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Mayor Harrell Signs $6.5 Million in 2022 Green New Deal Opportunity Fund

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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell speaking at an event at the South Park Community Center with Green New Deal Oversight Board members and community partners to sign $6.5 million in Green New Deal 2022 budget investments.

The City of Seattle’s Green New Deal reached a critical milestone on Thursday September 22 as Mayor Bruce Harrell signed into law $6,491,539 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 are the first set recommended by the City’s Green New Deal Oversight Board of 19 community representatives, established by Ordinance 125926 through the Jumpstart payroll expense tax legislation passed in 2020. The Oversight Board also provided recommendations for the Mayor’s proposed 2023 budget, which will include $2.6 million in rebates and incentives to help middle-and-low-income residents transition off oil to clean electric heat pumps. With these investments, Seattle is on the path to transition all oil heating furnaces to clean electric heat pumps. An expanded list of the Mayor’s Green New Deal investments is included below. Mayor Harrell’s full budget will be announced next week.    

“For the past few days Seattle has been blanketed with smoke-filled skies and choking air quality, with areas of the city like here in the Duwamish Valley, where the life expectancy is eight years shorter than the Seattle average, especially hard hit,” said Mayor Harrell. “During times of increasingly severe climate events like these, it’s critical that everyone have access to clean, filtered air and cooling. I am proud to sign today $6.5 million in the Green New Deal Opportunity Fund and look forward to advancing further action in our 2023 proposed budget. I thank the Oversight Board, City staff, and community members, who have worked together to develop this and future sets of strategic and community-driven Green New Deal investments.” 

Investments for the $6.5 Million Green New Deal Opportunity Fund include:   

  • $2.4 Million to Identify and Develop Resilience Hubs in Seattle: Seattle is facing a climate crisis, but not all bear the burden equally. Resilience Hubs are an innovative approach to help ensure communities are supported in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from climate change related emergencies such as extreme heat events and wildfire smoke. The city is working to address community needs at nexus of resilience, emergency management and response, climate change mitigation, and social equity. Mayor Harrell has also proposed $2 million in his Parks District budget proposal toward the Resilience Hub effort. 
  • $2.3 Million to support efforts to get all City-owned buildings off fossil fuels by 2035. The City of Seattle owns 650 buildings, including 27 public libraries which are increasingly on the front lines of community care during climate emergencies. In addition to supporting the decarbonization of all municipal buildings, these investments strategically invest in providing heating, cooling, and clean air at the NE and SW Library branches to support communities during times of climate crisis. 
  • $2 Million to increase the number of city-funded affordable housing projects. Investing in multi-family affordable housing electrification avoids installing new fossil fuel systems that will lock newly created affordable housing – and its residents — into decades of climate pollution.  
  • $300,000 to support climate data and Community Health Indicator project. As the City continues to make exciting investments to address climate change, Seattle is developing the infrastructure to track our impact. This investment will collect critical data needed to see the full picture of climate impact on transportation, community health, and more – allowing the city to further efforts to advance climate justice and reduce greenhouse gas impacts.  
  • $100,00 for community engagement to inform climate elements of the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan update. This investment sets aside funds to support community engagement that will inform climate components incorporated into the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan – an effort fundamental to shaping land use, transportation, and infrastructure investments over the next 20 years. 

These investments and the 2023 budget will drive urgent action through Mayor Harrell’s One Seattle Climate Justice Agenda, centered on efforts and investments to build a green economy and create good jobs, ensure a just transition off fossil fuels, and build community resilience to meet the scale of the climate crisis – leaving no one behind. 

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:  

Seattle City Council Member Teresa Mosqueda 

“Today’s signing represents a crucial step towards fulfilling the JumpStart Seattle spending plan investments in our City’s climate resilience and in our City’s future. These investments represent a portion of the total $14.5m for 2022 and the near $20m for 2023 from JumpStart Seattle that is being directed from frontline and fenceline community representatives on the Green New Deal Oversight Board. As we continue to battle wildfire smoke and see climate impacts worldwide, we must make big, bold investments in forward-thinking, creative solutions to the extreme climate crisis that faces our communities; in particular vulnerable and historically marginalized communities. Thank you to the Green New Deal Oversight Board, staff at the Office of Sustainability and the Environment and the Mayor’s Office for your work towards investing in equitable climate resilience.” 

