In 2005 we celebrated five years of green building accomplishments in our 5-Year Report: "Building a Better City".  This report documents how Seattle has grown to have one of the strongest green building markets in the nation, and how--through its Green Building Program--the City of Seattle is expected to become one of the largest single owners of LEED™ facilities in the world.

Read the report to learn about Seattle's noteworthy sustainability achievements:

• Download Report (1.9MB PDF)
• Download Appendices (4MB PDF ) - see detailed list of appendices topics below

NOTE:  These PDF documents require Acrobat Reader 6.0 or newer (download free reader).

Appendices
The appendices to the 5-Year Report are contained in a separate document.  Download appendices (4MB PDF file). Topics include:

1. Innovation Adoption
2. Lessons Learned from LEED™ Implementation
3. Sustainable Building Incentive Program
4. City Outreach/Incentive Programs that Contribute to Sustainable Building
5. Cost Benefit of Sustainable Building
6. LEED™ Post-Occupancy Evaluation
7. Program Awards and Publications
8. Commercial Communications Campaign
9. Built Green™ Marketing Campaign
10. Key Partnerships with the City
11. Sustainable Connections Lecture Series
12. Center City Map of Sustainable Building Projects
13. Examples of Innovative Incentives and Strategies from Other Jurisdictions
14. Parks and Recreation Department Sustainable
    Development Scorecard
15. Green Building Team Structure and Explanation of Acronyms
16. Urban Green: A Resource Center for Sustainable Development  

Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan
In the fall of 1997, the Urban Consortium Energy Task Force (UCETF) provided a $74,000 grant to the City of Seattle to develop a Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan (the “Plan”). Soon after, the city invited several public and private sector partners to join in guiding development of the Plan. Seattle and the partners invited approximately 200 staff-level architects, engineers, developers, contractors, planners, and consultants to participate in a series of four workshops over six months in 1998. The list of participants eventually grew to 180 as word of the Plan spread. The workshops looked at:

• barriers to sustainable building in the Pacific Northwest;
• solutions to the barriers;
• specific strategies for each solution; and
• implementation workplans for each strategy.

In addition to the staff-level work group, a senior-level “Sustainable Building Blue Ribbon Task Force” was formed, chaired by Seattle City Council Member Richard Conlin. Twenty-three elected officials, industry executives, and public officials participated on the task force.

The final result was Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan: Strategies to Mainstream Sustainable Design and Construction Practices in the Pacific Northwest, published in March of 1999. The Action Plan is intended to serve as a road map for the region--to identify the most critical and practical steps needed to make sustainable building the standard practice in the Pacific Northwest.

Urban Green: A Resource for Sustainable Development
What we need now are more people in the conversation, more organizations working together, and a “one-stop shop” resource that also serves as a center for this movement in our region.  In 2002, the City began working with partners toward creating Urban Green,  a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing the visibility and success of sustainable development practices in the Puget Sound Region.

Urban Green’s primary goals are:

• Streamlining access to existing information and education programs
• Providing leadership for increased collaboration, synergy, and mutual support
  among organizations and businesses
• Stimulating green business economic development and fostering market success of
  emerging sustainable business opportunities
• Incubating new ideas and inspiring newcomers to sustainable development
• Creating a model for other cities to mainstream sustainable development

Urban Green is a public/private partnership between:

• Urban Land Institute Seattle District Council
• Cascadia Region Green Building Council
• City of Seattle
• King County

Urban Green will open its doors to the public in late 2006. For more information or to get involved, visit the Urban Green wesite.