The future of protecting California’s natural environment
Over 4 million acres, a landmass larger than the state of Connecticut, burned in California in 2020. That’s more than double the previous record for the worst burn year in the state’s recent history. The Conservation Corps of Long Beach, a Southern California-based nonprofit and customer of Procore.org, uses Procore’s technology platform to stay on top of complex projects including natural habitat restoration, recycling initiatives, trail building, and wildfire prevention.
The Conservation Corps of Long Beach is a modern version of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program born during the Great Depression that put young people back to work with the intention of improving public lands and stimulating the economy. Today, the Conservation Corps of Long Beach strives to connect at-risk youth to their communities through work, education, and conservation in partnership with local, state, and federal organizations, the Corps Network, and Americorps.
The ability to take on more work and be adaptable is critical to the health of the environment the Conservation Corps of Long Beach aims to protect. With Procore, the nonprofit is better able to report on progress, stay on track, and meet evolving needs.
Tracking levels of complexity to get the job done.
The Conservation Corps of Long Beach is not your typical construction company. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, they work together with local and state governments, community members, and private foundations to get projects done.
“Having partnerships between local levels, public officials, and the private sectors allows our organization to be ready to meet evolving needs,” said John Dunay, who has served as the Chief Financial Officer at the Conservation Corps of Long Beach for nearly two decades. “This adds to our capacity to restore habitats, be adaptable to climate change, and be prepared for circumstances such as natural disasters and drought emergencies.”
Dunay said the organization realized their need for a project management software when they started to take on larger projects.
“Our biggest challenge has been adjusting to the rate we are growing,” said Dunay. “Execution, keeping track of all the little details, and accurate reporting to sponsors is critical. Procore provides us the insight we need on each project, no matter the size.”
Regulatory entities like CALfire, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, on top of a myriad of funding sources, add levels of complexity to each of the nonprofit’s projects.
Procore allows the Conservation Corps of Long Beach to carefully track each of the players separately. Dunay says that they “couldn’t be happier” about the capacity to take pictures of job sites and do line-by-line budget items.
The nonprofit recently entered into an agreement with the city of Long Beach to gain long-term use of one of their buildings in exchange for facility capital improvements.
“The City of Long Beach wanted us to verify that we were taking all of the removed roof materials to a recycling facility. The specialty contractor could just upload the tickets to Procore, where both the sponsor and I had instant access to monitor the progress,” said Dunay. “With Procore on the project, we were able to complete the roof in one week.”
Creatively solving for wildfire prevention in California.
The Conservation Corps of Long Beach is now able to take on a higher quantity of projects, including a grant from the National Forest Foundation to trail build and remove dry brush in critical areas. Going forward, the nonprofit is putting an increased focus on fire prevention, through fire load reduction methods including clearing dry brush and trees from state lands.
“We are looking towards an increasingly dynamic future of tracking for projects, like documenting greenhouse gas capture from planting trees, doing calculations around dead tree removal, and sawing the lumber we collect to put up for sale as a social enterprise,” said Dunay. “We are re-imagining what software can be used for, both for the Conservation Corps of Long Beach and Procore.”
Procore and Procore.org are proud to support the Conservation Corps of Long Beach as they invest in the future of our natural environment. To learn more about how the nonprofit is serving youth through education, job training and environmental projects, and to make a donation, visit cclb-corps.org.
Procore.org, the social impact arm of Procore, is committed to making it easier to make a difference by donating the Procore platform, training, and support to over 200 nonprofit builders with free training, support, and access to the Procore platform.
