Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation

As a San Diego-based organization, we are proudly rooting for the Padres to #BeatLA tonight and advance in the playoffs! ⚾ This summer, our founder and board chair, Tara and Justin, joined San Diego Community Power at the Padres baseball game where the Community Advisory Committee chair, Matthew Vasilakis, threw out the first pitch. Tara and Matthew have worked together on climate advocacy and policy efforts for the past six years, including advocating for community choice energy throughout San Diego County. Both have served on the Community Advisory Committee since its inception five years ago. When the Padres went solar in 2018, they installed the largest solar power system in Major League Baseball. The Padres are a Power100 Champion with San Diego Community Power, and Petco Park announced that they are proud to be the first stadium in the National League to be powered by 100 percent renewable and carbon-free electricity. You can learn more about the Padres sustainability efforts here: https://lnkd.in/gzVQWrhV You can learn more about San Diego Community Power here: www.sdcommunitypower.org 📷 The bottom two photos are credited to Matthew.

On Saturday, our founder and executive director, Tara Hammond, was one of just 10 California Assembly District 77 constituents to be recognized at Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath’s Environmental Hero award ceremony out of nearly half a million residents. Tara has been a local climate activist for 17 years and we’re proud her efforts were recognized. We appreciate Assemblymember Boerner for hosting this event and for supporting climate legislation. We hope all environmental heroes and the assemblymember can work together to hold fossil fuel companies and polluters accountable ASAP. In Tara’s acceptance speech, she thanked our team, her family, our generous philanthropic partners, coalition allies and community leaders for making our impactful work possible. Tara’s dress was made by an amazing San Diego artist, Irina Madan, an immigrant from Moldova who beautifully paints on natural fabrics. She took elements of the Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation logo and created a piece of art with Tara’s dress, which she designed and sewed. She added hands, which aren’t featured in our logo, to show the people side of the work we do to expedite positive change for a just and livable future for all. You can learn more about Irina’s work here: www.irinamadan.com. 

In Oakland, California, middle schoolers made a big change for the environment at their school. They were a part of the climate justice group called Youth vs Apocalypse, which aimed to replace their school’s gas boiler with a heat pump for heating and AC. This idea started last year during a heatwave. They learned how much carbon the current heating system was producing and how much more efficient heat pumps are, which are used for heating and cooling. Learning this, the students proposed using a part of the $735 million school-district bond to invest in a heat pump for the school. They started campaigning. It was a long and hard fought journey. They made a presentation that was presented to classrooms, community meetings, and, eventually, school board meetings. They received a lot of opposition at the school board meetings, but they didn’t stop going. They also made a petition that was signed by almost all of the middle school and some elementary schoolers. “I learned that no matter our age, we can make a difference through what we do, and we can use our voice to impact the world in a positive way,” said Juliette Sanchez, one of the students who made this change. Read more of the inspiring story at https://lnkd.in/eSEhfGia Picture credit to Carolyn Fong  Source: The Guardian

It's #SolarSaturday and today we're excited to highlight our 150th #SolarMoonshotProgram grantee, the Sherman Heights Community Center in San Diego, California. Yesterday our team joined a lovely celebration of the community center's 30 years of service, which included a solar ribbon-cutting ceremony. Our founder and executive director, Tara Hammond, spoke at the event, thanking our generous philanthropic partners for supporting the program and acknowledging the amazing work our grantees are doing in communities across 29 states, Puerto Rico and Rwanda. Thanks again to all of the organizations and individuals that supported this project, including BQuest Foundation, San Diego Community Power in partnership with the San Diego Foundation, Futures Unbound, Ann Dynes, IBEW Local 569, Greentech Renewables San Diego and the nearly 100 participants of the Pickleball Fundraiser for the Sherman Heights Community Center Clean Energy Project. The 24kW solar and 20kWh battery system was designed and installed by IBEW Local 569 contractor, Aloha Solar Power. 🌍 To learn more about the community center and their impactful work and to check out their Dia de los Muertos celebrations, visit https://lnkd.in/gEEXWYF5 ☀️ To learn more about the Solar Moonshot Program and our 150th project milestone, visit https://lnkd.in/gD647-Xv

Today, Californians are celebrating Clean Air Day! California’s top greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation. If you aren’t already walking, biking or using public transportation on a regular basis, it’s a great opportunity to check out free public transportation across the Golden State. Clean Air Day offers a friendly reminder to think about how we commute and travel. Are you able to work remotely a couple of days a week?  If you must drive, can you carpool? Implementing a habit of traveling more sustainably once a week can add up and make a difference. For our fellow San Diegans, the free public transportation today includes the buses, trolley as well as the SPRINTER and the COASTER trains. You can also ride Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs). If you're interested in reading more about the history of clean air, check out https://lnkd.in/gYQeGePp #CleanAirDayCA Photo Source: SDMTS Website

