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Watch: Digging in to the Tree Canopy Cover Assessment

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The City of Seattle released the final 2021 Tree Canopy Assessment showing Seattle’s 2021 tree canopy cover is 28.1%, down from 28.6% in 2016. Seattle’s goal is to achieve 30 percent citywide canopy cover by 2037, distributed equitably, as well as to improve tree health and resilience to climate change.

Watch this video interview between OSE Director Jessyn Farrell and Urban Forestry Patti Bakker as they talk key findings and recommendations from the report, and what they mean for maintaining a healthy and robust urban forest in Seattle.

Seattle Releases 2021 Tree Canopy Assessment Showing Slow Decline in Canopy Cover Between 2016 and 2021

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A view of Seattle’s tree canopy with the city skyline and the Olympic Mountains.

Seattle, WA – The City of Seattle today released the final 2021 Tree Canopy Assessment showing the city has lost 255 acres of tree canopy since 2016 (an absolute decrease of .5% and 1.7% relative decline), an amount roughly equal to the size of Green Lake. Seattle’s 2021 tree canopy cover is 28.1%, down from 28.6% in 2016. Seattle’s goal is to achieve 30 percent citywide canopy cover by 2037, distributed equitably, as well as to improve tree health and resilience to climate change.

“Critical for ensuring Seattle’s standing as a truly emerald and evergreen city, trees provide essential benefits to our communities from heat mitigation to air quality improvement and overall wellbeing. This decline in canopy cover means we need to do more to plant, preserve, and protect trees to meet our goals for Seattle’s canopy, climate, and communities,” said Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. “The information in this report is informing our upcoming efforts to drive improvements — including new strategies to plant more trees and maintain our existing canopy, all while prioritizing equity in neighborhoods who face the worst impacts of climate change.”

Additional findings from the report include:

  • Canopy loss is not happening equitably. Neighborhoods impacted by racial and economic injustice started with less canopy and lost more than the citywide average. Compared to neighborhoods with greater advantages,[1] these neighborhoods had 31% less canopy in 2021, an increase in disparity from 2016 (when they had 27% less). While there were some canopy gains in environmental justice priority areas attributed to forest restoration programs, the losses outpaced the gains.
  • Tree canopy cover is critical for lowering temperatures and reducing heat island effects in our warming climate. Trees are a key component of our climate preparedness and resilience strategies as they protect us from extreme heat and improve air quality. The report finds that, on a hot day, neighborhoods[2] with 25% canopy cover were 1 degree cooler than neighborhoods with no canopy.  Industrial areas and major transportation corridors have lower canopy and warmer temperatures. These conditions were also found in some neighborhoods, such as in the Chinatown-International District and in the south end of Rainier Valley.
  • All Management Units (areas based on land use types) lost canopy, with Parks Natural Areas and Neighborhood Residential areas seeing the greatest net losses. Combined, losses in these two Management Units comprise 78% of the total canopy loss during the assessment period.
    • Parks Natural Areas make up only 5% of the city’s land but due to their concentrated canopy, they contribute 14% of the city’s canopy. Forty-three percent of the canopy loss during the assessment period was in these areas, an amount equal to 111 acres. These areas require active management to ensure long-term forest health and resilience, and losses here may be due to aging deciduous trees coming down naturally or being selectively removed to allow for growth of evergreen trees.
    • Neighborhood Residential areas make up 39% of the city’s land, and with roughly 1/3 of that area covered by canopy, they contribute nearly half of the City’s canopy (47%).  Roughly a third (34%) of the canopy loss during the assessment period was in these areas, an amount equal to 87 acres. Most trees on residential land were likely lost due to reasons other than development, although the small percent of residential land that underwent development during the study period experienced higher canopy losses.

“The data show we are further away now than we were five years ago from our goal of 30% canopy coverage,” said Jessyn Farrell, Director of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment. “To reverse this backward slide and achieve our vision of an equitably distributed urban forest in Seattle, our strategies must better align development and tree preservation and include innovative and equity-driven actions in planning, maintenance, planting, and engagement. In short, a healthy, thriving Seattle needs more housing and more trees and we can absolutely do both.”

A shaded street winds through the cover of the City’s tree canopy.

Recommendations provided in the report include:

  • Expand and deepen partnerships to plant new trees on both private and public property—focusing specifically on environmental justice priority areas—and plan for and fund their care.
  • Prioritize protecting and caring for existing trees as one of the most effective ways to ensure future tree canopy.
  • Incorporate current and expected future climate change impacts into our planting and maintenance practices.
  • Implement a strong regulatory framework that aligns our goals for tree preservation with housing production and development needs for our growing City.

“The reasons for tree canopy loss are complex and not due to one single cause, and our solutions must also be multi-faceted,” said Patti Bakker, Urban Forestry Advisor with Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment. “Climate change, aging trees, making way for other uses such as infrastructure, development projects and other needs in residential yards, increasing budget and maintenance costs and more, all contribute to changes in our tree canopy. We will continue to work to improve the stability and coverage of our tree canopy so the benefits of our trees can be felt by all.”

