About the Washington BlueGreen Alliance
The Washington BlueGreen Alliance is a statewide coalition of labor unions and environmental groups working together to address our state’s environmental challenges in a way that promotes economic justice. Our members believe deeply that environmental devastation and economic inequality are among the greatest and most urgent threats that we face today. They believe just as firmly that the two are inseparable. This conviction drives our collective work to identify and champion policies that simultaneously protect environmental and community health, grow high-road economic opportunities accessible to all and strengthen workers’ voices.
Read the Washington State BlueGreen Alliance Climate Policy Principles.
Executive Committee Members:
- Washington State Labor Council (co-chair)
- Sierra Club (co-chair)
- United Steelworkers
- Washington Building Trades
- Washington Environmental Council
- Climate Solutions
For more information on our work, contact Jessica Koski at jkoski@bluegreenalliance.org.
Our Work
Growing the Green Industrial Economy
The Washington BlueGreen Alliance is working to make our state a leader in the clean manufacturing revolution. Growing our green industrial economy is critical for a robust and fair economy. It is also vital for our climate. The roadmap to net zero emissions by 2050 requires accelerating the production of next-generation low-carbon materials and sustainable energy technologies. With its low-carbon electric grid and highly skilled workforce, Washington is well-positioned to meet this demand.
Advancing Buy Clean and Buy Fair Policies
The Washington BlueGreen Alliance prioritizes policies to promote spending taxpayer dollars on materials that are manufactured with high environmental and labor standards. This harnesses existing state spending to cut industrial carbon emissions and level the playing field for local and domestic manufacturers with responsible business practices that invest in reducing pollution.
Protecting Refinery Workers and Neighboring Communities
The Washington BlueGreen Alliance has worked for over five years against unending industry resistance to support the Department of Labor and Industries in that prioritizes the health and safety of workers and neighboring communities over profits and that holds refinery managers accountable so events like this never happen again.
Promoting Fair and Responsible Public Procurement
The Washington BlueGreen Alliance fights to ensure that every dollar of state spending goes as far as possible to drive high-road job creation and advance Washington’s ambitious environmental goals by applying strict criteria to state contracting and direct purchasing.
Read our Recommendations for Responsible Procurement.
Building Transformational Relationships
The Washington BlueGreen Alliance builds and maintains strong, constructive relationships between labor unions and environmental groups. Quarterly coalition meetings provide members an opportunity to grow in our shared understandings and the Washington BlueGreen Alliance working groups create a space for direct collaboration among members on a wide range of policy priorities.
Key Facts
Net Zero by 2050. Washington updated its climate limits in 2020 to bring them in line with current science and put the state on a path toward net-zero emissions by 2050. The legislature was explicit that Washington intends to pursue its climate limits in a way that maintains our state’s manufacturing base and prevents the leakage of both jobs and pollution.”
100% Clean Energy Bill . Washington’s landmark Clean Energy Transformation Act State, passed in 2019, commits the state to transition its electric grid to 100% clean electricity by 2045 and helps ensure that clean energy jobs are good jobs by tying tax incentives to important labor standards like prevailing wage, apprenticeship utilization, preferred hire for women- and minority-owned businesses, and project labor agreements.
Buy Clean and Buy Fair . The BlueGreen Alliance worked alongside multiple coalition partners to secure buy clean and buy fair budget provisos into the 2021-23 Biennium Budgets that will promote transparency around public spending and move toward leveraging state spending to cut embodied carbon and promote high-labor standards in manufacturing.
Seattle's People Climate Movement. The BlueGreen Alliance helped to organize the Seattle People’s Climate Movement March in October 2015, which drew 1,000 attendees and lifted up labor and community voices calling for equitable climate action
Labor Leadership on Climate. In 2015, the Washington State Labor Council ratified a resolution on climate and jobs that called for the organization to evaluate and support science-based carbon reduction goals and policies including, but not limited, to cap and invest, clean fuel standards, and energy efficiency viewed through an equity lens.