This spring, Sound Transit adopted its new 2026-2030 Sustainability Plan.
Implemented through our nationally and internationally recognized sustainability program, the plan defines how we embed sustainability into every aspect of Sound Transit’s work, from planning and design to construction and operations.
That includes translating the agency’s high-level sustainability commitments into measurable goals and actions to prioritize over the next five years.
Looking back, looking forward
Sound Transit’s last Sustainability Plan (2019-2024) helped guide the agency through the process of setting norms after dedicating sustainability-specific funding for the first time in the ST3 ballot initiative in 2016.
It largely focused on establishing how the agency would spend for that new dedicated funding, for example, setting sustainability expectations for ST3 projects, establishing sustainable design criteria, and studying the feasibility of zero-emissions programs for fleets and facilities.
The new 2026-2030 Sustainability Plan continues the focus on those items and takes them several steps further — leveraging green building work into ways to reduce embodied carbon, the emissions associated with the life cycle of a product; moving from zero-emissions feasibility plans into implementation plans; and focusing on the climate resilience of our existing systems.
The 19 goals outlined in the 2026-2030 plan are evolved next steps from Sound Transit’s previous edition.
Six sustainability “buckets”
Each of Sound Transit’s 19 goals fit into one of six themes. These theme buckets represent the areas where sustainability actions can make the greatest impact:
Advancing equity and business practices
Building sustainable infrastructure and operating resiliently
Continually improving agency governance and business practices
Growing ridership and strengthening communities
Protecting and restoring the environment
Reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions
Each theme includes one or more goals, and each goal has at least one metric to measure progress and several action items that detail specific work to accomplish the goal.
Every year, the subset of action items that make up Sustainability staff’s annual workplan is officially adopted as the agency’s Annual Environmental and Sustainability Targets. You can find our most recent list of completed targets in our 2025 Year in Review.
Goals to guide us
Curious to explore all 19 goals? You’ll find information about each in the easy-to-read 2026-2030 Plan.
Here are just a few examples:
Goal: Achieve zero-emissions fleets by 2050.
Metrics: Fleet greenhouse gas emissions, fleet criteria air pollutants
Action items:
Sunset purchases of fossil fuel-powered revenue fleet vehicles by 2030.
Achieve greenhouse gas-neutral Link light rail service.
Convert 30% (at minimum) of non-revenue fleet to zero emissions.
Design a zero-emissions Sounder locomotive pilot.
Goal: Build agency resilience to climate change and natural hazards.
Metrics: Percent of equipment classes evaluated for climate vulnerability, number of facilities assessed for climate vulnerability
Action items:
Update Climate Resilience Plan for the existing system.
Integrate climate resilience considerations into agency design criteria.
Launch a new Agency Continuity Plan for emergency management.
Establish Emergency Operations Center.
Goal: Provide support and resources for small and disadvantaged business contractors.
Metrics: Number of businesses engaged, amount of outreach provided
Action items:
Connect small and disadvantaged contractors to resources to upgrade their equipment to reduce construction related emissions.
Implement the Equity in Infrastructure Pledge, a national effort in the transportation and civil infrastructure industry to create more competition for public contracts by growing Historically Underutilized Businesses.
Sustainability plans pay off
We annually monitor and measure progress toward the agency’s sustainability goals, both qualitatively and quantitatively. You can track that work in our annual Sustainability Progress Report.
Some of Sound Transit’s biggest success stories since our baseline year of 2018 include:
16% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 16%
9% reduction in energy use at facilities built before 2018
More than 5% reduction in four of five criteria air pollutants (such as particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxides and more)
No fineable environmental compliance violations
Investments in sustainability also pay us back, through both savings and revenue.
In 2024, Sound Transit’s efficiency projects saved the agency nearly $1 million, and on track to meet projections of nearly $1 million in revenue via the state’s clean fuel standard.
The cost savings realized through sustainability projects — estimated at $9.3 million over projects’ lifetimes — will grow as the agency implements more resource and energy efficiency programs. And at the same time, the value of clean fuel standard revenue will grow as well as we continue to expand Link light rail and transition fossil fuel-powered transit services to zero-emissions technologies.
Why sustainability, and why now?
Sustainability isn’t just something we do, it’s also how we do it.
Transportation (including cars, trucks and other vehicles) is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Washington state. Public transit plays a critical role in reducing those impacts by providing more people with reliable, low-emission ways to travel.
At the same time, we’re also working to lower emissions from our own operations and construction.
In the years ahead, expanding Link light rail service and launching new, all-electric Stride bus rapid transit to connect more communities will create reliable, low-emission options for thousands more people to travel throughout our region.
But expansion also comes with a corresponding increase in responsibility to deliver that service sustainably.
Managing environmental and community impacts becomes increasingly important, because we’re building and operating more and more infrastructure that affects people and the environment every day.
And since this infrastructure will serve the region for decades, the decisions we make today will shape performance, costs, and stewardship over time.
That’s why Sound Transit continues to anchor our sustainability efforts on a “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and prosperity.
This commitment guides how we balance community outcomes, environmental impact, and long-term value as the system grows.
The 2026-2030 Sustainability Plan will guide our projects, partnerships, and daily decisions so that every investment reflects our responsibility to create a cleaner, more connected, and more equitable region.
We’re committed to providing affordable, accessible, environmentally friendly transit that supports healthy, vibrant communities and economies.
Sound Transit stands behind these commitments, and we’re dedicated to seeing them through. Happy Earth Day!