King County-Cities Climate Collaboration

King County and seventeen partners — Bellevue, Burien, Issaquah, Kenmore, Kent, Kirkland, Lake Forest Park, Mercer Island, Normandy Park, Port of Seattle, Redmond, Renton, Sammamish, Seattle, Shoreline, Snoqualmie, and Tukwila — are collaborating through the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) to coordinate and enhance the effectiveness of local government climate and sustainability action.

Through the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C), county and city staff are partnering on:

Outreach – to develop, refine, and utilize messaging and tools for climate change outreach to engage decision makers, other cities, and the general public
Coordination – to adopt consistent standards, benchmarks, strategies, and overall goals related to responding to climate change
Solutions – to share local success stories, challenges, data and products that support and enhance climate mitigation efforts by all partners
Funding and resources – to secure grant funding and other shared resource opportunities to support climate related projects and programs

All King County cities are encouraged to join into this effort, which is supporting and enhancing projects and programs in focus areas such as green building, using and producing renewable energy, sustainability outreach and education, and alternative transportation.

Elected Officials from King County and many cities gather after the June 2014 K4C Elected Official Summit

Photo of Elected Officials at the June 10th, 2019 King County-Cities Climate Collaboration (K4C) Elected Official Work Session

K4C focus areas

In 2019, the K4C updated its Joint Climate Action Commitments (381 KB). Implementing these actions will help get the region on track towards shared and ambitious climate targets. In 2020, K4C partners are working through formal processes to secure support for these commitments and the list of signatories is growing.
2021 legislative interests (311 KB)
Climate Action Toolkit

K4C – map of current partners (as of April 2019)

Download the Full Resolution Map (2 MB)

K4C co-chairs

Matt Kuharic, Senior Climate Change Specialist
King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks Director's Office
206-477-4554 (office)

David Barnes, Senior Planner
City of Kirkland
425-587-3250

For more information about the K4C:

You can read recent news and sign up for email updates on King County and K4C climate work at this webpage.

You can also download the K4C Interlocal Agreement (135 KB) that is used to formalize the partnership when new members join the K4C.

Special thanks to former Antioch University Graduate Student Linda Lyshall. Her research helped lead to the formation of the King County-Cities Climate Collaboration.

See also: Lyshall, Linda (2011). Collaboration and Climate Action at the Local Scale. Doctoral Dissertation, Antioch University, Yellow Springs, OH. Retrieved from OhioLink Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Center.