Community Transit

Earth Day, Every Day

Doing things the environmentally friendly way has always been part of Community Transit operations; Environmental Stewardship is one of our agency’s Core Values.

Tailpipe emissions cause 2/3 of our region's air pollution, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. The single most effective thing a person who commutes alone can do to reduce his or her carbon footprint is to take public transit instead of driving solo.

That's why Earth Day (and every day) is a good time to reduce your driving by taking the bus, vanpooling, biking, carpooling or telecommuting. One person switching to public transit can reduce daily carbon emissions by 20 pounds, or more than 4,800 pounds in a year.

Public transportation produces about 95 percent less carbon monoxide, 90 percent less volatile organic compounds and about half as much carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, per passenger mile, as private vehicles.

Your personal choices do make a difference. Community Transit, in turn, has done much to ensure that our buses, vans and operations make as little impact on the environment as possible.

Community Transit’s environmental accomplishments:

Land

• Reduced hazardous waste generation from 40,000 pounds per year to 360 pounds
• Established an extensive recycling program, including steel and concrete recycling for construction of the Mountlake Terrace parking garage
• Improved spill response program, reducing total clean-up time by 75 percent

Air

• Removed 360 tons of air pollution by voluntarily retrofitting existing bus fleet with particulate traps ahead of federal regulations
• Purchased a closed system for cleaning particulate traps, enabling traps to be reused; one of the first such systems in the country

Water

• Recycle bus wash water, saving 12.8 million gallons of fresh water each year, and reducing the load for wastewater utility. The environment wins twice!
• Using compost leaf filters to treat stormwater runoff, protecting local streams and Puget Sound; the first organization in Washington to initiate

Energy

• Operate one of the country’s largest vanpool programs - a 74 percent annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for those riders
• Use hybrid vehicles for support staff, and hybrid buses for BRT line, saving fuel and reducing dependence on fossil fuels
• Employed solar panels and energy-efficient lighting at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center.

Community Transit joined with the Federal Transit Administration and nine other transit agencies from across the country to develop and implement an Environmental Management System (EMS). EMS is a way of reducing our impact on the environment using the “plan, do, check, act” model for our operational processes and the products we use.

EMS allows us to:

1. Analyze our impact on the environment
2. Establish programs for reducing negative environmental effects
3. Monitor progress towards these goals

The end result is greater efficiency and control, as well as a better environment. What have we accomplished? Cleaner air, cleaner water, less waste and more energy efficiency!

For more information on Community Transit's Environmental Management System, contact the EMS Team at ems at commtrans dot org