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City of Seattle Blog

City of Seattle Releases Newly Updated Urban Forest Management Plan

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Trees are fundamental to the character of Seattle and to our quality of life. In our rapidly changing climate, Seattle’s urban forest is an increasingly important asset, playing a critical role in mitigating climate change impacts, including heat island effects, as well as supporting Seattle’s public health, providing habitat for wildlife, creating spaces for exploration and enjoyment, cleaning our air and water, and reducing the quantity of stormwater runoff, further helping water quality.

This year’s extreme heat events have had devastating impacts, especially in low income and Black, Indigenous, People of Color communities. Trees are an effective tool to reduce the impacts of heat events, reducing temperatures in and around homes. The role of trees in mitigating this significant and increasing impact to our community underscores how important it is to ensure the urban forest is effectively managed.

Updated Urban Forest Management Plan Provides a Roadmap to a Healthy Urban Forest

Seattle’s newly updated Urban Forest Management Plan provides a framework for policy and action that guides City government decision-making to help Seattle maintain, preserve, enhance, and restore its urban forest.

The core of the plan is a set of outcomes, strategies, actions, and indicators that will guide department staff in supporting a healthy and sustainable urban forest across Seattle’s publicly and privately owned lands.

The suite of actions included in the plan support and protect the urban forest through its full range of growth and development, from on-the-ground tree maintenance and stewardship to promote the health and longevity of the existing canopy; to focusing City tree planting and maintenance in communities that are harmed first and worst by the effects of extreme heat and other inequities; to planning for an urban forest that can withstand the next several centuries in a changing climate by identifying tree species resilient to climate change and pests; to investing in restoration of forested natural areas that provide a welcome respite from summer weather and an in-city forest refuge for our communities and wildlife; to incentivizing tree planting and stewardship on private land through providing trees, education, and resources; to actions aimed at protecting the urban forest, such as updating tree protection regulations. The plan also includes actions to enhance coordination and communication and to further build relationships with BIPOC and low-income communities so that they realize all the benefits of Seattle’s trees and green spaces.

The guiding principles of the Plan are a diverse, comprehensive set of outcomes developed by the multi-departmental Urban Forestry Core Team through a robust, inclusive engagement process:

  1. Racial and social equity. Urban forestry benefits and responsibilities are shared fairly across communities, community trust is built, and decisions are guided by diverse perspectives, including those of environmental justice priority communities.
  2. Ecosystems and human health. The urban forest improves air quality, human well-being, public health and water quality; provides beauty, environmental and economic benefits, fish and wildlife habitat, food, outdoor fun; and helps store rainwater.
  3. Human safety and property protection. In implementing the work, urban forestry teams use up-to-date practices to protect the safety of the public and staff.
  4. Climate change. Urban forestry work helps people, and urban trees and vegetation adapt to, recover from, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
  5. Community care. The Seattle community, including all people, organizations, institutions, and businesses, works together to appreciate and care for the urban forest and to understand tree protection regulations.
  6. Balance competing priorities. City government will work to grow, maintain, preserve, enhance, and restore Seattle’s urban forest as it meets other priorities. Urban forestry practices and policies work with and support other City and community goals including access to spaces, climate action, culturally appropriate resource provision, economic development, environmental protection, social justice, food and medicine production, housing, balancing tree shade with light, public safety, recreation, transportation, and utility provision.

In order to achieve these outcomes, the Plan includes seven overarching strategies that represent a comprehensive approach to mobilizing informed and effective action. A prioritized set of actions, including the actions described above as well as others, form the action agenda through which the Plan will be implemented and through which the urban forest is managed.

An Integrated Approach to Urban Forest Management

Seattle’s urban forestry functions are organized in an integrated approach, where the responsibilities for the work are housed in nine departments that conduct urban forestry work. These departments worked together to develop this plan and will lead implementation to ensure effective management of this citywide resource across the departments.

The City’s first Urban Forest Management Plan was created in 2007; this is the second update of the Plan.

The City’s Urban Forestry Core Team members worked with their department leadership and staff teams throughout the plan development process. It was also important to hear from community in preparing this update, so an inclusive engagement plan was created to reach out to historically underrepresented communities as the plan was developed.

A Robust, Inclusive Engagement Process

That public engagement plan was carried out in two phases, with initial outreach focusing on BIPOC communities, as well as other key stakeholders, in 2018-19 prior to putting pen to paper. The first draft of the plan was created with that initial input.

