Mission/Vision

Environment Now’s mission is to advance the right to a healthy environment – and our shared responsibility to safeguard that right – focused on measurably effective environmental programs that protect and restore California’s waters and forests. This mission serves our vision of thriving, balanced California natural ecosystems, and flourishing relationships between humans and nature. We believe that these goals are achievable through a strategic combination of: enforcing existing laws, setting new legal precedents, supporting community leadership, advancing sound science, and demonstrating the viability of sustainable solutions. We also create models for change – such as our work to advance the rights of nature movement.

History

Environment Now is a private nonprofit foundation created in Southern California by Frank and Luanne Wells in December 1989. Frank Wells was an executive, mountain climber, and adventurer as well as a man of high integrity, unafraid to fight for justice. Seeing many environmental problems in California going unchecked, he established an action-oriented organization to do on-the-ground work and truly make a difference for California’s environment and communities. Since its inception, Environment Now has focused on critical issues near to the hearts of our founders and all Californians: preserving and restoring coastal, freshwater, and forest ecosystems, and improving air quality and urban sustainability. More recently, Environment Now has expanded its focus to take on climate change, in part through rights-based strategies.

Strategy

We consider ourselves a “SWAT team” for the environment, bringing an entrepreneurial, nimble approach to supporting grassroots voices and campaigns advancing needed, actionable goals. We invest in scalable, replicable solutions, innovative and bold strategies, and long-term results. We do not accept unsolicited proposals, instead partnering closely with conservation groups and social and ecological justice advocates. We believe our active, forward-leaning approach supports effective working relationships and creates more successful outcomes. 

Environment Now seeks to: 

  • Address significant environmental needs
  • Create measurably effective, permanent results for the environment
  • Build active leadership with our partner organizations in the environmental community
  • Act boldly
  • Keep a sharp focus on issues, solutions, and our mission
  • Encourage innovative thinking and approaches to existing problems
  • Fight for the right outcomes and take calculated risks to get there
  • Keep a forward focus, and approach issues with replicable or scalable solutions in mind
  • Build on experience and knowledge
  • Develop capacity and opportunity for diverse voices to be heard and acknowledged, and to lead