Bainbridge's lip service to climate always yields to growth

We generally think of "greenwashing" as exaggerated claims by corporations about supposedly sustainable and climate friendly products. It’s unfair to consumers and to companies who really do hold themselves to high standards. President Biden is now being urged to hold greenwashers accountable by requiring proof of their sustainability and climate friendly claims.

Greenwashing, however, isn’t just a private sector thing. For proof of that, look no further than our very own, supposedly climate friendly and supposedly sustainable, City of Bainbridge Island.

To be fair, COBI has embraced environmental sustainability over the past few years with such things as progressive tree protections, funding for a groundwater management plan, a new climate change advisory committee, a Climate Action Plan, a sustainable transportation plan, and measures to reduce plastic waste. But what has all of this added up to in terms of actual progress?

Little actual protection for trees and groundwater

Acres of trees, native vegetation, and soils have been protected from wholesale clearing and grading by the City’s Aquifer Recharge Protection Area Requirement, or ARPA. Critical areas protections, in general, have measurable benefits but are too often weakened by inconsistent administration and loopholes like "reasonable use exceptions."

Bainbridge Island is the only city in Washington State surrounded by salt water and solely dependent upon underground aquifers for its supply of freshwater. In 2014 citizens called for creation of a Bainbridge Island groundwater management plan to ensure responsible stewardship of that vital resource. It became a high priority action item in Bainbridge Island’s 2016 comprehensive plan.

In 2018 funding was approved and hopes were high that COBI was getting serious about developing the Island’s long-awaited GWMP. Five years later, though, there’s minimal progress with COBI seemingly delaying development of a GWMP for as long as possible. Meanwhile, major land use plans focused on increased housing density are moving forward unimpeded by concerns over finite groundwater water resources. Instead of informing the new 2024 comp plan on how to plan responsibly, Bainbridge Island’s long-awaited GWMP will once again take a backseat to COBI’s cash cows of growth and development.

A disconnect on climate action

Created in 2017, the CCAC advises the City on such climate related work as greenhouse gas emissions targets, the Climate Action Plan, and progress towards meeting targets. Recent work includes: 1.) development of a climate lens; 2.) PSE’s franchise agreement; 3.) evaluating sea level rise; 4.) a bio-digester, and; 5.) measuring transportation projects emissions. These projects check a lot of climate boxes, but after six years there’s no evidence it’s translated into an overall reduction of our greenhouse gas emissions.

As for the Climate Action Plan, it's an impressive document. The CAP was authored by the CCAC and approved by the City Council in 2020. It lays out ambitious goals for Bainbridge Island: "Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 90% by 2045 compared to 2014 levels with interim milestones of 25% reduction by 2025 and 60% by 2035."

Given these goals are central to the CAP, you might expect a 2022 progress report to provide an update on progress towards meeting them, but it doesn’t. Why not? Well, because there’s no actual progress to report. More programs and projects, yes. Overall emissions reductions, no. This disconnect will become more and more obvious over time.

In 2017 the City Council approved a resolution affirming COBI’s commitment to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement calling for emissions to be cut by roughly 50% by 2030. In 2020 a climate emergency resolution followed, calling for development of a “climate lens” for evaluating all of the City’s plans and projects with a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For its “climate lens” the City chose a "Climate Change Adaptation Certification Tool" offered by a local nonprofit. That particular “tool” focuses almost entirely on adaptation to climate change with minimal analysis of greenhouse gas emissions. One has to wonder if this lack of emphasis on emissions associated with COBI’s plans and projects influenced the tool’s selection.

What's actually sustainable in transportation plan

The name of this $300K plan suggests it’s all about sustainability. The idea is that anything related to non-motorized transportation, no matter how many trees are removed, no matter the emissions required to build it, and regardless of whether or not any emissions are reduced as a result, is “sustainable.” Welcome to the bizzaro-world of non-motorized greenwashing where all non-motorized projects are magically “sustainable” because they prevent finite funding from being spent on other supposedly less sustainable projects. Meanwhile, no actual metrics have been identified for evaluating the sustainability of the Sustainable Transportation Plan, and they probably never will be.

The city's climate greenwashing is elaborate and it’s effective: Not in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, but in creating the all-important illusion. COBI gets to check all the green boxes while at the same time protecting its overall mission of promoting growth.

Ron Peltier is a Bainbridge Island resident and served on the Bainbridge Island City Council from 2016-19.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bainbridge's lip service to climate always yields to growth