Maria Batayola, Co-Chair of the Green New Deal Oversight Board 

“At the Green New Deal Oversight Board, this is our first year gathering community priorities, consulting with City departments, and learning quickly to develop the 2022 budget recommendations. We are heartened and humbled to accelerate Seattle’s transition off fossil fuels and improve the resiliency of our impacted overburdened communities during this climate crisis. We are here today thanks to the hard work and dedication of environmental justice leaders from across Seattle’s neighborhoods, past and present. From community members to City staff and elected officials, Seattle’s commitment to justly address the climate crisis is evident in Seattle’s Green New Deal. Thank you.” 

Paulina López of the Duwamish River Community Coalition  

“Communities in Seattle—specially in places like the Duwamish Valley—need places to go and ways to connect to each other and services during times of climate emergencies. Resilience hubs are exciting community driven investments and we look forward to engaging with the City to pilot resilience hubs in the Duwamish Valley where community members are experiencing compounding impacts of sea-level rise, air pollution, and urban heat island effect.” 

WATCH THE EVENT RECORDING:

In its fight for food justice, Young Women Empowered displays its admiration for the Earth

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 By Carol Aragon, Environmental Justice Storytelling Youth Intern

Across the United States, race is the most significant predictor of a person living near contaminated air, water, or soil. It is for this reason that Seattle’s Environmental Justice Fund was created in 2017 to support efforts that benefit and are led by, or in partnership with, those most affected by environmental and climate inequities: Black, Indigenous, People of Color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, youth, and elders. The Environmental Justice Fund supports a wide variety of community-led projects that advance environmental justice and respond to the impacts of climate change. This story series features some of the incredible work led by community groups and organizations supported by the Environmental Justice Fund.

Young Women Empowered’s (Y-WE) mission is to “cultivate the power of diverse young women* to be creative leaders and courageous changemakers through transformative programs within a collaborative community of belonging.” Y-WE offers various outdoor programs including Nature Connections and Y-WE Grow. I had the honor of learning more about Y-WE Grow by interviewing Neli Jasuja who manages this program that was founded on forming a bond with the Earth. Y-WE Grow lives and thrives in South Park’s Marra Farm harbors youth and giving gardens, while being an educational space for those learning about food-related issues.

Neli shared her story with us in between gardening tasks.

Neli leads Y-WE Grow alongside Tayah Carlisle and has focused on food justice throughout her career. I had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Neli about how the EJ Fund has supported Y-WE Grow, her hopes for youth participants, and her emphasis on sustainability through farming while remaining respectful of and connected to the land.

“I love the Environmental Justice Fund,” Neli said. “It feels grounded in respect and trust. Rather than requiring us as an organization to prove ourselves constantly, it feels truly like a relationship. OSE staff have joined Y-WE volunteer work parties and been in community which has meant a lot. And with that trust, with that respect, comes openness for creativity. We don’t have to submit a rigorous grant proposal around what the youth will produce; there’s sometimes pressure around that. Instead, it’s more about letting the magic happen, like what emerges for the youth.”

While the EJ Fund currently supports Y-WE Grow, they were also a recipient of a grant in 2018 which supported their Nature Connections programming. Nature Connections is an opportunity for young women to deepen their relationship with nature and themselves through outdoor activities that allows them to experience nature and dive into environmental justice topics. As a result of their grant, Y-WE served over 230 young women through Nature Connections and the youth had access to outdoor activities including invasive species removal with Snoqualmie tribal leaders and working at Marra Farm, and connecting with the South Park community to share community meals while learning about the environmental justice issues they face.

Currently, the youth who participate in Y-WE Grow contribute to the environmental justice movement through their dedication and participation at Marra Farm and beyond. Once finished with Y-WE Grow, Neli hopes the youth walk away having a respectful relationship with the land, and that they are happy with the work that they accomplish.

“I want them to feel belonging and connection with the land from the start and to know that anywhere they go, they can approach their environment and observe, listen, and converse in relationship. It’s also a lot of pressure to inherit climate chaos and hold the responsibility that is pushed onto them by adults to fix it. What’s special about this space is that young people can heal and contribute at the same time. Action on its own without purpose or understanding of the land’s history, people and environmental justice movements can be dangerous. Self-care without purpose or action can be an avoidance mechanism. Because we have action, purpose, and healing integrated here, the youth know that it’s possible to have all three and build sustainability in environmental justice work long-term. You can experience joy while fighting environmental racism in community.”

