Sierra Club Florida describes a statewide network of more than 230,000 members and supporters. Its work sits within a state of 23,372,215 people, an electricity system that generated 266,119,236 megawatthours in 2024, and a water-reuse program using 958 million gallons of reclaimed water each day. Together, these figures show the scale of Florida’s environmental questions.
Contents
- Sierra Club Florida by the numbers
- Membership, staff, and awards
- Florida’s population and economic scale
- Electricity, solar, and energy use
- Water reuse and quality monitoring
- Climate events and Florida’s environmental context
Sierra Club Florida by the numbers
The chapter’s own figures provide a starting point for understanding its reach and operating structure. Sierra Club Florida says it represents over 230,000 members and supporters across the state, while its donation information says contributions stay in Florida. Annual membership dues of $25 or more include $7.50 for a one-year print subscription to Sierra magazine and $1.00 for the chapter newsletter. These are membership and donation terms described by Sierra Club Florida, not estimates of the chapter’s annual revenue.
The chapter also reported adding two staffers: a Chapter Administrative Coordinator and an Organizing Representative. Those roles indicate two distinct needs in a statewide organization—administration and organizing—but the supplied material does not provide a total staff count or a date for the additions.
Sierra Club Florida’s awards form gives another way to measure the chapter’s activity. It lists three award categories and 19 named awards in all: eight group-level awards, five awards for Sierra members or community members doing outstanding environmental work, and six state-level awards.
| Sierra Club Florida measure | Reported figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Members and supporters | Over 230,000 | [Sierra Club Florida press release] |
| Minimum annual dues referenced | $25 | [Sierra Club Florida donate page] |
| Magazine amount included with those dues | $7.50 | [Sierra Club Florida donate page] |
| Newsletter amount included with those dues | $1.00 | [Sierra Club Florida donate page] |
| Award categories | 3 | [Sierra Club Florida awards form] |
| Named awards across all categories | 19 | [Sierra Club Florida awards form] |
Membership, staff, and awards
The award structure is unusually specific. The eight group-level awards are Pine Tree, Manatee, Panther, Oak Leaf, Otter, Gopher Tortoise, Sand Dollar, and Whooping Crane. The five awards for members or community members are the Red Howell Legal Services Award, Indigo, Barred Owl, Cypress, and Osprey. The six state-level awards are Florida Eco-System, Florida Chapter Medal, Palm Leaf, Pelican, Dolphin, and Florida Black Bear. These names and groupings come from the Sierra Club Florida awards form.
Several group awards include annual selection ranges. Pine Tree, Manatee, Panther, and Otter each allow from zero to four recipients annually. Oak Leaf allows zero to three. The Gopher Tortoise and Sand Dollar awards allow up to four recipients annually. A zero lower bound describes the selection range; it does not mean that every award is presented every year.
The awards form sets September 1 as the nomination deadline and says awards are presented at the chapter’s annual Conservation Conference in December. It also connects one award to a broader ecological statistic: gopher tortoise burrows can support up to 360 other species. That figure describes the ecological importance of the burrows, not the number of awards or recipients.
The Tampa Bay Group newsletter adds a local-program snapshot from January and February 2024. Its January program was scheduled for Wednesday, January 10, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, with the Zoom room opening at 6:45 p.m. The February program was scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. The January listing gave meeting ID 853 7790 1302 and passcode 458956. Those are historical event details, not a current meeting schedule.
The same newsletter said Sid Flannery’s Florida water-management career spanned 35 years, including 30 years at the Southwest Florida Water Management District. It announced a Tampa Bay paddle outing at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 13, 2024, including an 11-mile Alafia River route. The newsletter also listed a $15.00 Tampa Bay membership offer and Florida Seller of Travel reference number ST37115. These details belong to the January/February 2024 newsletter and should not be read as current offers or credentials.
Florida’s population and economic scale
Census QuickFacts Florida estimated the state’s population at 23,372,215 on July 1, 2024. The population grew 8.5% between April 1, 2020, and July 1, 2024. The age profile included 4.9% under age 5, 19.3% under age 18, and 21.8% age 65 or older. Florida’s population was 50.8% female. Census QuickFacts also reported 76.4% White alone, 16.9% Black alone, and 28.7% Hispanic or Latino; these categories are reported as separate Census characteristics and should not be added together.
The state’s economic and physical scale affects environmental planning. The EIA Florida profile reported 2024 gross domestic product of $1,705.6 billion, ranking Florida fourth nationally. Manufacturing-sector GDP was $80,704 million, and per capita personal income was $70,390. Florida vehicle miles traveled totaled 239,188 million miles in 2023. The state had 9.7 million acres of land in farms in 2024.
The same EIA profile reported a 2024 average temperature of 72.9 degrees Fahrenheit and precipitation of 56.8 inches. These are statewide annual averages or totals as labeled by the source, not conditions at every location or on every day.
