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Jennifer Ewing is the Sustainability Manager for the city of Bellevue, WA.
In this episode of Reframe, show host Jeff Nichols speaks with Jennifer Ewing, Sustainability Manager for the City of Bellevue, Washington. Jennifer has spent nearly a decade leading local sustainability initiatives, outlining strategies for Bellevue’s future and collaborating with regional partners—all in the pursuit of defining and achieving Bellevue's ambitious climate goals. The conversation explores Bellevue’s sustainability strategy and delves into the complex balancing act between growth, climate action, and community priorities.
Local Government is Where Change Happens
Jennifer describes how Bellevue’s sustainability efforts grew out of the city’s Environmental Stewardship Initiative. Initially focused on tree canopy preservation and natural environment protection, the program evolved in the mid-2000s to align with national and international climate goals, including commitments to carbon neutrality. Jennifer was drawn to Bellevue after prior work in consulting and urban planning, inspired by the idea that cities are uniquely positioned to tackle climate change locally while connecting to regional and global challenges.
The discussion emphasizes the critical role of local governments. Bellevue influences land use, transit-oriented development, and community engagement in ways that directly shape emissions and climate resilience. Jennifer notes that residents tend to trust local government more than state or federal entities, giving cities a stronger platform to engage people more directly in climate solutions. Still, she stresses that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 requires action at all levels, including federal, state, and local, as well as collaboration across city borders.
Vision and Stewardship Driven to Action
Jennifer outlines Bellevue’s Sustainable Bellevue Plan, which addresses both city operations and community-wide emissions. The city has committed to net-zero emissions by 2040 for its own operations—ten years ahead of its community goal. Examples include a partnership with Puget Sound Energy to secure renewable energy, building retrofits, and electrifying city fleets. On the community side, Bellevue has launched programs such as Energy Smart Eastside, which helps homeowners adopt energy-efficient heat pumps to cut carbon and improve resilience during extreme heat. When asked about her greatest challenges, Jennifer cites the difficulty of balancing multiple city priorities—climate action, affordable housing, transportation, and more, while demonstrating that sustainability initiatives complement, rather than conflict with, these goals. She emphasizes the importance of storytelling, community engagement, and partnerships in building support and securing funding, as resources are typically limited.
Jennifer concludes with advice for other cities starting sustainability programs—beginning with cost-saving improvements in government operations, leveraging peer networks, and demonstrating quick wins that build credibility. She also reflects on her biggest learning from local government—complex problems require nuance, patience, and collaboration, even when urgency is high.
Jennifer’s perspective underscores that cities like Bellevue are on the front lines of climate action. By integrating sustainability into both operations and community planning, engaging residents directly, and collaborating across regions, local governments can drive meaningful change.
If you have questions or feedback for the Reframe team, email reframe@pilotlight.ai. You can also follow the podcast through your preferred app to stay updated on future episodes.
Reframe is hosted by Jeff Nichols and presented by Pilotlight.
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What is Reframe?
Reframe is the podcast about building sustainability.
Commercial and public buildings are among the biggest producers of carbon emissions. It’s a problem of massive scale. But, for building owners, engineers and contractors, solving it may actually be more of an opportunity than a challenge. That’s what the “Reframe” podcast is all about. Join host Jeff Nichols on an exploration of the forces driving sustainability in our built environment. And meet the people who are leading the charge.
Jeff: Welcome to Reframe. I'm Jeff Nichols. Over the course of this show, I've talked with people who do the work, organizing coalitions, funding programs through private investment and pushing forward the ideas that move us closer to a sustainable future. And in every conversation, one theme has always come up, the role of government.
It's essential, but as the federal government has stepped back from leading on climate change, the responsibility has shifted. Today, the real action is happening at the state and local level. That shift raises some important questions. What does local government actually look like on the inside? How does energy policy get established and implemented?
How do cities define land use growth strategies and transit planning, and how do those efforts connect back to state and federal agendas while also coordinating across city boundaries? When most people think about the Pacific Northwest, they think about Seattle. Just across the lake [00:02:00] is one of the fastest growing cities in Washington Bellevue.
