Lucy Blake

Lucy Blake is the founder and former president of the Sierra Business Council, a collaborative conservation initiative in the Sierra Nevada region. Blake's group, the Sierra Business Council (SBC), is recognized nationally as an example of how communities can integrate social, economic, and environmental concerns in mutually supportive ways. An association of over 500 member businesses, the organization is based on the principle that business and environmental interests are more often coincident than in conflict, particularly in geographic areas where economic sustainability depends on environmental quality. Under Blake’s guidance, the SBC published Planning for Prosperity (1997), a set of principles for land-use planning in rural communities, and the Sierra Nevada Wealth Index (1996), which describes the interdependence of social, economic, and environmental health in the community’s well-being. Prior to founding SBC in 1994, Blake served as the director of the California League of Conservation Voters (1981-1991), a non-partisan political action arm of California's environmental movement. Blake was born in Tunisia as one of three daughters of a diplomat and educated at an all-girls high school (relevant datapoint, she notes). Though rootless as a child, she bought a worn-out cattle ranch in Sierra Valley more than 25 years ago, which she has since restored. With a conservation win every year since its inception in 2007, Blake is in this for the long haul, anticipating that this effort will round the bend to completion in about 2020. Blake received a B.A. (1981) in history from Brown University.