This morning our small but mighty team had the pleasure of kayaking across Mission Bay, San Diego. Did you know that the bay is part of the recreational Mission Bay Park, the largest human-made aquatic park in the United States? Located on the unceded Kumeyaay Nation land, the bay was created in the 1940s. Our outing was an opportunity to celebrate our impactful work, enjoy team bonding and organically discuss many climate-related topics. We expressed our deepest condolences for those displaced and killed worldwide in recent storms and floods as well as those impacted by wars. It’s infuriating that fossil fuel companies continue to accelerate the climate crisis and its injustices for the sake of profit over a livable future for all. We discussed ReWild Mission Bay, a nearly 90-organization coalition that seeks to enhance and restore the natural wetlands in the northeast corner of Mission Bay. The group is working to ensure cleaner water, greater climate resiliency, increased carbon sequestration and improved public access along our shared bayfront. You can learn more about ReWild Mission Bay here: www.rewildmissionbay.org. We are grateful for the biodiversity that San Diego offers, and we are proud that our work protects the environment as well as lessens air pollution, reduces environmental injustices, minimizes impacts of the climate crisis, supports regional economies and reinvests into communities across the country. 🌍

On Tuesday, our Executive Director, Tara Hammond, and Deputy Director, Karinna Gonzalez, had the pleasure of participating in California Assemblymember Christopher Ward’s annual environmental roundtable. Leaders representing more than a dozen of organizations across San Diego County shared updates, climate areas of concern and solutions to regional climate problems. Assemblymember Ward gave updates on his climate efforts this past legislative session and some of his thoughts on the future. We look forward to working with together to advance climate action. We appreciate his leadership and the opportunity to participate in this roundtable. We applaud our other local electeds who host environmental roundtables, including Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer and San Diego Councilmember Pro Tem and Environment Committee Chair, Councilmember Joe LaCava. photo #2 is courtesy of Assemblymember Ward’s office

Thirty seven municipalities in Puerto Rico have filed a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, the American Petroleum Institute and more. This is the first time a lawsuit like this has been filed by Puerto Rican governments. The lawsuit is filed under the claim that these companies have violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, RICO is supposed to prohibit organized crime. These different municipalities are claiming that these major companies’ “climate deception” played a role in the hurricane season of 2017, specifically Hurricane Maria. These companies were at fault because they used different types of marketing to portray they would have a smaller impact than was reality. Through this lawsuit, they hope to require these big companies to pay for the billion dollar damages that were caused that still haven't been repaired. There isn’t an update on when the decision is due for the case, but according to Jessica Corbett (2024), Puerto Rico has joined DC, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont in similar cases. There may be more of a trend with these types of lawsuits as people are starting to feel and notice the effects of big oil. If you want to learn more about the case, you can read Scientific American’s article here https://lnkd.in/eMCU_cd6

Last September, California's Attorney General (AG), Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit alleging that five of the largest fossil fuel companies in the world and the American Petroleum Institute engaged in a decades-long campaign of deception regarding the reality of climate change and the connection between combustion of fossil fuels and climate change, resulting in climate change-related harms in California. This week, Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation's deputy director, Karinna Gonzalez, spoke at San Diego Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer's press event announcing a resolution for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to support AG Bonta's effort. Yesterday, the resolution passed, and our founder and executive director, Tara Hammond, spoke with AG Bonta about the lawsuit and other important climate efforts in California. Karinna's public testimony from the meeting is quoted in today's Times of San Diego article, 'County Supervisors OK Resolution Backing Lawsuit Against Big Oil Over Climate Change.' “Big Oil companies have spent decades profiting from fossil fuels, knowing full well the damage they were inflicting on our planet,” said Karinna Gonzalez, deputy director of Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation, "the resolution is a “great first step, but it’s not enough." Thanks to Vice Chair Lawson-Remer, Supervisor Nora E Vargas and Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe for voting in favor of the resolution. Shoutout to the activists who made public comments during the meeting and the journalists who covered the topic.

📣 Call to action: Today, San Diego County Vice Chair Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer is proposing that our County supports CA Attorney General Rob Bonta’s efforts to hold the oil industry accountable and we emphatically support it. #BigOil has harmed and will continue to erode our beaches, bays, coastlines and communities with its deceptive practices to boost their profits. Big oil is responsible for deadly fires, heat waves and flooding worldwide. Today, we’re telling the Board that it’s time to stand up and do what’s right for a more just and livable future. Yesterday, our deputy director, Karinna Gonzalez, spoke along with our friends from SanDiego350 and Climate Action Campaign at the press conference announcing today’s proposed resolution. We appreciate Supervisor Lawson-Remer’s leadership on climate and justice! 🌍 Here is the link to call into today’s meeting to make a public comment in support of the resolution: https://lnkd.in/gg4_yPzM