Seattle’s tree canopy includes trees in public spaces like parks, forested natural areas and rights-of-way; private lands like neighborhoods and spaces like universities and the Arboretum. The assessment was conducted by the University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab and combined light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data and aerial imagery to measure the layer of leaves, branches, and stems to determine the change in our urban forest over time.

The City will continue to conduct detailed analyses with the data sets resulting from this assessment to develop a Tree Canopy Equity & Resilience Plan, which will serve as the citywide plan for how we will equitably reach our canopy cover goals, and to continue to update our urban forestry management work.  The City is working to make the data sets available to the public.

[1] Neighborhoods are based on categories in the Office of Planning and Community Development’s 2019 Race and Social Equity Index.
[2] Neighborhoods, in this case, refer to an analysis unit roughly the size of several city blocks.

City of Seattle’s Environmental Justice Fund Awards $750,000 in Grants for 13 Projects Led by and Benefiting Those Most Impacted by Climate Change

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The City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE) is pleased to announce $750,000 will be awarded through the Environmental Justice Fund (EJ Fund) to 13 community-led projects designed to benefit those most impacted by environmental and climate inequities, including Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, youth, and elders.

“From December flooding to July heatwaves, it’s communities on the frontline that are experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change. Advancing solutions in direct partnership with communities means driving equitable, forward-thinking climate action and real resiliency improvements informed by those most impacted. The City’s support for these 13 organizations is another step toward building a healthy, sustainable future for all residents, and by expanding the Environmental Justice Fund to nearly $2 million for 2023 and 2024, we can further invest in taking on environmental and climate inequities.”

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell

The Environmental Justice Fund was developed in 2017 as part of the City’s Equity & Environment agenda to provide grants to community-led projects that improve environmental conditions, respond to impacts of climate change and get us closer to achieving environmental justice. Since its launch, the EJ Fund has awarded four grant cycles totaling over $1.8 Million to 28 community-based organizations, whose projects are led by or are in partnership with communities of color impacted by environmental injustices.

“The Environmental Justice Fund is a vital tool to support community-focused projects that are focused on alleviating past and future environmental issues that arise in our communities. This funding will allow us to hire a new position, of Land Restoration Coordinator, to support Indigenous youth programming and support land restoration efforts.”

Mike Tulee, Executive Director of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, a newly awarded Environmental Justice Fund grantee

Overall, OSE received 54 proposals totaling nearly $3.8M. Proposals focused on a range of climate and environmental justice topics including climate resilience planning, environmental outreach and education, youth leadership, and organizational capacity building.

“Communities most impacted by the climate crisis play a critical leadership role in designing creative and transformative solutions that are informed by lived experience and rooted in ancestral and cultural practice. Through the Environmental Justice Fund, we are proud to invest in growing the capacity of community groups and organizations to lead, collaborate, educate, and tell stories that can broaden and strengthen strategies for environmental justice.”

Lylianna Allala, Climate Justice Director at the City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment

The proposal review process is community centered, a cornerstone of the Fund. Select members of the Environmental Justice Committee and the Green New Deal Oversight Board served on the six-member Community Review Team. Over three months, the Review Team collectively dedicated over 240+ hours to reviewing proposals, meeting with eligible grantees to gain a deeper understanding of the proposed projects, and deliberating funding recommendations.

“As a representative of a community directly impacted by racial, economic, and environmental injustices serving on the Green New Deal Oversight Board, I was thrilled to be part of the Environmental Justice Fund Review Team and was amazed by the volume and breadth of these proposals. There is a vast array of community-led environmental justice projects here in Seattle that need support and funding. I am glad that we have an opportunity to continue making investments and commitments to community to meet the challenge of the climate crisis.”

Hibo Sahal, one of the reviewers from the Green New Deal Oversight Board

Five organizations (Beacon Hill Council, Black Farmers Collective, El Centro de la Raza, Sound Generations, and Wa Na Wari) are past recipients of the EJ Fund. Funding these proposals deepens the relationship and investment in their work and within their communities.

The organizations receiving funding and their projects are:

Beacon Hill Council – $75,000
The project focuses on engaging BIPOC communities to identify culturally and linguistically competent organizations with facilities in Beacon Hill that can serve as community climate resiliency centers. Beacon Hill Council seeks to educate and engage immigrant and refugee BIPOC communities on climate impacts and to understand where they might seek climate refuge in Beacon Hill. The project will also engage culturally and linguistically competent organizations to explore being a community climate resiliency center and ensure they receive technical assistance for conversion planning and cost estimation.

Black Farmers Collective – $65,000
The grant would support the organization to build organizational structure for the long-term sustainability of their work to support Black farmers and the broader community. Funds would support the farm crew’s time and leadership development opportunities as well as adding a part-time administrative staffer to manage operations. This added staff capacity will provide Black Farmers Collective the ability to create security and stability within their staff to build the groundwork towards self-determination, food sovereignty, and Black liberation.

