Local environmental groups merge Local environmental groups merge (October 13, 2000)

By Laurie Phillips

It seemed to make sense, so two local environmental groups did it.

On Aug. 24, nonprofit organizations Bay Area Action and the Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation became, for all practical purposes, one organization. The two environmental groups will be legally merged within the year.

The action, the product of about three years' consideration by the groups, came after unanimous votes by both boards of directors.

"It can be pretty lonely doing this work alone," said Peter Drekmeier, who co-founded Bay Area Action in 1990. "We felt we could do more as a team than with a hierarchical approach, and the boards agreed to that."

The merged groups will be led by an executive team, consisting of Drekmeier, Bay Area Action co-founder David Smernoff, and Holly Kaslewicz, a former development director for the San Francisco Jazz Foundation and Interplast. The executive team will oversee an annual operating budget of $600,000 to $700,000, an amount similar to the combined budgets of the separate groups before the merger.

A more important aspect of the merger is that the number of members in the new organization will increase to 2,000. That figure creates a stronger public impact than indicating that 500 people belonged to Bay Area Action and 1,500 to the Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation, Drekmeier said.

The merged group will be known officially by its initials, BAA-PCCF, Drekmeier said. He also wants people to know that in the process of merging, no aspect of either group -- be it people or projects -- has been pushed out. The group will continue to pursue projects that encourage improvement of the Bay Area quality of life while doing the least damage to the environment.

"There's a lot of opportunity here because there's a lot of wealth and a lot of educated people," Drekmeier said. He predicted other areas of the country -- and other countries -- will look to the work done in the Bay Area as a model, since politicians here recognize that environmental topics matter to voters.

The board of directors of the merged organization is expected to create a new mission plan. Drekmeier said this should not be difficult, since the two groups already worked with each other on some projects, including a Web site and annual Earth Day campaigns. They also shared a bookkeeper and a creek cleanup coordinator. While the merged organization will conduct most of its work from the Palo Alto building owned by the Peninsula Conservation Center Foundation, it also plans to retain Bay Area Action's old space for meetings.

Seeking to improve its visibility in the Bay Area, the merged group is pushing the idea of an eco-campus. Andy Fenselau, formerly of the Peninsula Conservation Foundation, said the group approached the city of Mountain View in May about reserving space for a building for 20 to 40 environmental organizations when an 18-acre parcel of land at Charleston Road and Shoreline Boulevard is developed.

BAA-PCCF hopes that it can use the acreage left over from the construction of a hotel being considered for the Charleston site by the council, a project expected to require 12 to 14 acres.

Fenselau said he is still waiting to hear back from the city on the proposal.

Fenselau asked, "How can nonprofits survive in this real estate market?" He said the work, by its nature, makes little money. "Typically, most nonprofits are eking out their existence in relative isolation from other nonprofits. Think about what one could do with 4 to 6 acres."

Nonprofits could work on larger, more collaborative projects if they were housed together, Fenselau said. He believes the proposed site, near Shoreline and Charleston parks, is a good place to do this.

On Nov. 17, the merged group will hand out awards to companies showing the most environmentally conscious policies. The winning ideas are simple, effective ones that any company could pursue, Drekmeier said, such as encouraging employees to use mass transit.

Drekmeier, a Palo Alto native, said he understands why people want to preserve the area's beauty, natural environment, and open spaces, many of which are located close to urban areas.

"It's a crucial time," Drekmeier said. "(These factors) weigh into our quality of life just as the economy does."