Sierra Club

Michael Brune. Like many environmental activists, the Sierra Club's new executive director, Michael Brune, first decided to pitch in and protect the planet for selfish reasons. "I grew up in Chadwick Beach, on the New Jersey shore," says Brune, 38. "My parents took us camping up and down the eastern seaboard. I even learned to walk at a campground in Maine. "In… See full bio.

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Website:	http://www.sierraclub.org	Address:	85 Second St
E-Mail:	information AT sierraclub.org		San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
Phone:	415-977-5500
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Story: Read about what a volunteer has to say about Sierra Club: Eleven years ago I went on this fabulous volunteer (service) National Outings trip with the Sierra Club to some of the Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) ruins in the Southwest. This began my pilgrimage to all of the sites including Bandelier, Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. I've also pulled barbed wire in many other areas in the Southwest, and seen first-hand the evidence of the current immigration policies in the Southwest. Not only did I get very connected to ancient cultures as a result of my first experiences, but also the Sierra Club in general. I became a Local Outings leader, and an Outings Chair ...and also became active on a national level as a (volunteer) Outings Activities trainer and Local Outings Committee member/advocate. I still love exploring new places on my own, but am even more committed to helping others get outdoors to experience and preserve what's special about each of our natural areas. In all my years of volunteer Sierra Club involvement, I can't think of a better group of volunteer leaders and staff members with whom to work. Fun, intelligent and committed --what else can you ask for? The Sierra Club needs to remember that their strength always comes from the "grassroots." (Read more reviews at: http://greatnonprofits.org/reviews/org-reviews/sierra-club/P10/)

Evidence of Impact Summary:

With $40 million in funding, they helped grassroots activists achieve their fundraising goals. The Sierra Club Foundation partnered with Homes for Our Troops, expanding the number of green homes for veterans and their families.

Organization Strengths Summary:

Climate Change experts believe that Sierra Club is the most effective grassroots organization in this field. They have an amazing ability to mobilize huge numbers of citizens to push for change. Their greatest success was in using litigation to close down all coal-fired power plants.
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Areas for Improvement Summary:

At the same time, some experts believe that Sierra Club should be more thoughtful about the research that goes into the work they do and be more pragmatic about the partnerships they form. Additionally, because they have a high level of activity at the local level, they should find ways coordinate their efforts to do the most good.
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Like many environmental activists, the Sierra Club's new executive director, Michael Brune, first decided to pitch in and protect the planet for selfish reasons. "I grew up in Chadwick Beach, on the New Jersey shore," says Brune, 38. "My parents took us camping up and down the eastern seaboard. I even learned to walk at a campground in Maine. "In the summer, as a teenager, I'd spend all day every day at the beach and in the ocean, surfing and bodysurfing." So when hypodermic needles and frothy chemical waste from nearby plants began washing up on the sand, he was disgusted. When he discovered his body covered in a rash and New Jersey beaches closed because of the dangerous contamination, he and his neighbors took action. "I was young and politically naïve, so I simply signed a petition and hoped someone would listen. But there were a handful of community groups that took hold of the issue and wouldn't go away. I saw how they were able to inspire and organize people to work together to develop solutions -- and they prevailed. Hospital-waste dumping was banned, the chemical factory was eventually closed, and the beaches were reopened with visible and immediate improvements in water quality." The experience impressed upon Brune the connection between loving the natural world and the responsibility to protect it. "My first time out West was on a family trip in 1985. I was almost 14 and had never been west of the Appalachians. I still remember walking to the rim of the Grand Canyon and being blown away. The next day, we hiked to the bottom and my life was changed." That day in the Canyon was the sort of "transforming moment in nature" that the majority of Sierra Club members say cemented their devotion to the environmental cause. After high school, Brune -- who picked up the childhood nickname "the Count" because of his affinity for numbers -- earned dual degrees at West Chester University in Pennsylvania in Economics and Finance. After graduation, he set off with a friend on a road trip that took them through the Great Plains, the California and Oregon coasts, Mt. St. Helens, the boreal forests of Alaska and Canada, the Grand Tetons, Yosemite, and back to Grand Canyon National Park. His priorities rearranged, Brune went to work for Greenpeace, and immediately knew he'd found his calling. With four years of grassroots organizing and campaigning under his belt, Brune moved on to the Rainforest Action Network. "Soon after I started as a campaigner with RAN, I was taken on a tour of a rainforest in British Columbia, and we visited a beautiful, intact valley, lush with trees and slated to be clear-cut. None of us could bear to see that happen." The logging company's biggest customer was the building-supply company Home Depot, which is headquartered in Atlanta. Following the adage, "the customer is always right," Brune led Rainforest Action Network's campaign to protect British Columbia's forests by enlisting the logging industry's top customers to lobby for their protection. Brune unleashed his creativity. Rainforest Action Network took out ads in the Atlanta Journal Constitution targeting the corporate leadership. It urged school children to write letters. It strung banners from the company's buildings, launched protests nationwide and, according to a profile in Alameda magazine, at one point Brune, then 26, commandeered the PA system at an Atlanta store and announced: "Attention shoppers, on aisle 13 you will find wood ripped from the heart of the rainforest." Eventually, Home Depot relented, and its change in policy helped protect more than 5 million acres of rainforest in British Columbia. Time magazine called the victory the most important environmental story of 1999. "It's certainly true that smart businesses can do well by doing good," Brune says. "To its credit, Home Depot has kept its commitment to phase out sales of wood from endangered forests. This policy has led many of Home Depot's competitors to follow the same practice, and that has led to the protection of rainforests as far away as Chile and Indonesia." Under Brune's leadership, Rainforest Action Network went on to win more than a dozen other key commitments from America's largest corporations, including Citi, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Kinko's, Boise, and Lowe's. And despite his strong-arm tactics, his approach usually left his adversaries feeling that they'd been treated with respect. "We had a mantra at RAN to be hard on the issues, but soft on the people involved. That's really just another way of saying that when you take on a company about corporate responsibility, it's possible to be confrontational and collaborative at the same time," Brune says. Brune arrives at the Sierra Club at a pivotal moment for the 118-year-old organization. Perhaps best known for protecting wild lands and -- as Ken Burns's recent PBS series America's Best Idea detailed brilliantly -- helping to create our National Parks, the Club has also plunged headlong, and with extraordinary success, into addressing one of the 21st century's most serious challenges: climate change. More than 112 new coal plants have been stopped because of Sierra Club actions, and national support for wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources is growing by the hour. In his book, Coming Clean-- Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal, (Sierra Club Books, 2008) Brune addresses global warming's causes and lays out an ambitious plan for moving America to a clean-energy economy that will generate good jobs and create a healthier planet. It also gives an inside look at how grassroots organizations can make a profound difference. He sees leading the Sierra Club as a natural fit for the sort of far-reaching, solutions-oriented vision spelled out in Coming Clean. "The Sierra Club's motto is explore, enjoy, and protect the planet," Brune says. "It's not just about problems. This is an organization that's equally determined to protecting the planet's last, best places and to having a great time exploring and enjoying those places. A love of nature helps inspire us to do what we must to save it."

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