El Centro de la Raza – $60,000
Beacon Hill residents, many of whom are immigrants, refugees, and identify as BIPOC, experience respiratory health issues due to air pollution from roads, aircraft, and oil-heated homes. For this reason, El Centro de la Raza aims to conduct outreach and education to Beacon Hill residents, primarily BIPOC, immigrants and refugees, about the environmental and health impacts of oil-heating and to connect them to resources that can support future conversions from oil heat to electricity. This effort aligns with one of the City priorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from residential buildings and to improve community health.

Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS) – $55,000
ECOSS aims to engage the Latinx immigrant/refugee communities, including immigrants form Central America, South America, Mexico, and those identifying as Indigenous, to co-create outdoor experiences that meet their needs and interests. Through this process, ECOSS will develop leadership opportunities and provide storytelling opportunities for participants to amplify their voices and experiences as they feel empowered to reconnect with nature.

FEED Seven Generations – $75,000
The grant would support the organization’s Native youth-led project. The project would include developing educational enrichment courses for school-age youth and conducting a youth needs assessment focusing on the culturally significant and traditional foods to enhance health and wellness of the community, youth, and families and strengthen local native food systems.

Rainier Avenue Radio – $60,000
This project aims to create awareness about environmental justice issues through various media including long form videos, audio vignettes, and community meetings to highlight the disparate ways in which communities are impacted by environmental issues. Rainier Avenue Radio will create a platform for community members to share their experiences and build awareness about environmental justice.

Restaurant 2 Garden – $48,815
The “Restaurant 2 Garden” project is a decentralized, hyperlocal system that transforms local restaurant food waste into high quality and safe compost for elder AAPI gardeners to grow culturally appropriate foods. The project is based out of the Danny Woo Community Garden (DWCG) in the Chinatown-International District (C-ID). The project will serve the diverse residents of the CID who face a myriad of environmental risks such as food insecurity, lack of green space, poor air quality, higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and depression. 

Somali Community Services of Seattle – $61,870
The grant would support project Diyaari to serve Seattle’s Somali community (immigrants, refugees, and family members) most of whom live in Rainier Beach. The organization will focus on sharing information about how to prevent, manage, and recover from harm caused by climate change-related disasters. Additionally, the organization will provide individual assistance for their community members focused on disaster preparation planning and implementation.

Sound Generations – $66,000
This project will support Sound Generations to expand their programming for East African elders from NE Seattle and Rainier Beach who attend the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands. Elders will participate in farm and wetland maintenance, they will share in community meals, and participate in civic and social engagement opportunities focused on various topics including climate change impacts on health and farming activities. The programming aims to build awareness about environmental and climate justice while building community cohesion for a community that often experiences isolation.

South Seattle Emerald – $60,000
South Seattle Emerald (SSE)’s mission is to amplify the authentic voices of South Seattle-for, by, and to the community through restorative journalism that seeks to facilitate community healing and wholeness. Funding will support SSE to grow their capacity by contracting more freelance reporters who will specifically cover community-centered and community-rooted environmental justice stories.

United Indians of All Tribes Foundation – $74,500
The grant will support capacity building by funding a newly developed position at UIATF called the Bernie Whitebear Land Restoration Coordinator. This position will serve two strategic priorities of the Foundation including the expansion of critical partnership between UIATF and Na’ah Illahee Fund, a Native-led organization currently providing land restoration technical assistance to UIATF’s Traditional Medicine Program Manager, and investment in land-based programming and infrastructure to sustain access to traditional plant knowledge for urban Indigenous youth.

Wa Na Wari – $40,000
Wa Na Wari’s BLOOM was created to be a fun, hands-on, outdoor environmental justice, and food sovereignty program. Their work helps future generations of youth and young adults to learn the science and culture of healing arts principles in urban food/environmental systems and their meaningful connection with Indigenous Knowledge systems and their own cultural backgrounds including ancestral knowledge. Funding would add organizational capacity through a paid program manager role who would lead BLOOM efforts including soil remediation and a youth summer fellowship program.

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation – $33,815
The Wing Luke Museum will develop and implement a community-based process to plan and design public space activation and arts integration at the site of the historic Eng Family Homestead (recently purchased from the original owners by the Wing Luke Museum) and adjacent Canton Alley in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID). The public space activation includes an outdoor yard and garden at the historic Eng Family Homestead and extension of Canton Alley south to Lane Street and connecting with the Donnie Chin International Children’s Park. This project will specifically focus on community engagement for the planning and design of the outdoor space for the community.

Announcing Delivery Option with Fresh Bucks’ Newest Retailer Local Yokels

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Fresh Bucks is excited to announce Local Yokels as a new retailor. Shop online and get delivery service today!

Local Yokels, a grocery delivery company serving all of Seattle, has become the newest Fresh Bucks retail partner. As the first Fresh Bucks retail partner to offer grocery delivery, this partnership helps reduce barriers to healthy, fresh food in neighborhoods with limited food access and for vulnerable communities such as homebound seniors and people with limited mobility.

