Tag archives: CEC

Green Gala Gets Funk-y
By Richard Mineards   |   October 1, 2024

How appropriate that a Funk Zone locale dubbed the Bakery Block raised a lot of dough when the Community Environmental Council hosted its annual Green Gala for 250 guests raising more than $100,000 to help its work in protecting California’s Central Coast from the climate crisis. The boffo bash, co-chaired by Carolyn Fitzgerald, Katy Powers, […]

Gala Goes Green
By Richard Mineards   |   October 10, 2023

Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council hosted its annual Green Gala for more than 200 guests at its new 10,000-square-foot Environmental Hub on State Street, just a tiara’s toss from the Granada Theatre. The handsome property, formerly the home of the Unity Shoppe, underwent a major $3.5 million renovation, with the boffo bash, which brings together […]

CEC Unveils Its New State-of-the-Art Space for Community Collaboration
By Rachael Quisel   |   July 18, 2023

On July 6th, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) celebrated the grand opening of its highly anticipated Environmental Hub. Located at 1219 State Street, this 10,000-square-foot space is set to revolutionize the way Santa Barbara approaches environmental initiatives, fostering collaboration, innovation, and community engagement. With its roots tracing back to the devastating 1969 oil spill, the […]

Community Environmental Council
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 6, 2023

Santa Barbara nonprofit Community Environmental Council has long been on the forefront of the environmental movement ever since its founding more than 50 years ago. Among its groundbreaking accomplishments in those early decades, CEC founded one of the nation’s first ecology centers, as well as the first learning and research community gardens. CEC was instrumental […]

National Climate Progress Takes Local Climate Action
By Salud Carbajal and Sigrid Wright   |   November 8, 2022

The two of us have joined forces with many others in our community on a clear mission. We are running a race to protect a fundamental aspect of life on Earth: a safe, livable climate.  A year ago, we heard the global community of scientists issue an unequivocal alarm bell by deeming our climate crisis […]

Community Leaders Speak on the Prospect of a Sustainable Montecito
By Asher Radziner   |   October 19, 2022

Entering the Santa Barbara Club this summer, I met with the newly elected Montecito Association member, Stan Roden – a former Santa Barbara County District Attorney now working as a climate ambassador and filmmaker. Having heard of his interest in guiding the community towards more sustainable and resilient practices, especially amidst the ever-growing environment turmoil, […]

Santa Barbara County Food Action Network
By Steven Libowitz   |   August 23, 2022

Everything seems to move quickly these days, but the speed of growth and expansion of the Santa Barbara County Food Action Network (SBCFAN) is fast enough to turn heads.  It was just six years ago that the Community Environmental Council and the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County created the Santa Barbara County Food Action Plan […]

Metamorphosis for the Environment
By Laura Capps   |   May 24, 2022

It would be nearly impossible to list the many unique features of Santa Barbara County that differentiate us from other places across the country. In contrast to all the incredible positive attributes, I recently learned of one startling distinction that may surprise you: our county is one of the fastest-warming places in the nation. According […]

CEC in Chrysalis
By Richard Mineards   |   May 17, 2022

Santa Barbara Historical Museum’s courtyard suffered major social gridlock when the Community Environmental Council hosted its spring fundraiser Metamorphosis: An Emergence with 250 guests raising more than $60,000. The boffo bash, a smaller affair than the organization’s annual Green Gala at The Lark, was co-chaired by board member Carolyn Fitzgerald and executive director Sigrid Wright […]

Community Environmental Council
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 15, 2021

With Earth Day 2021 rolling around just a week after the publication date of this issue of the Montecito Journal, you’d think the big three-day festival would be all anybody at the Community Environmental Council (CEC) would want to talk about. After all, it was a nascent CEC that organized Santa Barbara’s first Earth Day […]

She’s Our Hero
By Richard Mineards   |   April 8, 2021

Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA, is the recipient of the Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council’s 2021 Environmental Hero Award. “Her work exemplifies what it means to build the broad, boots-on-the-ground base of activism that we need to go all in together on the climate crisis,” says the CEC executive director Sigrid Wright, who […]

Local Lessons About Local Food: A Call to Invest in Local Food Infrastructure
By Sharyn Main   |   June 4, 2020

Food is such a basic human need, but as the COVID-19 pandemic has so sharply illustrated, despite our region’s bounty, our ever more complex food supply chain is not something we can take for granted. In 2016, Santa Barbara County stakeholders (including the CEC) completed a comprehensive, community-driven strategic plan that provided recommendations for how […]

Happy as a Lark
By Richard Mineards   |   October 4, 2018

A record sell-out crowd of 300 guests descended on Sherry Villanueva‘s Funk Zone eatery The Lark for the 48-year-old Community Environmental Council’s ninth annual Green Gala, raising more than $125,000 for the cause. The boffo bash, lavishly decorated in green hues, was co-chaired by Carolyn Fitzgerald, Leanne Schlinger Diebolt, and Elizabeth Wagner, with the ubiquitous […]

Kids & Teachers Environmental Stewardship Awards 2018
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 26, 2018

The 2nd annual Explore Ecology Environmental Stewardship Award Winners were honored April 21 at the Earth Day event downtown alongside the Community Environmental Council’s winners, filmmakers from SeaLegacyand writer Florencia Ramirez. Congressman Salud Carbajal presented awards after his opening ceremony senate updates. Montecito singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins, with his daughter, Hana, and his band performed a […]