Building Environmental Community in the Nation's Capital

The Sierra Club’s Building Environmental Community (BEC) Program is a decade-long effort to create a deeper community engagement in environmental issues. Sierra Club is focusing on targeted communities around the country, using traditional grassroots organizing methods by Sierra Club activists and organizers. The goal of this program is to influence the environmental policies of decision makers by creating a robust environmental community and strong public demand for environmental progress.

The Metro DC Building Environmental Community campaign represents a strong return to building one-on-one relationships and offering visionary solutions to environmental problems. BEC has the potential to create a powerful grassroots voice at both the local and national level on behalf on livable and sustainable communities and a healthy environment. The residents of our nation's capital area deserve nothing less.

Sign me up to help protect our communities' environment and public heath. Together we can put in place solutions that work for our families and our future

Host a Live Earth Houseparty

True Cost of Food/True Cost of Homes Campaigns - Local Outings
Ever wonder how and where your food was grown? How it got to you, and what the impacts might be on the environment? Come and relax with like-minded people while enjoying delicious food and discussing how our food choices impact the earth, animals, and our health.

Building Better
A New Sierra Club Report on America's Best New Development Projects

Related Actions:

Take Action for Better Metro Service
Make your voice heard to improve Metro service. Contact your public officials and urge them to act to get the new buses and railcars needed to relieve overcrowding. Improving Metro helps more people choose transit over driving, and is one of our best local solutions to global warming.

Tell Public Officials: Build the Purple Line Now!
Political conflicts, long review processes, and approval requirements—together with a lack of funding for Metro—continue to stall progress. Our public officials need to hear from you that building the Purple Line, including rail on the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, should be among the top transportation priorities for our region. Use this sample letter to call or write to your officials today.

Tell Gov. Kaine and Gov. O'Malley: Rail Now on the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge
The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge is rail-ready, but action is needed by Virginia and Maryland officials to jumpstart the effort to add Metro connections between the Yellow and Green Lines. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley have committed to improving transit in our region. Ask them to act to take action now to put rail on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Related News:

Environmental group urges advocacy on Metro issues
Washington Examiner 22, 2007
"Activists from the Sierra Club spent Wednesday morning at Metrorail stations throughout the region urging riders to publicly oppose fare increases and service reductions."

Metro Riders Demand Better Metro Service Without Fare Hikes
Sierra Club Press Room 21, 2007
“Metro takes 580,000 cars off the road each weekday and eliminates more than 10,000 tons of pollution each year:” noted Grace Cunningham, also with the Sierra Club. “Riders are already paying their fair share for a public service that benefits all of us.”

Wynn wants Wilson Bridge study expedited
Washington Examiner 14, 2007
"Rail across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge would provide the 100,000 plus Prince George's County residents who commute across the Wilson Bridge every day with an alternative to congested roadways," said Congressman Al Wynn in a letter to Governor Martin O'Malley. "Transit across the bridge will take people off the road and help reduce emissions in our region."

They Paved Paradise and Killed the Fish
Washington Post 11, 2007
Scientists Point to Man-Made Surfaces' Harm to the Severn River as a Cautionary Tale

The ICC Won't Solve Our Traffic Problems
Washington Post 11, 2006
"For 30 years I made the same assumption. I repeatedly voted for appropriations to buy the right of way when it was threatened with new housing or other development. But then the environmental impact study published in 1997 forecast no significant relief for congestion. At that point I changed my mind and joined the opposition." -NEAL POTTER, former Montgomery County executive

Transportation bill authorizes funding for preliminary rail studies
Gazette 8, 2005
The Campaign to Reinvest in the Heart of Oxon Hill is working on the next step to encourage construction of a rail system across the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge after funding for preliminary engineering of a transit route over the bridge was recently authorized.

Sierra Club Releases "America's Great Outdoors" Report
Baltimore Chronicle 30, 2005
Maryland's Crabtree Creek old-growth forest area is receiving national attention through its inclusion in the Sierra Club's newly released report, "America’s Great Outdoors," which outlines that organization's vision for protecting the natural heritage.