California Workforce Development Board

Since 2018, the Jewish Vocational and Career Counseling Service’s Automotive Pathway Program has been preparing Bay Area workers for careers in the automotive industry. The 18-week program teaches technical skills, provides job readiness training, and offers paid on-the-job training, helping create a diverse, highly skilled workforce for local employers and advancing careers for local residents.

State Coastal Conservancy

In September 2023, the State Coastal Conservancy awarded the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department $5.1 million to transform a former industrial site in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood into a shoreline park with recreational features and enhanced habitat, supporting local ecosystems and increasing climate resilience.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Wood Products and Bioenergy Business and Workforce Development Grants Program granted Caribou Biofuels half a million dollars to deploy and optimize their mobile biomass conversion unit. The innovative biomass conversion technology will assist in processing excess fuels in forest undergrowth as well as agricultural biomass.

California Air Resources Board

City Heights Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit based in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, is using two Sustainable Transportation Equity Project grants to support a transportation equity and affordable housing task force and the implementation of a suite of active transportation projects. The project, once completed, will build safe and comfortable connections between affordable housing, active transportation infrastructure, transit, and community amenities.

Strategic Growth Council

The Sacramento Integrated Multimodal Place-Based Living Project is a Transformative Climate Communities initiative aimed at strengthening community engagement, increasing affordable housing, and expanding public transit in the River District neighborhood of Sacramento. One of the key features of the project, the Dos Rios Light Rail Station, will significantly increase residents’ accessibility to Downtown Sacramento and the greater Sacramento Area. The Mirasol Village Community Garden represents another success of the initiative, giving residents the opportunity to cultivate fresh produce and forge community bonds.

California Workforce Development Board

The High Road Training Partnerships Program granted nearly half a million dollars through the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) to engage farmworkers and produce industry employers in the documentation and categorization of foundational, crop-specific, and technical skills. This work will support improved job quality for workers, a more professionalized workforce for employers, and the recognition of skills needed in environmentally sound agricultural production.

California Department of Community Services and Development

The Low-Income Weatherization Program’s Multifamily Energy Efficiency and Renewables Program has been instrumental in increasing climate resilience and renewable energy use in low-income communities across California and incentivizes owners of low-income multifamily housing to retrofit their properties with energy efficiency technologies and solar panels. These upgrades reduce GHG emissions while lowering energy costs, delivering tangible benefits to communities that need them most.

California Natural Resources Agency

Amigos de Los Rios, a Southern California-based nonprofit, is using California Climate Investments funding received through the Urban Greening Program, administered by the California Natural Resources Agency, to create an Emerald Necklace, a 17-mile loop of parks and greenways connecting disadvantaged communities to urban green spaces. The nonprofit recently transformed the exterior of Mary Jackson Elementary School in Altadena and revitalized a section of the Rio Honda Bike Path, integrating native plants and natural infrastructure to capture carbon and filter groundwater.

California Department of Food and Agriculture

Vander Woude Dairy, a family-owned and operated business in Merced, California, has leveraged California Climate Investments (CCI) funding through the Dairy Digester and Development Program (DDRP) to implement an innovative covered lagoon digester for methane capture. The digester will process manure solids daily, capturing methane to be converted into Renewable Compressed Natural Gas for vehicle use at the dairy.

California Department of Food and Agriculture

The Triple C Dairy Compost Barn and Solid Separation Project received California Climate Investments funding in 2019 through the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP).  Triple C Ranch, an organic dairy located in Sonoma County, used the funding to install a new compost bedded pack barn to house a portion of the herd during winter months, automate scrape collection of manure from barn alleyways, and add a solid-liquid separator that would reduce the amount of collected manure entering anaerobic storage.

California Air Resources Board

California Climate Investments funding has supported the deployment of over 1,100 zero-emission school buses at over 300 public school districts and local education agencies across the state. In both rural and urban communities across California, school districts are operating more zero-emission fleets, supporting the health and safety of students and reducing fleet operating costs.

California Air Resources Board

In August 2023, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and transportation nonprofit CALSTART launched Cal Fleet Advisor, which offers free technical assistance to help owners and operators integrate more zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles into their fleets. The program, which receives California Climate Investments funding as part of the administration of the Clean Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP), provides helpful services to ease the transition to cleaner technology for fleets across the state.  

California Air Resources Board

The Port of Los Angeles (POLA) has taken a significant step toward a greener future with the deployment of five brand-new Taylor ZLC 996 Electric Top Handlers. Supported by $2.5 million in California Climate Investments funding through the Clean Off-Road Equipment Voucher Incentive Project (CORE), this initiative marks a milestone in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air quality in and around California ports. 

California Department of Resources Recyling and Recovery

The Organics Grant Program began allocating California Climate Investments funding to in-vessel composting projects for the first time ever in its most recent solicitation. We were able to interview two grantees, from California State University – Sacramento (CSUS) and the University of Southern California (USC), about their projects and how in-vessel composting will change waste processing at their site and positively impact their communities.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

In August of 2024, the Canyon Fire ignited in the Tuolumne River Canyon, quickly becoming a threat to nearby subdivisions. Fortunately, the Tuolumne Fire Safe Council had received California Climate Investments funding through the Wildfire Prevention Grants program and completed the Ponderosa-Mira Monte Shaded Fuel Break just two years prior. The fuel break gave wildland firefighters leverage in slowing and ultimately extinguishing the blaze, saving area homes and lives.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

Giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees and an iconic California species, face increasing risk due to severe wildfires brought on by unnaturally high fuel loads and climate change. To avoid further losses and promote new growth, a group of partners, with funding from California Climate Investments, is restoring and protecting southern Sierra sequoia forests.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

In 2021, the Forest Health Research Program awarded California Climate Investments funding towards research aimed at determining how to leverage existing carbon incentives to increase utilization of woody biomass residues. The project, which seeks to increase biomass utilization throughout the state, examines the return on investment for a variety of low-value forest products for which the market is unpredictable or simply doesn’t exist.