What the City is Doing to Help the Environment

Across every department, the City is planning and building a green, vibrant future for Kirkland. We provide infrastructure to make it easier for people who live and work here to make green choices. As Kirkland grows, we plan for and encourage sustainable development and green building. Knowing that we're part of a bigger community, we collaborate with other governments and organizations in Washington to support policies and programs that will have widespread environmental benefits.

Protecting and enhancing our natural environment

• Protecting trees and managing our urban forest
  
• Protecting our shorelines, wetlands and streams
• Restoring fish access(PDF, 333KB) to streams
• Cleaning up spills that could pollute our waters
• Restoring natural areas

Providing infrastructure that makes green living easier

• Building bike lanes and greenways
  
• Building safer routes to schools
• Providing the Community Van to improve transportation options
• Making walking safer with pedestrian flags and small neighborhood safety projects
• Installing water bottle filling stations in public locations to make it easier to choose reusable
• Hosting community gardens for residents to grow fresh produce

Greening City operations

• Generating solar power on the rooftop of City Hall
• Buying wind energy through Puget Sound Energy's Green Direct program
• Incorporating sustainability into decision-making through the Sustainability Master Plan
• Installing vehicle charging stations and incorporating hybrid and electric vehicles into our fleet
• Minimizing pesticide use to control weeds

Planning for a greener future

• Helping residents and developers build greener homes
• Supporting the creation and expansion of ten-minute neighborhoods
• Providing parks and green spaces within walking distance

Planning Documents

Planning documents guide the City's work, decisions, and projects, so it is important to plan for the environment and incorporate sustainability into plans.

Working with regional partners on big-scale challenges

• Collaborating on climate change with the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C)
• Addressing water pollution regionally with Puget Sound Starts Here
• Working toward salmon recovery in our watershed
• Advocating for improved product stewardship options with the Northwest Product Stewardship Council
• Developing regional transportation options by collaborating with partners like Sound Transit and King County Metro

Environmental Teams and Programs at the City

Many teams at the City are involved in work that makes Kirkland more sustainable, since all operations and decision-making has an impact on the environment. However, these key teams primarily do work that centers on the environment:

• Green Kirkland Partnership - restoring our natural areas
• Surface Water Division - pollution prevention and protecting our waters
• Solid Waste Division - promoting recycling and waste reduction
• Transportation Division - managing green commute programs and making safer transportation infrastructure
• Tree Team - implementing citywide urban forest work plans
• Green Building - promoting green building practices