Thanks to Western Washington University's research and commitment to green energy, both the City of Bellingham and Whatcom County will use 100 percent green energy for city operations beginning January 1.
"It would be difficult to imagine the genesis of the green power challenge without Western's influence," said Alex Ramel, assistant for Cities for Climate Protection.
The green challenge Ramel refers to is a challenge by Sustainable Connections, City of Bellingham and Puget Sound Energy to get 50 new businesses and 1,000 new residents to sign up for green energy.
Derek Long, program and development director for Sustainable Connections, a local organization of businesses and community leaders devoted to sustainable practices, said they have already signed up more than 50 businesses, with some businesses, such as Mallard and Quicksilver, purchasing up to 100 percent green power from Puget Sound Energy.
According to the Sustainable Connections Web site, the reward for meeting the challenge includes a public demonstration of renewable energy, signs on I-5 announcing Bellingham as a "Green Power Community," national recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency and recognition of participating local businesses.
Bellingham municipal services reduced their energy consumption by 64 percent by switching to green power.
"It's a very effective and obvious first step to take," Ramel said.
He is in charge of Bellingham's next steps by creating a climate change action plan. Bellingham is a part of The International Council for Local Environmental Inititiatives (ICLEI), and follows their five-step program.
The first step is a complete inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, which is broken into both a municipal and a community analysis. From that information, projections for where the city wants to be are made. Ramel gave the example of the Kyoto protocol, which requires emissions be 7 percent of what they were in 1990 by 2012.
Washington voters recently passed another example, initiative 937, which requires that 15 percent of electricity for the state's largest utilities come from renewable sources.
The exact numbers of Bellingham's goals are not yet available, but inventory is complete, and the action plan is in draft stages, Ramel said.
The third step is to develop the action plan, the fourth to implement it and the fifth is to maintain and review the progress made.
"We're rolling around between the first and third right now," Ramel said.
Bellingham City Council will review the plan once Ramel completes the draft, which he hopes will happen in the next month.
Once the council approves the plan, their funding and other resources will be thrown more heavily toward already existing green programs, such as Sustainable Connections, in the area.
Long and Ramel both said they think the city of Bellingham and Whatcom County will act as driving forces for other cities and counties in the area to implement similar programs. Mayor Mark Asmundson and Ramel presented Bellingham's program at a recent regional conference, and Ramel said they received a lot of questions and support.
"I am just waiting to hear in the news that Olympia has jumped on the band-wagon," Ramel said.
The programs received huge support from the community, and Ramel said the Bellingham City Council is extremely receptive to incoming ideas.
"These programs are obviously very consistent with the values of many people in the community," Long said. "Otherwise we wouldn't be receiving this kind of support."
Ramel said he believes a lot of the support comes from the urgency of such changes.
"With all the price spikes in the last five years people are beginning to understand that fossil fuels are not a stable supply," Ramel said.
"They're ready to get behind these efforts for alternate sources."