• Bellevue's Environmental Stewardship Plan is a strategic roadmap that lays out goals, strategies and targets that commit the city to act boldly and aggressively to ensure Bellevue is a healthy, livable, sustainable and prosperous “city in a park” for decades to come. The current 2021-25 Sustainable Bellevue plan was adopted in late 2020. The city is now in the process of developing a 2026-2030 update.  

    2026-2030 Update

    The Environmental Stewardship Initiative team launched our 2026-2030 Sustainable Bellevue Plan update with the City Council on Oct. 29, 2024. Guided by our new greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 95% by 2050 in the Comprehensive Plan, the city will focus on updating the Sustainable Bellevue’s strategies and actions to meet our 2030 goals and beyond. 

    Sustainable Bellevue Plan Update Engagement Opportunities

    Thank you to all who participated in engagement opportunities so far. Please read our Phase I Engagement Report to learn about what we've heard so far, and stay tuned for more engagement coming this spring, starting with EarthFest on April 19! Please follow our project on Engaging Bellevue and subscribe to our newsletter to ensure you don't miss an update.

    2021-2025 Plan History

    On Dec. 14, 2020, the City Council adopted the 2021-2025 Sustainable Bellevue plan. Built on our past environmental stewardship successes and the expertise and input of more than 1,000 residents, city staff, community leaders and stakeholders, the plan has five focus areas:

    • Climate change
    • Energy
    • Materials and waste management
    • Mobility and land use
    • Natural systems

    Sustainable Bellevue's high-level goals include reducing communitywide greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050; reducing citywide drive-alone rates to 45% by 2050; achieving an overall tree canopy cover of 40%; and operating on 100% renewable energy by 2050, with a 30% reduction in overall energy use.

    To help the city achieve these goals and targets, the plan lists 78 different actions across the five focus areas. The plan will be updated every five years through 2050 to ensure we're acting boldly and staying on track in creating a sustainable future in Bellevue for generations to come.

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    Plan Summary
    Image of ESI Plan Cover
    Environmental Stewardship Plan

     

     

     

     

     

     

    2021-2025 Plan Development

    The tabs below contain details about the 2021-2025 plan development process and the full goals and targets.

    Goals and Targets

    After an initial phase of public engagement, best practices research and analysis, staff compiled a set of recommendations for the overarching goals and targets for the updated Environmental Stewardship Plan and presented them to the City Council on Nov. 12. The council expressed support for the following draft communitywide goals and targets for the plan: 

    Climate Change

    Goal: Reduce Bellevue’s greenhouse gas emissions and prepare and adapt to ongoing climate change impacts. 

    • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 95% by 2050, below a 2011 baseline.*

    *Note: This updated greenhouse gas emissions reduction target was adopted as part of the new Comprehensive Plan. The previous target set by the 2021-2030 plan was 80% reduction.

    Energy

    Goal:   Ensure long-term access to clean energy while reducing the fiscal and environmental impacts of consumption.                    

    • Achieve 100% renewable energy by 2045.
    • Reduce energy use by 30% by 2050, compared to a 2011 baseline.

    Waste

    Goal:  Reduce the negative impacts from consumption and waste practices and strive towards zero waste of resources. 

    • Achieve zero waste by 2050.

    Mobility and Land Use

    Goal: Minimize the environmental impacts of transportation and development in Bellevue by focusing development in growth centers and providing all residents with access to a variety of mobility options. 

    • Achieve a 45% commute-trip drive-alone rate for residents and people working in Bellevue by 2050. 
    • Strive to have 50% electric vehicles registered in Bellevue by 2050.
    • Reduce per capita vehicle miles travelled (VMT) by 50% by 2050, compared to a 2011 baseline.
    • Support transit oriented development and strive to achieve 85% of jobs and 65% of households located with a ¼ mile of frequent transit service (every 15 minutes) by 2050.

    Natural Systems

    Goal: Improve and preserve the integrity and health of Bellevue’s natural systems and ensure all of Bellevue’s residents have access to Bellevue’s abundant natural resources. 

    • Achieve a 40% citywide tree canopy by 2050.
    • Ensure that 100% of Bellevue’s residents live within 1/3 of a mile to a park, open space, or trail by 2050.
    • Maintain and improve the health of Bellevue’s streams.

    For more information on the recommendations and what we heard from the first phase of outreach, refer to: 

    Phase 3 Outreach: Draft Plan

    Phase 2 Outreach Summary: Support for Potential Actions

    Staff conducted a second round of public engagement in the spring of 2020, to gather input and feedback on potential actions, and gauge the level of support for strategies for the plan. Outreach strategies included an open house, online survey with over 600 responses, focus groups, and an online townhall. 

    Phase 1 Outreach Summary: How ambitious should we be?

    Bellevue staff conducted an initial round of public engagement in the fall of 2019 with a community workshop, online survey, pop-up events, and a sustainability leaders focus group.  We heard from over 400 people through these various engagement approaches.  

    Online Engagement

    Check out Bellevue's new outreach and engagement hub, EngagingBellevue.com, where you can learn about upcoming events, take surveys, sign up to stay in the loop, and learn about other projects in Bellevue.

    The presentation materials, agenda, minutes, and videos from previous Council presentations on the Environmental Stewardship Plan can be found below: 

    Council directed staff to engage with boards and commissions on the potential strategies and actions relevant to their purview. A summary of the engagement with the boards and commissions is provided in the Draft Plan Phase 3 Outreach Summary.  The agendas, presentation, and minutes for each board and commission presentation can be found below. 

    Completed presentations

    Phase 2 Engagement:

    Phase 1 Engagement: 

    The 2013-2018 Strategic Plan was created by an interdepartmental team of staff with consultation from Cascadia Consulting. The plan addressed both municipal and communitywide sustainability. It focused on five distinct areas:

    • greenhouse gas emissions
    • mobility and land use
    • energy and water
    • materials and waste management
    • ecosystems and open spaces

    There were 57 actions distributed among these five areas, along with 17 Key Performance Indicators to measure impact.

    The benefits of these actions go beyond environmental stewardship. Enhancing parks and open spaces improves health outcomes while providing places to play, while reducing drive-alone rates decreases congestion. The ESI Plan Update seeks to expand upon these co-benefits of environmental action.

    One notable success of the previous plan was Bellevue being awarded a four-star certification through the STAR Communities Rating System. This system evaluates strengths and weaknesses in seven areas and builds on a decade of environmental leadership on the part of the ESI. The report is available.

    On February 19, 2019 a full report on the progress of the implementation of the 2013-2018 Environmental Stewardship Strategic Plan was presented to Council. This report assesses each of the 57 actions included in the plan, of which 34 were implemented and 21 were initiated, and two were not started. 

    The progress report outlines successes, such as purchasing green power from Puget Sound Energy, as well as areas to improve upon in the updated plan, such as waste diversion. This progress report helped to identify next steps and new actions for the 2021-2025 Environmental Stewardship Plan. 

    For up to date information on progress, check out the Environmental Stewardship Performance Dashboard.

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