On the left, Neli instructs a youth participant on the “chop and drop” method of weeding. On the right, she speaks with the same participant about the mycelium found in the mulch pathways.

Y-WE has collaborated with numerous programs that are focused on environmental equity. Here, Neli describes the importance of the different organizations coming together and the sense of community present at Marra Farm.

Neli and the author pose for a photo together as the volunteer day ends.

“I think that what’s special about Marra Farm is that it’s not just one group farming here. It’s a collection of organizations, neighbors, and individuals all doing cool projects. I think that sometimes when we hear that there’s people engaging in the environmental justice movement, there can be a hero-industrial complex, as though there’s this one person doing it all. We should recognize that people are coming together and sharing resources. That’s the mosaic of it. We’ll have foods next to each other at the market; we’ll look out for each other. It’s very relational, knowing that it also has a much bigger impact across the community. I feel very lucky that there’s so many people in Seattle doing this work. The community is very strong. It’s nice to have someone you can call, and to have people you can ask to join you in the movement. The community aspect is what gives me a lot of life in this work, in addition to the farm work.”

Lastly, Neli shared some words of wisdom for those beginning their environmental justice work.“I’d say it’s urgent and never too late to begin. I started doing this work, fully dedicating my life to it at twenty-five years old. To see where I’m at now and to see where our youth are now, it’s never too late to start building with people in community around this work because it’s work that needs to be done.”

Find out more about the Environmental Justice fund on our website, and consider applying before 4 p.m. on September 16.

*Y-WE uses this term to refer to those who identify as women or were assigned female at birth, inclusive of trans and non-binary folks.

About the Author

Carol Aragon is a Storytelling Intern for OSE through the Seattle Youth Employment Program, assisting in interviewing grantees of the Environmental Justice Fund. She is an incoming undergraduate at Washington State University.

Mayor Harrell Announces $6.5 Million in 2022 Green New Deal Opportunity Fund to accelerate Seattle’s transition off fossil fuels while building community resilience to climate change

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On September 7, the City of Seattle’s Green New Deal reached a critical milestone as Mayor Bruce Harrell released a funding proposal that would invest $6,491,539 in 2022 toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, supporting community resilience to climate change, and increasing net zero affordable housing. These investments are the first set recommended by the City’s Green New Deal Oversight Board of 19 community representatives, established by Ordinance 125926 through the Jumpstart payroll expense tax legislation passed in 2020.

Investments for the $6.5 Million Green New Deal Opportunity Fund include:   

  • $2.4 Million to Identify and Develop Resilience Hubs in Seattle: Seattle is facing a climate crisis, but not all bear the burden equally. Resilience Hubs are an innovative approach to help ensure communities are supported in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from climate change related emergencies such as extreme heat events and wildfire smoke. The City is working to address community needs at nexus of resilience, emergency management and response, climate change mitigation, and social equity. Mayor Harrell has also proposed $2 million in his Parks District budget proposal toward the Resilience Hub effort. 
  • $2.3 Million to support efforts to get all City-owned buildings off fossil fuels by 2035. The City of Seattle owns 650 buildings, including 27 public libraries which are increasingly on the front lines of community care during climate emergencies. In addition to supporting the decarbonization of all municipal buildings, these investments strategically invest in providing heating, cooling, and clean air at the NE and SW Library branches to support communities during times of climate crisis. 
  • $2 Million to increase the number of city-funded affordable housing projects. Investing in multi-family affordable housing electrification avoids installing new fossil fuel systems that will lock newly created affordable housing – and its residents – into decades of climate pollution.  
  • $300,000 to support climate data and Community Health Indicator project. As the City continues to make exciting investments to address climate change, Seattle is developing the infrastructure to track our impact. This investment will collect critical data needed to see the full picture of climate impact on transportation, community health, and more – allowing the city to further efforts to advance climate justice and reduce greenhouse gas impacts.  
  • $100,00 for community engagement to inform climate elements of the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan update. This investment sets aside funds to support community engagement that will inform climate components incorporated into the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan – an effort fundamental to shaping land use, transportation, and infrastructure investments over the next 20 years.  

