Ecology Action Centre

The Ecology Action Centre (EAC) is a non-profit environmental organization founded in 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, credited with launching the province's first recycling program. EAC's 40 employed staff and 300 volunteers work with researchers, policymakers, and the community toward sustainability in seven focus areas: Built Environment, Coastal and Water, Wilderness, Food Action, Marine, Transportation, and Energy .

The EAC has received numerous commendations for its evidence-based programs and policy work, including winning The Coast's award for Best Activist Organization each year from 2004-2016, being named one of Tides Canada's Top 10 in both 2003 and 2010, winning an Arthur Kroeger Award for Public Affairs in 2009, and being named one of the Globe and Mail's 10 best-run charities in Canada in 2000.

EAC's Fern Lane headquarters underwent largely volunteer-implemented renovations from 2015-2016, incorporating salvaged materials and green building technologies to increase energy efficiency .

EAC describes their vision as "a society in Nova Scotia that respects and protects nature and provides environmentally and economically sustainable solutions for its citizens". Operating from both ecological and social justice perspectives, the organization advocates for innovative, grassroots approaches to environmental issues.

The Ecology Action Centre (EAC) was started in 1971 by a small group of Dalhousie students with help of several government grants. Originally it had two main goals: to promote recycling in Halifax, and to be a source of environmental information for the public. The EAC’s first recycling project began in 1972 with a recycling depot that operated every Saturday from Jan. 1972 to Feb. 1975, recycling approximately one ton of paper each week. Today, Nova Scotia has a waste diversion rate higher than any industrialized nation. Early environmental education programs included lectures, a regular newsletter, a library specializing in energy issues, school curricula development, and a high school text on environmental law.

Despite early success, in March 1974 there was an abrupt end to core funding by the government. In order to provide financial stability, the EAC registered as a society and obtained tax status as a charitable organization. In December 1990, the EAC, along with Greenpeace, the Cape Breton Coalition for Environmental Protection, and the Save Boularderie Island Society filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Federal Government of Canada over the proposed Point Aconi Power Plant, which had a significant negative financial impact on the EAC. Thanks to efforts by the fundraising committee, in February 1996 the EAC became officially clear of the debt incurred by the Point Aconi case, but its membership base was lower than at any point in the centre's history.

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