The second phase included engagement with and feedback from the Urban Forestry Commission as well as sharing the draft plan with the community and other key stakeholders. Listening session participants and the Community Based Organizations that supported BIPOC engagement in Phase I were also re-engaged in order to make sure we incorporated their input into the goals, strategies, and actions.

All of this input was summarized and considered, and appropriate changes incorporated into the Plan. The team then conducted the SEPA process, which resulted in a Determination of Non-Significance which was not appealed. With the SEPA process finalized, the plan moved to final production and is now published.

The City’s Urban Forestry teams look forward to working together and with community partners to implement the action agenda and continue ensuring the health of this important resource today and for many generations to come. More information on the plan and the City’s Urban Forestry work is available on the Trees for Seattle website.

Environmental Justice Fund Application is Now Open

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Image Text: Environmental Justice Fund

The application process is now open for the Environmental Justice Fund, a grant opportunity that supports community-led projects that improve environmental conditions, respond to impacts of climate change, and get us closer to achieving environmental justice. The deadline to apply is Monday, September 13 at 4pm. 

Application Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EJF2021

This year, up to $750,000 is available for grants thanks to City Council’s adoption of the Equitable Communities Initiative Task Force recommendations which allocated an additional $500,000 to the Environmental Justice Fund. The Equitable Communities Initiative Task Force is a diverse group of people of color and community leaders representing a cross-section of industries, including environmental justice, who came together to spearhead the process of developing recommendations for a $30 million investment into our BIPOC communities. Funds will be administered by the Bullitt Foundation. Projects will be awarded no less than $25,000 and no more than $75,000 for an 18-month period beginning January 2022.

Selected members of Seattle’s Environmental Justice Committee play a critical role in the oversight of the fund. The Committee’s goal is to deepen the influence of communities of color in City environmental programs to ensure that the stories, experiences, and policy priorities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color shape Seattle’s environmental work. The Committee is guided by the Equity & Environmental Agenda, a roadmap to advance race and social justice within Seattle’s environmental work. 

To learn more about the Fund, the review process, qualities of a strong proposal and to ask questions, join an upcoming virtual information session. RSVP here for first session that will take place on Monday, August 16 at 3pm and RSVP here for the second session taking place on Wednesday, August 25 at 12pm.  

Application: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EJF2021

The Fresh Bucks 2020 Impact Report is Here!

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The Fresh Bucks program, administered by the Office of Sustainability and Environment and funded by the City of Seattle Sweetened Beverage Tax, has announced the release of its 2020 Impact Report.

During an exceptionally challenging year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Fresh Bucks was there to help Seattle residents stretch their grocery dollar. Fresh Bucks enrolled more than 12,100 Seattle households to receive $3.2 million in Fresh Bucks benefits to use at 30 participating retailers, including 4 BIPOC-owned community grocers. 

Over 70% of all households participating in Fresh Bucks Vouchers were from the program’s priority communities—those populations that face the greatest food insecurity. And 76% of all participants identified as BIPOC. We are so grateful for the outreach and enrollment efforts of our partners: 10 community-based organizations and 7 health clinics that are rooted in BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee communities. 

To learn more about how Fresh Bucks and its partners met the needs of program participants last year, see the 2020 Fresh Bucks Impact Report.

For general information on the program, please visit SeattleFreshBucks.org or call 206-684-2489.

Serving the Community: Seattle’s COVID-19 Emergency Food Response

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The City of Seattle recently released a report about the emergency food response during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic and thanking the many partners involved in supporting our residents. Since the beginning, food security has been a top concern as the unprecedented health and economic crisis dramatically increased the number of households struggling to put food on their tables.

The City joined partners across King County to pivot the investments of some employees to focus on increasing food-related services. Of particular concern were residents disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and economic downturn, including older adults, low-income children and families, communities of color, immigrants, refugees, and
unsheltered individuals. Below are a few highlights of these activities:

Food Banks and Meal Programs

With a sudden and significantly increased demand for food and meals, food banks quickly changed their service models to keep staff and customers safe and began or expanded meal delivery programs. The City supported these efforts by partnering with the Seattle Food Committee to provide and distribute personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitation supplies, and bulk purchases of high-demand, nutrient dense foods. The City also increased its usual investments to Seattle Food Committee members, providing more than $2.4 million in direct grants in 2020 and more than $1 million in 2021 to support food bank operation and food needs.