The 2022 Green New Deal Opportunity Fund investments are the first to be funded by proceeds from Jumpstart funds. As part of the 2022 budgeting process, the Green New Deal Oversight Board was asked to make recommendations on $6.5 million for investments to help to advance the principles of the Green New Deal for Seattle. The Oversight Board has also provided recommendations for 2023 funds.  

What Others are Saying

“We at the Oversight Board have been working for months gathering community priorities, consulting with City departments, and building on our own expertise to develop the 2022 budget recommendations. Through these investments, we are humbled to accelerate Seattle’s transition off fossil fuels while improving the resilience of our impacted overburdened communities during this climate crisis.” 

Maria Batayola, Green New Deal Oversight Board member“

“As a councilmember, I voted to establish a Green New Deal – with a goal of ensuring Seattle continues to be at the forefront of innovative policies to reduce emissions and center climate resilience and justice. We stand at a tipping point where bold action must be taken to meet the scale of the climate crisis, and this set of investments reflects that ambitious thinking and commitment to strong and healthy communities. I want to thank City staff and community members, who have worked together to develop this set of strategic and community-driven Green New Deal investments. This is an important first step that will be followed by sustained efforts in our future budgets and policy proposals to create jobs, foster healthy communities, and support a clean environment.” 

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell

“Seeing record heat waves in Seattle, floods in Pakistan, and worldwide droughts, wildfires and food scarcity, there is nothing more pressing for our City’s future than investing in equitable climate resilience. Thank you to the Green New Deal Oversight Board, staff at the Office of Sustainability and the Environment, and the Mayor’s Office for your work in fulfilling the JumpStart Seattle spending plan investments in the Green New Deal. We need these, and more, investments in climate resilience and forward-thinking, creative solutions to the extreme crisis that faces our communities.” 

Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda

“Communities in Seattle – specially in places like the Duwamish Valley – need places to go and ways to connect to each other and services during times of climate emergencies. Resilience hubs are exciting community driven investments and we look forward to engaging with the City to pilot resilience hubs in the Duwamish Valley where community members are experiencing compounding impacts of sea-level rise, air pollution, and urban heat island effect.” 

Paulina López of the Duwamish River Community Coalition

“Most climate pollution and environmental harm happens where BIPOC and low-income individuals reside.” It’s critical that Seattle’s climate investments are designed to make our buildings safe, healthy, and resilient for our communities and that they prioritize job training and career development for those who have been most impacted by the extraction and burning of fossil fuels.”

Patience Malaba of the Housing Development Consortium.

If You Care About Climate Change, Weigh in on the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan

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By Edie Gilliss, Citywide Climate Initiatives Coordinator

Seattleites have a rare opportunity to help set the stage for climate action in Seattle: the One Seattle Plan, which will determine how the City accommodates housing and job growth over the next 20 years, covering policy areas ranging from zoning and infrastructure to transportation and resilience.

The One Seattle Plan is required under state law to address growth – a particularly relevant concern given that the City’s population grew by more than 20% over the 2010s. As we prepare to welcome new neighbors, it is time to consider how best we can plan to accommodate necessary housing, jobs, utilities, while making Seattle a more affordable, resilient City. The Office of Planning and Community Development is currently gathering initial public feedback online, with the expectation of finalizing and adopting the plan in fall 2024.

This planning process has been structured to take climate and environmental concerns into consideration. Last month the City Council and Mayor passed a resolution “stating the City’s intent to address climate change and improve resiliency” in the One Seattle Plan and the Office of Sustainability and Environment and the Office of Planning and Community Development will be working to ensure that the climate elements of the plan are strong.

Linkages between land use and the environment

There is a strong relationship between how land is used, and our impact on the climate. Where people live, how far they have to commute, the efficiency of our transit system, how efficiently goods and services can be moved through the city, and how efficient our buildings are all play a part in the story told by our climate emissions.  The plan is a great opportunity to make progress on our goals of emissions reduction, resilience against climate change, and environmental justice. You can do your part to make sure the City takes advantage of this opportunity by providing your input.

Racial equity is also a key driver of the plan. Some Seattle neighborhoods, which have long been targets of disinvestment, are home to many communities of color and have significantly lower life expectancy rates and higher rates of childhood asthma. Building a plan, and the future investments that are driven by it, should ensure that the neighborhood someone lives in should not be a factor in their ability to thrive in this City.