Local Yokels is a women- and minority-owned business that aims to build a sustainable food economy of small, local, women-, minority-, LGBTQ+, and immigrant-owned food retailers and farmers. They are working toward zero waste operations, using composable and reusable packaging, and have a carbon footprint that is 95% lower than traditional grocery stores.

Fresh Bucks Senior Planning & Development Specialist, Tiffany Anderson, led the effort to onboard this new retail partner to offer Fresh Bucks, highlighting the strong alignment with City of Seattle values around increasing access to healthy foods, supporting BIPOC- and women-owned business and strengthening the local food system by sourcing from local, sustainable farms. Enrolled Fresh Bucks customers can order weekly produce subscriptions or individual produce items directly from the Local Yokels website. 

The Fresh Bucks team has heard from its customers, who are thrilled to learn of this new shopping option; including a customer who couldn’t leave the house due to illness, another who is dependent on senior residence transportation and several customers who don’t live nearby a brick-and-mortar Fresh Bucks retailer.

And there is more good news around the corner! In the next few months, Local Yokels is planning to open a storefront in the Maple Leaf neighborhood, which will add an additional Fresh Bucks retail option in North Seattle. We’ll share more information about this soon. In the meantime, you can Sign up to get program updates and other Fresh Bucks news!

Happy New Year, and Happy Shopping!

City of Seattle and Residents Respond to Unprecedented, Climate Change-Fueled Flooding in South Park

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Photo credit Machinist Inc. Flooding in South Park.

The climate crisis – and its consequences – are not just a future challenge but clearly felt right now in Seattle as heavy rains have pushed the Duwamish River over its banks and flooded numerous homes and businesses in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood.

South Park is a frontline community for climate change impacts. While Seattle can expect about two feet of sea level rise by mid-century and five feet by the end of the century due to climate change, low lying areas like South Park will experience more frequent and intense inundation resulting from both sea level rise and heavy rainfall. The Duwamish Valley, including the residential and industrial areas in South Park, is among the most vulnerable areas in Seattle to these impacts. 

The impacts of flooding and sea level rise are devastating, and City departments are working with partners to offer immediate relief to impacted residents and workers. Seattle Public Utilities took the lead to support impacted households and has provided emergency housing for some of the families who could not return to their homes. Local partners like the Duwamish River Community Coalition have been on site and providing residents with supplies and access to resources.

Mayor Harrell and City of Seattle staff with the DRCC working to support residents who have been displaced or otherwise impacted by the flooding in South Park.
Duwamish River Community Coalition working to hand out supplies and connect residents with resources and City support.

What do we do about climate change impacts in the Duwamish Valley?

Adapting to sea level rise in Seattle is imperative and, given the low elevation and flat topography of the Duwamish Valley, we must start in South Park and Georgetown. In 2020, Seattle’s Duwamish Valley Program applied for and received funding to embark on climate change adaptation planning in a holistic way, one that addresses community priorities and promotes health equity by centering the voices and needs of Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), and low-income individuals and promotes health equity. Funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will support the City with developing a Resilience District — a geographic strategy, inspired by global models, focused on adapting to flood risk and other climate change impacts as a key first step towards adapting to a changing climate, while taking a comprehensive approach that fosters community resilience.

A resilience district is an innovative proposal to prepare for, withstand, adapt to, and recover from challenges that come from environmental issues, climate change, and economic displacement pressure.

Through the Duwamish Valley resilience district initiative, Seattle and community partners are exploring ways to stabilize communities as we make critical investments to reduce climate risk and adapt to the impacts we are already seeing. Over the next few years, the City will be working with residents and businesses to develop the community organizational structures, funding mechanisms, and infrastructure investments to make sure that families and businesses can thrive in place.

Mayor Harrell’s One Seattle Climate Justice Agenda is also accelerating additional investments in building community resilience to climate change. Seattle’s Green New Deal centers on partnerships with and investments in those most impacted by the climate crisis and the Duwamish Valley Program addresses historic and ongoing environmental and health disparities in the South Park and Georgetown neighborhoods.

To learn more about Seattle’s climate justice work, visit https://www.seattle.gov/environment.

If you experience flooding, please make sure people and pets are safe. If it is a life-threatening emergency, please call 911. For urgent but not life-threatening flooding, please call SPU’s 24/7 Operations Response Center at (206) 386-1800.

Mayor Harrell and OSE Join Seattle Public Schools and Students for Special “Lunch with Leaders” Event

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On Monday, Dec 5, Mayor Harrell and OSE staff joined Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones at Denny International Middle School in West Seattle for a “Lunch with Leaders” event inspired by long-time Lunch Lady Doree Fazio-Young. The event showcased not only the importance of Seattle Public Schools’ (SPS) food and meal programs for students, but also gave the Seattle leaders a chance to interact directly with students while joining Fazio-Young in the cafeteria to serve lunch.    

Mayor Bruce Harrell serving lunch to Denny International Middle School students.

