Sustainability
The Ellensburg City Council adopted a Strategic Vision for 2023–2028 which is guided by five strategic pillars that include, among others, Energy & Resource Management and Sustainable Infrastructure.
Additionally, Washington state has enacted several laws recently aimed at addressing the climate crisis by reducing carbon emissions by 95% by 2050. Both the City Council’s Strategic Vision and the state legislation impacts the City-owned electric and gas utility, the municipality, and the community at large.
The City of Ellensburg has hired a consultant, McKinstry 1 Essention, LLC, to facilitate the development of a community-wide Sustainability & Energy Plan to guide future utility, transportation, building, solid waste, and municipal operations priorities. With this planning process, our goal is to engage a broad spectrum of the Ellensburg community to assist in shaping the goals and priorities for our future.
Our City team has been working closely with the consultants on data analysis for measuring our municipal and community carbon emissions as the first phase in the planning process. We will be moving into the next phase which involves bringing together a steering committee to advise future planning activities.