The City of Grand Rapids started our sustainability journey around 2005 with a focus on environmental protection and conservation. Within the past 20 years, the Office of Sustainability has grown beyond this scope into a community partner, and educational resource, for maintaining healthy buildings, promoting clean efficient energy technology, and reducing waste and pollution.
As a municipality, it's important for us to understand how our work impacts entire systems, communities, and the environment. For this reason, the City of Grand Rapids maintains sustainability as one of our seven core values (as established in the 2019 Strategic Plan). Sustainability is a lens to assess how our policies, plans, and programs impact our environment, and the people and prosperity of our community.
On September 28th, 2021, the Grand Rapids City Commission declared climate change to be a crisis and to prioritize equity-informed policies and practices within City operations. The same year, City Manager Mark Washington announced carbon reduction goals for municipal operations:
- 85% GHG reduction by 2030 (from 2008 emissions)
- Net Zero by 2040
*74,490 MTCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents) were emitted in 2008 by City operations.
In the past 3 years since, the Office of Sustainability has worked with hundreds of community members and frontline organizations who are building climate resiliency to for the Climate Action & Adaption Plan (referred to as The CAAP).
You can find our climate strategies and actions at the main Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (CAAP) page.
The CAAP is a road map for how the community of Grand Rapids will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and prepare for the impacts of climate change on our people, environment and infrastructure. The CAAP was co-created in partnership with community stakeholders to meet our community-wide science-based targets:
- 62.8% per capita GHG reduction community-wide by 2030 (from 2019 emissions)
- 100% per capita GHG reduction by 2050 (from 2019 emissions)
*2,472,415 MTCO2e were emitted in 2019 community-wide.
You can learn more about anthropogenic climate change on our climate science page.
Watch the CAAP Overview Presentation
This 15-minute presentation by Chief Sustainability Officer Annabelle Wilkinson is an overview of the goals, strategies, and actions of the CAAP. It was held during the Committee of the Whole (COW) for the Grand Rapids City Commission Tuesday, April 15th, 2025.
You can watch the recording of this presentation here (starts at 2hr 46min for YouTube).
Definitions:
Chapter (6 total): a key sector of focus in the CAAP:
- Energy Systems
- Residential Homes
- Buildings & Industry
- Transportation
- Nature Based Solutions
- Food Systems
Goal (16 total): Desired outcomes in specific chapters to achieve our community science-based targets and reduce the impacts of climate change.
Strategy (32 total): Major initiatives, or services that must be completed in order to progress towards the goals.
Action (197 total): The programs, activities, and projects that will push forward the strategies.
Download the CAAP Action Type Guide
There is no single solution to global climate change. It will take each member of our community to commit to building a sustainable future. The CAAP contains 197 actions that will guide Grand Rapids to reduce GHG emissions.
Many actions outline programs and services for the Grand Rapids community to access climate resilient technology for their homes and businesses. Other actions will inform the City of Grand Rapids to plan, purchase, and provide sustainable services.
This spreadsheet breaks down the types of CAAP actions by chapter:
Full-GR-CAAP-Action-Type-Guide.pdf(PDF, 342KB)
Action Type Definitions:
Pilot (4 total): A pilot program is a small-scale, short-term action that helps an organization learn the feasibility a large-scale project.
Policy (38 total): A principle or course of action proposed or implemented by a governing body.
Process (84 total): The formulation and administration of public action usually through the engagement of social groups, businesses, and organizations/institutions, including internal stakeholders such as other City departments.
Program (71 total): An ongoing activity to provide a service to the community.
Community Connection Definitions:
Administrative (36): Internal City process.
Advocacy (24 total): Facilitating stakeholder collaboration.
Compulsory (11): Required by a law or rule.
Education (43): Demonstration or providing information to community.
Incentive (10 total): Providing benefits for climate action.
Service (41 total): Provide direct assistance or infrastructure to community.