Columbia Gorge Earth Center

Columbia Gorge Earth Center strengthens connections between people, ecology and economy of the Columbia River Gorge by facilitating dialogue and providing resources that empower our community to make sustainable choices.

Founded in 2000 by a small group of citizens committed to organizing a Gorge Earth Day event and acting as an informational hub for Gorge non-profits, the Earth Center began as an incubated program of the Central Cascades Alliance (who eventually disbanded and became Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute). CGEC acquired its 501 (c) 3 nonprofit status in 2003 and one year later launched its first program, the Gorge Rebuild-it Center (a reused building material store). Since then, the Earth Center has incubated six other programs in the areas of waste, energy, local food, local economies and culture.

Today, the Earth Center has two main roles: we educate and we incubate sustainable-focused non-profits. Our education events include the annual Earth Day celebration; Film & Lecture events on controversial topics such as Measure 37, wind power, natural gas fracking; the Sense of Place lecture series; Green Drinks, organized by the Gorge Owned Business Network; and the annual Green Living Tour of sustainable homes and building practices.

Empowering citizens to make more sustainable choices starts with education. Annually, CGEC, and programs of the Earth Center, host 30 ? 40 events attracting 1,000 ? 1,500 people.

Annual Earth Day celebration & community sustainability awards

Film & Lecture series

Sense of Place series (November ? April)

Annual Green Living Tour of sustainable homes & lifestyles (October)

Community Educational Forums (year-around)

Green Drinks (monthly)


The Earth Center acts as an ?incubator? for community members who are interested in developing their own environmentally-focused program but don?t have adequate start-up resources. Since 2003, CGEC has incubated seven programs in the Gorge incorporating the three tenets of the Earth Center: ecology, economy and community.

This incubation period allows community members a faster and cheaper start-up process as well as the opportunity to focus on building organizational capacity, applying for grants and testing their project idea without having to spend valuable resources initially applying for a 501 c 3 non-profit status. CGEC also manages taxes, collaborates where sensible, and provides some marketing assistance. Most programs spin off into their own programs in 1 ? 2 years. Others remain under the Earth Center umbrella as current projects (* Current program of the Earth Center).

*RiverHOURS administers a formal barter and trade system for the Columbia Gorge region.

*Gorge Owned Business Network ?GO!? is a regional network of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.

*Weatherize Oregon Now is a private/ public/non-profit partnership demonstrating a simple, low-cost approach to encourage energy efficiency that is replicable and scalable to rural and urban communities throughout Oregon.

Gorge Grown Food Network works to build an economically and environmentally sound regional food system.

Gorge Rebuild-it Center GRC sells reused building materials. After seven years as a program of the Earth Center, GRC spun off in 2011.