Campaigns
Priority Campaigns
RVAgreen 2025
RVAgreen 2050 is Richmond’s equity-centered climate action and resilience initiative. It’s a roadmap designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050, while helping the city adapt to climate threats like extreme heat, heavy precipitation, and flooding. By funding neighborhood resilience and greening projects and supporting city officials and community members in adopting sustainable practices, RVAgreen 2050 is building a path toward a greener, fairer, and more resilient Richmond.
Southside ReLeaf is one of over 300 organizations that comprise the Choose Clean Water Coalition. Recently, the coalition sent letters to Senator Mark Warner and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in support of policies that will protect clean water in Virginia and support continued restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. The letter to Administrator Zeldin urges the EPA to stop the weakening of water protections in the Chesapeake Bay. The letter to Senator Warner urges a reversal of proposed closures of key Department of the Interior offices that threaten to disrupt water quality monitoring.
Choose Clean Water Coalition
Previous Campaigns
The Fight to Save Hickory Hill
In October 2021, Southside ReLeaf along with partner organizations led a planting of 100 trees at Hickory Hill Community Center, a historically significant community center and local park in a predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood. Just a year later, the city of Richmond proposed to pave over two acres of green space at the community center to build a burn tower for a fire training facility—bringing fires, smoke and more concrete to a renewed community park in a formerly redlined neighborhood. By summer 2023, the city reversed its decision to pave over the park thanks to activism and advocacy by neighbors and community groups.
Preserving Neighborhood Climate Resilience Grant Funding
In spring 2024, Southside ReLeaf led an action alert encouraging community members to contact Richmond City Council about preserving funding for the Office of Sustainability’s grants program. The city had proposed cutting the program from $250,000 to $150,000, even as community requests for funding exceeded $1.2 million. These grants are a critical piece of advancing RVAgreen 2050, Richmond’s climate equity framework, which prioritizes frontline communities in reducing emissions and building resilience. They support neighborhood-scale solutions like tree planting, community and school gardens, energy efficiency, and green jobs. We emphasized that reducing local climate funding — at the same time federal dollars are shrinking — would undermine progress toward a more resilient, equitable city. Council ultimately voted to reduce the program for FY26, highlighting the urgent need for continued community voices in defending climate and environmental justice funding.