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Mission • Contact Us • Directions • History • Ecology Center in the News
The Ecology Center promotes environmentally and socially responsible practices through programs that educate, demonstrate, and provide direct services.
Ecology Center
2530 San Pablo Avenue, Suite H
Berkeley, California
94702
Tel: 510-548-2220 • Fax: 510-548-2240
| Info Desk & Library |
510-548-2220 x233 |
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| Ecology Center Store |
510-548-3402 |
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| Terrain Magazine |
510-548-2235 |
terraineditorial@ecologycenter.org |
| Berkeley Farmers' Markets |
510-548-3333 |
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| Recycling Hotline |
510-527-5555 |
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| Farm Fresh Choice | 510-848-1704 | ffc@ecologycenter.org |
| EcoHouse | 510-548-2220 x242 | ecohouse@ecologycenter.org |
| Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters |
510-548-3113 |
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| Bay Area Seed Interchange Library |
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| Berkeley Biodiesel Collective |
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| Berkeley Community Gardening Collaborative |
510-883-9096 |
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| California Farmers’ Market Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Implementation and Promotion Project |
510-548-2220 x226 |
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| City of Berkeley Motor Oil Recycling Program |
510-525-1630 |
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| Community Water Rights Project |
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| Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives / Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance (GAIA) |
510-883-9490 |
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| Indigenous Permaculture Project |
415-370-1657 |
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| Plastics Task Force |
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The Ecology Center is located in West Berkeley, at 2530 San Pablo Avenue. The cross street is Blake, which is about halfway between University Avenue and Ashby Avenue.
We are on the #72 AC Transit bus line. If you're coming from BART, get off in Downtown Berkeley and take the #9 AC Transit bus line to San Pablo and Dwight Avenue. We are one block south of Dwight. For more information about how to get to the Ecology Center from wherever you are, visit transitinfo.org!
When the Ecology Center (EC) was founded in 1969, it was a galvanizing event for the new environmental movement in this country. In its early days, the EC served as a meeting place for environmental thinkers and activists. It gathered and spread information through its bookstore, newsletter, library and printing press. The EC activated the community by identifying environmental problems and demonstrating sound alternatives. Idealism was the mood of the day and staff members worked ‘round the clock for free. We were out there to change the world, and we still are today.
In 1971, the worst oil spill in San Francisco Bay’s history occurred when two tankers collided and dumped nearly a million gallons of crude oil. The Ecology Center organized volunteer crews to clean oil from beaches and aquatic birds and within a few days became a well-known institution.
In the early ‘70s the EC launched a number of demonstration projects, including an environmental education project for Berkeley schools, a primary grade school curriculum guide, the Temescal Creek Committee and the recycling projects that would form the basis for the organization. The EC had a hand in the first statewide recycling conference, a meeting that led to the founding of the California Resource Recovery Association. In 1975 the EC started Encore!, one of its most innovative demonstration projects. Encore!, which collects and cleans empty wine bottles and sells them back to California wineries, became so successful that it is now an independent business.
In 1988, the EC and Berkeley officials convened a task force to author the styrofoam ban that serves as a model for many such ordinances across the country. To encourage healthy living on a healthy planet, the EC has since its early days encouraged home and community gardening and composting, for example by sponsoring community gardens, publishing how-to booklets and teaching classes in the art and practice of organic gardening. In 1987, the EC took on operation of the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, now grown to three weekly markets bringing fresh, organic produce to city dwellers.
The popular Farmers’ Markets became the first in the country to ban methyl bromide, a severely toxic and ozone-depleting pesticide used most commonly on strawberries. The Markets continue to promote organic agriculture, to provide information on toxics and their alternatives, and to reduce packaging by offering recycled and used bags.
Terrain, a publication of the EC, has evolved from newsletter to newspaper to a well-respected quarterly magazine. Terrain is a widely-read source of environmental news and commentary for the Bay Area and beyond. Terrain’s provocative articles have been cited in several national publications, including Utne Reader and Environment. Focus is on a broad spectrum of issues ranging from wilderness protection to urban toxics and environmental justice.
The EC has operated Berkeley’s Curbside Recycling Program since 1973 when it was launched as a demonstration project collecting newspapers. Recycling remains a principle focus of the Center, now with a weekly pick-up of cans, bottles, newsprint, mixed paper and cardboard under a City of Berkeley contract. This curbside program has become a model for thousands of municipal recycling programs, and recycling education is still a key component. Pioneering non-profits like the EC gave birth to the recycling industry, but few non-profits remain in the recycling business today. Unlike for-profit haulers, the successful recycling program can support the EC’s other community projects, keeping resources in our local community.
We’ve come a long way since 1969. Most importantly, we’re still here, a beacon in the storm for a society facing environmental problems and decisions. The EC continues to be a place where people turn for reliable information about alternatives to harmful practices like pesticide overuse, for avenues to local policy makers and for connection with others concerned with environmental issues. As the public becomes ever more knowledgeable, the effort to put appropriate tools, including accurate information, into its hands to move us toward a healthier world becomes more important. The EC continues to seek new and better ways to empower, activate and educate the citizens of the planet.