Nonprofit Organizations Can Now Apply for Grants of up to $50,000 to Further Climate Solutions through the SoCal Climate Champions Grant Program

SoCalGas will award nonprofit organizations across the utility's service area with grants for projects, programs, and research that encourage and foster clean, safe, and innovative solutions toward a clean energy future.

LOS ANGELES, May 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) announced today that nonprofit organizations can apply for a grant of up to $50,000 from the utility's SoCal Climate Champions Grant program. The program is looking for innovative solutions that help reduce, mitigate, or sequester greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, or organic waste diversion solutions in the SoCalGas service area.  Since its inception in 2015, the SoCal Climate Champions Grant program has awarded more than 160 grants totaling near $3 million dollars.

"Every community-based organization has an opportunity to contribute to the collective solutions needed to reach a carbon-neutral future," said Jawaad Malik, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer at SoCalGas. "Together, through the SoCal Climate Champions Grant program, we can turn ideas into action and help empower these organizations working on innovative climate solutions to drive meaningful change."

The application window for this year's SoCal Climate Champions grant opened on April 21 and will close on June 21. Applications will go through a multi-phase judging process and grants will be distributed to the awardees in October. Grant recipients will:

• Receive an award of up to $50,000 to fund new or on-going efforts that align with the Initiative.
• Gain recognition in a community of accomplished nonprofit leaders from diverse programs.
• Share their stories through the grant program.
• Be offered the aid of SoCalGas volunteers.

Past awardees include organizations like the Orange County Conservation Corps (OCCC), whose Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) project provides a water management solution for runoff and urban flooding in Orange County. The program also incorporates workforce education and training to provide opportunities for youth in local communities.

"This grant helped to enable our corps members to be better equipped to help manage the impact of weather events on our local communities in Orange County," said OCCC's Chief Executive Officer, Katharyn Muniz. "The Green Stormwater Infrastructure project helps the community adapt to a changing climate through resilient management practices like capturing more runoff during prolonged droughts. These practices can also help reduce the effects of urban flooding following heavy rainfall events."

Another past awardee, the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, utilized the grant for their innovative low-cost energy storage system using byproducts of desalination. More than twenty engineering students assisted in developing a lab-scale thermal energy storage system that uses minerals removed during desalination for thermal energy storage. This low-cost and high-efficiency system could help increase the dispatchability of renewable sources and help provide peak load shifting when the grid experiences periods of strain.

"Energy storage systems will be key elements of our future power grid in order for it to be run by renewable sources," said Dr. Reza B. Lakeh, project lead and Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Cal Poly Pomona. "At scale, this project has the potential to enhance the availability of clean and sustainable power and water in California."

Under the ASPIRE 2045 Sustainability Strategy, SoCalGas plans to invest $50 million into communities the utility serves over five years, working to advance racial and gender diversity in the workplace, and take tangible steps towards a carbon neutral future.

Learn more about the application process at https://socalclimatechampionsgrant.com/application.

About SoCalGas    

Headquartered in Los Angeles, SoCalGas is the largest gas distribution utility in the United States. SoCalGas aims to deliver affordable, reliable, and increasingly renewable gas service to approximately 21 million consumers across approximately 24,000 square miles of Central and Southern California. We believe gas delivered through our pipelines plays a key role in California's clean energy transition by supporting energy system reliability and resiliency and enabling integration of renewable resources.    

SoCalGas' mission is to build the cleanest, safest and most innovative energy infrastructure company in America. In support of that mission, SoCalGas aspires to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations and delivery of energy by 2045 and to replace 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply to core customers with renewable natural gas (RNG) by 2030. RNG can be made from waste created by landfills and wastewater treatment plants. SoCalGas is also investing in its gas delivery infrastructure while working to keep bills affordable for customers. SoCalGas is a subsidiary of Sempra (NYSE: SRE), an energy infrastructure company based in San Diego.    

For more information visit socalgas.com/newsroom or connect with SoCalGas on X (formerly Twitter) (@SoCalGas), Instagram (@SoCalGas) and Facebook.     

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Factors, among others, that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement include: decisions, investigations, inquiries, regulations, denials or revocations of permits, consents, approvals or other authorizations, renewals of franchises, and other actions, including the failure to honor contracts and commitments, by the (i) California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Internal Revenue Service and other regulatory bodies and (ii) U.S. and states, counties, cities and other jurisdictions therein where we do business; the success of business development efforts and construction projects, including risks related to (i) completing construction projects or other transactions on schedule and budget, (ii) realizing anticipated benefits from any of these efforts if completed, (iii) obtaining third-party consents and approvals and (iv) third parties honoring their contracts and commitments; macroeconomic trends or other factors that could change our capital expenditure plans and their potential impact on rate base or other growth; litigation, arbitrations and other proceedings, and changes to laws and regulations, including those related to tax and trade policy; cybersecurity threats, including by state and state-sponsored actors, of ransomware or other attacks on our systems or the systems of third parties with which we conduct business, including the energy grid or other energy infrastructure; the availability, uses, sufficiency, and cost of capital resources and our ability to borrow money on favorable terms and meet our obligations, including due to (i) actions by credit rating agencies to downgrade our credit ratings or place those ratings on negative outlook, (ii) instability in the capital markets, or (iii) rising interest rates and inflation; the impact on affordability of our customer rates and our cost of capital and on our ability to pass through higher costs to customers due to (i) volatility in inflation, interest rates and commodity prices and (ii) the cost of meeting the demand for lower carbon and reliable energy in California; the impact of climate and sustainability policies, laws, rules, regulations, trends and required disclosures, including actions to reduce or eliminate reliance on natural gas, increased uncertainty in the political or regulatory environment for California natural gas distribution companies, the risk of nonrecovery for stranded assets, and uncertainty related to emerging technologies; weather, natural disasters, pandemics, accidents, equipment failures, explosions, terrorism, information system outages or other events, such as work stoppages, that disrupt our operations, damage our facilities or systems, cause the release of harmful materials or fires or subject us to liability for damages, fines and penalties, some of which may not be recoverable through regulatory mechanisms or insurance or may impact our ability to obtain satisfactory levels of affordable insurance; the availability of natural gas and natural gas storage capacity, including disruptions caused by failures in the pipeline system or limitations on the withdrawal of natural gas from storage facilities; and other uncertainties, some of which are difficult to predict and beyond our control. 

These risks and uncertainties are further discussed in the reports that the company has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports are available through the EDGAR system free-of-charge on the SEC's website, www.sec.gov, and on Sempra's website, www.sempra.com. Investors should not rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. 

Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor) and Infraestructura Energética Nova, S.A.P.I. de C.V. (IEnova) are not the same companies as the California utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Company or Southern California Gas Company, and Sempra Infrastructure, Sempra Infrastructure Partners, Sempra Texas, Sempra Texas Utilities, Oncor and IEnova are not regulated by the CPUC. 

SOURCE Southern California Gas Company