Bellevue has established itself as a proactive, forward-thinking city when it comes to balancing sustainability and growth. This episode is about pulling back the curtain. Who inside local government is driving progress and how does it actually get done? When I have questions, I ask questions, and I have so many, so who do I ask?
Jennifer: I'm Jennifer Ewing. I'm the sustainability manager for the City of Bellevue, Washington. I've been with the city for about nine years, and my role really involves kind of a mix of leading various sustainability initiatives and then also coordinating with other staff and departments and external partners, other government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, to really advance the city's sustainability work.
Jeff: Nine years ago, how did you find this role? I mean, was it a new role for the city or how did you, uh, find this opportunity?
Jennifer: Yeah, this was my first role working actually in local government. Prior to this, I had done some management consulting work, went back to school, got a master's in urban planning, and became really interested in how cities work together, in particular, around sustainability and climate change issues.
And so had a couple different roles working more for a nonprofit that supported city sustainability work, and then was doing some consulting work in that space. Some of that working a little part-time when my kids were young and that sort of thing. And then as I was ready to go back to work full-time, was looking for a role as like a sustainability manager type.
Position and this, uh, position opened up in Bellevue. It had existed for about 10 years prior to, you know, when I joined. So, not a new role, but it's, the work has certainly evolved kind of, uh, over the past 20 or so years.
Jeff: [00:04:00] Why was this important to the city? You know, going back to the beginning, how did this get started for the city, or at least, what do you know?
Jennifer: So originally the program was called the Environmental Stewardship Initiative, and one of the core values of the city is stewardship. So you know, kind of stewardship of financial resources, natural resources, everything. So that sort of idea was extended into the environmental stewardship. Program, which, and you know, the focus of the program over the years has evolved.
Initially there was a fair amount of focus on preserving the natural environment and our tree canopy and that sort of thing. But then, you know, around almost 20 years ago, that's when the US Conference of Mayors. Started the Mayor's climate Protection Agreement. So around, I think the 2006 seven timeframe, that's when a lot of cities around the country stepped up and said, okay, you know, climate change is happening and we have a role to play as well.
And back then, that's when cities started to establish climate targets that really echoed. The international targets that were being set as part of the Kyoto Protocol and that sort of thing. So the work has really evolved from there. I got into this work in general and then into this role just, you know, because I was really passionate about global issues like climate change and, you know, really liked this approach that cities like Bellevue were taking to really look at how they could take action locally to address greenhouse gas emissions.
Jeff: What's the phrase? Think globally, act locally. That, that's one of the things we've really been exploring, looking at. Not only just at the US but we've, we've talked to folks globally and you know, while leadership at the federal level, you know, the state level, the county, what I'm really fascinated by is.
The rubber meets the [00:06:00] road at the local city, right? Like that's where the things that are gonna, I think, really propel and drive, uh, a lot of the change related to climate and greenhouse gas emissions. It seems like that is the level that has. The most impact. But I dunno, how do you think about that? Right.
Because there it is a multi-layered cake, if you will. Yeah, yeah. But it seems like the lowest level is the local, you know, the city level. Like how do you even think about that? And even the complexity behind that 'cause it, it isn't straightforward, I guess.
Jennifer: Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. But in general, you know, to meet the long-term climate goals of carbon neutrality by 2050, it will take a mix of federal, state, and local action.
You know, states like Washington State, we have quite a few, you know, pretty significant climate policies that can get us pretty far without federal action. Ideally there would be a mix of federal and state action. And then at the local level where we really can have a lot of influence or control is, you know, it's local government that really kind of defines land use patterns and where growth happens.
And so in Bellevue there's a big focus on transit oriented development, and that focus is, you know, Bellevue as part of like a larger Seattle area where we're really trying to accommodate a lot of the growth that. Wants to happen in our region in sort of more dense areas near transit, so we can, you know, create cities that allow for more walkable bikeable neighborhoods and that make it easy for people to take transit.
So that's kind of like one of the really sort of foundational strategies that local governments, um, really have a lot of influence over. And then I think what we kind of find, you know, when we. Talk to different community members, people kind of have more trust in local government, and it seems a little more [00:08:00] real.
