Sierra Club National Board's Conservation Initiatives and their emphases through 2010

The Sierra Club’s 114-year history reflects a rich blend of activism and unifying campaigns. Over the last decades, periods of mobilization and focus have represented some of the Club’s finest moments, and yielded some of our proudest victories: the Alaska Lands Act, Wild Forest campaign, the replacement of James Watt, the Superfund battle of 1986, California Desert Protection Campaign, the defeat of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America, and our 26-year long defense of the Arctic Refuge.
Now, we have the opportunity to distinguish ourselves again and to lead once more.

2006-2010 Conservation Initiatives

In November, 2005, the Board of Directors adopted three long-term conservation initiatives for the Sierra Club—Smart Energy Solutions, America’s Wild Legacy and Safe and Healthy Communities.
Two of these three—America’s Wild Legacy and Safe and Healthy Communities—have been part of the Sierra Club’s priority conservation work for decades. In adopting them as Conservation Initiatives for 2006-2010, the Board declared its commitment to our continued leadership in these areas.
In contrast, the Sierra Club has not historically made broad energy policy a national priority campaign. Energy, historically, has been a less central and more episodic Club focus. But the times demand that we meet the challenge to move beyond a fossil fuel world and that the Club lead society through one of the largest transformational moments in American history.
The Club’s leadership role in confronting global warming and transforming our energy economy advances not only the Club’s Smart Energy vision, but our work for America’s Wild Legacy and Safe and Healthy Communities as well. The Club must lead America in this moment; there is no other organization with the history, vision, and presence at the community level to play that role.
At the same time, the Club’s highest priority for the next decade as an institution is to build its capacity and focus on Smart Energy Solutions. This is the Conservation Initiative where our existing capacities and abilities are least well developed. As a result, we want to identify those opportunities that address the threats from climate change and can contribute to effective solutions where our members live. In building support for this priority, we want to be promoting Smart Energy Solutions in our trainings, communications channels, fundraising, political work, activist outings, and other available opportunities. We ask and encourage all to participate in an early opportunity around Earth Day 2006. It will be our first opportunity to showcase, for example, our Cool Cities program around the country.

Engaging Our Members and Programs
in Our Conservation Initiatives

The Board of Directors re-affirms the importance of all three Conservation Initiatives, and the need for the Club to provide support for volunteers and staff working on the Areas of National Concern in all three of these initiatives.
The Board, therefore, requests its Governance Committees, their sub-entities, all programs, and Chapters and Groups to assess and enhance their readiness to meet our new challenges, especially that of Smart Energy Solutions. The Board further encourages these same entities, as well as members, to join us at this critical time to build public sentiment to achieve all of our conservation initiatives.
In going forward, we are requesting staff and volunteer leaders at all levels to make available the Club’s time, expertise, and resources in a way that supports the successful implementation of our Smart Energy Initiative as a truly powerful, effective, and fully integrated campaign, while retaining the Sierra Club’s engagement and involvement across the full range of our Conservation Initiatives.

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