Hi, I'm Marty Matsch. I'm the Deputy Director at Eco-Cycle, and Eco-Cycle is a homegrown Boulder County nonprofit organization. Founded in 1976, we made Boulder one of the first communities in the nation to offer curbside recycling to its residents. And we are now one of the oldest and largest nonprofit recyclers and zero waste organizations in the US, and we have now an international reputation as a leader and innovator in resource conservation. Our mission is to innovate, implement and advocate for local and global zero waste solutions to foster a more regenerative, equitable and climate resilient future. Eco-Cycle is proud to be a part of the Cool Bolder program, and one of the many ways we're partnering in the effort is by engaging our network of more than 1000 volunteer Eco-Leaders. The volunteer Eco-Leader network has long been the backbone of Eco-Cycle and how we are able to create change.
These volunteers go through a series of trainings with us at Eco-Cycle to become the local person-in-the-know and a resource for all things zero waste so that they can turn around and share their zero waste knowledge with their social networks, in their neighborhoods, in their workplace, their clubs and places of worship. Their superpower is that they are helping to create change right where they live and everywhere they go. Our Eco-Leaders care deeply about natural resources and climate, and they want to do everything they can to both mitigate climate change and to adapt our communities to be more resilient in the face of climate change. In 2018, we engaged this network in a three year pilot program to help with what we call our Community Carbon Farming Campaign, where volunteers trial the use of compost and other compost products in their backyards, applying these to their soils, to determine whether we can use urban landscapes, particularly yards to help draw down and sequester carbon safely and beneficially in the soil.
Now that we've closed out the carbon farming trial, that three year period has come to a close, these volunteers are ready to share what they've learned with the whole community, and it ties in beautifully with what the Cool Boulder program is trying to do. Eco-Leaders are ready to share what they know about carbon farming on urban landscapes to build healthy soils for the sake of creating absorbent landscapes. These volunteers are also lining up to help with Bool Boulder projects, like heat mapping throughout the community and for helping to generate and distribute compost that they themselves generate for the purposes of sharing with their neighbors and networks. The goal of the Cool Boulder program is that it truly be a community-based effort, and the engagement of the Eco-Cycle Eco-Leader network is a great way to really make change with trained community members working backyard by backyard and neighborhood by neighborhood.