“This has been a year in the making,” said Fazio-Young. “I watched the State of the District speech, and The Mayor said he wanted to get more involved in the school district. I believed him, and I believed the Superintendent. I wrote two emails, and much to my surprise, they both accepted! I wanted them to come look into my kid’s faces, their eyes, and see what I do on a daily basis.” Doree Fazio-Young  

 Lunch included chicken and edamame potstickers, fried rice, Brussels sprouts and a burrito bar with locally sourced beef. Persimmons and locally grown pears were this week’s produce snacks provided through the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, a Sweetened Beverage Tax-funded partnership between Seattle Public Schools and City of Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment offered at 16 Seattle schools.   

Burrito bar for students with locally sourced ingredients.
Fresh persimmons and locally grown pears were the week’s produce snacks.

Joining the Mayor and Superintendent at the event were Leslie Harris, District 6 School Board Director; Chris Alejano, K-12 Division Director at Seattle’s Department of Education & Early Learning; Aaron Smith, Director and Emme Collins, District Chef both from SPS Culinary Services; and OSE’s own Director Jessyn Farrell.  

Mayor Harrell reflected on how school food that’s nutritious and purchased from local farmers and producers can circulate love within our communities and fulfills students “souls and minds, showing where our systems are working” locally. SPS Culinary Services Director Aaron Smith spoke about the importance and commitment of the SPS meal program in sharing culture through good food and respecting Seattle students’ diverse backgrounds through culturally specific school food and menus.  

“Lunch with Leaders” also displayed how OSE’s collaboration with SPS through the city’s grant-funded partnership provides funding and assistance to SPS Culinary Services to create fresh meals that are locally sourced, sustainably produced, scratched cooked, and culturally diverse. OSE works with SPS through partnerships to increase student participation in school meal programs, increase youth access to fresh produce, improve student health and education, and invest in environmental sustainability and racial equity through food procurement. OSE’s funding helps improve school meals and food education by supporting:  

  • A Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program, which provides fresh produce snacks at 16 participating schools with high free & reduced lunch rates, 
  • SPS Culinary Services to source more lunch ingredients from local, environmentally sustainable food producers, focusing on BIPOC-owned food businesses. 
  • SPS Culinary Services to provide kitchen staff trainings, engagement with students and other community stakeholders who care about improving school food, and improved outreach and promotion about school meals. 

The Mayor and Superintendent’s visit also highlighted the ongoing steps that SPS Culinary Services leadership and staff are taking to reduce food waste. In the last few years, even during the pandemic, SPS staff made significant efforts to improve and transform school meals in Seattle, especially in response to student and community feedback and input. SPS serves an impressive 25,000 meals per day to SPS students, at least 31% of whom are eligible for free and reduced-price lunches. SPS has continued COVID-era universal free meals in many schools across the district this school year. For some students, school lunch is their only meal of the day, making it especially important for those meals to be high quality and responsive to student needs, values, and cultures.  

Mayor Harrell Signs Executive Order Directing City Departments to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Transportation Sector and Support Those Most Impacted by the Climate Crisis 

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READ: One Seattle Transportation and Climate Justice Executive Order Two-Pager 

Mayor Harrell signs the Transportation and Climate Justice Executive Order into law.

On Wednesday, December 7, Mayor Bruce Harrell signed a new Executive Order directing City departments to work together to prioritize and expand actions that equitably reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) within the transportation sector. Actions are designed to invest in and build resilience among communities that are hardest hit by the climate crisis, expand workforce opportunities, and to improve the health of Seattle residents and workers – by improving air quality and making streets safer.   

“We recognize the inherent link between our infrastructure, transportation systems, climate, and community wellbeing – meeting the scale of the climate crisis and fulfilling our commitment to strong and healthy communities requires addressing them together. In this Transportation and Climate Justice Executive Order, we are bridging ambitious policy ideas with our collaborative One Seattle approach to advance a climate justice agenda grounded in equity and the requisite action necessary to build a healthy, sustainable, thriving Seattle today and for future generations.” 

Mayor Bruce Harrell

“Each year we are grappling with an increasingly severe whiplash of climate impacts. From flooding this spring to drought in the summer, topped off dangerous smoke and wildfires this fall, we see from our lived experiences and our GHG emissions data that we need to be far more aggressive in eliminating climate pollution and building resilience among our most impacted communities. That’s why we are excited that through the Transportation and Climate Justice Executive Order, we are bringing innovative, bold, local solutions like neighborhood low pollution zones and expanding zero carbon transportation options to achieve environmental equity and resilience.” 

Jessyn Farrell, Director, Office of Sustainability & Environment
OSE Director Jessyn Farrell speaking at the 12.7 event

Transportation is responsible for 61% of the City’s greenhouse gas emissions. According to the most recent 2020 GHG inventory report, the City is not currently on track to meet carbon neutrality by 2050 as called for in the Climate Action Plan or to be climate pollution free by 2030 as called for in the Green New Deal resolution. Mayor Harrell’s Executive Order directs City departments to accelerate climate investments and innovation, including: 

  • Plan for three low-pollution neighborhoods by 2028. These actions will for the first-time weave together decarbonizing buildings and transportation while investing in community resiliency, equity, and economic opportunity. 
  • Commit to making 20 miles of Healthy Streets permanent. The City will update the Bicycle Master Plan Implementation Plan and update the Pedestrian Master Plan Implementation Plan to include commitments to Healthy Streets and expand Seattle’s School Streets program. 
  • Achieve a 100% zero-emission, fossil fuel free City fleet by 2030. Leading by example, the City will ensure we have the essential electrification infrastructure and implementation plans to transition all city-owned vehicles to be fossil fuel free.   
  • Host a Youth Transportation Summit in 2023. Building on the community advocacy for Free Transit for Youth, the City will bring together young people to learn how the pandemic has changed their transportation experiences and center their voices in climate-responsive actions. 

