Bellevue has launched a new website in partnership with Bellevue College and others to help residents increase sustainability.
Bellevue’s GreenWA.org website offers users interactive maps, videos and information that showcase a variety of options for more sustainable living on the Eastside. The site offers information on how to produce clean energy at your home, drive cars without gas, find local farmers markets or learn the right time to visit local streams to see them full of fish.
Users of GreenWA can use a tablet device, smart phone or personal computer to navigate the site’s features. The site is organized into six main subject categories – Natural Environment, Mobility, Green Building, Local Economy, Culture & Community, and Reuse & Recycle.
Visitors can surf through a “Maps” section, which uses icons to display resources, infrastructure and engagement opportunities; a “Tours” section comprised of videos clips on the topic; and a “Knowledge” section with written content, links and additional learning opportunities.
“We wanted to create a fun, easy, way for people to become aware of the sustainability value of these wonderful assets in their community, and to make the connections between the social, economic and ecological assets and their quality of life and community,” said Sheida Sahandy, director of Bellevue’s Environmental Stewardship Initiative. “And the really exciting part is that we want to grow the site to allow active community participation so that, for example, a school could do a project with students geo-locating their favorite trees and posting them on our maps.”
The website’s “Get Involved” page encourages users to contribute to a Public Tree Map, posting noteworthy trees and sharing the stories behind them.
Other community partners contributing to the site include the 12,000 Rain Gardens for Puget Sound campaign, Northwest SEED, Cascade Bicycle Club and Cascade Water Alliance.