And as you get kind of further and further away from that, it can be harder to communicate with residents. So, you know, local government has a good role in terms of just. Keeping relationships with the community, engaging with the community. We have different programs, uh, to support local residences and businesses and helping them reduce energy use.
And so I think we found, uh, the messenger certainly matters and local government can be a really powerful messenger and leader in terms of different programs and services.
Jeff: So how do you interface with the other levels, I guess, at the state level and the federal level?
Jennifer: Yeah, that's a great question. So the City of Bellevue and a lot of other cities do have a government affairs team that really helps to kind of coordinate all of the.
Engagement between the state and federal. Um, and then there can be kind of different levels and types of engagement. Some is more kind of on the elected official advocacy side, and then some is more kind of on the technical program manager side. We're managing different grants from the state, for example, and just working closely with the state.
Staff to make sure we're, you know, achieving the requirements of the grant and that sort of thing. But then cities also, you know, do advocate for different policies at the state and federal level. Uh, so there's different, you know, channels, um, for. That type of engagement in the city of Bellevue, for example, does every year have like a legislative agenda, you know, that we wanna see at the state level?
So, you know, local governments in the Seattle area, um, certainly, you know, have a lot of influence and what happens in Olympia. There's also different groups that coordinate local governments to help kind of grow the voice of individual cities. Uh, and then from the climate change perspective, um. There's also a lot of coordination or, or you know, what we didn't mention is sort of the coordination [00:10:00] across in between cities.
Hmm. So that's actually where I spend a quite a bit of time. And then, you know, from a government affairs standpoint as well, we, we work closely with a lot of our neighboring cities. 'cause a lot of the issues we deal with, like affordable housing or climate change, that sort of thing, it doesn't end at our city borders, obviously.
Uh, but. From the climate standpoint, we work closely with other cities within King County, through the King County cities climate collaboration. Uh, so that's been a great avenue to facilitate, uh, information sharing partnerships between the county and different cities in King County. And then Bellevue also works really closely with other cities on the east side of Lake Washington, uh, through the East Side Climate Partnership.
Uh, so Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah, Mercer Island, and Samish. We all have kind of more similar demographics, housing, stocks, challenges, things like that. So we've, um, started working more closely together to do some more joint programming and that sort of thing.
Jeff: Sounds like your day is filled with meetings.
Yes. Nonstop meetings. I'm just starting to kind of like all those cities, how do you talk to all of them and then all these different stakeholder groups? It's, uh, yeah, that's a lot. So you mentioned, okay, broadly, you know, net zero by 2050. How does the city of Bellevue think about strategy? How are we gonna get there?
You know, how do you break down kind of the, we need to lower our, our footprint and greenhouse gas emissions? Like how do you break that down or structure your strategy?
Jennifer: So we have a plan called the Sustainable Bellevue Plan that walks through the big picture strategy. We're actually in the process of updating that right now.
So looking at what are some of the, you know, high level strategies and more specific [00:12:00] actions we can take over the next several years to put us on a path towards achieving our goals. But big picture, we look at both the emissions and the sustainability of our city operations. So what we, you know.
Directly control. So you know, in particular our buildings, our fleet, and other infrastructure. And then we also do have a vision for sustainability for the entire city. So we're really kinda looking at both levels. And then as we look at the entire city, you know, how do we decarbonize a city of 160 or so, a thousand people?
That's where we, you know, wanna look at, okay, big picture, what are some of the things we wanna have happen? You know, transitioning to renewable energy, decarbonizing our buildings, supporting transit oriented development. And then within that we really look at, okay, what is our role as a local government in terms of leading or supporting, that sort of thing.
So we kind of start from the big picture and then kind of break it down more to understand, you know, where can we have the most impact and influence.
Jeff: How does the city think about sustainability? You were mentioning some of the properties that the city owns. Mm-hmm. And just even, you know, evaluating and trying to figure out, you know, as an owner if you will, like, you know, how do we ourselves kind of lead the way?
Are there any examples you want to kind of share or kind of point to?
Jennifer: Oh, sure. Yeah. So we look at it from both perspectives, both our city operations and then also the entire community. So for example, with our city operations, we do have goals to get to net zero emissions as well by. 2040. So looking to do it 10 years faster than the entire community.
