|
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.
King County announces 2025-2026 Community Climate Resilience Grantees
 Congratulations to the recipients of King County’s 2025-2026 Community Climate Resilience Grant program! The program supports new or existing projects led by frontline communities to increase climate resilience. Grantees attended an orientation event this month to visualize their projects, learn about the reporting process, and kickstart their work together.
This year’s grantees include:
- African Young Dreamers Empowerment Program International
- Estelita’s Library
- Golden Bricks Events
- Hip Hop is Green
- Outreach and Transform Lives
- Villa Comunitaria
 Each project centers around community capacity development, community health and emergency preparedness, food systems and food security, or extreme heat mitigation.
 Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for updates on projects throughout the year!
Check out the 2025 Executive-proposed Strategic Climate Action Plan!
 As of this month, the Executive-proposed 2025 King County Strategic Climate Action Plan has officially been transmitted to the King County Council! Thank you to the hundreds of people whose work and collaboration have resulted in this plan, from community members and regional coalitions to agency partners and King County employees. We appreciate all the feedback we gathered during in-person workshops, an online survey, road shows, and outreach meetings.
The 2025 SCAP updates actions needed to promote climate preparedness, support sustainable and resilient frontline communities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year’s plan also introduces a section outlining nine flagship outcomes, emphasizing that climate action is not a set of individual goals, but a coordinated effort to create lasting change. King County Executive Climate Office (ECO) staff provided a briefing of the plan to King County Council’s Transportation, Economy, and Environment committee earlier this month.
 If you work in emergency management, planning, infrastructure, public health, natural resources, sustainability, or related areas, we want to hear from you! The Puget Sound Climate Preparedness Collaborative is conducting a short survey for local governments, Tribal governments, and related organizations in the Puget Sound basin to learn how Puget Sound communities are preparing for the impacts of climate change and what support is needed to help with that work.
These surveys are not just for those who are currently working on climate change —input from organizations at all levels of climate awareness and action are needed. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
You can learn more about the Collaborative here.
Join us at the Coalition for Climate Careers reception, part of PNW Climate Week!
 Join the King County Executive Climate Office (ECO) in partnership with the Coalition for Climate Careers (C3) during PNW Climate Week to connect with local changemakers and learn about C3's efforts to build a vibrant and inclusive green economy in our region! The evening will begin with an opportunity for networking, followed by a welcome and an overview of C3 and a breakdown of King County’s new Executive-proposed Climate and Workforce strategy.
Whether you're just learning about green careers or already working in the field, your voice and experience are welcome. Come connect, collaborate, and be part of a growing local movement for climate and workforce equity! The event is set for July 17 at 5:00pm at the Northwest African American Museum.
Click here to register.
King County will also be sponsoring an event featuring the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) on July 18 at 2:45 on the UW campus. Visit pnwclimateweek.org for more details and updates.
Now Open: Request for Applications to support Community Buildings Decarbonization work
 Do you have experience delivering decarbonization analysis and services to small- to medium-sized commercial buildings? Have you worked with communities to reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions from buildings?
King County, in partnership with Kitsap, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties, is seeking a consultant to provide technical assistance and program design support for the Community Buildings Decarbonization Program. The program is a new offering administered by King County, funded through a U.S. EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG).
The Community Buildings Decarbonization Program aims to improve indoor air quality, increase climate resilience, and reduce GHG emissions from community buildings, defined as buildings that serve as community gathering spaces or offer community services. Examples of such spaces include food banks, places of worship, and community centers, among others. The program also aims to provide workforce development opportunities through trainee placements with entities involved in program implementation.
Firms with experience delivering decarbonization services to community buildings or small-medium sized commercial buildings and working with communities to reduce operational GHG emissions from buildings are encouraged to apply.
Learn more about the RFA here.
Funding Acknowledgement: This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement 84101001 to King County of Washington. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, nor does the Environmental Protection Agency endorse trade names or recommend the use of commercial products mentioned in this document, as well as any images, video, text, or other content created by generative artificial intelligence tools, nor does any such content necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Environmental Protection Agency.
New trail segment connects Burien and SeaTac to Des Moines Creek Trail
 Executive Shannon Braddock joined regional partners and community members to celebrate the opening of a new segment of the Lake to Sound Trail in South King County this month, completing two-thirds of a regional trail that will connect the southern tip of Lake Washington to a Puget Sound shoreline park.
The new trail segment connects the cities of Burien and SeaTac to the existing Des Moines Creek Trail, opening more than seven miles of continuous, non-motorized trail. Partners have now completed 11 miles of the 16-mile regional trail that connects to four other regional trails, two Sound Transit Link stations, the Sounder, Metro RapidRide A Line, and Sea-Tac International Airport.
“Thanks to strong partnerships and the King County Parks Levy, we’ve completed two-thirds of the Lake to Sound Trail, connecting cities from Lake Washington to Puget Sound with convenient access to high-capacity transit,” said Executive Braddock. “We’re making it safer and healthier for people in South King County to bike, walk, and roll to some of the best destinations our dynamic region has to offer.”
Once complete, the 16-mile regional trail will connect five cities and four other regional trails to Sound Transit Link light rail stations.
Learn more here.
More Metro bus service!
This month King County Metro ramped up bus service on the Eastside, adding more trips on evenings and weekends, and launching a new peak service connecting Bothell, Woodinville and Duvall.
These improvements deliver the added service riders asked for during outreach and surveys as part of the East Link Connections project, which better connects communities and Sound Transit’s growing 2 Line service between Bellevue and Redmond. The 2 Line serves 10 stations with added service and expansion across Lake Washington coming in 2026.
Learn more here.
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 climate workforce. Our agenda is set based on the approaches laid out in the 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 July with more news and updates. Until then, you can find us on Instagram and LinkedIn!
|
