Kenmore climate action plan centers on buildings, transportation and resilience

Kenmore Climate Action Program Manager Nina Rasmussen outlined the city’s climate action plan and its top priorities in a podcast interview, saying the plan focuses on mitigation of emissions, adaptation to changes already underway, and local actions the city can implement.

The plan matters because it directs local decisions on energy use, transportation and resilience while aligning Kenmore with regional partners and state resources. "So the climate action plan is, basically a road map for us to tackle climate emissions, anything that is sort of integral to protecting our environment and making sure that, you know, our area is livable for generations to come," Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen described the plan as organized around two foundational pillars: mitigation—steps to prevent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere—and adaptation—measures to increase community resilience to climate impacts such as extreme weather, wildfires and flooding. She said the city used a consultant for a greenhouse gas inventory completed in 2022 to quantify local emission sources and prioritize actions. "Taking a look at all these various factors in the community and saying, okay, well, how much are we actually contributing to greenhouse gases?" Rasmussen said.

On mitigation, Rasmussen said the city’s largest near-term opportunities are buildings and energy and transportation. For buildings she cited work to pursue rebates for heat pumps and other electrification incentives; for transportation she said Kenmore is finishing an electric vehicle infrastructure plan to guide placement of chargers. Rasmussen also described piloting programs—Solarize Kenmore is in its second year—and looking for state grants such as a HEAR appliance-rebate grant to support building electrification.

Rasmussen emphasized regional collaboration. Kenmore participates in a King County collaborative known as K4C and helped fund a Washington implementation of the SwitchesOn website that aggregates electrification rebates and vetted contractors by zip code. She said those regional efforts let small cities pool resources for projects that would be costly alone. "We work very closely with our neighbors," Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen cautioned that local action has limits and that meaningful progress will combine public participation with state and federal regulation and funding. "Ultimately, we know that this goes beyond sort of public participation, and there's a lot of regulation that is required to really make this impactful," she said.

The city is continuing community engagement and grant-seeking as it moves from planning to implementation, with some projects slated for implementation later this year.