The goal of any plan that promotes sustainability in a community is to protect the present while anticipating and addressing future environmental and societal concerns uncompromisingly. To that end, the city council set out to determine how to effectively protect clean air, provide affordable housing, promote healthy food, and ensure social justice and inclusivity in the city. Ambitious goals indeed.
The community was an essential part of developing Kirkland’s Sustainability Master Plan. Extensive outreach—including focus groups, surveys, and public forum events—was undertaken, after which staff continued to work with community members in conjunction with groups such as the Sierra Club and People for Climate Action – Kirkland. We’ll look at some of the major aspects of the plan.
The Plan Basics
The plan itself comprises eight areas of focus, including Energy Supply and Emissions, Buildings and Infrastructure, Land Use and Transportation, Natural Environment and Ecosystems, Sustainable Material Management, Sustainable Governance, Sustainable Business, and Healthy Community. Time horizons for achieving the goals in each of these areas extend to ten years and beyond, with major updates to the plan occurring every five years. Each focus area is broken down into more manageable parts called “elements.” With regard to policy, aspirational policy pieces will be considered for adoption as they’re written. The implementation portion encourages decision-makers to fund and complete actions identified in the plan.
Focus Areas
Energy Supply and Emissions recommendations include using renewable energy to consistently move toward elimination of pollutants, achieved by sourcing electricity that is “not produced by combustion of fossil fuels,” i.e., carbon-free electricity. This includes reducing “the use of natural gas in buildings and converting existing systems to clean electric.”
Buildings and Infrastructure has to do not only with how buildings and infrastructure are used, but also how they are constructed. This is important as “their construction and operation are responsible for over one third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.” Because water is a crucial resource, increasing efficiency is essential, along with “incentivizing construction of high-performing, low energy use zero-emission structures.”
Land Use and Transportation prioritizes transportation because transportation by itself “accounts for about half of Kirkland’s community greenhouse gas emissions.” Optimizing land use and implementing efficient transportation patterns will improve air quality, reduce congestion, and encourage alternative transportation options such as walking, biking, carpooling, and use of public transportation. A specific goal in this area is to reduce the amount an average person drives “by 20% by 2030 and 50% by 2050.” The city also hopes to grow the number of transit riders by 10% each year.
Natural Environment and Ecosystems has to do with maintaining the air, water, land, and animals along with the entire ecosystem that supports them. This means protecting the quality of the city’s waterways, eliminating synthetic pesticides, ensuring ready access to open spaces, and managing the city’s urban forest. Further, with community assistance over the next fifteen years, the goal is to restore at least 500 acres of city-owned natural areas and open space parks.
Sustainable Material Management aims to reduce consumption and waste through reuse and recycling of materials to achieve zero waste by 2030. Composting of food and yard waste is part of this focus, as is support for effective stewardship of products. Such stewardship means that those who design, produce, sell or use products are responsible for minimizing the environmental impact throughout all the stages of their life cycle including “end of life” management.
Sustainable Business focuses on how to “integrate sustainability into every major decision the city makes,” while also ensuring fair public participation in the process and practicing fiscal responsibility. Importantly, sustainability programs and policies will be coordinated across all city departments.
Healthy Community will help ensure that residents have access to necessities that include “food, water, housing, jobs” along with opportunities for happier and healthier lives. The city intends to increase community gardens; aid refugees, immigrants, and people of color; engage young people to become responsible members of the community; expand housing for all income levels; and provide more recreational facilities.
Action Plan
Putting the Sustainability Master Plan into action involves looking at where the city currently stands versus where it aspires to be going forward. For example, one element of the Healthy Community focus is a sustainable food system that increases opportunities for local food production, distribution, and consumption.
The plan notes that there are currently three official “P-Patches” (community gardens) throughout the city. The specific goal is to increase the “number and geographic diversity of P-Patches or other types of community gardens by adding 5 more by 2025, and another 100% by 2030.” Actions to achieve this include identifying funding sources, prioritizing location development, creating partnerships to locate new P-Patches, and building educational and support programs to coordinate with local partners such as the Seattle Tilth Alliance to teach residents sustainable gardening practices.
Beyond the Plan
In addition to the Sustainability Master Plan, the report identifies the Top 10 Policy Ideas for Environmental Leadership. Among them are to make Kirkland a carbon-free city by 2040, eliminate institutional racism, divest all city assets in fossil fuels, build all new city buildings to Living Building Challenge standards by 2040, create green business districts, achieve Vision Zero (to eliminate roadway deaths by redesigning, rebuilding, and adapting roads into “complete streets” with priority given to bikes and pedestrians and car-free streets), removing all human-made fish barriers in streams, and establishing an Office of Sustainability.
To ensure accountability, the city will provide an annual progress report on the plan at a city council meeting and at a community sustainability summit.
To download the complete Kirkland Sustainability Master Plan, visit www.kirklandwa.gov.