Electricity, solar, and energy use
Florida’s 2024 electricity profile combines large generation volumes with a strong dependence on natural gas. Net summer electric capacity was 72,012 megawatts, while net electric generation reached 266,119,236 megawatthours. Total retail electricity sales were 255,095,458 megawatthours, and the average retail electricity price was 12.53 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Florida electric utilities accounted for 65,925 megawatts of net summer capacity in 2024. Independent power producers and combined heat-and-power resources accounted for another 6,087 megawatts. The Florida Electricity Profile identified natural gas as the primary electricity source.
| Energy indicator | Figure | Period or update |
|---|---|---|
| Average retail electricity price | 12.53 cents/kWh | 2024 |
| Net summer electric capacity | 72,012 MW | 2024 |
| Net electric generation | 266,119,236 MWh | 2024 |
| Total retail electricity sales | 255,095,458 MWh | 2024 |
| Natural gas share of generation | About 75% | 2024 EIA profile |
| Nuclear share of generation | About 11% | 2024 EIA profile |
| Solar share of total net generation | Nearly 9% | 2023 |
The EIA Florida State Energy Profile said natural gas fueled about 75% of total electricity net generation in 2024, while nuclear supplied about 11%. Renewable resources and coal supplied almost all of the remaining generation. In 2023, Florida ranked third nationally in total solar power generation. About 75% of its solar generating capacity was utility-scale and about 25% was small-scale. Solar energy accounted for nearly 9% of total net generation in 2023.
The residential sector consumed 54% of Florida’s electricity in 2023, the largest residential share of any state, according to the EIA profile. About nine in ten Florida households used electricity as their primary home-heating source. In 2024, Florida was the nation’s second-largest electricity producer after Texas.
The broader energy balance is different from the electricity ranking. In 2022, Florida used almost eight times as much energy as it produced and consumed less energy per capita than all but six other states. Florida was also the nation’s third-highest motor-gasoline consumer and second-highest jet-fuel user in 2022. State Energy Profile Data reported renewable energy at 6.7% of state total consumption in 2023.
Later data updates provide additional timestamps. Small-scale solar photovoltaic generation was 501 thousand megawatthours in the 2025 data updates. An April 2025 update reported a 67.9% natural-gas-fired generation share, a 12.6% nuclear share, and 2,590 thousand megawatthours of utility-scale solar, wind, and geothermal net generation. The EIA Electric Power Monthly reported 15,469.1 megawatts of utility-scale solar and related renewable net summer capacity in December 2025 data updates, compared with 13,770.7 megawatts of current-fleet utility-scale renewable net summer capacity in December 2024 data updates. These update periods are not interchangeable with the 2024 annual profile.
Water reuse and quality monitoring
Florida DEP reported 958 million gallons per day of reclaimed water used for beneficial purposes in 2024. That use avoided more than 154 billion gallons of potable-quality water and added more than 94 billion gallons back to available groundwater supplies. The figures describe annual program reporting and daily capacity or use as labeled by the department; they are not a claim that every gallon was used in the same location.
Domestic wastewater treatment reuse capacity increased from 1,116 million gallons per day in 2000 to 2,522 million gallons per day in 2024. In 2024, reuse capacity was about 62% of total permitted domestic wastewater treatment capacity. Public-access reuse systems irrigated 591,834 residences, 519 golf courses, 1,049 parks, and 409 schools. Public-access irrigation represented about 57% of Florida’s 958 million gallons per day of reclaimed-water reuse.
Florida DEP says the state assesses approximately 20% of its watersheds each year for its water-quality report-card program. The 2024 Integrated Water Quality Assessment for Florida included more than 805,224 dissolved-oxygen samples and 295,351 chlorophyll-a samples. It also included 204,197 enterococci samples, 147,706 chloride samples, 147,419 alkalinity samples, and 92,765 dissolved-solids samples.
The report included 63,668 copper samples, 59,761 arsenic samples, 58,867 cadmium samples, 54,437 chromium III samples, and 49 chlorine samples. These are counts of samples in the assessment, not findings that every sample exceeded a standard. The measurement type and the assessment year matter when interpreting each number.
Climate events and Florida’s environmental context
The NOAA NCEI Billion-Dollar State Summary recorded 94 confirmed billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in Florida from 1980 through 2024. The total covers the stated period and classification, not every weather event or every disaster-related cost in the state.
One event in that record was Hurricane Helene. NOAA NCEI reported that Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida, on September 26, 2024, as a Category 4 storm with 140 mph sustained winds. The landfall date, location, storm category, and wind speed are event-specific measurements; they should not be generalized to Florida’s typical hurricane conditions.
Taken together, the figures place Sierra Club Florida’s membership and award structure alongside the state systems its conservation work engages: a rapidly growing population, a $1.7 trillion economy, high electricity production and consumption, expanding reclaimed-water capacity, extensive water-quality sampling, and a long record of costly weather and climate disasters. The source periods range from 1980–2024 disaster records to 2025 energy updates, so each statistic is best read with its stated geography and measurement date.