So one of the first things we've been able to do is sign on to a special green tariff through Puget Sound Energy to buy renewable energy for about 70% of our operations. So that's actually a great example of [00:14:00] not only local governments, but also some private entities and our transit authority all coming together, working with our utility and saying, Hey, we want green power now.
We don't wanna wait, and if we have to pay a little more, we're willing to do that. Or if we have to sign a long-term agreement, we're willing to do that. So. Bellevue plus a number of other cities, the county, some private companies, I think like Starbucks for example, all signed onto this agreement to actually help accelerate the building of a wind farm and a solar farm in Washington.
So. That was one of the many steps we've taken on our city operations to start reducing our emissions. But we're also working on some pretty significant facility retrofits to reduce energy use and electrify our buildings. And then along with that, working on greening our fleet. So we have a few hundred vehicles in our fleet and are working to transition, you know, all of the light duty vehicles to electric.
But that means, you know, pretty significant. Infrastructure upgrades. So we're kind of taking some initial steps to do that. So really wanting to demonstrate for our community, hey, we can run our city operations efficiently. We can save money with a lot of these facility upgrades. So we're using taxpayer dollars wisely, and we're really.
Looking to lead a lot of this transition. Uh, and then some examples for the community side, how we look at sustainability. One example is the program we stood up with our east side partner cities called Energy Smart East Side, where we're offering incentives. And assistance and outreach and education to homeowners to install energy efficient heat pumps.
So trying to have people understand, you know, in your home, one of the biggest things you can do is transition off of natural gas and install an energy efficient heat pump, um, to help reduce. Your own [00:16:00] emissions and help reduce our citywide emissions. But it also helps prepare our community for, you know, high heat days, which we're having more and more of.
So also wanting to, uh, increase that community resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Jeff: I'm curious to dive into kind of the, the power generation side. Like one of the things Amazon just came out, they're kind of pacing behind some of their goals, primarily because of the rise of AI and just how much energy these data centers are using.
How does the city kind of think about that? Or, I'm not sure even any of the utility planners kind of like have forecasted out, like the demand that AI and these data centers are gonna be using. But how does that play into the way you look at that or think about that particular challenge?
Jennifer: I think that's definitely an issue we're grappling with.
You know, we're not really seeing any significant AI data centers in Bellevue, so it's not necessarily an issue we're gonna have locally or even necessarily in our region. A lot of that seems to be happening more in eastern Washington, but in terms of just demand for power on the grid, it's. Really significant.
And so I think it, it will have an impact in terms of our utilities in Washington state being able to meet their, you know, carbon neutral goals. The Washington State Clean Energy Transformation Act requires utilities to transition to a hundred percent renewable energy by 2045. So that's. Challenging as it is, but then when you layer on top all the population growth, the job growth, the electric vehicles, the decarbonizing, our facilities, so switching buildings from like natural gas, heating to electric over the next 20 plus years, and the data centers, uh, the challenges daunting, so.[00:18:00]
The utilities do a regular planning process to try to look at the, the demands and, you know, the supply and all of that. So it's definitely an issue we're concerned with. It's something we're not really directly involved in, but, uh, concerning from the standpoint of our utility being able to meet their renewable energy goals as the, you know, energy needs continue to increase.
Jeff: If you've never been to Bellevue, it sits on the eastern shore of Lake Washington directly across from Seattle. It's ever-growing. Skyline blends modern architecture with mountain views, encompassing parks, museums, botanical gardens, woodlands, and wetlands. To understand Bellevue, it helps to know a bit of its history.
The area was first settled in the late 18 hundreds. Its farmland and logging country for most of the 20th century. Bellevue was a quiet, suburban community, known more for strawberry fields than skyscrapers. The opening of the first Lake Washington floating bridge in 1940, connected Bellevue to Seattle, transforming it into a commuter suburb.
And by the 1980s and nineties, Bellevue had started to emerge as a city in its own right and its population surged Today, Bellevue is one of the fastest growing cities in Washington. It's become a thriving tech and business center with companies such as T-Mobile, Amazon Meta, Salesforce, Smartsheet, and many more.
