|
This newsletter is written by the King County Executive Climate Office (ECO) in coordination with departments across the county. You can learn more about us at the bottom of this newsletter.
How King County is celebrating Earth Week:
Caring for the Earth also means caring for ourselves and our communities. Cleaner air and water improve public health, reducing waste saves time and money, and nature-based solutions protect safety during disasters. There are countless co-benefits that come alongside environmental justice and climate action – and protecting the Earth, as a goal on its own, has long been a tradition and priority for our region.
For King County, protecting the Earth means groundbreaking investments to promote clean water and healthy habitats, ambitious partnerships to conserve more land, and empowering more home-grown, local food. It also means prioritizing climate action, improving transit access, and empowering community members to lead on projects that matter to them. There is also great work ahead to restore lands, better protect wildlife, and correct for historic disinvestment in underserved parts of King County. None of this work is possible without involved community members, grassroots groups, small businesses, and other partners who offer their time, talent, expertise, and lived experience to these efforts.
Earth Deserves More than a Day: all week long
 |
|
One of the events we’re excited about pushes for action year-round.
King County is partnering with Rainier Avenue Radio for an annual, FREE, all-ages environmental justice event “Earth Deserves More Than a Day” all week long. Enjoy panel discussions and activities at Columbia City Theater or online, after-school youth programming, a volunteer event at Skyway Park, a Duwamish River tour, and more. King County ECO will be joining Thursday’s Youth Night event to share climate action information and resources.
|
Details, including a full event schedule, event times, and event registration links, at EarthDeservesMoreThanADay.org.
“Climate resilience is a crucial part of our daily work”: How community organizations are driving climate action
King County recently launched the second round of its Community Climate Resilience Grant program, which awards up to $30,000 to five grantees to help frontline communities develop new or expand existing community-based resilience projects. Past grant recipients include:
-
Whose Streets? Our Streets!
-
yəhaw̓ Indigenous Creatives Collective
One of the recipients, Real Change, runs a newspaper vendor program in which vendors sell the weekly Real Change newspaper and receive access to services including case management, food assistance, service referrals, medical and veterinary care, and more.
 Real Change used the funding to train Climate Leaders and purchase supplies to help vendors weather the elements, such as spray fans and water bottles to help during heat waves. King County released its first Extreme Heat Mitigation Strategy in 2024, and both experts and community members expressed the importance of protecting people who work outside using initiatives such as this one.
“Climate resilience is a crucial part of our daily work because of the intersection with our vendor population,” Cat Munsen of Real Change said. “As climate crises become more frequent and more urgent, our unhoused neighbors and other vulnerable community members that have contributed the least to these crises often bear the brunt of them.”
Learn more and watch a video about the project here.
How restoring habitat helped improve health of young salmon
Restoration projects and nature-based solutions are essential to King County’s work on climate. Climate change will put new strain on ecosystems, so ensuring the environment is in the best possible place to thrive is key.
A year after wrapping up the largest salmon habitat restoration project in King County history, ecologists report young Chinook salmon are growing considerably well, validating the County’s approach to improving fish habitat and offering a blueprint for future salmon recovery work.
Ecologists at the King County Water and Land Resources Division studying the effectiveness of the 145-acre Fall City Floodplain Restoration Project site determined that the restored habitats promote the growth of young salmon and provide distinct, abundant food resources. Those benefits increase the chances that the salmon will survive their journey to the Pacific Ocean and return home to spawn the next generation.
“Having a rigorous study confirm the effectiveness of King County’s largest-ever floodplain restoration is a testament to our ability to create strong partnerships that restore the natural environment for people, fish, and wildlife,” said King County Executive Shannon Braddock. “Along the Snoqualmie, Cedar, Green, and Duwamish rivers, we are simultaneously improving habitat and reducing flood risks, inspiring hope for a more resilient future.”
Read the full story here.
Going green on the water: King County Water Taxi fleet makes a switch
The King County Water Taxi is shifting from standard diesel to renewable diesel to power its fleet. Renewable diesel cuts greenhouse gas emissions and works in any diesel engine.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is key to fighting climate change,” said King County Executive Shannon Braddock. “As one of the few major transit agencies working towards a 100% zero-emissions fleet, Metro is driving King County toward a cleaner, healthier future.”
“The Marine Division is always working on ways to reduce its carbon footprint. The shift to renewable diesel is a step in that direction,” said Marine Division Director Terry Federer. “Metro has always been a leader in zero-emission efforts, and being the first agency on the Seattle waterfront to shift to using renewable diesel continues that tradition.”
Help inform a resilient energy system:
Harborview Medical Center (HMC) is exploring options to implement a district energy system to serve the campus and, possibly, connect to the broader neighborhood – and King County is seeking input to inform the discussion! Energy developers, consultants, owners, operators, and related experts are invited to provide feedback for consideration on a variety of topics, including energy resilience.
King County’s vision is to establish a state-of-the art, phased, scalable district energy system to enhance operational resilience, with a focus on adaptability and reliability for critical healthcare services, with a particular focus on seismic risk.
Part of the vision: achieving decarbonization goals in line with the County’s Strategic Climate Action Plan, meeting building energy and emissions performance standards, and supporting community decarbonization or other community resilience needs.
Learn more about the Request for Information and the Harborview Bond program here. Please submit responses electronically by May 5, 2025 at 5:00pm PT.
Strategic Climate Action Plan: coming soon!
As we finish crafting the Strategic Climate Action Plan, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of the people who are making it possible.
As part of the engagement process, King County coordinated with external partners including the Climate Equity Community Task Force and Community Equity Working Group, partners in the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration, participants in three in-person SCAP workshops, participants of community roadshow events with nonprofits and commissions, and attendees at two virtual public meetings.
King County convened three in-person workshops with approximately 150 participants in July, August, and October 2024. Participants represented community-based organizations, students, academia, environmental, and climate organizations as well as local cities, counties, regional agencies, and state and federal partners. King County also launched an online public survey from August–October 2024, and asked a wide range of implements for input, including the Re+ Community Panel, Regional Code Collaboration, K4C, King County Agricultural Commission, King County Forestry Commission, King County Urban Forestry Forum, and internal workgroups including the Capital Project Management Working Group and Steering Committee, Green Building Taskforce, Building Energy Taskforce, and Fleet Planning Committee.
These are just a handful of the ways community members, partner organizations, subject matter experts, and policy implementers have devoted their time to the development of this plan – a roadmap for the next five years of climate action in King County. If you’re subscribed to this newsletter, you’ll be one of the first to know once it’s released!
Are you familiar with the King County Executive Climate Office (ECO)? Here’s a little more about who we are, and what we do:
Departments across King County implement climate action within their work. King County ECO elevates, coordinates and accelerates those efforts and manages several in-house programs. That includes work on building decarbonization, climate preparedness, climate equity and building a clean energy workforce. Our agenda is set based on the approaches laid out in the 2020 Strategic Climate Action Plan.
ECO works with the broader King County Climate Team, which includes climate leads from different departments.
 Please share this newsletter with a friend, and we’ll be back in February with more news and updates. Until then, you can find us on Instagram and LinkedIn!
|
