Cascadia is proudly supporting a multi-faceted implementation project that puts Issaquah’s climate strategies into action. We always design climate action plans with implementation in mind—we don’t want plans to simply sit on a shelf and we know plans must be ready to implement if we’re to meet the global goal to halve emissions by 2030. We know climate strategies must align with our clients’ budget, capacity to implement, and implementation partner goals and capabilities. With this in mind, we developed Issaquah’s first Climate Action Plan in 2021 and recent climate vulnerability assessment—which includes targets related to transportation, land use, buildings, waste management, natural systems, and community resilience.
Issaquah is putting their climate strategies into action, and we’re providing strategic support for implementation across sectors and service areas, from home electrification to community resilience. We’re:
- Supporting Issaquah’s home electrification rebate program—which was designed based on community feedback gathered during outreach led by Cascadia. Our team created factsheets—in English, Spanish, and Mandarin—that describe the benefits of electric home appliances and how residents can participate in the program.
- Researching and recommending a path forward for an expanded sustainable building and infrastructure policy for Issaquah’s municipal buildings, including developing recommendations for how to integrate administrative needs and processes into the selected policy structure, requirements, and governance—balancing administrative needs with policy requirements.
- Facilitating updates to Issaquah’s Climate Action Plan, including working with technical committees to identify new metrics to track and report on progress and refresh CAP actions now that the city has a few years of implementation to build on.
Under the leadership of Cascadia’s graphics team, we have also developed an engaging and technically robust StoryMap, which residents can use to see projected climate impacts for their home, workplace, or community spaces and get a sense for how Issaquah is building resilience with each climate action implementation project. This reader-friendly, accessible, map demonstrates exactly how the city is putting its climate strategies into action, building transparency and trust among Issaquah communities.
Visit Issaquah’s Climate Action Plan homepage to view the full plan.