Despite a decrease in emissions attributed to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) traffic monitoring in downtown indicates that the emissions have begun to come back in 2022 and traffic volume has steadily been increasing between 2020 and 2022. Without significant action, the city projects emissions will return to baseline and continue to trend upward.   

“Transportation pollution is over 60% of Seattle’s total carbon emissions. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Executive Order bolsters SDOT’s commitment to be bold and enable healthier, more affordable and more equitable transportation options that support business vitality. We have a real opportunity to democratize our public spaces further, making them accessible destinations where community thrives.”  

SDOT Director Greg Spotts

A significant amount of emission reductions will come from electrifying vehicles that everything that moves people, goods, and services, relying on Seattle City Light’s majority renewable and non-emitting, affordable, and reliable electricity to power.  

“City Light has started down the path to electrification by prioritizing partnerships with the communities we serve—primarily those experiencing the most health and environmental harms – to enable a just transition. As more people embrace the use of electric cars, trucks, ferries, buses, and trains, Seattle City Light is working with public and private sector partners to meet the demand for charging options for these vehicles. This order brings together departments from across the City in a One Seattle approach that puts us on a coordinated path towards meeting our collective greenhouse gas emissions targets and delivering long-term benefits for the communities we serve.”   

Emeka Anyanwu, Energy Innovation & Resources Officer for Seattle City Light

The City of Seattle is also accelerating several significant policies and programs to reduce emissions from buildings, including building emission performance standards and the clean heat program, which are projected to reduce building emissions by 35%. More information can be found at www.seattle.gov/environment.  

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

“Seattle has long been a leader in environmental action, but we need match the scale of the climate crisis with investments and innovation that both decrease carbon pollution and support people’s ability to safely get where they need to be despite the drastic changes we’ve felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are thrilled to see the City centering important voices, like youth, in these conversations, and to be exploring low emission neighborhoods which would for the first time bring together building and transportation decarbonization investments with economic opportunity, health, and resilience for community members.” 

Alex Hudson, Transportation Choices Coalition

“Switching to a 100% zero-emissions fleet is not only a climate imperative, it is an opportunity to reduce toxic air pollution and free ourselves from reliance on volatile, expensive gas and diesel prices. To achieve this, the City must immediately stop buying fossil fuel vehicles of all types, ranging from cars to big trucks, and implement a citywide plan to ensure this transition begins now, with individual departments addressing their specific challenges. Transitioning fleets of all sizes to zero-emissions is a major goal for Climate Solutions here in the Pacific Northwest. We hope to see more cities taking and acting on this pledge, and we are eager to partner with the City of Seattle in realizing this effort.” 

Leah Missik, Climate Solutions.

“Transforming our streets into places that are safe, accessible, and welcoming to people to walk, bike, roll, and play helps us achieve not only our climate goals, but our equity, health, and livability goals as a city. Making Stay Healthy Streets permanent and creating low emissions zones are a critical part of living up to our commitments as a city. If the city implements these policies boldly, we would inspire cities across the nation.” 

Clara Cantor, Community Organizer with Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

Seattle Launches New ‘Climate Portal’ to Track and Visualize Climate Emissions Using Updated Neighborhood-Level Data

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The Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) is excited to debut the first components of a new map-based website, featuring dashboards that track building and transportation greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) across Seattle neighborhoods. As called for in the Green New Deal Resolution (Res 31895), the site will be updated on a quarterly basis to provide more frequent and granular data indicators of emissions in Seattle’s neighborhoods.

“Fighting the global issue of climate change requires cities to take bold action, reduce emissions, and protect our communities here at home. Through the new Climate Portal, we can now see where climate emissions and pollution are occurring in our city and make decisions guided by science and equity — bringing people together to create more effective policies and programs that drive progress and invest in those hardest hit by the climate crisis.”

– Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell

The Climate Portal launch comes after the recent 2020 GHG Inventory report, which found a significant, but temporary decrease in emissions attributed to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seattle’s 2018 inventory showed emissions increased 1.1% since the last report, and without additional action the City projects emissions will not only rebound to pre-pandemic levels but also continue this upward trend.

“Our GHG inventories can give us a broad understanding of how our emissions are trending, but they’re not detailed enough in scope or depth to use as the primary source for making decisions that center racial equity. The Climate Portal comes in to address these limitations and provide more frequent, neighborhood-level data that show how climate pollution is worse in certain parts of the City. There’ll be more coming next year – it’s our goal to keep iterating on the Portal to make it more useful and accessible to all Seattle residents.”

