Arizona's Environmental Convening

It began on the banks of the Rio Salado. Before a gathering of community leaders, elected officials, Indigenous land stewards, researchers, journalists, and environmental innovators, the Arizona Community Foundation, in partnership with the City of Phoenix, Arizona State University, and Desert Botanical Garden, officially announced Arizona's Environmental Convening, coming to downtown Phoenix on December 2 and 3, 2026.

What unfolded over the course of that morning was more than a press event. It was a demonstration of the very thing Arizona's Environmental Convening is designed to make permanent: the right people, across every sector, every background, and every institution, deciding to move together.

The morning started outside, on the Rio Salado transformation site, where guests joined a blessing led by Lavern Jackson and the Protectors of the Salt River. The Transformation Site – one acre on the southern bank of the Salt River, just steps from the new Central Avenue light rail stop – is being co-created with the community for the community. It is the first in what we hope will be many anchor projects where Indigenous stewardship, city infrastructure, and philanthropic capital meet on the ground.  The Transformation site is one of the living case studies that the Arizona's Environmental Convening will center on.

As guests made their way back toward the Audubon Center, the conversation was already alive. Neighbors, funders and frontline workers, researchers and grassroots organizers were all walking the same ground and talking about the same challenges. That walk told its own story about what collective action looks like when it starts where the work is actually happening.

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