The City of Burien this week released the first annual report for its Burien Climate Action Plan.
The report shows what the City Council, City staff, and the larger Burien community are working on to create a more climate-resilient and equitable community.
The report outline accomplishments in five focus areas of the plan and discusses what staff are working on in 2023.
Report highlights in 2022 include:
- Two City-owned building energy audits: Burien Community Center and Moshier Art Center.
- 25 businesses participated in Recology’s free compost program.
- Volunteers and partners planted over 470 native trees, shrubs, and groundcovers and removed over 100,000 square feet of weeds from parks and green spaces.
- One 100-kilowatt solar panel system installed on the roof of Highline High School.
- Two City planning efforts aimed at encouraging 10- minute communities.
- Three new laws passed to advance sustainable waste management and protect Burien trees.
- More than 1,400 students learned about stormwater pollution and solutions at StormFest.
What’s next?
From the Climate Action Plan:
- Transportation and Land Use: The City has started updates to the Transportation Master Plan, which will help determine our community’s current and future transportation needs and guide how we invest in transportation over the next 20 years.
- Buildings and Energy: The Burien City Council allocated funds for staff to implement a residential energy efficiency program in 2023 and 2024. The program will focus on promoting incentives for energy efficient upgrades in homes, energy conservation, and weatherization options. With about 31% of Burien’s greenhouse gas emission coming from residential energy, the program will support significant greenhouse gas reduction.
- Buildings and Energy: The City is currently working to secure funding for implementation of the Moshier Community Art Center energy upgrades as recommended by the energy audit.
- Materials and Consumption: In 2023, Burien will partner with Zero Waste Washington to help food service businesses switch from single-use products to durable alternatives for in-house dining.
- Community Resilience and Well-Being: Staff are currently updating the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Plan. This update will look at how people currently use our parks, the existing conditions of our facilities and programs, and propose strategies and projects to meet the goals in the plan. The plan will be presented to the City Council in 2024.
About the Climate Action Plan
The City Council adopted the Burien Climate Action Plan on Nov. 15, 2021.
This community-level Climate Action Plan is the first of its kind for the City of Burien and will act as a roadmap for Burien to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts.
Download a PDF of the full report below:
