At San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), our employees feel a strong sense of purpose beyond delivering clean, safe and reliable energy services to our 3.7 million customers. As part of our commitment to the communities we serve, we support a variety of initiatives through shareholder contributions, employee giving programs, and volunteerism.
Our philanthropic strategic priorities include climate action, emergency preparedness and safety, economic prosperity, and K-16 STEM. Many of our initiatives focus on advancing racial and gender equity in alignment with our company value to “champion people.” We understand that for our region to thrive and become more sustainable, it is important for all of us to do our part to ensure no one is left behind.
Environmental Champions
Expanding Green Spaces, Enhancing Local Habitat
According to a report issued by the University of San Diego’s Nonprofit Institute, San Diegans are increasingly concerned about environmental issues impacting our quality of life, including climate change. In 2022, climate change ranked among the top three concerns for San Diegans in a top 10 list that also included other climate-related issues such as wildfires and drinking water quality. Despite this high level of public concern, very little philanthropic funding goes to support environmental causes locally.
San Diego Gas and Electric recognizes the importance of environmental philanthropy and includes climate action among its four strategic giving pillars which include K-16 STEM education, economic prosperity and emergency preparedness and safety. Since developing its climate action giving initiative in 2011, SDG&E’s Environmental Champions grant program has provided critical funding to numerous nonprofit organizations, with over $10 million invested in community-based environmental efforts in the past seven years alone. This year, SDG&E awarded Environmental Champions grants to 30 local organizations for projects focused on restoring habitat, planting trees and expanding community and school gardens. These shareholder-funded grants will enable nonprofits to plant over 2,000 trees, restore more than 200 acres of habitat and plant more than 100,000 new plants, including pollinators and edible plants like vegetables.
S & S Friendly Ranch, located in the Tijuana River Valley, is the hub for nonprofit Servicing Every Soul. They are tackling food insecurity and environmental restoration by creating an educational community garden, food forest and native plant habitats alongside community members and under-resourced youth. The organization has a deep history of land stewardship in the River Valley as a multi-generational, family-run organization and one of few Black-led environmental organizations in the region.
Another organization that embodies an intersectional approach to environmental stewardship is San Diego Canyonlands. An Environmental Champions grant from SDG&E is helping them to restore habitat in a local City Heights canyon. In addition to the environmental benefits of restoring that habitat, their program also offers social benefits by training and upskilling local community members to earn a living wage in green careers. Their approach to breaking down barriers that have historically impeded individuals from under-represented and under-invested communities is contributing to the preservation of local flora and fauna while offering a pathway to employment for those who have been marginalized.
Reflecting SDG&E’s dedication to diversity and inclusion, more than 85% of this year’s Environmental Champions grants benefit diverse and under-resourced populations. These environmental investments are targeted to support communities across the region, from Palomar Mountain to Tijuana River Valley and from Oceanside to Borrego Springs, and everywhere in between.
“Funding from SDG&E’s Environmental Champions grant program has allowed us to increase our tree planting efforts in some of San Diego’s most underinvested neighborhoods,” said Leona Sublett, president and CEO of San Diego Parks Foundation. “Through this partnership, as well as the support from several other donors, we are making incremental progress toward meeting our City’s Climate Action Plan goals and improving quality of life by planting more than 300 trees in communities like Bay Terraces, Southcrest, Linda Vista and Otay Mesa.”
You can find a full list of Environmental Champions partners at www.sdge.com/environmental-champions-initiative.
