Climate Action Plan
Our Climate Action Plan helps us deal with climate change and extreme weather. Learn how we plan to reduce emissions and make our buildings more resilient.
Importance of Climate Action
We adopted our Climate Action Plan in January 2025. Over time, it will help us:
- Face extreme weather. We need to prepare for hot and cold weather events, floods, dam breaks, tsunamis, and forest fires.
- Measure our impact. We’ve set a benchmark of our current greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. Now we can track our progress.
- Reduce emissions. We can cut carbon emissions to prevent more global warming.
- Address climate concerns specific for our libraries. We'll focus on identifying and tackling the biggest issues for our patrons, programs, and collections.
- Strengthen our buildings. We can make our buildings more resilient. They will be better able to adapt to a changing climate. We want them to continue to be places to gather during extreme weather.
- Strengthen our communities. We want to humanize climate change. Together, we can do more.
Climate Action Plan Report
We worked with Glumac and Site Story to build our Climate Action Plan. Glumac is a global building design consulting firm. Site Story is a local community engagement and conservation nonprofit. They looked at our buildings, energy and water use, vehicles, and community resilience. Then, Glumac created a Climate Action Plan report. The report includes short- and long-term recommendations to address climate change.
Climate Action Plan Dashboard
Glumac also created a Climate Action Plan dashboard for us. It’s an interactive tool to help us see how to lower energy use, emissions, and costs. We will work on completing parts of the plan over time, as resources allow.
This feature works best on larger screens. Please access the dashboard on a desktop computer.
Community Engagement
Site Story helped us talk to communities about climate change. We held a series of listening sessions and pop-ups at libraries and community events.
We heard from climate change experts and community members affected by climate change. These conversations helped us understand how our libraries can fulfill community needs. Glumac included the input in their report.
Leading by Example
We are a large and respected institution. We can influence others. Other libraries and groups may use our Climate Action Plan as a template.
We have long-standing sustainability goals. And we have been good stewards of the environment.
For example:
- In 2022, we teamed up with Puget Sound Energy. Together, we were able to make most library buildings carbon neutral.
- When we fix up or build new buildings, we use eco-friendly features. From 2004 to 2019, we added:
- Sustainable building designs
- Green roofs
- Rain gardens
- Radiant floor heating
- Geothermal heat pumps to heat and cool buildings
- Sustainable building designs
Balancing Cost
We received a $132,252 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to develop the Climate Action Plan. The King County Library System Foundation matched the NEH amount. The total amount of grant funding for the project was $264,504.
We will balance financial and environmental responsibility. The Climate Action Plan will help guide our budget planning.