Meal programs that serve older adults and those experiencing or transitioning out of homelessness also quickly pivoted and ramped up their services. In the first year of the pandemic, more than one million meals were provided at over 40 shelters and permanent supportive housing programs thanks to partnerships with OSL Serves and FareStart. Older adults across King County received more than 950,000 meals from more than 50 meal sites and programs through home delivery and pick-up.

Transportation

King County Metro (through the Access paratransit program) and Sound Generations (Hyde Shuttles) provided critical support to the senior meal programs and food banks. These services pivoted from passenger transportation to delivering food and meals to older adults and other vulnerable populations. The two organizations made over 216,000 trips to deliver products from food banks and meal programs to older adults and others in need.

Food Banks and Meal Programs

Community Food Fund Grants

Through a partnership with United Way of King County (UWKC), 25 community groups received nearly $1 million in grants to support efforts such as providing culturally appropriate meals for seniors, running pop-up food sites, supporting urban agriculture and community gardening, and collaborating with culturally relevant restaurants to provide hot meals to vulnerable communities. The City and UWKC recently extended these grants through September 2021 with an additional $1 million so organizations can continue serving their communities.

“The grocery delivery service was a lifesaver and was an extremely welcome resource during the winter season. Being able to have access to staples for holding me over during the rainy, colder months to make healthy foods has been an incredible gift.”

Queer the Land client. Queer the Land used the Community Food Fund grant to provide perishable and non-perishable food to a network of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities in South Seattle.

Staffing

(U.S. National Guard photo by Joseph Siemandel)

Food banks and meal programs are highly dependent on volunteers, many of whom are older adults and thus more vulnerable to COVID-19. As a result, service providers saw a significant decrease in volunteers at a time when demand was increasing, and delivery models became more labor-intensive. To help address this challenge, HSD redeployed more than 60 employees to meal programs from May-July 2020. The City also joined countywide efforts to advocate for the National Guard to be deployed to support the essential functions of the city’s emergency food system. National Guard members worked at food banks and meal programs throughout 2020 and into 2021, with around 123 deployed at 23 Seattle food banks and King County (including Seattle) senior meal programs at the end of December.

Partners including UWKC and the Washington State Department of Commerce also increased the number of AmeriCorps members assigned to hunger relief service providers. In March 2021, the Department of Commerce began providing a temporary employee placement program in partnership with workforce development councils to continue meeting staffing needs as the National Guard deployments began to wind down.

School Meals

Seattle Public Schools operated 41 meal sites and several delivery options to ensure that families of students could still access school meals even while the district was operating under remote and hybrid learning models. The City partnered with the school district and other community-based organizations to supplement these efforts. As of March 2021, these partnerships have provided more than 83,000 fresh bags of produce, 78,000 weekend food backpacks, and 9,000 holiday meals.

“SPS kitchen managers relish the days they can promote fresh, healthy foods at meal sites. They’ve noticed significant increases in participation rates on the days produce bags are available.”

Emme Collins, Head Chef, Seattle Public Schools

Emergency Grocery Vouchers

The City set up a new Emergency Grocery Voucher program within the first weeks of the pandemic and provided more than 14,000 households with seven months of grocery assistance.

“My family has been receiving grocery vouchers from the city and I just wanted to say thank you. I don’t know how to express in words how much this has meant to us. It’s provided us security in these difficult times, and showed that we aren’t forgotten. We matter to our city. I love Seattle!”

Grocery Voucher Recipent

View the recently published report to learn more about these and other efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 through March 2021.

The City of Seattle is deeply grateful for, and humbled by, the community partners who directly served people food and meals every day, and for the agencies and organizations that provided systems support, grants, and more in a collaborative response to community needs. The City recognizes that the economic impacts of this crisis will outlast the public health emergency. Addressing food insecurity and supporting a sustainable food system alongside community partners will continue to be a priority as the City considers a just recovery.

Reflecting on the PNW Heatwave

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We have finally made it out of the record-breaking heatwave that passed through the Pacific Northwest this past weekend, hitting Seattle hard and sending temperatures soaring to an ultimate high of 108 degrees on Monday. This dangerous heat is indicative of a pattern of extreme weather due to climate change and underscores the urgency to adapt to what could become a pattern in the coming years, combat harm to the environment, and put as much of a damper on climate change as possible. The effects of the heat can also help us more clearly see the disproportionate ways in which climate change aggravates inequalities already present.

