[1] Called "the state's most influential environmental organization" by Georgia Trend magazine, the Georgia Conservancy focuses on environmental advocacy, land conservation, coastal protection, stream protection, outdoor recreation, stewardship, and growth management.

Its mission is: “To protect Georgia's natural resources for present and future generations by advocating sound environmental policies, advancing sustainable growth practices and facilitating common-ground solutions to environmental challenges.”[2] The Georgia Conservancy's main office is in Midtown Atlanta.

The group's earliest conservation efforts were largely focused on protecting endangered places around the state.

Concerned by the link that had been established between automobile emissions and air pollution, leaders within the organization began calling for metro Atlanta to work on its public transit system in 1971.

In the latter part of the 1970s, the Conservancy utilized advocacy as a means of maximizing its statewide, and, in some cases, national, environmental impact.

[7] Working with other organizations across Georgia and the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s, the Conservancy pushed for increased support for threatened species along the coast, greater wetlands protection, the reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, the creation of the Georgia Superfund program, and an environmentally-friendly 1996 summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

[8] In 2012, the advocacy team helped to facilitate the permanent protection of Boyle's Island on the Altamaha River.

Good Urbanism seminars teach planning professionals, government officials and neighborhood residents about the importance of sustainable growth.

The Georgia Conservancy maintains an office in historic downtown Savannah, headed by Coastal Director Charles McMillan, and is working on a range of projects to protect the nearly 100 miles of coastline throughout the state.

What started out as six trips per year for a handful of Conservancy members has grown into a program that now serves hundreds of people each weekend, many from communities of color that have historically not been included in outdoor recreation opportunities.

Destinations include Sapelo Island along the coast, The Okefenokee Swamp in the southern part of the state, the Chattahoochee River near Atlanta[13] and[14] Charles McMillan became the group's coastal director in 2015.