Sustain Southern California (Sustain SoCal) accelerates cleantech economic growth and sustainability initiatives through innovation, collaboration and education.
As Southern California’s population, industry, workforce and tourism continues to grow and change, it is vitally important to proactively address the region’s sustainability, environmental and infrastructure needs and objectives.
Formerly known as Cleantech OC and Sustain OC, Sustain SoCal has a long history of exploring and implementing pragmatic, real-world solutions to the challenges created by growth, change and inefficiency that face Southern California and beyond.
Challenges create opportunities.
Sustain SoCal conducts conferences, workshops and networking events to help in the sharing of knowledge and establish connections that have a positive impact on both the economic progress and sustainable future of the area and its residents, businesses and visitors.
For key sectors such as Energy, Water, Transportation, Hospitals / Healthcare and Waste Stream Management, Sustain SoCal has gathered together stakeholders and formed Sustainability Networks are collaborating towards seeking common solutions and enabling economic growth. Working Groups within each Sustainability Network focus on specific issues and challenges that can be addressed through innovation and economic opportunities.
Sustain SoCal participants and sponsors range from established and emerging cleantech companies, start-up companies, corporate organizations of all sizes, municipal / regional / state / national agencies and governments, schools, hospitals, non-profit organizations, investors and more.
Networks / Partnerships: Fostering cooperation and collaboration among the public, private and academic sectors in the area of sustainability and cleantech within and around the greater Southern California region.
Partnerships (partial list)
Association of Energy Engineers SoCal Chapter (AEE SoCal)
Association of California Cities Orange County (ACC OC)
CALSTART
Center for Sustainable Energy
Energy Storage North America (ESNA)
Executive Next Practices Institute (ENPI)
Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC)
OCTANe
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
University of California, Irvine (UCI):
Information hub: Serving as an information and data clearinghouse to ensure that its members have the latest and most complete information concerning sustainability initiatives and practices and the clean technologies.
Advocacy: Serving as the voice for its members and industry in Southern California, Sacramento and Washington D.C.
Mentorship and Advisory: A service to its community in mentoring and advising toward sustainable growth inclusive of sustainable practices such as, business planning, strategic partnerships, supply chain management, human capital management, recycling, cleantech assessment and integration, etc.
Networking & Collaboration: Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, information, and business opportunities among large corporations, cleantech companies, local government, investors, academia and non-profits.
Platform to share best practices: Providing singular and multi-disciplinary foci to discover solutions.
Social media promotional vehicle: All tools available to members
Roundtables, workshops and lunch and learns: Coordinate focus meetings with a segment or whole of Sustain OC. Members bring ideas to the Sustain SoCal Board.
Education: We serve to educate our community and raise awareness in all matters related to sustainability with an emphasis on clean technology.
C. Scott Kitcher – President & CEO
Ryan Baron – Chair
Suzanne Gentilini – Vice Chair
Riyad Said – Treasurer
Antony Jones – Secretary
Nadereh Afsharmanesh
VP, Sustainability, Earth Friendly Products
John Arena
Business Outreach Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Ryan Baron
Partner, Best Best & Krieger
Dennis Calvert
CEO, BioLargo
Marc Campopiano
Partner, Latham Watkins
Annemarie Carignan
Environmental Compliance Consultant, Cox Communications
Mackenzie Crigger
Sustainability Manager, Chapman University
Angelina Galiteva
Board of Governors Member, California Independent System Operator (CAISO)
Suzanne Gentilini
Senior Manager, Business Development, ENGIE Services U.S.
Greg Giebel
Managing Director, ROTH Capital Partners
Shiv Grewal
Principal, Auctus Capital
Steve Gross
CEO, IHI Power
Sulaiman Hamidi
Director, Sustainability, Allergan
Chris Harrington
Educator
Chris Ivey
Shareholder, Stradling
Kelly Jennings
Director, Moulton Niguel Water District
Antony Jones, Ph.D.
Senior Managing Health Scientist, Cardno Chemrisk
Jordan Kanis
Director, Energy & Resource Innovation, Silicon Valley Bank
Victor Kao
Consulting Partner, RSM
Randal Kaufman
Sales Director, Transformative Technologies, Black & Veatch
C. Scott Kitcher
President & CEO, Sustain SoCal
Kate Klimow
Chief Admin. Officer and Dir. of External Relations, UCI Beall Applied Innovation
Tom Koutroulis
Director, County of Orange, OC Waste & Recycling
Brendan O’Donnell
Regional Sales Manager, ChargePoint
Ted Papagiannis
Partner, Knobbe Martens
Greg Queen
President, JWC Environmental
Riyad Said
Riyad Said, Key Client Advisor, Wealth Mgt Group, Bank of the West BNP Paribas
Gary Saleba
President & CEO, EES Consulting
Patrick Thompson
CEO, EcoPAS
Drake Welch
Vice President Customer Care, Calpine Energy Solutions
Adviser, Programs Director
Alan Ring – alan@sustainsocal.org