Seattle is growing in population, staying the same in terms of physical size, and seeking to reduce carbon emissions. This means that the city will have to become more densely populated while decreasing each person’s carbon footprint, in order to meet our ambitious goals. Fortunately, this is not as hard as intuition might have us think, because density is good for the climate.

That’s right: denser neighborhoods with more closely located amenities tend to have lower carbon footprints. When people must travel longer distances in gas-powered vehicles to commute to work, run errands, drop off kids at school, or engage in leisure activities, this leads to more emissions. Planning for a city where people don’t have to travel as much by car is a huge opportunity for emissions reduction, given that transportation accounts for more than half of Seattle’s greenhouse gas emissions.*

*Another part of this equation is making sure the transportation options that people have at their disposal are better for the environment. In a future post, we’ll discuss how the Seattle Transportation Plan, on which SDOT is currently soliciting public input, is crucial to meeting our climate goals.

How you can weigh in

Our colleagues at the City’s Office of Planning and Community Development have created a Community Engagement Hub where you can voice your opinion. This site contains a lot more information about the details of the plan, as well as forums where people can provide comments and can view and respond to what others have said. Some of the categories include:

OSE encourages you to check it out, think about our climate, and voice your opinion. As the old saying goes, an ounce of civic engagement is worth a ton of carbon emissions!

This week’s heat wave, and what we’re doing about it

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Seattle is in the midst of a record-setting heat wave, with high temperatures forecast to reach the low 90s each day through Saturday. (You can see the National Weather Service’s latest forecast for downtown here.) Evenings will not offer much respite from the heat. As our climate changes, extreme weather events like this one and last year’s unprecedented heat dome are happening more often and with greater intensity. 

While this might be normal summer weather for other parts of the country, here we are not as accustomed to such extreme heat – and neither are our homes and infrastructure. As of 2019, just 44.3% of Seattle households had air conditioning, and that percentage is lower for households who rent rather than own. Without air conditioning, this heat can be dangerous and even lethal. 

Please visit AlertSeattle for advice on heat safety, a list of air-conditioned cooling centers, resources for the homeless, and more information on the City’s response to the extreme heat. 

Planning for the future 

The extreme heat we’re all experiencing this week is a reminder of the immenseness of the climate crisis and the importance of combating it. OSE is working to address the causes of these extreme weather events and help Seattleites endure their consequences. 

We’re cutting down on the City’s contributions to climate change by transitioning our buildings and transportation away from fossil fuels. By assessing and supporting tree canopy cover, we’re helping to cool down neighborhoods and counter the urban “heat island” effect. We are especially concerned with making sure that frontline communities – those that face especially harsh impacts from climate change, and are often already disadvantaged in other ways – receive their fair share of support from the City. This has motivated efforts including our Equity & Environment Initiative and the Duwamish Valley Program. 

We encourage Seattle residents to take full advantage of our environmental policies by: 

Seattle “Clean Buildings Accelerator” Program Launching Summer 2022

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Clean buildings are essential for meeting City and State energy, climate, and equity goals. The Washington State Clean Building Performance Standards law seeks to lower energy costs and climate-polluting emissions from existing buildings and provides incentives to encourage building owners to improve energy efficiency.

The City of Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment (OSE) is working with Stillwater Energy to launch a new program focused on supporting under-resourced buildings to meet the WA Clean Buildings Performance Standards requirements and reduce emissions, prioritizing non-profit owned and buildings that serve or are in BIPOC communities.  

Two Offerings to Start:

  • Education: Self-led learning including pre-recorded webinars, common energy and carbon reduction opportunities, checklist, templates, examples, how to identify targets, energy efficiency and emissions reduction opportunities.  
  • Light coaching-style trainings: Tailored support, including live virtual workshops, site-specific virtual energy walk through, expert review of documents, project identification and prioritization. Seeking up to 30 participants for 2022.  

Register today for a 60-minute informational session to learn more about the Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator: 

Or visit the Seattle Clean Buildings Accelerator webpage.

New Resources: Understanding Your Building’s Path to Carbon Neutral

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Buildings are one of the largest and fastest growing sources of climate pollution in Seattle, responsible for more than one-third of our greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions pollute our air, accelerate climate change, and harm people’s health and the environment, disproportionately impacting communities of color and people with lower incomes. Many U.S. cities, including Seattle, are developing Building Performance Standards (BPS) that set long term targets on climate-polluting emissions from buildings. To help building owners get started, OSE has developed new case studies, most of which include cost estimates.  

