Leading by Example

When Tony Brown runs errands in a four-door electric pick-up truck emblazoned with The Nature Conservancy’s logo, he attracts a lot of curious questions.

“The conversation just goes from there,” says Brown, who manages TNC’s Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County, Oklahoma. “I try to speak the same language as everybody else, so I start off by telling people that it's just a truck, but I put fuel in it differently than you do. Instead of pumping it, I plug it in. So it's a good way to engage people."

Electric advantages

The conversation-starting electric pickup truck is part of the preserve’s sustainability efforts, which also include electric vehicle chargers and solar panels on six buildings.

In 2020, Rivian provided long-term loans of its R1 pickup trucks to four TNC preserves, including Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. A few years later, the company donated the trucks outright.

Brown, who has driven the truck almost every day on the preserve’s 100 miles of gravel roads—totaling around 25,000 miles—says it supports common tasks like cutting brush, repairing fences and doing vegetation monitoring. On a prairie preserve with approximately 2,000 free-ranging buffalo and 300 species of birds, an electric vehicle has another advantage: It’s quiet. “You don't have the internal combustion engine scaring animals,” Brown says. “They can't hear you sneaking up on them.”

At nearly 40,000 acres, Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the largest protected piece of tallgrass prairie left on earth. And in an environment that’s full of dry grass and brush for a large part of the year, the fact that the electric truck minimizes wildfire risks gives Brown extra peace of mind. “One thing we’re very cautious about with internal combustion engines is that the exhaust gets hot,” he says. “You could accidentally start a fire, and that would be devastating. You don't have that problem with an electric vehicle.”

Powering the prairie

Solar panels, funded in part by a $125,000 gift from Honda, are another way the preserve is embracing sustainability efforts.

In 2024, the preserve’s research station—which houses labs, meeting rooms and offices—was the first to have solar panels installed. Later grants enabled expansion to the stewardship building, visitor center and three residences. The energy produced by the panels is used onsite and any excess sent back to the area’s power grid, reducing the site’s electricity bills.

The preserve now generates 80% of its electricity through its solar arrays. By creatively combining funding from the Honda gift and a rebate from the Inflation Reduction Act, the solar panels will pay for themselves in three years—and will protect the preserve from rising energy prices.

Walking the talk

Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is part of a larger TNC sustainability program that includes converting to electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar energy at TNC-owned facilities. Each change makes a big difference, says Brown. For example, the solar panels at the preserve cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 115 metric tons each year.

“At Tallgrass, we’re setting an example to show that this can be done in rural settings,” he says. “We all want to do better and improve things, and you have to start somewhere.”