Enviro-Tips: What you can do

graphic of a mountain and evergreen tree Washington is a beautiful state. Our citizens are proud to live here, and we want to maintain our high quality of life, but there are many pressures on our environment. These include population growth, urbanization that increases the amount of hard surfaces covering the land, loss of habitat, pressures on water supplies, and water and air pollution, among others.

These pressures are a reflection of the often unconscious actions of millions of individuals. Fortunately, there also are many individual actions that can help keep Washington a wonderful place to live.

Most people are doing some of these things already, probably including you. Please take a moment to choose a few more simple things you can do to sustain this place you depend upon and affect.

10 Simple Things YOU Can Do to Protect Washington's Environment

Turn down the heat, wear sweaters.
Carpool, bus, bike, walk.
Install low-flow devices for toilet, shower, faucets, gardens.
Avoid creating waste, re-use, reduce, recycle.
Avoid disposables, use durable products, buy recycled products.
Don’t litter, cover pickup truck loads, pick up litter.
Avoid toxic & poisonous products.
Take household hazardous waste to collection days or sites.
Compost yard and food waste.
Get involved, join a local community group working on streams or sustainability.

Seasonal Enviro-Tips - dozens of year-round ideas for protecting our environment

Winter Spring Summer Fall

Move toward a sustainable Washington

At its most basic level, sustainable means "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This is Ecology's working definition of sustainability.

The concept of sustainability is firmly based in the inter-dependence and healthy functioning of the environment, society and economy. We certainly depend on a healthy environment for our clean, abundant water, air and food, flood control, climate and natural resources, and we affect our environment, too. This Enviro-Tips Web site is a resource for your own choices about how YOU affect the environment you depend upon.