The Spokane Sustainability Action Subcommittee (SAS) has worked for the last two years on creating a Sustainability Action Plan for the City of Spokane. The draft version of the plan is now available for citizens of the region to review and provide feedback. Over the summer of 2021 we will be collecting feedback and making revisions, after which we will ask the Spokane City Council to adopt the plan in the fall. 

3 Objectives of the Sustainability Action Plan

To begin, the draft Sustainability Action Plan sets three crucial objectives that the plan intends to help the city achieve. 

Build Resiliency

A changing climate means that we will be subjected to situations and scenarios that we are not prepared for. Climate studies of the Spokane region have shown that we should expect hotter, drier summers, lower stream flows in the Spokane River, and more intense fire seasons. Preparing for these changes will be crucial to our ability to thrive as a community.

95% by 2050

It is worth digging into the specific details of this one. These are laid out in the plan reducing communitywide greenhouse gas emissions from 2016 baseline by:

• 45% by 2030 to 1,159,838 metric tons
• 70% by 2040 to 632,639 metric tons
• 95% by 2050 to 105,440 metric tons and achieve net zero emissions

Prioritize Most Impacted

This one is described as prioritizing people and communities most vulnerable to health impacts and economic downturns related to climate change. To try and best achieve this, each of proposed strategies and actions in the plan have been weighed against an Equity Checklist, which can be found on page 29 of the plan. 

7 Key Sectors

The Sustainability Action Plan lays out a path to achieve these objectives by building a list of specific actions and strategies to address seven key sectors.

Buildings & Energy

Spokane’s desire to be a leader of carbon-efficient building science, helping builders and property owners meet the Washington State Energy Code’s requirement for all new buildings to be emissions neutral by 2031, as well as to meet the large and growing need to retrofit buildings to reduce emissions.

Transportation & Land Use

Promoting livable neighborhoods for people of all backgrounds and means and seeking land use strategies for the City of Spokane that minimize the negative impact on the environment while promoting equity, affordable housing, and transportation choices.

Waste Diversion

The work that Spokane and its residents are doing to be innovative champions of materials use, reuse, and conservation.

Water Conservation

The protection and support of the Spokane River aquatic system and watershed to ensure a clean and sustainable water supply and healthy riparian habitat.

Economic Prosperity

The balance of costs and opportunities associated with adapting to and mitigating the climate crisis in Spokane. Creating resilience in our city means investing in local business and neighborhoods to help them thrive both during times of economic growth and times of economic challenges.

Natural Environment

Ensuring that clean air, clean water, and a healthy tree canopy is a community resource and can prepare the community to mitigate the risks of climate change, ensure equitable access to open spaces, and provide habitat for beneficial species.

Health & Wellbeing

The work of creating a city with local leadership that prevents potential problems by proactively investing in public health and emergency services, housing, and resiliency infrastructure.

4 Co-Benefits

The plan outlines four key co-benefits, which each strategy outlined within the plan’s seven sectors of priority is weighed against. These co-benefits are:

• Improved Environment
• Economic Opportunity
• Health & Wellbeing
• Increased Equity

Why We Need a Sustainability Action Plan

The Sustainability Action Plan is not an implementation plan, it is a high-level strategic plan.  Many of the strategies and actions proposed for improving each of these sectors are specific and can be implemented almost immediately. Others may be less specific or require details to be flushed out and specific plans developed. 

Without a high level strategic plan in place to guide the city, than it will take a monumental amount of effort to make progress as each sustainability initiative is evaluated independently of others, without any consistent guidelines or advisement as to what a good or bad proposal might look like. This plan gives us the tools we need to swiftly and effectively pass ordinances and implement policies that will make Spokane sustainable and thriving for generations to come. 

We Need Your Help

The City of Spokane has not yet formally adopted the Sustainability Action Plan. It is in a draft form, and we are asking for feedback before making revisions. In the fall, we will ask the City Council to hold a vote to do this. There are already people and organizations that are preparing to undermine the plan and prevent the city from adopting it. It is essential that we get as much engagement and participation from the community in the draft and revision process.

You can view the entire plan, read a summary attend a presentation workshop, and fill out a survey to provide feedback at the city website here: My.spokanecity.org/sas

Most importantly, if you have already attended a workshop, read through the plan, or otherwise want to give feedback, you can do that by filling out the survey here

The Sustainability Action Subcommittee

Those who have lived in Spokane for a few years may recall that in 2018 the City of Spokane passed an ordinance setting a goal of 100% renewable energy usage by 2030. To ensure that the city achieves this goal, the ordinance created a Sustainability Action Committee, members of which would be chosen by the mayor, to provide recommendations on how best to get there. The mayor didn’t choose members for the committee, so the City Council stepped in, creating a volunteer group of roughly 20 – 40 people, now known as the Sustainability Action Subcommittee (SAS). This volunteer group is composed of members of local tribes, employees of impacted businesses such as Avista, representatives of local conservation organizations, experts in various environmental fields, and just genuinely concerned citizens. Many members of 350 Spokane are contributors to this group.

Want To Dive Into the Details?

350 Spokane Co-Chair Larry Luton is interested in coordinating a 350 Spokane reading group that will take a look at the plan a couple of sections at a time. The group would meet 3 or 4 times over the summer, beginning in June. Please contact us at info@350Spokane.org, or by filling out the form in the footer of our website if you want to participate in this group.

My Personal, Final Plea

Please take the time to look over the plan, and provide your own input as to how the city should go about planning to be sustainable and resilient to what lies in the future for our region. Participating in this effort is the most important climate task we can work on this summer. We are most effective advocates for change at the local level, and this is about as local as you can get.