well, from tours to interactive exhibits. We have also been sustaining our Adaptation and Policy Working Group and Sea Level Rise Working Group, and launched a Regional Energy Resilience Working Group in 2023 which creates a space for knowledge exchange on the implementation of decarbonization efforts, climate action plans, and regional initiatives.
The Hive, Coastal Roots Farm
NETWORK REACH 300+ ATTENDEES across 4 Quarterly Network Meetings
15 WORKING GROUP MEETINGS on Sea Level Rise, Adaptation and Policy, and Energy Resilience
100+ PRACTITIONERS connected through working groups
Fleet Science Center
LOOKING FORWARD UPDATED MEMBERSHIP
We are excited to launch our new membership model with revised benefits for all membership tiers! New benefits included SDRCC member exclusive informal mixers and a bimonthly funding opportunities newsletter for participating members. Supporting and leading members can access scholarships to select conferences and an SDRCCdeveloped case study as a part of their new benefits.
REGIONAL ENERGY ACADEMY
SDRCC and the Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) are working to launch a Regional Energy Academy with the support of San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and San Diego Community Power (SDCP). The Energy Academy will host a dynamic and interactive curriculum aimed at raising the energy literacy of our region’s climate and community leaders, and help participants understand the complexities of our local electricity system within the context of our region’s unique challenges as climate change impacts intensify. The program is expected to launch its first cohort in the summer of 2024.
EXPANSION OF TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMMING
This year SDRCC will broaden our service offerings to reaffirm our commitment to our member network and be responsive to our collective needs. Our goal is to provide technical assistance to enhance our region’s access to resources, funding and other opportunities in order to help our network implement climate actions that support our collective efforts to mitigate climate impacts and build resilience.
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THANK YOU TO OUR MEMBERS