"Things don't change. People change."
- Henry David Thoreau
At ECO, it is our mission to hold corporations and our government accountable to our community for the maintaining and restoring our environment. The cost of doing business must include protection for those who are most affected by the toxic emissions of industrial manufacture and the environmentally-degrading impacts of industrial and municipal waste management. ECO believes in the power of communities working together to restore community health.
ECO: Environmental Community Organization, began in 1996 as The Environmental Network (TEN). Its founders recognized that corporate profiteers were undermining the quality of life of many ordinary people by dumping inordinate quantities of toxic chemicals into the air, sewers, rivers, streams, and on dump sites located in our local neighborhoods. Furthermore, they recognized that government agencies were not being responsive to citizen concerns about pollution in their neighborhoods and enforcement of environmental laws in Ohio had become anemic.
Nonetheless, ECO's founders also knew that these same ordinary people had the power to organize themselves and campaign for real change. ECO has been a catalyst for real change southwest Ohio neighborhoods where polluting companies are located. Most importantly, residents now know that real change is possible and they have the skills to see to it that these changes really do occur.
ECO provides, as a service to communities, research and technical expertise on government agencies and industries, focusing on enforcement and implementation of environmental laws.
ECO reaches out to other groups and individuals to create networks and coalitions that can work together to improve the environment.
ECO works to improve the quality of life in the Greater Cincinnati area.
ECO's mission: a network of dedicated individuals that preserves community and environmental health through organizing with communities, action to hold industry and government accountable, and education efforts.