Extreme heat can be very harmful and often life-threatening. It can lead to heat exhaustion, and eventually severe illness and death due to a much higher possibility for heatstroke or cardiovascular disease. There are inequities in how different communities within Seattle are affected by extreme temperature. While those who are well-off can buy an AC or fan, or at the very least stay indoors, many people do not have that luxury. Unhoused people do not have any of these privileges, making them much more vulnerable than others. There are also people across the city that cannot afford different safety mechanisms to survive the heat.

Another aspect of the heat that contributes to inequality is that urbanized areas in this city (where there are more buildings, parking lots, and pavement) hold onto heat for longer and therefore put residents in danger for greater periods of time, while people in higher income neighborhoods with more greenery and trees are less in danger from extreme weather. This was recently highlighted in a heat mapping project, a joint project from King County and the City of Seattle.

The city of Seattle and King County are working to combat climate change in various ways. The city is pursuing key goals, such as electrifying transportation as much as possible, continuing a shift to clean energy for new and existing buildings, and pursuing other environmental protection policies. Meanwhile, King County is working on ways in which we can mitigate the effects of extreme weather, and perhaps slow warming. There are multiple tree-planting initiatives, “greenspace protection” under the Land Conservation Initiative, improvement of bus stop and park layout, especially in areas with priority groups that are more at risk, and more.

We may start to see weather like this happening more often, so while we are fighting the root cause of the heatwaves and snowstorms, make sure you are keeping safe and healthy as much as you can. During heatwaves, it is best to stay inside, keep very hydrated, and keep yourself informed about conditions.

Dangerous Heat Coming to Seattle

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The Seattle region will be undergoing a record-breaking heat wave starting Friday and into early next week. There will be little to no relief from the heat overnight and a high to very high risk of heat-related impacts/illness for much of the population, especially those who are heat sensitive and those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration.

The City of Seattle is opening up more than 30 cooling centers throughout the city during this extreme heat event. Beat the heat! Find a library, recreation center, pool, or other cooling center near you at durkan.seattle.gov

Know the signs of heat-related illnesses and how to treat them. Check on at-risk family & neighbors often. Help them get to an air-conditioned place or cooling center if possible. Cooling center locations: durkan.seattle.gov

Never leave pets in the car! Temperatures rise quickly even with the windows down and can be deadly for your pet. Beat the Heat indoors, check on neighbors and always call 911 if you see a pet or child in a hot car. Be sure your pets have access to plenty of water, especially when it’s hot. Make sure your pet has plenty of shady places to go when outdoors. Test sidewalks with your hand. If it’s too hot for your hand, it’s probably too hot for your pet.

Remembering Abdullahi Jama

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The Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) and Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) released the following statements regarding the passing of Abdullahi Jama:

Statement from the Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE)
“Abdullahi Jama will be remembered fondly for his kindness, generosity of spirit and commitment to the communities that he knew best. We at OSE are deeply grateful for Abdullahi’s immense contribution to countless programs and initiatives spanning across multiple government agencies, nonprofits, and small businesses.

Abdullahi was a founding member of the Community Participating Steering Committee that helped establish the City of Seattle’s Equity and Environment Agenda. Abdullahi was an inaugural member of the Environmental Justice Committee and was instrumental in providing recommendations in grant distribution for the Environmental Justice Fund. He also helped the Fresh Bucks program establish strong partnerships with small, Somali-owned neighborhood grocers to expand options for culturally specific produce for Fresh Bucks participants.

Abdullahi was fair minded, enjoyed a good joke and was a treasure trove of stories from his international travels and life experiences. Through Abdullahi’s mentorship and partnership, OSE has worked to implement equitable strategies to empower and serve our BIPOC residents and communities. His loss is deeply felt across OSE, but his impact will live on through the work he helped create and define.”

For more information about Abdullahi’s work with the Environmental Justice Committee, please see this 2019 interview: https://greenspace.seattle.gov/2019/12/environmental-justice-leadership-spotlight-abdullahi-jama/#sthash.M5fh93wv.dpbs

Statement from the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA):
Abdullahi Jama was a beloved friend and community leader whose passionate advocacy for immigrant and refugee communities contributed to the creation of the Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs (OIRA). Abdullahi worked closely with OIRA’s Language Access team on translating communication materials. His great knowledge and understanding of the Somali language and culture helped the City build strong relationships and trust in the community. His efforts have made Seattle a stronger, more equitable city for all. He was also a critical part of the development and growth of OneAmerica ​and played a key role in the successful challenge to the Justice Department on Somali deportations.