How do you balance this? One of the things I think is really interesting about the city of Bellevue, the city has this reputation of being very pro economic development. Oftentimes, I think sometimes people are like, oh, I don't want anything to change. How does the city balance the need to be sustainable?
But also like, how do we really drive economic development?
Jennifer: I think that's something, you know, we try to reinforce with a lot of our storytelling that the, the growth in Bellevue [00:20:00] is, is good for the region, it's growth that's happening near, you know, the new light rail that's recently opened up and if it wasn't happening here, it would be happening much further out in King County or elsewhere, which is less sustainable.
So people would be driving more, having longer commutes to work, that sort of thing. So we do really try to. We've the city's pro-growth strategy in with our sustainability narrative since the two go hand in hand so much. And then, you know, a lot of the reason Bellevue is an attractive place for businesses is because it's a desirable place.
To live and it's a really beautiful city. And so a lot of that is about kind of just the natural surroundings in Bellevue. So I think that's also another kind of through line between the economic development priorities and you know, some of our sustainability priorities.
Jeff: You know, I grew up here. I was just doing some, uh, AI research on the city's history.
I didn't know that Bellevue is actually French for beautiful view. Yes. I mean, it makes a lot of sense and it is, it is beautiful. As you think about how you're balancing all these things, like what makes your job hard or what's the thing you could wave if you could wave your magic wand and just make it easier like you would do in a heartbeat?
Jennifer: Yeah, good question. I think. You know, one of the challenges for our work around climate and sustainability is that it's, it's a high priority for our council and our community, but there's a number of other really high priorities, you know, around affordable housing and continuing to grow our pet bike infrastructure, all sorts of things.
So I think, you know, more broadly for the city, some of the challenges really kind of balancing all of the different priorities. There's just a lot of really important things that are happening right now. It's a pretty dynamic time. So I think one of [00:22:00] the challenges for the sustainability work sometimes can be telling the story around how these climate and sustainability initiatives do, you know, support some of the other city goals and helping people understand that, uh, that they're not, you know, in conflict with goals around affordable housing or economic development, that they really are, can be us.
Mutually supportive of each other.
Jeff: Well, and that kind of gets to the pillars or ways that you've kind of structured your sustainability program. When you think about trying to balance priorities, can you touch on maybe each of those? Or is there a particular emphasis you're putting on kind of one of those where like how do you balance all of those perfectly, I guess?
Jennifer: Yeah, that's a great question. So our council is definitely very interested in understanding what are the highest impact things we can do to reduce emissions. So that's certainly, you know, framing a lot of our priorities. And then, of course, you know, the, the bulk of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings and from transportation, so that's helping frame it.
But then we're also hearing a lot of interest from our community in wanting to be more prepared for the impacts of climate change. So looking at both, how do we prepare our people, our infrastructure, our natural environment for climate impacts? So we definitely have a beautiful city and we wanna make sure we can preserve it.
So how can we, for instance, ensure that our, our forests in Bellevue are, are healthy and can, um, survive over time as our climate changes. So there's kind of a few different lenses I guess we look at in terms of priorities, but certainly. And then ideally we're looking for strategies and actions that can maybe have multiple co-benefits.
So they might help reduce emissions and also increase resiliency, for example. Um, but yeah, in terms of having the highest impact, uh, the focus is [00:24:00] really on reducing emissions in our buildings, so both our commercial buildings and residential buildings. And then also looking at. How do we reduce emissions from transportation?
So essentially supporting, um, various, you know, transportation modes like. Walking, biking, transit, um, and then, you know, ride share or scooter share, that sort of thing. Uh, and then also supporting the transition to electric vehicles. So, uh, about half or so of the housing units in Bellevue are all in multi-family buildings that were built before our building codes required any sort of EV charging.
So we've got a lot of residents who might wanna have an ev uh. And, you know, if you have an ev, the, the easiest and best place to charge is at home. And so, right. Looking at how can we support some of these buildings in taking advantage of different incentives, um, or programs out there to install ev charging infrastructure
Jeff: on that point of emissions and resilience.
Even if we reach, you know, net zero, the impacts are still going to last decades. There is more of a conversation around resilience now, especially with extreme weather events. You know, people are beginning to connect those dots, but how? To the whole point of balance. How do you balance that? What else could you share there?
