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Environmental Commitment

Being green is easy.

Doing things the environmentally friendly way has always been part of Community Transit operations; Environmental Stewardship is one of our agency’s Core Values. From reducing hazardous waste generation by 99 percent to voluntarily implementing clean air requirements years before it was necessary, we consider our impact on our environment. After all, we live here too.

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 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!

Community Transit’s environmental accomplishments:
Land
  • Improved spill response program, reducing total clean-up time by 75 percent
  • Reduced hazardous waste generation from 40,000 pounds per year to 360 pounds
  • Established extensive recycling program, including steel and concrete for construction of parking garage
Air
  • Removed 360 tons of air pollution by voluntarily retrofitting existing fleet with particulate traps
  • Purchased a closed system for cleaning particulate traps, enabling traps to be reused; one of the first in the county
Water
  • Recycle bus wash water, saving 12.8 million gallons of fresh water each year, and reducing load for wastewater utility. The environment wins twice!
  • Using compost leaf filters to treat stormwater, protecting local steams and Puget Sound; first organization in Washington to initiate
Energy
  • Operating one of the county’s largest vanpool programs - a 74 percent annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from this program alone!
  • Utilizing hybrid vehicles for support staff, and hybrid buses for BRT line
  • Employed solar panels and energy-efficient lighting at the Mountlake Terrace Transit Center.

For more information on Community Transi't Environmental Management System, contact the EMS Team at ems at commtrans dot org