Even more than his effective advocacy and diplomacy, we miss Abdullahi’s mega-watt smile and friendship, his wisdom and grace. He had great humility – few people knew that he had a law degree and spoke 5 languages! We will always remember him as a local legend and cherish our partnership. In his memory, we commit to continuing the work to ensure that all people prosper and to being the generous and abundant friend that he was to all. 

Apply to Join the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board

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The City of Seattle is now accepting applications for three positions on the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board, an 11-member body that makes recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on programs and services to fund with the Sweetened Beverage Tax revenue.

Beginning in 2018, the City of Seattle started taxing sugary drinks distributed within the city. The tax was designed to improve the health of Seattle residents by reducing the sales and consumption of sugary drinks. In addition, the tax revenue is being used to support programs and services that increase access to healthy, culturally relevant food and support child health and development in communities most affected by food, health, and educational inequities.

The ordinance that created the Sweetened Beverage Tax (Ordinance 125324) also created the Sweetened Beverage Tax Community Advisory Board (CAB) to advise and make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council on the programs and services to be supported by the tax. The CAB is composed of 11 members who are passionate about race and social justice and committed to centering communities most impacted by health and economic inequities when advising the City and developing recommendations on issues related to food access and child health and development. Members must live or work in Seattle and are appointed by the Mayor or City Council into one of the following type of positions defined in the ordinance:

  • Food Access Representatives: Three members have experience implementing community-based programs dedicated to expanding healthy food access and food security;
  • Community Representatives: Two members represent populations who are disproportionally impacted by diseases related to the consumption of sugary drinks, with preference given to a parent of a student in the Seattle School District or a child in a Seattle-based early learning program, or a youth representative aged 16-24;
  • Public Health Representatives: Four members have expertise in public health and nutrition with experience managing, researching, or evaluating programs related to the health effects of consuming sugary beverages, particularly among children and their families;
  • Early Learning Representatives: Two members have expertise in education and early learning, with an emphasis on learning from birth to age five.

Each year, the Community Advisory Board:

  • develops budget recommendations for the Mayor and City Council on programs and services supported with Sweetened Beverage Tax (SBT) revenue.
  • advises the City on implementing SBT-funded programs and services.
  • engages with City departments, City Council, and other committees, boards, and commissions to advocate for community-identified approaches to increase food access and support early child development.
  • engages with community stakeholders and other issue area experts to inform budget recommendations.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in collaborating with a team of community leaders working on food access, child health and development, and racial justice, please apply by June 20, 2021. For information on the open positions and to access the application, please visit our website.

For more information, questions or assistance with the application process please contact Hannah Hill at Hannah.Hill@seattle.gov.

Seattle’s Building Emissions are Rising – Here’s What the Data Tells Us

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Seattle’s buildings are responsible for more than one-third of the city’s core greenhouse gas emissions – and rising. According to the most recent greenhouse gas inventory, climate-polluting emissions in buildings increased 8% between 2016 and 2018, driven by burning fossil fuels like fracked gas and oil for heat, hot water, and cooking.

Seattle’s Energy Benchmarking Program collects and analyzes building energy performance data from more than 3,500 of the city’s largest commercial and residential buildings (more than 375 million square feet!). By comparing this data over time, we can investigate what’s happening with the City’s larger buildings (over 20,000 SF) to identify trends and create data-driven policies and programs in response.

Fossil Gas Driving Emissions in New Construction

If you thought the cranes dotted across Seattle’s skyline were increasing in recent years, you were right. Between 2016 and 2019, Seattle added more than 200 new large buildings (over 20,000 SF), representing over 50 million square of new construction. This continues a trend from past benchmarking reports where we are seeing an increase in the average height and size of new buildings. In fact, over 40% of Seattle’s building area from these larger buildings has been built since 2000.

Newer buildings generally are larger and have more amenities than older buildings, and are on average more energy efficient and have higher ENERGY STAR scores. But since many of these buildings are being built with fossil gas-powered hot water and heating systems – and because they are bigger – the overall greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase.

Recent updates to Seattle’s building energy code to eliminate fossil fuels for most space and water heating for new buildings will go a long way to cap growth in greenhouse gas emissions from any new larger buildings, but these changes will take time to phase in and be reflected in future benchmarking reports.

Existing Buildings are Reducing Electricity Use – But Not Fossil Fuels

From 2014 to 2019, total greenhouse gas emissions from existing benchmarked buildings increased 0.4% even as total energy use decreased 8.3%. Though the construction boom is driving overall higher energy use and climate-polluting emissions, a lot of older buildings have continued to improve energy efficiency – driven primarily by steady reductions in electricity use.