Jennifer: I don't know. I think we try to avoid sort of a, a choice between one or the other, but look at, you know, especially for some of the resilience related planning, let's say, you know, we're upgrading a city facility or you know, city infrastructure. Like how, how can we make sure we're kind of. Designing that in a way to prepare for future impacts of climate, like, uh, increased, um, and more intense storms, that sort of thing.
Got it. So it's not always like a one or the other. It's often kind of looking for [00:26:00] opportunities to embed certain priorities into work we're already doing. Uh, but yeah, we do want to acknowledge that climate impacts are happening. Now, I think even compared to five years ago when we last updated our sustainability plan, we weren't hearing, um, quite as much of a concern from our community around the impacts of climate change.
But then just in the past five years, we had, you know, most recently the bomb cyclone, the storm and wind event. That knocked out power for much of Bellevue and a lot of the east side for in some places for almost a week. And that was just last November. So that's pretty fresh in people's memories. But you know, we had the heat dome back in 2021.
That was the highest heat, and I think over a hundred people in sort of Washington and Oregon died because of that heat. And then we've had several smoke events. So I think just in the past several years, things have. Changed or become, I think much more real to people. But then I think, you know, there's also a lot of kind of simple low cost strategies that we can do, you know, encouraging people to go to our, our community centers for cooling on a high heat or smoke day, or using a fan with a, a box fan with a filter if you don't have, you know, any air filtration in your home, just to make sure you have healthy indoor air, if it's really smoky out.
So. Not everything has to be, you know, kind of a, a big investment. Um, there's also kind of different, different strategies for more kind of simpler, uh, lower cost solutions.
Jeff: That's one of the things that surprised me. I think oftentimes when these conversations start, people kind of go to the most technologically advanced or like most expensive thing.
It surprises me. I feel like sometimes we're always looking for a thing as a solution and, and based on everything that I've learned, [00:28:00] using less is actually our best strategy. So actually speaking of efficiency, you know, my passion has really been, you know, buildings and I think it is still remarkable to me.
Most people have no idea what a big role buildings play in greenhouse gas emissions. Both how we build them and how we operate them. And given the 80% of the buildings that are gonna exist in 2050 have already been built, you know, we're gonna have to deal with the existing buildings, like you said, multifamily, you know, we have so many different building types.
But what's interesting is 30% of all. Energy to buildings is wasted. Mm-hmm. Uh, and so we actually know how to make our buildings more efficient. We don't need to invent anything new to make them more efficient. How do you guys think about this? You kind of mentioned that as one of the, the kind of core focuses or things you're thinking about.
How are you trying to spur people to do something?
Jennifer: Yeah. Yeah. So the, the city is in a unique role as both, you know, a property owner. We own and operate a, a number of facilities, um, and a couple larger facilities like our city hall, which is a, a larger office building, but has other uses in it as well, like the, you know, police headquarters and that sort of thing.
And then, you know, in Bellevue, uh, almost 50% of our emissions come from buildings and, you know, about 25% from commercial buildings. So. I think as you look at different strategies for reducing emissions in buildings, you do have to start kind of looking at the different building types just because the, the owners, the uses, the management really varies from, you know, a type of strategy that might make sense for a single family homeowner versus a commercial building.
They're just totally different audiences. So I think we kind of start with understanding, you know, really looking at the data. What's the energy use in these buildings? What are some challenges and opportunities? What are different programs that are out there and incentives, and then as a city. [00:30:00] How can we help these buildings?
Where might there be gaps where it would make sense for us to fit in? So on the residential building side, that's why we started the Energy Smart East Side Program to help educate people around heat pumps and really. Spur that market transformation. If your furnace dies or if it's about to die, people are making the choice to get a heat pump instead of, you know, replacing it with a gas furnace.
Uh, and then on the commercial building side, that's, you know, much more complicated. The building systems and everything are, are more complicated. You often have a situation where. The building owner isn't necessarily the tenant. And so you've got different incentive structures, uh, and then you may have a property manager thrown in there as well.
