Our Mission: Be ‘Carbon Smart’

Being “Carbon Smart” means making choices that reduce climate-changing emissions. See more...

Carbon Smart commutes: Ecology is supporting employees who ride their bicycles to work at the Lacey headquarters building by installing a bike repair station.

Between 30 and 70 employees used bikes to commute during 2011. The number depends on the month and the weather.

Employee can use the station and its tools to work on their bikes. The station is located between visitor parking and the public entrance to Ecology headquarters.

The station has a stand, a manual air pump, Phillips and flat head screwdrivers, Allen wrenches, a torx wrench, a headset wrench, a pedal wrench, some box wrenches, and two tire levers.

Ecology’s Commute Trip Reduction Office also keeps other tools and tire tubes on hand for bicycle riders.

Recycling cuts emissions, costs: At Ecology, we recycle and compost many waste materials, as shown in this video about our efforts.

Recycling and composting can yield significant reductions in climate-changing air emissions. In fact, a recent report says that recycling or composting many items commonly found in the waste streams in Washington, Oregon and California could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 32 million metric tons.

That’s like taking 6.3 million cars off the road for a year.

The West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum produced the report, called “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Recycling and Composting.” The group is made up of city, county, state, and tribal governments. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leads this partnership.

The authors also say their report shows that recycling and composting contribute significantly to the green economy.

“Recycling or composting just half of core recyclables and food scraps currently in the three-state waste streams would yield almost $1.6 billion in additional salaries and wages, $818 million in additional goods and services produced, and $309 million in additional sales across the West Coast,” the report says.

Here is an EnviroTV video about recycling and climate change, which focuses on efforts made by electronics manufacturer Dell.

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