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Sammamish sustainability coordinator reports heat-pump adoption lead, recycling events and shared grant award
Summary
The city's sustainability coordinator told council the city has surpassed a 2025 heat-pump adoption goal, hosted repair and recycling events, and has been awarded a RE+ for Cities grant (shared with Issaquah) to support transition to compostable and reusable service ware.
Rose Weicker, Sammamish sustainability coordinator, reported progress on climate and waste-reduction programs at the Sept. 16 council meeting and said several initiatives are meeting or exceeding targets.
"I'm pleased to share that as a city, Sammamish has surpassed this goal with a current adoption rate of 69% for residential HVAC permits being filed as heat pumps," Weicker said, noting the Energy Smart Eastside program had a 2025 program goal of 65% heat-pump adoption.
Weicker also summarized waste-reduction and outreach work: a King County-supported community repair event in August drew 120 attendees who brought 92 items for repair, preventing those items from going to the landfill. She said the city and Issaquah were awarded a shared grant through the RE Plus for Cities program to support restaurant transitions to compostable and reusable service ware; the scope and agreement will be finalized and communicated to council when ready.
The presentation covered Solarize Eastside leads (about 72 Sammamish leads), distribution of a Sustainable Sammamish guide mailed to residents, sustainability-commission outreach and a student "sustainability ambassador" program that will deliver a program report at year-end. Deputy Mayor Amy Lam told the council she believed the shared grant award would be roughly $100,000 based on earlier communications.
Council members asked for more measurable impact reporting and a public dashboard to track greenhouse-gas reductions, diversion rates and tree-canopy assessment results; Weicker said the team will provide program reports and that a citywide tree-canopy assessment will inform an urban-forest management plan update in 2026.