A few years ago, Washington State passed the Clean Buildings Act, which requires buildings over 50,000 square feet to meet certain energy efficiency requirements. And so as that, actually it's been more than a few years now. Yeah. But as that was being passed and the rulemaking was happening. We kind of realized, uh, okay, this is a complicated law.
There's also, you know, a nice chunk of incentive money out there that we'd love to see come back to Bellevue. How can we help commercial buildings in Bellevue get started on complying with the law? Understand the law and then ideally bring some of that state incentive money back to Bellevue. So that's why we stood up our Clean Buildings Incentive Program really to work with commercial buildings to help them re, you know, big picture.
The goal is to help them reduce energy use and take advantage of different utility incentives, state incentives, et cetera, to do that. A financially beneficial way. So they're really capturing the cost savings as quickly as possible. So that's kind of the intent of that program. Big picture. And then, you know, more sort of shorter term, just making sure that we help buildings get on the path to complying [00:32:00] with the state law.
Jeff: What would be most helpful? Like what, what would help Jennifer have an even bigger impact?
Jennifer: Um. You know, I think what has helped to shift the dialogue in Bellevue over the past several years has been a lot of engagement from the community and concern around climate change. You know, as a city government, we are responsive to what our community's priorities, so I, I think.
Continuing to hear more from the community why this work is important and from different stakeholder groups. That certainly helps our city leadership understand, you know, why this is important. So also that kind of sometimes more sort of personal storytelling like that, you know, this is important to me for this reason.
Yeah, I think that can often be helpful. And then, you know, at the end of the day, it does require investment to support this transition to net zero emissions. So ideally more funding to support our programs and that sort of thing. And, and we're certainly really creative with coming up with strategies to fund our work through different state grants and, and partnerships and all of that.
But yeah, that, that's often kind of one of the biggest challenges is just, you know, we are resource constrained and all of that. Local governments have to have balanced budgets, so you know, no going into debt.
Jeff: Right? Yeah. What would you say, 'cause this is your first role in government, what, what's been the biggest learning or the biggest aha from kind of, you know, going inside, if you will?
Jennifer: Yeah, I think, um, maybe one of the biggest ahas to me, um, after, you know, having a number of roles working kind of with or for local governments and more of a sort of consultant or partner capacity. I think it's really understanding. Kind of the, the complexity of a lot of issues. And I [00:34:00] think, you know, there's this perspective that government moves really slowly and is so bureaucratic.
And then I think coming, being more on the inside, you really understand that people here work with a lot of urgency and passion and a lot of, you know, the challenge comes from the fact that. You know, as a city government, we're trying to balance a lot of different priorities and voices, and as we kind of as city staff, as we come up with recommendations, it does take time to take all of these different perspectives into account, um, to come up with those recommendations.
So I, I think that maybe to me, has been. Kind of the, the biggest aha that a lot of issues that seem really straightforward are actually, once you start looking into them more, they're really much more complicated than you would think. And, and that's often, yeah, that complexity or maybe, and also interconnectivity of different issues or topics is often what requires the city to be really kind of thoughtful and methodical as we're working through recommendations on, on different topics from anything like homelessness or affordable housing.
So sustainability, that sort of thing.
Jeff: These complex challenges, it's like we've lost our capacity for nuance. These issues are very complex. They're multifactorial. It's not a singular driver, but it it people want easy buttons or easy answers or easy narratives. I'm very thankful. That the people that are helping to steward, and I love that word that you used earlier in the, the interview are, are being very thoughtful about this.
I think that that's important versus knee jerk reactions, easy narratives.
Jennifer: I think one of the challenges, you know, working in city government is trying to take a lot of really complex issues and then distill them down to kind of, to make them more digestible to people. That's probably one of the, the harder parts of our job.
[00:36:00] You know, our city council, um, they receive updates on a lot of really complex issues and we only have so much time to present to them. And, you know, we really need to kind of distill a lot of challenging issues and options. Down as much as possible without kind of losing the nuance, but also, you know, really focusing on the essential information that's needed for, for our city leadership to make decisions.
So that's definitely, uh, I think a challenge of this work.
Jeff: If you were to provide a bit of advice for another city looking to implement new sustainability initiatives, what would you tell them and what should they expect?
