With four cities leading the charge, the Eastside Climate Challenge is underway.
The morning after Mayor Salim Nice proclaimed April 22 as Earth Day for Mercer Island, it was announced that the city has partnered with Redmond, Bellevue and Issaquah to launch the regional challenge.
To celebrate the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, the cities have joined Community Climate Solutions to host the challenge. The California-based nonprofit provides cities with a free online tool to help community members and organizations learn about climate change solutions and reduce their carbon footprint to live healthier and more affordable lives, according to a King County press release.
“Everyone plays a role in meeting local and regional emissions goals. I hope Mercer Islanders will join my family and me in the climate challenge. Together, we can make a difference,” said Nice, who made the city’s Earth Day proclamation at the Mercer Island City Council meeting on April 19.
The challenge, which will be available for residents of the four cities or other Eastside or King County towns throughout the year, is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in residents’ household activities such as transportation, heating, electricity use and waste generation. The Eastside Climate Challenge cities are founding members of the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration, which has a target of reducing GHG emissions 50% by 2030.
According to the city’s website, more than 50% of Mercer Island’s emissions come from energy use in buildings, such as natural gas and electricity.
“You pick the actions specific to your goals, track your progress, and watch your carbon footprint decline as you make changes at home,” the city’s climate challenge page reads. “You can collaborate with your neighbors, form teams, share ideas and resources, and work towards your goals together.”
Ross Freeman, the city’s sustainability program analyst, said the Eastside challenge has been in the works for four months and the cities put all the final pieces into place to coincide with Earth Day week.
“We’re trying to work together to kind of enhance our capacity and improve our reach into the communities,” said Freeman, adding that Redmond took the lead in launching its platform first and the other cities followed suit to bolster all the individual challenges into a robust Eastside initiative.
When Freeman informally discussed the potential launching of the challenge with a plethora of Island sustainability advocates last year, he said they were brimming with enthusiasm.
“We are spending this year working on our first city Climate Action Plan, but there’s a bunch of folks who want to take action now. They don’t want to have to wait another eight months until that’s finalized to start making some difference in their own lives,” Freeman said.
Free online Climate Challenge 101 Workshops will take place from 5-5:45 p.m. on April 21, 6-6:45 p.m. on April 27, noon to 12:45 p.m. on May 4 and 6-6:45 p.m. on May 10. People can register at, https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eastside-climate-challenge-101-workshops-tickets-311458479697.
At press time, 20 Mercer Island households had signed up for the workshops.
“One of the great aspects of this program is that when cities sign up to host this localized version of the platform, you also can get consulting support from the organization,” Freeman said.
For residents who want to be team leaders, free virtual workshops will take place from 5:30-7 p.m. on April 26, noon to 1:30 p.m. on April 28, 7-8:30 p.m. on May 4 and 9:30-11 a.m. on May 14. Registration information is available at, https://www.mercerisland.gov/publicworks/page/climate-challenge-team-leader-program.
For more information and to join the challenge, visit https://eastsideclimatechallenge.org/mercerisland.