– Ani Krishnan, Climate Data & Policy Manager, OSE

In addition to continuing GHG inventory reports and maintaining the Climate Portal dashboards, OSE is exploring new updates to the portal which will incorporate community led data efforts, as well as ways to spatially track city-led investments that are informed by budget recommendations from the Green New Deal Oversight Board. The Portal will also feature community climate stories and track additional indicators that can help inform Seattle’s progress in equitably stewarding a healthy and sustainable city.

“We know that not all in Seattle bear the burden of climate change and air pollution equally. Our communities experience this disparity everyday, and now we have better quantitative data to back up these lived realities. This data can help make the case for investments to ensure communities are supported in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from climate change related emergencies such as extreme weather events and wildfire smoke.”

– Debolina Banerjee, Green New Deal Oversight Board, Puget Sound Sage

The creation of the Climate Portal was guided through feedback from a 2021 community engagement series of listening sessions to identify data gaps, equitable approaches to data collection and more. A report outlining the takeaways from these sessions can be found here.

“As the climate changes, Seattle residents are noticing environmental, health, and economic effects. These changes are harmful for everyone, but our frontline communities bear a disproportionate burden of harm. I thank the Oversight Board, City staff, and community members, who have worked together to guide the development and future iterations of the Climate Portal.”

– Jessyn Farrell, Director, OSE

Learn more about the climate portal and watch a brief video demonstration featuring OSE Climate & Policy Manager, Ani Krishnan.

Seattle’s Green New Deal Wins Global Recognition and Award at the C40 World Mayors Summit

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On October 19, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell accepted an award from C40 Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies for the critical work Seattle is doing to advance community-driven, tangible climate action and justice through the Green New Deal. Seattle was nominated for “Building a Climate Movement” alongside other projects reflecting ambitious city-led efforts to support a diverse, inclusive, and equitable climate movement.  

“Seattle, like cities represented around the globe, is no stranger to severe climate events – over the last few weeks, our residents were blanketed in choking wildfire smoke – with historically underserved communities hit the hardest,” said Mayor Bruce Harrell. “That’s why Seattle’s Green New Deal centers the people, connections, and partnerships needed to take bold action, deliver tangible solutions, and support those most in need during climate events which are already impacting us.”  

The award decision was made by a panel of esteemed jurors, including climate experts and former mayors. 

“We’re honored to receive this award and grateful for the tireless work of community leaders, advocates, and partners helping Seattle create a thriving and sustainable future,” said Mayor Harrell. “While the issues of the day in our city demand action and attention, we also know the climate crisis – and its consequences – are not just a future challenge but are being clearly felt today. Our Green New Deal response is a new kind of community-centered effort – addressing longstanding inequities, creating good jobs, and investing in healthy communities as we reduce emissions and build resilience.” 

Seattle recently signed into law $6.5 Million in 2022 Green New Deal Opportunity Fund investments that will accelerate the City’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build community resilience to climate change, and increase net zero affordable housing. These investments were the first set recommended by the City’s Green New Deal Oversight Board of 19 community representatives and are funded by proceeds from the JumpStart Seattle payroll expense tax legislation passed in 2020. 

“Cities are positioned to experience some of the most dynamic on-the-ground realities of climate change – from the impacts of smoke, flooding, and extreme weather on our large populations and our infrastructure, to climate migration that will find millions of people around the world seeking safety, services, and stability in our communities,” said Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda. “We’re proud to join cities across the globe that are stepping up to create an equitable response to climate change, from the ground up. Our efforts in Seattle are frontline and fenceline community led—and this honor goes to the advocates and communities in our city who have worked to build this vision, and the broad coalition who fought to create a dedicated stream of funding for the Green New Deal – along with affordable housing, equitable development, and economic resilience investments – through the JumpStart progressive payroll tax.” 

The Oversight Board also provided recommendations toward the Mayor’s proposed 2023 budget, which includes over $20 million in new and climate-forward investments. Key investments include:  

  • Economic development investments to support local businesses in the Duwamish Valley and funding for clean energy scholarships and workforce development capacity to connect climate policies to the needs of an inclusive and equitable and low carbon economy.  
  • Investments to ensure an equitable transition away from fossil fuels in buildings and transportation by expanding rebates to convert homes from oil-to-electric heat, creating new programs and support to help buildings owners transition to 100% clean buildings, adding capital investments to decarbonize City-owned buildings, such as community centers and libraries, and providing rebates for heavy-duty electric vehicles. 
  • Investments to support communities most impacted by the climate impacts we are already seeing, including community capacity through Environmental Justice Fund grants and supporting the City’s ability to help plan for and advance Seattle’s Green New Deal. 

Over the next two months, the City Council will review the Mayor’s Proposed Budget. Final adoption of the budget is expected on Monday, November 21. 

Seattle Releases 2020 Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report Showing Pandemic-Spurred Declines in Building and Transportation Sector Emissions

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Seattle’s 2020 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory finds a marked decrease in greenhouse gas emissions since the prior 2018 report, the majority of which are likely temporary and primarily attributed to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Seattle GHG inventory tracks emissions over three key sectors: transportation, buildings, and waste.

