WASHOE COUNTY Sustainability News
This year between May 4 and 15, UNR's Department of Residential Life, Housing, and Food Services and the County’s Human Services Agency partnered to connect items left by students moving out of their dorms with newly housed people moving into theirs. The partnership was a huge success diverting housewares from the landfill, while supporting people who need resources.
PAST NEWS
Riverside Farmers Market food scrap drop-off every Sunday. Ask a Compost Expert on 4/26, and community composting workshops with Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful.
Sparks Justice Court's switched to a 4X10 work week in 2025. This change resulted in significant reductions in energy use, energy costs, and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as positive reviews from both staff and the public. This post provides details of these benefits.
In response to declining state and federal investment in local renewable energy, Energy-Efficiency, and other sustainable solutions, a group of private donors in Washoe County has launched the Washoe Sustainability Fund, a non-governmental, community-based charitable fund hosted at the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada. The Fund will focus on delivering benefits for everyone in Washoe County: lower energy bills, cleaner air, healthier products, less waste, and improved public health outcomes.
Washoe County is proud to partner with Redwood Materials and UNR’s Tech Hub to pilot prototype bins to improve safety and success with consumer-level lithium-battery recycling. This is part of the national goal to develop a full domestic battery supply chain here in Nevada.
Avoid the holiday shopping frenzy. Use these ideas to save money, give loved ones meaningful gifts, and be nicer to the planet.
Funding is available for reduced-price commercial building energy efficiency audits in Washoe County. Sign up today to learn how you can reduce energy bills and increase cashflow while reducing air pollution in our communities.
This summer, Washoe County is tackling the energy use in some of its biggest buildings with the help of Musaab Mohammed Ali, an Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellow. His work will help identify opportunities to reduce air pollution and energy costs in pursuit of the County's goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Learn how our community voted to prioritize the County's climate actions at Earth Day, take our community compost survey, and celebrate Dark Skies Week!
Washoe County is bringing transparency and accountability to our Climate Action Plan commitments with the launch of an advanced emissions dashboard in partnership with NZero, the carbon management analytics and intelligence platform. This initiative allows County leadership, building managers and citizens to see facility-level data on the County’s energy use and emissions to inform the County’s emissions reductions efforts in pursuit of Washoe County’s net-zero greenhouse gas emission goal by 2050.
Monday, February 3, 2025 - Washoe County released its Community-wide Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory today, measuring 6.32 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) for calendar year 2021 across Reno, Sparks, and unincorporated Washoe...