Seattle, Washington

by Ellen Bryna Smith

·     Ranked #3 overall in Sustainlane's 2008 Cities Sustainability Index

 ◦     #1 Rankings in three subcategories:

▪     City Innovation (Seattle satisfies all six categories):

·     environmentally preferable purchasing programs

·     city commercial green building incentives

◦     city recently increased new building efficiency standards by 30%

·     city residential green building incentives, carpooling coordination, car sharing programs (public or private)

◦     city does home energy audits (but they cost $95)

·     at least one other significant city innovation or program not accounted for in the other five areas

▪     Energy and climate change (Seattle satisfies all five categories)

·     City greenhouse gas tracking and carbon emission inventories

·     Carbon emission reduction goals

◦     Created the “Seattle Climate Action Plan” in 2006: a roadmap to achieve a carbon footprint 7 percent lower than 1990 levels by 2012.

◦     working to reduce vehicle emissions through promoting (and creating the infrastructure for) biking, walking, public transit (busses) and electric car use (charging stations); in the process of constructing a light rail system (to be complete in 2016)

·     Overall renewable energy use

◦     In 2006, 90 percent of Seattle's energy use came from renewable sources

·     Percentage for each city's alternative fueled vehicles as part of the total vehicle fleet was credited to cities with such fleets of greater than 12 percent of total fleet

·     Additional credit was given to cities that had formally signed onto the US Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement begun by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, had instituted significant, wide-ranging mitigation or adaptation programs, or had mounted significant city-wide planning efforts as of December 2007.

▪     Knowledge and Communications (Seattle satisfies all four categories):

·     Whether the city has an overall plan for sustainability

·     Whether it has a sustainability or environmental department that manages and tracks sustainability efforts across the city

·     Whether the city is working in collaboration with a major federal research laboratory or research university

·     Whether the city is working with a non-governmental organization across the city, rather than in only a single neighborhood

◦     Mayor created the Seattle Green Ribbon Commission in 2005; the commission included 18 leaders from Seattle's labor, business, academic, non-profit, and government communities to draft the city's Climate Action Plan

·     Green Buildings (Ranked #4)

◦     all new city buildings over 500 square feet must attain Silver LEED certification

◦     many private LEED-certified buildings throughout the city as well

Room for Improvement:

·     Housing Affordability (Ranked # 39)

·     Planning and Land Use (Ranked #25)

◦     City recently passed a “Parks and Green Space levy” which will allow the city to upgrade existing parks/green spaces and create new neighborhood parks/green spaces; the use of the money levied is directly monitored by a board of citizens

◦     Generally ranks moderately in sprawl rankings: ranked 44^th most sprawling out of 83 in Smart Growth America's index; statistics indicate that the vast majority of Seattle's citizens commute into the city by car.

Personal observations from the last time I was in Seattle:

◦     noticed a LOT of LEED certified buildings

◦     made great use of space in order to incorporate green spaces into the city – ie, many green roofs/rooftop gardens; many parks, including much green space over the interstate

◦     biking was prevelant, but the city's very hilly topography makes cycling more challenging

Conclusions:

◦     Seattle is a leader in many aspects of ecological sustainability, especially regarding green buildings and energy innovations

◦     City's leadership is concerned with sustainability and wants to move city forward

◦     Issues of equity (ie housing affordability) seem to be Seattle's weakest points with regards to sustainability

◦     Seattle must come up with a way to better control its sprawl and implement “smart growth” policies.

◦     Seattle is moving in the right direction to becoming a sustainable city!