The Town of Truckee is excited to reveal its updated Keep Truckee Green website, sustainability dashboard, and renewed vision. You may have seen our colorful recycling ads, stopped by the teal tent at a Truckee Thursday event, used a reusable green box, or perhaps you’re visiting Keep Truckee Green for the very first time!

If you’re wondering, “what is Keep Truckee Green, anyway?” let us take the opportunity to introduce ourselves:

Who: We are part of the Town of Truckee, and work on many intersects of sustainability efforts in Truckee. In recent years, Keep Truckee Green represented the Town’s Solid Waste & Recycling Division. Now, we are more than just our recycling staff. In 2019, the Town formed an internal Sustainability Committee, comprised of 14 staff members. Keeping true to our “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra, we are returning to our roots and reusing the sustainability framework that was developed by the Town’s first sustainability committee more than 10 years ago.

What: We are working to reduce our environmental impacts to ensure the quality of our natural resources for our community now, and for future generations to come. Our organization is taking a comprehensive look at the Town’s sustainability actions from transit and bike trails, to our first ever Climate Action Plan, to affordable housing units. Yes, even affordable housing affects our GHG footprint! Using our Keep Truckee Green platform, we seek to inform and inspire individuals to live a sustainable lifestyle.

Where: As a local government agency, the Town’s Keep Truckee Green program focuses inside the town limits, working both internally on improving the sustainability of the Town’s operations and externally to support community-wide sustainability efforts. We also collaborate with partner organizations throughout the Truckee-Tahoe Basin. Part of our goal is to encourage residents and visitors to live sustainably here in Truckee, and wherever it is that they may reside. Climate change does not have geographical barriers, so it is all of our responsibility to do our part.

When: Keep Truckee Green first started in 2005. Over the last 15 years, it has evolved to what it is today. The work we do now will help us plan for a more resilient future.

Why: In order to address the impacts of climate change, sustainability is a top priority for our community, our Town Council, and the Town of Truckee. Sustainability is interwoven throughout all of our departments’ work. Our new website is intended to share what we’ve done, what we’re currently doing, and what we need to do to Keep Truckee Green.

By: Erica Mertens, Recycling Programs Manager