The environment isn’t an abstract concept – it’s all around us, and plays a huge role in our quality of life, everything from how we get from place to place, to whether our kids have safe places to play. All Virginians deserve to live in healthy, balanced communities with abundant green spaces, access to the outdoors, and safe, clean ways to get from “Point A” to “Point B,” but this often isn’t the case. Virginia LCV Education Fund advocates for solutions that preserve and expand parks and green spaces, secure a more sustainable transportation sector, and ensure localities have the tools they need to make smart land-use decisions in communities across Virginia.
Preserving Open Space
From the Shenandoah Valley to the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia boasts an abundance of unparalleled natural beauty, scenic vistas, wild places, and historic sites. It’s vitally important for future generations of Virginians to enjoy the same access to these precious resources that we do today, because open space lost today is open space lost forever, and sadly, many forests, farms, and undeveloped lands are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Virginia LCV Education Fund raises awareness and advocates for solutions that protect land in perpetuity, giving landowners and farmers the tools they need to safeguard their working farms and forests, while also protecting our cultural and historic resources for future generations.
By preserving our land resources, we help ensure healthy communities and quality of life throughout the Commonwealth – today and into the future.
Securing Dedicated Parks Funding
Our state park system showcases the best that Virginia’s natural environment has to offer and, on a daily basis, unites Virginia citizens and tourists with nature at 44 pristine sites across the Commonwealth.
However, we still lack a permanent, dedicated funding source to keep our parks clean, functional, and accessible, or to bring new parks facilities into our system, making it difficult to meet today’s pressing needs, plan for the future, and ensure equal access to the outdoors across the Commonwealth.
Whether it’s hiking, canoeing, camping, or fishing, Virginians get to experience nature firsthand every time they visit one of our state parks. These experiences can last a lifetime and it’s crucial for us to maintain a strong park system while also identifying and protecting future parkland for future generations.
Sustainable Transportation Options
Pollution from the cars, trucks and SUVs we drive every day is our largest source of carbon emissions in Virginia, and poses a real threat to public health. This is why we work to secure better transportation alternatives.
Virginia LCV Education Fund advocates for solutions that put cleaner, electric vehicles on the road alongside the charging infrastructure that EV drivers need to get from place to place.
We also raise awareness for solutions that advance multi-model solutions and mass transit, getting more cars off the road, easing congestion and pollution, and advancing more equity in our transportation system.
We build opposition to efforts that undermine or bypass Virginia’s “Smart Scale” system, which takes politics out of the transportation funding process by ranking projects based on a variety of factors including environmental impact.
Smart Land Use
Local land use decisions overwhelmingly shape the character of communities as well as quality of life. Localities should be armed with the tools they need to advance land-use decisions that center sustainability and protect their communities from irresponsible development.
Affordable housing, density, sprawl, infill, economic development deals – these are all local issues with very big impact.
Virginia LCV Education Fund raises awareness for measures that help localities to push local, sustainable land-use solutions forward and we oppose efforts that tie localities’ hands when it comes to holding developers accountable or securing good, local environmental outcomes.
Sustainable Data Centers
Virginia has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, and more than any other state in the nation. With these facilities come a litany of environmental challenges, everything from water quality and local siting and land use issues, to the fate of our clean energy future, inflated energy bills, and transmission lines criss-crossing our landscape. Addressing these issues, and taking on some of the wealthiest companies in the world, will require ongoing public and decision-maker education, movement-building, and mobilization to hold Big Tech accountable and secure a more sustainable data center industry.
Our Issues
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A Fair & Free Democracy
A healthy, accessible democracy that works for all Virginians is integral to our mission. When there are barriers to voting, or efforts that seek to silence or diminish the voices of Virginians, the environment suffers. Virginia LCV Education Fund helps build a strong democracy with on-the-ground nonpartisan voter outreach, registration, and education efforts, with the […]
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Healthy Communities
The environment isn’t an abstract concept – it’s all around us, and plays a huge role in our quality of life, everything from how we get from place to place, to whether our kids have safe places to play. All Virginians deserve to live in healthy, balanced communities with abundant green spaces, access to the […]
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Clean Water
Clean water is a necessity. Without it, life as we know it can’t flourish. Unfortunately, the threats to water quality in Virginia are numerous – heavy industry, toxic chemicals, over-development, antiquated wastewater systems, urban runoff and pollution from agriculture all threaten our waterways, big and small. Virginia LCV Education Fund is committed to protecting and […]
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Clean, Affordable Energy
Today, Virginia is on the path to a 100% clean, affordable energy future – the only state in the south to commit to entirely phasing dirty, expensive fossil fuels out of our electricity mix. We had to fight hard to get here, and we continue fighting to stay on track. Virginia LCV Education Fund played […]
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