Large Commercial & Multifamily Buildings

While every building is unique, most large nonresidential and multifamily buildings can use these steps to guide energy efficiency, emissions reductions, and electrification efforts. It starts with an audit, gets low to no-cost savings through a Building Tune-Up, followed by new controls and energy efficiency actions. These initial steps prepare the building for the most cost-effective upgrades of equipment to electric.

Mid-Size Office Buildings

Seattle has about 75 midsize post-war (built between 1946 and 1979) office buildings, making them an ideal pilot for exploring steps to achieve net-zero emissions. In this Mid-size Office Building concept plan, a complete building electrification, including replacing the 50-year-old gas-fired water heater and boiler could reduce energy use 59% and emissions 92%. Estimated total plan costs were $17.70/ft2 and a costly electric service upgrade would likely be avoided.

City-Owned Buildings

As called for in the 2021 Driving Accelerated Climate Action Executive Order, all City-owned buildings must operate without fossil fuels by 2035. This municipal buildings case study shares lessons learned and project highlights from 30 electrification projects underway or complete. A full electrification of The Brig recreation building at Magnuson Park reduced that building’s annual emissions 66% at an incremental cost (over replacing with a gas system) of $300,000.

Case Study: Stewart Manor Affordable Housing

Many buildings have early opportunities to change to electric as was the case in a concept plan developed for Seattle Housing Authority’s Stewart Manor Apartments. In this pilot, swapping out existing gas water heating system to electric heat pump (est. $4.15/ ft2) could reduce energy use 13% and was operating cost neutral. A straightforward and inexpensive (est. $0.20/ft2) upgrade from electric baseboard to a ductless heat pump in the building’s community room would provide an easy-to-access, on-site cooling room to help residents cope with dangerous heat emergencies like Seattle had in June 2021. Housing Development Consortium’s (HDC) has formed an affordable housing BPS task force to understand the impacts a new BPS policy may have on affordable housing.

Case Study: Washington State Services for the Blind

The State of Washington Department of Enterprise Services (DES) recently completed a full building renewal at this 1950’s era building, including a new electric heat pump HVAC system – instead of replacing the chiller and gas boiler and the remaining systems later. While more expensive upfront, DES’s approach will result in a lower total cost of ownership over a 30-year timespan.

Learn more about Building Performance standards at seattle.gov/building-performance-standards and share your own story with us at cleanbuildings@seattle.gov.

Join the Green New Deal Oversight Board’s Online Listening Session on Monday, April 18

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Seattle’s Green New Deal is moving our city toward becoming climate pollution-free while creating jobs and advancing an equitable transition to renewable energy by prioritizing investments in communities most harmed by economic, racial, and environmental injustices.

Seattle’s Green New Deal Oversight Board (GNDOB), established through legislation, connects frontline community-led voices and the Seattle city government in support of developing policy, programs and investments that advance Seattle’s Green New Deal. The GNDOB is developing recommendations for the Mayor and City Council on how to spend a percentage of money raised by the City’s new payroll tax.

To inform their budget recommendations, the Board would like to invite you to a virtual listening session on Monday, April 18 at 5pm to hear about your and your community’s priorities to address climate change. Please register here to receive the meeting link.

Getting to Know OSE’s New Interim Director, Jessyn Farrell

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We sat down with new Interim OSE Director Jessyn Farrell to ask a series of questions ranging from Seattle’s climate strategy to how OSE will continue advancing climate justice all the way to what’s your favorite donut shop. We’re excited for what’s to come at OSE and Seattle and are looking forward to collaborating, but for now, join us in getting to know Jessyn’s vision and ideas for building a more equitable and united Seattle.

Former State Representative Jessyn Farrell will help OSE and the City of Seattle implement a pioneering climate agenda, elevate communities most impacted by issues of environmental justice, and help to leverage millions in state and federal funds to address the climate crisis. We are so excited to welcome Jessyn into the OSE family!  

Jessyn is a leader in building public consensus on difficult issues related to the environment, housing, transportation, and the economy. A long-time environmental advocate, Jessyn’s career has spanned the public, private, non-profit, and philanthropic sectors as a state legislator from the 46th District, Executive Director of Transportation Choices and most recently as Senior Vice President at Civic Ventures. Jessyn passed ground-breaking legislation on oil-by-rail safety, affordable housing near transit centers, education funding for low-income and homeless youth, protections for pregnant workers, and restrictions to cell-phone use while driving. She also led advocacy efforts resulting in billions of dollars in regional light rail investments. Jessyn has three kids, a dog, a cat, and is working on her first book. 

