This is crucial: Your input as well as your support for the DRAFT Sustainability Action Plan for Spokane will help ensure that it is adopted and implemented by City government.
The draft Sustainability Action Plan updates and expands upon Spokane’s 2009 Sustainability Action Plan. It identifies specific strategies and actions that will help meet our 100% renewable energy goals as adopted by the City in 2018, and to meet regulation set by the State of Washington to address greenhouse gas emissions.
This plan was drafted over a period of two years by the Sustainability Action Subcommittee of the Spokane City Council with input and engagement from dozens of local, regional, and national experts. It will now undergo an additional six months of public engagement which allows time to incorporate public feedback after which it is hoped the plan will be adopted by the Spokane City Government.
On the food and agriculture front, the draft plan calls for identifying and implementing sensible and achievable codes, policies, and requirements that eliminate barriers and reduce costs for urban farms and community gardens and expand local control of food grown, processed, and sold directly to consumers. It also calls for updating City codes and planning documents to ensure preservation of urban farmland, developing and adopting a Regional Food Plan, creating a Regional Food System Partnership to bring stakeholders together to maximize our local food system capacity, efficacy, and efficiency; for ensuring residents have access to healthy food, increasing household food security region-wide, reducing food waste and launching a local food campaign to educate the public on the benefits of eating local. The plan emphasizes "if people who live in Spokane eat more locally grown food, we will create a more resilient local food system, strengthen our economy and reduce climate impacts associated with transporting food great distances. Citizens, neighborhoods, growers, food-related businesses, non-profit organizations and local governments need to work together to take the far-reaching actions that are needed to localize and strengthen Spokane's food system."
After reviewing the Sustainability Action Plan, please submit your feedback to the Sustainability Action Subcommittee. Your feedback will help guide their revisions and provide City Council guidance on moving Spokane toward a more sustainable future.