TCAT Blog

By: Robert Marino | Director of Clean Energy and Infrastructure  As Washington state moves towards electrification, our buildings landscape will have a lot of changes from energy efficiency in new construction to retrofits. In the next year I will be writing a series of articles to share about energy efficiency in new construction and retrofits. Let’s…

We are excited to announce that the Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC) has completed their first ever Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory for the county. TCAT was integrally involved in this work, and we are thankful to have this data to guide our work with the jurisdictions in making reductions. Below is the executive summary…

We want to take a moment to celebrate! On Friday November 4th, the State Building Code Council voted to adopt new statewide residential building codes that will drive the transition to safe and healthy homes that run on low-cost, 100% clean electricity instead of methane gas — a climate super-polluter that also harms health. The state’s action to require heat pumps for space…

By: Robert Marino | TCAT Director of Clean Energy and Infrastructure Earlier this year I wrote a broad overview about the IRA. This piece goes deeper into the IRA specifics: what dollar amounts you might  expect to save if you did an energy efficiency project on your home or bought an electric vehicle. Let me remind you…

By Carrie Ziegler | Lead Artist and Community Engagement Extraordinaire for Thurston Climate Action Team Recently, we took our Climate Art in Action work offline, out of buildings, and into nature. While soaking in the forest of Squaxin Park, roots extending below us and trees rising high above, we made deeper commitments to creative climate action and decolonization. …

Thurston Climate Action Teams Volunteer Spotlight this month goes to Alyssa Jones Wood. Marisa, TCAT’s Equity and Outreach Program Manager, sat down with Alyssa to get to know her a little better.  Alyssa is the Sustainability Coordinator (Water Resources and Sustainability department) for the city of Tumwater. She is originally from Vero Beach, Florida and that…

The Thurston Climate Action Team releases the following statement in response to the recent death of Timothy Green: The recent incident where Timothy Green was fatally shot by the Olympia Police reminds us of all the work that needs to be done. TCAT doubles down on our efforts for equity in the work we do as…

On September 8 the Nisqually Tribe’s Medicine Creek Enterprise Corporation (MCEC) held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its Nisqually Market Solar Project.  The project includes 146 solar panels across the market shops, convenience storefront, and gas carport. The building is located across from the Red Wind Casino on Yelm Highway.  Olympia Community Solar (OCS) organized the…

By: Robert Marino | TCAT’s Director of Green Infrastructure What is the Inflation Reduction Act? The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a bill that is estimated to help the US reduce carbon emissions by 40% over 2005 levels by 2030 and keep 24 tons of carbon emissions out of the air for every ton the…

If you read our Good News Blast you know that we are making progress on seeing through the implementation of the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan (TCMP) in addition to other recent climate wins. With all this recent movement we want to give you a quick overview and update on all these recent happenings. OlympiaThis month the City of Olympia…