See what others have to say about Jessyn:

Bruce Harrell, Mayor of the City of Seattle

“Jessyn Farrell understands Seattle must set the example for the nation as a bold, climate-forward City that leads by partnering with underrepresented  communities too often left out,” said Mayor Harrell. “Jessyn will bring the bring the ambitious policy ideas and experience, needed collaborative approach, and vision grounded in a true commitment to environmental justice necessary to make the most of this moment and ensure a healthy Seattle environment today and for future generations.” 

Michelle Caulfield, Deputy Director, Office of Sustainability and Environment 

“It’s been my honor to step up during this time of transition and lead an incredible team dedicated to advancing climate action and environmental justice. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome — and work alongside — Jessyn Farrell, whose policy leadership and comprehensive approach to the issues in front of us will drive urgent action, help leverage state and federal funds, and take the Office of Sustainability and Environment to the next level.” 

Three Positions Available: Apply by 2/24 to Join the Urban Forestry Commission

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Commission meetings are held twice a month on the first and second Wednesday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Currently, meetings are being held remotely via Webex application (with access via either phone or computer). 

The City of Seattle is now accepting applications for three positions on the Urban Forestry Commission, a 13-member body established to advise the Mayor and City Council around policy and regulations related to protecting, maintaining, and preserving trees and vegetation in the City of Seattle. There are three open positions:

  • Position #2 – Urban Ecologist (or similar)
  • Position #3 – Natural Resource Agency or University Representative
  • Position #13 – Community/Neighborhood Representative.

Commission positions ask for a time commitment of roughly 8-10 hours per month. In addition to meeting one of the positions above, applicants must also understand the impact racism and race-based disparities have on communities of color and have an interest in working to eliminate these disparities and advance equity. Applicants should also have an interest in collaborating with other community members to develop recommendations for tree canopy care and protection, while centering the communities most burdened by lack of access to tree canopy and its related benefits, and demonstrated ability to develop collaborative, productive, and respectful relationships with people from diverse educational, social, cultural, and racial backgrounds.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in collaborating with a team of community leaders working on improving the care and management of Seattle’s tree canopy for the benefit of the community while centering communities most impacted by health and educational injustices, please apply by February 24. For information on the open positions and to access the application, please visit our website.

For more information, please contact Patti Bakker, Interim Urban Forestry Commission Liaison, at patricia.bakker@seattle.gov.

About the Commission:

The Urban Forestry Commission was established in 2009 by Ordinance 123052 to advise the Mayor and City Council concerning the establishment of policy and regulations governing the protection, management, and conservation of trees and vegetation in the City of Seattle. Commission meetings are held twice a month on the first and second Wednesday from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Currently, meetings are being held remotely via Webex application (with access via either phone or computer). Commission members must live or work in Seattle and generally must commit approximately eight to ten hours per month to Commission business and serve without compensation. Additional information about the Urban Forestry Commission can be found at http://www.seattle.gov/urbanforestrycommission.

The thirteen-member UFC consists of a wildlife biologist; an urban ecologist; a representative of a local, state, or federal natural resource agency or an accredited university; a hydrologist; a certified arborist; a representative of a non-profit or non-governmental organization; a representative of the development community or a representative from a non-city utility; an economist, financial analyst, or Washington State license real estate broker; a Get Engaged young adult; an environmental justice representative; a public health representative; and a community/neighborhood representative.

About the Seattle Urban Forest Management Plan:

The City of Seattle set the bold goal of achieving 30 percent tree canopy cover by 2037 to increase the environmental, social, and economic benefits trees bring to Seattle residents. The Seattle Urban Forest Management Plan (UMP) is a comprehensive strategy for increasing Seattle’s tree canopy cover to meet the 30 percent target. The UFMP lays out outcomes and a broad range of actions to be implemented over time to preserve, maintain, and plant trees as well as restore the public forested areas remaining in the city. A recent canopy cover assessment shows Seattle has 28% canopy cover. More information about Seattle’s urban forest program can be found at http://www.seattle.gov/trees/management.htm