Jennifer: I think a lot of cities, if they're starting out with a new sustainability initiative, often do choose to look kind of, you know, at their own operations first and sometimes.
The easiest things, you know, to go after to kind of get buy-in are to look for, okay, what are some way, some simple building upgrades, for example, we can do that will help save us money. Maybe they'll reduce our operational costs. Um, that sort of thing. That's a great way to just start getting buy-in for.
Work is to really look at what are, what are some opportunities that are out there that are going to make kind of my colleagues' lives easier. They're gonna support us achieving our sustainability goals, but also, um. You know, have some other cost savings or other wins. So I think for a lot of cities starting out, that's, um, one strategy.
I think the other one is talk to your peers. So there's a lot of cities, you know, around the country working on climate and sustainability, and there's a lot of. Really great networks and that's probably the best. The other best and fastest way to get started is to learn from your peers, and that's one of the things I like best about this [00:38:00] work is really how collaborative it is with other cities and how much cities kind of share with each other and work together and help each other.
Um, I think that different networks that are out there have been a huge resource for me and my work over the years.
Jeff: We had another guest who coined the phrase Build Green to get green. And by that they meant that, you know, with smart investments in green or sustainable technology, you can drive efficiencies and save money.
And so it, it's, those aren't too opposing goals. It's hard to argue with that. Yeah. Well, Jennifer, it is been an absolute pleasure. I'm just fascinated with this. How do we kind of deconstruct all the different layers of climate change and certainly government and the public sector is a huge leader and participant that we need.
If we're gonna make real headway on this problem. It was so great to chat with you and learn more just about how one city is kind of taking and looking at this across kind of everything that they do. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.
Jennifer: Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for the opportunity. It was a great conversation.
Jeff: I really enjoyed that conversation with Jennifer and a couple things stood out. The first is that local government is where change becomes real. While federal and state policy set the stage, the real levers for change, land use, growth planning, building standards, and community engagement are held at the city level.
Bellevue illustrates how local governments can be trusted, messengers, effective coordinators across jurisdictions, and powerful catalysts for climate action. The second takeaway is that it's possible for cities to balance growth, resilience, and climate goals. Bellevue faces the dual challenge of being one of Washington's fastest growing cities, while also [00:40:00] pursuing net zero emissions.
Jennifer highlighted how economic development and sustainability are not in conflict, but intertwined. Growth near transit reduces car dependence, building retrofits save money and climate resilience measures protect the very livability that attracts people and businesses. The final takeaway is that vision and stewardship derive action.
Bellevue sustainability work is rooted in stewardship of natural resources, financial resources, and the community itself. Jennifer emphasized that progress doesn't start with endless meetings or complex programs, but with a sustainability narrative, a clear vision of the future that guides decisions and helps align competing priorities.
Which leads me to the Reframe. Sustainability isn't just policy or projects or process, it's a story about people and the future they wanna live in. Jennifer Reframed the work of making buildings more energy efficient as a beginning, not with bureaucracy, but with vision. Bellevue's sustainability narrative.
Is that vision a shared story, powerful enough to unite communities, businesses, and government around a better future? That's the big picture, really informative. And now I want to come down to ground level energy in buildings. Again, I have so many questions and when I wanna know, I gotta ask. So next time, we'll go deep into Bellevue's Clean Building Program.
And wouldn't you know it? Bellevue has an expert in charge of that too. Until then, I'm Jeff Nichols and thanks for listening to Reframe.
Announcer:
You've been listening to Reframe, the show about building sustainability presented by Pilotlight. Opinions shared by the Reframe guests aren't necessarily the views of their companies. If you'd like to learn more about the podcast, the show's host, guests, or topics, check out this episode's, show notes, or visit pilot light.ai/podcast.
Got a question for the Reframe team. Drop us a note at Reframe@pilotlife.ai. The Reframe podcast features original music by Dyaphonic. The show's produced by Robert Haskitt with Eric Opel and the show's host Jeff Nichols. Before you go, this would be a great place to hit pause in your podcast app and then hit that little plus sign up in the corner to follow the show.
That way you'll never miss an episode. Thanks for joining us.