Geographic Areas

California

Focus area(s)

• Environment
• Environmental Health
• Environmental Justice
• Toxics

HEFN-California Funder Call

Organizing for Chemical Policy Reform in California

DATE:    June 20, 2008

TIME:     10:30 – 11:30 Pacific / 1:30 – 2:30 pm Eastern

RSVP:    to rarablouei@hefn.org so that we may provide you with background documents for the call.

As work to tackle toxics intensifies on numerous fronts, California is in the thick of it. This funder call, organized by the HEFN-California Steering Committee, will highlight efforts to create bold chemicals policy reform in California, including perspectives of state coalition organizers and a California Assembly Member who is actively moving the issue legislatively. California’s Department of Toxics Substances Control will release their recommendations to the governor on its Green Chemistry Initiative in early July, to planned media fanfare. Join the June 20 call to get a heads up about what to expect in the report and efforts to turn it into meaningful action.

BACKGROUND:

Building on a long history of toxics work, California environmental health and environmental justice groups have formed a statewide coalition to press for chemical policy reform.  CHANGE (Californians for a Healthy & Green Economy) “is a growing coalition of environmental health, policy, labor, environmental justice, interfaith, and other organizations who are working to create a better system for regulating toxic chemicals in California.”  (See http://www.changecalifornia.org/.)  CHANGE also represents California in the States Alliance for Federal Reform of Chemicals Policy, supporting information-sharing and collaboration across US states and with advocates at the federal and international levels.

The current focus of much of CHANGE’s policy effort is the California Green Chemistry Initiative.  In 2007, California’s Secretary for Environmental Protection requested the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to undertake a Green Chemistry Initiative drawing scientific and public input into policy recommendations to the governor.  (For information about this DTSC process, see http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/index.cfm.)  Phase Two of this process, analyzing policy options, is expected to wrap up by mid-summer 2008. The GCI was jump-started by a report produced for the CA legislature by the UC-Berkeley California Policy Research Center (see http://coeh.berkeley.edu/greenchemistry/briefing/).

Funders gathered at the 2007 HEFN-California convening identified chemicals policy reform and CHANGE’s role in it as one of the issues around which funder learning and collaboration could be useful.  Towards this end, HEFN-CA’s Steering Committee* has organized this call and welcomes all interested funders to participate.

Our guest presenters on this call will include: 

• Ansje Miller, CHANGE Coordinator; Policy Director at the Center for Environmental Health, to report on the policy opportunities around chemicals policy reform in California;

• José T. Bravo, CHANGE Co-Convener; Executive Director of the Just Transition Alliance, reporting on CHANGE outreach and organizing; and  

• Assembly Member Mike Feuer, providing a legislator’s perspective on chemicals policy reform opportunities in California.  Feuer represents the 42^nd District in the California State Assembly and is a proponent of legislative initiatives affecting health and the environment in areas including toxics and transportation (http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a42/).

Earl Lui, Program Director at The California Wellness Foundation and HEFN-CA Co-Chair, will facilitate this call.

FUNDER RESOURCES:

Several HEFN funder members have produced resources that are useful background for this call.  One, available upon request (via email to hefn@hefn.org), is a confidential assessment of chemicals policy reform campaigns and coalitions in numerous states, including California.  This assessment was commissioned by the John Merck Fund and Beldon Fund, which are willing to share it with funder colleagues on a confidential basis. 

More funder resources on this and other California environmental health and environmental justice opportunities are posted at http://hefn.org/about-us/hefn-california-homepage, including a funder strategy brief on CHANGE co-authored by Anita Nager (Beldon Fund) and Marni Rosen (Jenifer Altman Foundation) offering perspectives of funders supporting CHANGE.  Also on the HEFN-CA homepage are other HEFN-CA funder strategy briefs as well as dates for the 2008 HEFN-California convening.

***If you haven’t signed up as a HEFN website member yet, you’ll need to do so in order to access the funder strategy briefs and other funder-only materials.  It’s free, easy, and quick:  just go to www.hefn.org, look in the right hand column for “New User?” and follow the prompts.  If you have any problems, contact Ramtin at rarablouei@hefn.org.

HEFN-CA Steering Committee 2008:

Ellen Braff-Guajardo (California Endowment)

Danielle Deane (Hewlett Foundation)

Tina Eshaghpour (Women’s Foundation of California)

Earl Lui (California Wellness Foundation) – 2008 Co-Chair

Michele Prichard (Liberty Hill Foundation)

Arlene Rodriguez (San Francisco Foundation) – 2008 Co-Chair