Some California restaurants will put another surcharge on their bills later this year — but this time, it won’t be for service or employee benefits. It will be to fight climate change.

The initiative, announced Wednesday, is called Restore California Renewable Restaurants, and it will allow restaurants statewide the option of charging diners an additional 1%. They money would go toward California’s Healthy Soil Program, which helps farmers transition to methods that put carbon back in the soil.

It’s a partnership between the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Air Resources Board and the Perennial Farming Initiative, a San Francisco nonprofit.

“Farmers and ranchers have long been on the forefront of the battle against climate change,” Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said in a statement. “This partnership is an opportunity for eaters and buyers to share in land-based solutions.”

Karen Leibowitz and Anthony Myint, a married couple who are founders of the Perennial Farming Initiative, first got the state’s attention last fall during the Global Climate Action Summit, when their other nonprofit, Zero Foodprint, led more than 40 Bay Area restaurants in going carbon neutral for a week. They’re also restaurateurs known for Mission Chinese Food, Commonwealth and their now-closed environmentally minded spot called the Perennial.

They’ll act as a liaison between the state and restaurants for Restore California, recruiting owners for the program. So far, Myint said several high-end Bay Area restaurants have verbally committed to participating. That includes Dominique Crenn’s restaurants Atelier Crenn, Petit Crenn and Bar Crenn.

“I’m a strong advocate for fighting climate change and I’m really trying to do my part to find little things we can do to make things better,” Crenn said.

Leibowitz and Myint said they hope to sign on 200 restaurants statewide by the end of 2019. The program should begin by early fall.

While the surcharge will be added to every bill at participating restaurants, diners will be able to opt out by telling their server to remove it. Mission Chinese Food added a similar charge back in August as a test run, and Myint said no one has opted out yet.

“If 1 percent of restaurants in California were part of the program, that would create as much as $10 million per year in funding for these farming practices,” he said.

Historically, the approach toward supporting environmentally beneficial practices was to expect ethical consumers to pay more for certain goods. Over the three years, they ran their climate-conscious restaurant the Perennial, Leibowitz and Myint realized that one restaurant can’t possibly change the system fast enough.

“(Restore California) is not waiting for the market to notice and to push people toward better choices,” Leibowitz said. “It’s directly funding carbon farming.”

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker