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We invite you to reimagine child care facilities as frontline spaces for climate resilience.
TO REGISTER
PROGRAM DETAILS
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Click here for a summit agenda
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Click here for a list of speakers and presenters
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Click to see SMC Early Childhood Climate Action Plan
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WHY THIS CLIMATE SUMMIT
Young children are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, yet they are often left out of climate planning. Build Up SMC is working to change that by making young children and the places where they learn and grow integral to the climate conversation.
In 2025, we created Build Up Green Spaces (BUGS)—a program dedicated to strengthening climate resilience in early care and learning environments. Our flagship effort is the nation’s first county-level Climate Action Plan focused on child care facilities and early childhood.
We are excited to launch this plan at the summit as we bring together leaders and practitioners from early childhood education, sustainability, public health, and local government to address climate realities in early childhood and reimagine child care facilities as frontline spaces for climate resilience.
CONNECTING CHILDREN & CLIMATE
Enjoy breakfast followed by a keynote address by Dr. Lisa Patel, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine and a national leader in climate and children’s health, highlighting the health impacts of climate change on children. The morning continues with a multi-sector panel led by JP Renaud, Executive Director of Canopy, exploring how collaboration strengthens climate resilience in early childhood settings.
Together, we will:
Deepen understanding of how climate impacts children and child care facilities
Rethink child care facilitiesas ground-level infrastructure for climate resilience
Identify pathways for cross-sector action, partnership, and impact