Key findings include:

Transportation (24.5% decrease in emissions)

  • People drove significantly less in 2020 primarily due to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, resulting a 20% decrease in both passenger and freight vehicle miles traveled (VMTs).
  • Public transit was especially hard hit, and traffic monitors show vehicle volume and personal vehicle travel patterns returning to baseline.
  • Vehicles are becoming more efficient, showing a 5% decrease in emissions per mile.

Buildings (5% decrease in residential and commercial emissions)

  • All core building emissions categories decreased but residential energy use increased by 3%, which accounts for the increase in time spent at home as residents who were able adhered to stay-at-home orders and continued working from home.
  • Seattle’s buildings also got more efficient, consuming 5% less energy per capita after normalizing for weather, a trend that is expected to continue, and Seattle City Light’s emissions factors changed as the utility reported a resource portfolio with less carbon-intensive electricity.
  • As with transportation emissions, building emissions are expected to rebound in future years.

Waste (12.4% decrease in emissions)

  • The major factors contributing to the reduction in waste emissions were a decrease in commercial waste due to the pandemic, and a new residential waste composition study, which shows a lower percentage of recyclable and compostable materials entering the garbage stream.
  • Waste emissions account for just 1.2% of total core emissions, but SPU’s consistent efforts to improve the composition of municipal solid waste have led to a 35.5% reduction in emissions since 2008. 

While the 2020 emissions data show declines in emissions due to the pandemic, Seattle’s 2018 inventory showed emissions increased 1.1% since the last report, and without additional action the City projects emissions will not only rebound to pre-pandemic levels but also continue this upward trend. This week, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell will travel to Buenos Aires to participate in the C40 World Mayors Summit, where mayors and climate leaders from around the world will unite to share their plans, efforts, and experiences to accelerate delivery of climate action and commitments. 

“It’s not a surprise that drastic drops in our emissions followed the drastic changes in people’s lives over the last several years. But as we recover, we must recognize and act on the need for bigger, bolder, and more equitable climate action,” said Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. “Meaningful action on climate change requires collaboration at the highest levels – including global networks like the C40 Climate Alliance –where we can learn and share impactful climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. I look forward to these important conversations, aligning with fellow mayors at the C40 Mayor’s Summit to bring home renewed urgency and new ideas to drive emission reductions, bolster a growing clean energy economy, and build healthy and resilient communities.” 

Seattle conducts GHG inventories on a biennial basis (every two years) to report on the sources and magnitude of GHG emissions and visualize trends to inform climate policy and program development. Other jurisdictions follow a similar reporting cadence; in early October King County published their Puget Sound Regional Emissions Analysis providing updated data for multiple jurisdictions through 2019 and in some cases 2020.

“We stand here with two paths to take – we can continue business as usual and see emissions steadily tick back up to pre-pandemic levels where we were trending in the wrong direction, or we can take this opportunity to learn from the past and engage in learning and strategizing to help us change how we design policies to make them more effective and equitable for those hit hardest by the climate crisis,” said Jessyn Farrell, Director, Office of Sustainability & Environment. “Through the framework of Mayor Harrell’s One Seattle Climate Justice Agenda and Green New Deal for Seattle, we are making investments and commitments to community to meet the challenge of climate change in Seattle in a way that builds resilience against current climate impacts and paves the way for a clean energy future.”

While this inventory provides us a broad understanding of how our emissions are trending, it is not detailed enough in scope or depth to use as the primary source for making decisions that center racial equity. As called for in the Green New Deal Resolution (Res 31895) to address these gaps, OSE is developing a map-based website which will be updated on a quarterly basis to provide more frequent and granular data indicators of emissions in Seattle’s neighborhoods. The “One Seattle Climate Portal” will be released by the end of 2022. Beginning in 2023 the City will develop the next phase of the portal which will incorporate community led data efforts, as well as ways to spatially track city-led investments.

“Greenhouse gas inventories are an important tool to track our climate emissions and identify trends in climate emissions, but they are also limited by the lag in data collection and lack of specificity of emissions by neighborhood where we know from other health indicators that climate impacts and pollution is worse in certain parts of the City,” said Ani Krishnan, Climate Data & Policy Manager, Office of Sustainability & Environment. “The GHG inventory tells us how much emissions there were, but the One Seattle Climate Portal will come in to show us where the pollution is occurring. I look forward to being able to share with residents, for the first time, emissions data spatially, on a map where we can see in which neighborhoods emissions are occurring and make decisions that center racial equity.” 

The City of Seattle is accelerating several significant policies and programs to reduce emissions from buildings, including building emission performance standards and the clean heat program, which are projected to reduce building emissions by 35%. The City is also innovating with policies and programs aimed at reducing emissions from transportation, including infrastructure to increase walking, biking and transit use in the City, electrifying vehicles that move people, goods and services, and improving air quality in fence line communities. More information can be found at www.seattle.gov/environment.