Community Environmental Council

Mission

CEC’s mission is to identify, advocate, raise awareness, and develop effective programs to solve the most pressing environmental issues that affect the Santa Barbara region. We currently focus all of our energy on building a community-based movement that transitions the region off of fossil fuels in one generation — Fossil Free by ’33.

The Community Environmental Council has been pioneering real life solutions to environmental problems for over 43 years.

Local Pioneers for a National Environmental Movement

Since 1970, CEC has led the Santa Barbara region — and at times California and the nation — in creative solutions to some of the toughest environmental problems. We are often referred to as a “think-and-do tank” — deeply analyzing a problem and then applying creative, real-world solutions to it.

CEC’s historic process for creating social change is to:

1. Identify a critical community need,
2. Raise awareness about that need (often by setting a challenge goal for the community),
3. Push state and local government to change laws and regulations that affect the issue,
4. Take direct action ourselves toward that need, and
5. Spur the community to adopt new behaviors. Ultimately, when we are successful, resolving a problem that once seemed intractable becomes part of our community’s ethic and day-to-day lives.

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