In celebration of Earth Day 2022, the cities of Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah and Mercer Island have partnered to launch the regional Eastside Climate Challenge. The challenge provides community members and organizations with new and exciting opportunities to learn about climate change solutions and help achieve communitywide climate action goals.
“Every time Earth Day comes around, residents ask me: ‘What can I do to address climate change?’” said Mary Lou Pauly, Issaquah Mayor. “The Eastside Climate Challenge will help each of us do our part to mitigate the worst climate impacts in an easy and meaningful way.”
The Eastside Climate Challenge is a free roadmap for households to reduce their carbon footprint and live healthier, more affordable lives. With over 80 ideas to significantly reduce households’ carbon footprint and save money, as well as 30 actions on emergency preparedness and community resilience, taking action could save households over $3,000 per year.
Each city will organize its own climate challenge under the Eastside Climate Challenge umbrella. People living outside of the four participating cities are still welcome to sign up.
“Working together as a community makes a difference and we wanted to provide our residents with more opportunities to partner on climate solutions and resiliency,” said Redmond Mayor Angela Birney. “Redmond is proud to have led the research for this collaborative effort.”
The four partner cities are all founding members of the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C), which has a target of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% by 2030. Individual household actions are essential for the Eastside cities to reduce emissions and achieve climate action plan goals. Approximately 40% of the Eastside cities’ GHG emissions are from four basic household activities: transportation, heating, electricity use, and waste generation. But simple household changes can add up to a substantial impact and there are now affordable options for residents to take action, reduce their impact and save money.
The Eastside Climate Challenge will support community members in taking action together with their neighbors, friends, families, clubs, service groups, faith communities, co-workers or any community they belong to that wants to participate. This challenge is launching for Earth Day 2022 but will be available for all residents on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
Community members can sign up for the Eastside Challenge here, or learn more by attending one of the Climate Challenge 101 Workshops hosted virtually this spring.
Questions related to the Eastside Climate Challenge can be emailed to Stacy Vynne McKinstry, Sustainability Manager.