Our mission is to educate, advocate, and collaborate to ensure the Bay Area’s lands and communities are resilient to a changing climate.
We envision a Bay Area of healthy, thriving, resilient communities made up of lands and people that are safe during climate disasters and recover quickly from wildfire, floods, and drought, where everyone is living with nature in new and powerful ways for generations to come.
The Bay Area has a major problem: we aren’t ready for climate change. So Greenbelt Alliance is rising to the challenge by educating people, advocating for bold change, and collaborating to address the climate crisis.
Over Greenbelt Alliance’s 60-year history, we have stewarded this region’s beautiful natural landscapes while promoting the growth needed for thriving communities for generations to come. As a result, today, almost 3.3 million acres of the Bay Area’s nine counties are protected open spaces.
Today, we are leveraging our expertise in land-use policy advocacy and regional collaboration to realize a climate-resilient Bay Area. To us, this looks like communities and people thriving in the places they live, work, and play. Staying safe during climate disasters. Connecting with open spaces in new and powerful ways. Suffering less and recovering quickly after the next wildfire, flood, or drought. All thanks to equitable solutions drawing on the powerful role of nature.
The path toward this future is complex and more urgent than ever. At Greenbelt Alliance, we focus on data-driven and innovative policy solutions fostering much-needed regional collaboration to plan and invest in resilient communities.
The Bay Area is grappling with how to prepare for rampant wildfires, slow but steady sea level rise, massive flooding events, and prolonged droughts. In other words, we simply aren't prepared for climate change.
So Greenbelt Alliance is identifying climate risks and nature-based resilience opportunities that will drive the bold climate leadership where we need it the most, right now.
The Bay Area is vulnerable to climate change, and our low income and communities of color are disproportionately impacted. They just don’t have the resources, staff, funding, or incentives to act.
So Greenbelt Alliance is delivering innovative nature-based policy solutions for how we use our land and grow our cities to be more resilient, living with the power of nature in an equitable way.
The Bay Area lacks the local support to make climate-smart development happen, which would address our region's severe housing crisis and prepare for climate change in an equitable and sustainable way.
So Greenbelt Alliance is advocating for climate SMART development—Sustainable, Mixed, Affordable, Resilient, Transit-oriented—creating resilient communities in balance with nature.
At Greenbelt Alliance, we believe that local and regional policy decisions must prioritize attention, sustained resources, and solutions for the Bay Area’s low-income communities of color most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. These are also communities that have traditionally been excluded—deliberately—from large scale investment and planning decision-making.
We believe that advancing equitable climate resilience is part of advancing our society’s call for racial justice. Which is why Greenbelt Alliance is increasing our focus on ensuring our most vulnerable communities are centered in regional and local efforts to build climate resilience. We will drive our climate advocacy placing equity and anti-racism front and center.
Just as Greenbelt Alliance works to create a better Bay Area, we also strive to better ourselves as an organization. To guide that continued improvement, our staff and Board of Directors have identified and adopted the following values. They reflect who we are as an organization, what we foster in our team members, and the internal standard we use to measure our work.
Update: After the San Mateo City Council unanimously approved the “Downtown San Mateo Opportunity Sites” project on August 17th, 2020, it’s now expected to begin construction later in 2021. The development has been recently renamed Kiku Crossing. Kiku is the Japanese word for the flower Chrysanthemum, in a nod to the Japanese immigrant community in
Greenbelt Alliance is excited to officially endorse the Windy Hill Property Ventures proposed 608 Harbor Blvd Project located at the corner of Old County Rd. and Harbor Blvd, in downtown Belmont. The infill project—which means development within areas that are already largely developed—would transform a lot previously used as a gas station and car wash
Update: following a public meeting that spanned two days, the Livermore City Council voted unanimously on May 25, 2021, to approve the 130-unit affordable housing community proposed for the downtown area by Eden Housing! Greenbelt Alliance officially endorsed the Downtown Livermore Apartments located at the Southeast corner of the Railroad Avenue and L Street intersection. The infill project
Header Photo by Shira Bezalel
