Olympia climate director outlines program progress, funding needs and next steps

Pamela Braff, the City of Olympia's director of climate programs, briefed the City Council at a Feb. 10 study session on the scope and results of the city's climate work, highlighting program achievements, recent grant awards and remaining needs to meet the city's net‑zero goals.

Braff said the Energize Olympia program (now Energize Thurston) has run three years of subsidized installations and reported 228 heat‑pump installations and 21 heat‑pump water heaters, with about 61% of installations fully or partially subsidized; staff estimated those installations will avoid nearly 3,000 metric tons of CO2e over the next 15 years. The program used roughly $200,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds early on, and Braff summarized additional funding as nearly $1.3 million in state and federal grants plus $620,000 in leveraged savings and nearly $1 million in private investment through partially self‑funded installations.

"This is about making people's lives more comfortable and better," Braff told councilors, adding the program produces both emissions reductions and co‑benefits such as cooling for residents during heat events.

City Manager Bernie announced the city had been notified of conditional grant awards the administration described in the meeting as "just over $1,000,000," and listed a $200,000 climate planning grant, a $350,000 decarbonization grant and a $750,000 decarbonization grant; staff said final approvals were pending.

Braff also described several related initiatives: a streamlined rooftop solar permitting process that earned a SolSmart Gold recognition in 2022; land‑use actions and middle‑housing code amendments intended to direct growth to urban corridors; a transportation benefit district sales tax expected to generate about $3.1 million per year for pedestrian, bicycle and active‑transportation projects; transit signal prioritization and an in‑lane bus stop policy; and pilot programs such as SHARE (Safe Housing and Rental Efficiency) to support energy, health and safety upgrades in affordable rental housing.

Council members used the update to press staff on two recurring issues: how to measure community‑wide progress and how to fund programs sustainably. Council member Gilman said he wanted clearer intermediate milestones and a dashboard that tied actions to outcomes; Braff said program outcomes are tracked but that comprehensive, citywide indicators are difficult to measure under current permitting and data systems and that staff have been identifying permit‑system changes to track heat‑pump replacements and other indicators.

"We can come up with what the building blocks are — these are the targets we're working toward — but measuring the entire community requires changes in how we collect data," Braff said.

Several councilors and staff emphasized the need for stable local funding rather than reliance on one‑time grants. "Grant funding is great to scale or pilot programs, but it's risky as an ongoing funding source," Braff said; City Manager Bernie and councilors discussed adding sustainable funding for programs and for staffing to maintain measurement systems.

The update closed with staff previewing upcoming work on a proposed home energy score disclosure policy (to be considered by Olympia in March) and climate‑resilient design guidelines for capital projects. The council recessed to an executive session on litigation at the end of the study session.

Next steps: staff will follow up with additional data on rooftop solar and work on permit‑system changes to better track heat‑pump installations; the home energy score is scheduled for council consideration in March, and staff plan further budget and program proposals to explore sustainable local funding for the climate program.