Bellevue College and other community partners, including City of Bellevue, are launching a new sustainability website and community engagement program, giving residents and businesses a fun and interactive look at the green resources throughout their community.
Bellevue’s GreenWA.org website engages users with vibrant maps, videos and information that showcase a variety of options for more sustainable living on the Eastside. From learning how to produce clean energy at your home, to driving cars without gas, finding local farmers markets or learning the right time to visit local streams to see them full of fish – GreenWA helps users visualize and implement a path to healthier and more locally engaged living.
Bellevue College has partnered with the City and other like-minded organizations because of our commitment to the healthier and more resourceful living. We hope to engage students in identifying sustainable features of our community and growing the site.
Users of GreenWA can use a tablet device, smart phone or personal computer to navigate the site’s many 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 – organizations that are the fabric of today’s efforts to make our communities cleaner, happier, healthier and more economically competitive.
Last Updated November 19, 2013