A former director at the Sierra Club’s philanthropic arm is suing the Sierra Club Foundation and its leaders in a sweeping complaint alleging wrongful termination, discrimination and a pattern of sidelining Black leaders.
Pedro da Silva, who served as director of the foundation’s “Shifting Trillions” project from 2023 until his termination in 2025, filed the lawsuit Jan. 29 in a state court in California, where the Sierra Club Foundation is based.
The complaint alleges a “deliberate institutional pattern” of discrimination at the Sierra Club and the Sierra Club Foundation of hiring talented professionals of color and later using “investigations and allegations as tools to remove them.”
This lawsuit offers the latest glimpse into the workplace strife that’s roiled the influential environmental group in recent years. The Sierra Club has struggled for years with infighting over its internal and external approach to race.
