About us
background about WEC
Washington Environmental Council is the leading voice for protection of land, air, and water in our state. WEC is a non-profit advocacy organization, meaning we work to influence decisions to make the world a better place. 
Download a copy of WEC's Strategic Plan for 2010 -2014.
Since our beginning in 1967, WEC has achieved success by bringing people and organizations together with a strong voice for environmental protection in our state. While we certainly do our work differently now than we did it then, this idea of focusing power to protect the environment is the core of who we are.
Because our focus is the state of Washington, the decision-makers we work to influence are the Governor and her staff, state legislators and agencies, key business and community leaders, and members of the media.
Unlike many environmental groups, WEC does not have a single issue area like forests or water or toxics. Our issue campaigns vary from time to time or even year to year. Learn more about our current campaigns.
We get results by passing laws that improve people’s lives and protect the natural world, getting those laws funded and implemented, engaging the public through organizing, media and communications to build a voice for change, and, when necessary, taking legal action to get environmental laws enforced.
Building a Model for Success
WEC played a key leadership role in developing all aspects of the Priorities coalition and WEC's Executive Director continues to co-chair that coalition. The Environmental Priorities coalition is made up of over 20 leading groups and each year we go through an intensely competitive process to determine what will be the environmental community’s four legislative Priorities for the year. By providing this focused list of Priorities for state legislators and the governor, we have seen increasing recognition and success. Each of the past several years we have secured big wins for our environment on issues ranging from addressing climate change, to protecting Puget Sound, to reducing harmful toxics just to name a few.
Innovation and leadership
States are often the level where we can try new things and make big advances. And Washington state has been leading the way in many instances - in good part due to our work. WEC was a leader in passing the nation's first green buildings law in 2005, a nationally recognized new electronics recycling law in 2006, and the most comprehensive local foods law in the country in 2008. We are also taking a lead on climate change.
WEC’s overall work is guided by several our strategic plan, including:
A Focus on Campaigns
Focus means both limiting what we work on and choosing the right issues at the right time. There are many important issues at play at any given moment. Much of our success has come through selecting the right issues at the right time. We do this through our savvy experienced staff, through our well respected Board of Directors, and by partnering with other groups in the community who we respect and trust. WEC makes progress not only by formulating and pursuing ambitious long-term campaigns, but by looking around for opportunities and budgeting resources to quickly pursue these opportunities. We call this element of work "Strategic Capacity." This allows us to experiment and jump on emerging opportunities or when necessary deal with unexpected threats.