Since 2014, electricity use for buildings reporting complete data for all six years (2014 to 2019) has decreased almost 9% in total. But at the same time, fossil fuel use in the same buildings has increased slightly – on-site fossil gas and district steam use (which is generated from fossil gas) increased 1.4% from 2014 to 2019. Since Seattle’s electricity generation has almost no associated greenhouse gas emissions, the substantial savings in electricity use translated to little emissions reductions for these buildings.

In Seattle, fossil gas has about twelve times the amount of carbon emissions per unit of energy than electricity. As a result, from 2014 to 2019, total emissions from existing buildings increased even as total energy use decreased substantially. This highlights the need for more concerted efforts to reduce fossil gas use in existing buildings in addition to the new energy code updates for new buildings and Seattle’s other building policies.

Building Emissions are Distributed Across a Range of Building Types

For these benchmarked buildings, greenhouse gas emissions are spread across a wide range of different types of buildings, shown below. Hospitals, labs, grocery stores, and hotels tend to have the most emissions per building, but we have fewer of them. Multifamily (over 20,000 SF) and office buildings have a much smaller emissions footprint per building but make up a similar amount of total greenhouse gas emissions as these other types because we have a lot more of these buildings.

GHG emissions by building type (click to enlarge)

To help transition existing commercial and multifamily buildings off fossil-fuels and onto clean electricity to meet our climate goals, the City is exploring greenhouse gas emissions targets for larger buildings – paired with equity-centered support and incentive programs. To achieve the goals of the Climate Action Plan, Seattle’s emissions reductions rate needs to increase substantially. Find out how an emissions targets can help on our Building Performance Standards page.

To learn more about the Benchmarking program and how we use this data, see our new Benchmarking website.

Explore individual building reports on our Benchmarking map and reports site.

Cities are the Engines to Drive a Green and Just Recovery

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Cities are the engines that can drive a green and just recovery from COVID-19. On Monday, May 10, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan joined a group of leading global and city leaders to meet with U.S. Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, to work together to secure a sustainable and equitable future for all, followed by a panel discussion hosted by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts.

The virtual meeting, convened by C40 Cities, provided an opportunity to discuss collaborations on climate initiatives and continue momentum around a renewed sense of international climate cooperation. Mayor Durkan briefed Secretary Kerry on the climate policies and projects being delivered in Seattle and our commitment to inclusive climate action in line with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement. Speakers also shared ideas on how to build national government support for city climate action and ambition on the road to COP26.

Mayor Durkan also participated at the CDP North America workshop panel, “Breaking Through Barriers: How We Can Deliver on the Decade of Action”, and was joined by Marilyn Waite, Program Officer, Environment, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation and Jeannie Renné-Malone, VP of Global Sustainability, VF Corporation. 

Panelists discussed the many successes and challenges encountered along the way, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as cities, businesses, and philanthropies work to fundamentally reshape our economy for a fossil-fuel free future.  

Here in Seattle, many City staff and departments were redeployed to support community members access basic health care and safety needs. Our greatest successes have come when we center community and work to build Seattle back better by ensuring those who have been most burdened by COVID-19 and climate change are the ones who will benefit most from our clean energy transition.  

For example, Mayor Durkan lauded that the City was able to give out $500,000 in Environmental Justice Fund grants (the most-ever!) to community-led organizations who are designing projects that will advance climate justice and directly benefit those most in need. Seattle is also working to establish a Green New Deal oversight board with community members and labor representatives to ensure a just transition and create better pathways and funding mechanisms to support good paying jobs in the clean energy economy.   

“Our economic recovery is tied to our climate and equity goals; We can’t meet our climate goals unless we are centered and realize the ways environmental injustice has happened so we can build our city back better”

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan

In February, Mayor Durkan signed legislation making Seattle’s building energy code one of the strongest on climate in the nation. The updates to the energy code will require nearly all new commercial and large multifamily buildings to use clean electricity for space and water heating and maximize building efficiency and on-site renewables. In addition, the same criteria applies when existing buildings are substantially upgraded or space or water heating equipment is replaced.  

And in March, Seattle released its new Transportation Electrification Blueprint, a first of its kind, comprehensive City-wide plan that outlines how the City will move toward a clean and equitable transportation system. Through this work, we will electrify everything that moves people, goods, or services in and around our City in order to reduce climate emissions and air pollution, increase electric mobility options, and create a pipeline of green jobs and workforce diversity.